How to Read the Bible – A Three Step Plan (written for Catholics - valid for all)

taylormarshall.com ^ | September 30, 2013 | Dr. Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

How do you read the Bible? Today is the feast day of Saint Jerome, who once quipped, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome

It’s a running joke that if you want to find a Bible verse, you ought to ask a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestants read the Bible. Catholics not so much.

This raises the question:

Why Don’t More Catholics Read the Bible?

I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. The Holy Mass has at least two Bible readings every time. If you pray the Breviary or Liturgy of Hours, multiply that several times.

Joe Catholic says to himself, “Why should I study the Bible? I go to Mass. I hear it there. Check and check.”

There is something beautiful in this. For Catholics, Bible reading is liturgical. Hence, Bible reading remains chiefly a community experience.

Three Step Plan to Kick It Up a Notch

It’s good to listen to the readings from the Bible at Holy Mass. However, we also need a personal (even private) encounter with God in the pages of Sacred Scripture. All of the saints breathed Sacred Scripture. Scripture served as the grammar for their souls. They couldn’t communicate without it.

Here are some basic spiritual needs that you have every single day of your life:

1. Praise – Voicing your delight in God and His provision for your life. Gratitude destroys discouragement.
2. Wisdom – You need practical advice to navigate the complexities of life.
3. Challenge – You need to be lifted higher. You need to grow in your faith. You need to be inspired. You must be an intentional Christian.

So when you wake up tomorrow, do the following:

1. Read a Psalm. Start with Psalm 1. Make it your anthem of praise for that day.
2. Read at least one Proverb. Proverbs are the wisdom morsels of your day. There are 31 chapters. Why not read one chapter every day during the month. Oct 1 is Provers 1. October 31 is Proverbs 31. You get the idea.
3. Read a chapter of the one of the Gospels. This is your challenge. Your Savior challenges you in the four Gospels. He calls you to be not merely a nominal Catholic but a disciple. You cannot seriously read the Gospels and stay lukewarm. Christ speaks in a way that cannot be ignored.

“But I’m so busy. I don’t have the time!”

What? You’re too busy. Sorry, you just got served a yellow card:

That’s a yellow card. You’ve been warned…

Doing these three readings will take you only 3-5 minutes. That’s the time of a commercial break. It will change your life for good. I promise. It takes 21 days to make a habit, so give it 21 days and see if you aren’t hooked. Put the Bible on your night stand and read it in the mornings. Start fresh.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church

[narses]

When you sin, what do you do?

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ “

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Nice. Can you take a picture of any evidence?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

We only count active followers of Christ. What does your count include?

Belgians who don’t attend any services?

In what way do you believe counting more spiritually dead bodies proves something? And what do you believe it proves?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I’ve heard about Breatharians before, but I did not know how big they are in the art world.

[smvoice]

...and yet the Bible says that during this time, there will be APOSTACY, not REVIVAL. How do you square those opposing statements?

[boatbums]

You are saying that all Protestants reject the truth of Jesus Christ and do not follow Him?

Some to a greater and some to a lesser degree. Definitely ALL that are former Catholics.

How do your Protestant friends feel about these bigoted views?

[Elsie]

The Church of England had him beheaded not the Catholic Church.

...and Henry VIII, having toppled the pope over the cliffs of England, was anxious to prove he was still a loyal Roman Catholic and certainly no heretic.

 

^{http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1987/issue16/1612.html?start=3}

---

[Elsie]

No; not THIS one; the OTHER one!!

[boatbums]

"All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out."?

Look at it in the original Greek.

I copied it from the Douay-Rheims Bible. Maybe you should be the one to tell them they translated it wrong.

[Elsie]

Of course I can prove otherwise.

Your easily seen record of 'proof' in the last few replies are, shall we say, a bit lacking.

---

...the Imperial attorney in Brussels...     http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1987/issue16/1612.html?start=2

 

...since he was going to die anyway, there must be no doubt as to why he died.  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1987/issue16/1612.html?start=4

 

...Finally, the long-awaited trial began. Tyndale had been in the castle for 18 months, and now everything was set. A long list of charges was drawn up:

“First, he had maintained that faith alone justifies.

“Second, he maintained that to believe in the forgiveness of sins, and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel, was enough for salvation.

“Third, he averred that human traditions cannot bind the conscience, except where their neglect might occasion scandal.

“Fourth, he denied the freedom of the will.

“Fifth, he denied that there is any purgatory.

“Sixth, he affirmed that neither the Virgin nor the Saints pray for us in their own person.

“Seventh, he asserted that neither the Virgin nor the Saints should be invoked by us….” And so the list continued.

Early in August of 1536, the reformer was condemned as a heretic. A few days later the pageant of casting him out of the Church took place. In the town square a crowd gathered. The great doctors and dignitaries assembled in due pomp and array, and took their seats on the high platform. Tyndale was led out, wearing his priest’s robes. He was made to kneel and his hands were scraped with a knife or a piece of glass as a symbol of having lost the benefits of the anointing oil with which he was consecrated to the priesthood.

The bread and wine of the mass were placed in his hands, and at once withdrawn. This done, he was ceremoniously stripped of his priest’s vestments, reclothed as a layman, and handed over to the attorney for secular punishment. The Church would condemn, but always left it to the secular officers to stain their hands with the murder. But for Tyndale the end was not yet. He was taken back to Vilvoorde Castle and for some unexplained reason remained a prisoner for two more months.

The Execution

Then, early in the month of October 1536, William Tyndale was led out of the castle toward the southern gate of the town. The sun had barely risen above the horizon when he arrived at the open space, and looked out over the crowd of onlookers eagerly jostling for a good view. A circle of stakes enclosed the place of execution, and in the center was a large pillar of wood in the form of a cross and as tall as a man.

A strong chain hung from the top, and a noose of hemp was threaded through a hole in the upright. The attorney and the great doctors arrived first, and seated themselves in state nearby. The prisoner was brought in and a final appeal was made that he should recant.

Tyndale stood immovable, his keen eyes gazing toward the common people. A silence fell over the crowd as they watched the prisoner’s lean form and thin, tired face; his lips moved with a final impassioned prayer that echoed around the place of execution: “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”

His feet were bound to the stake, the iron chain fastened around his neck, and the hemp noose was placed at his throat. Only the Anabaptists and lapsed heretics were burnt alive. Tyndale was spared that ordeal.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1987/issue16/1612.html?start=5

 

[Elsie]

I’ve heard about Breatharians before, but I did not know how big they are in the art world.

Then it's time for Ask the Expert!

[boatbums]

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13,14)

[Utah Binger]

[narses]

Ah so you mock Scripture?

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ “

[smvoice]

OK, that picture is freakin’ me out, man.!. Seriesly. I’m stuned.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I do not believe this supports Breatharianism - no matter how many times you post it, or post a picture of it.

[NKP_Vet]

“In what way do you believe counting more spiritually dead bodies proves something? And what do you believe it proves?”

Save that question for the liberal media who loves to call someone that never attends Mass a Catholic and puts them in the same class as devout, Mass attending Catholics.

What I said was take the cafeteria catholics out of the numbers and Church attending Catholics STILL make up the biggest faith denomination in the United States. It’s not even close.

[narses]

[boatbums]

“He taught justification by faith, the return of Christ, and mortality of the soul.”

Condemn that sinner!

But, according to some FRoman Catholics, the Inquisition "let" Michael Servetus escape execution because of their Christian love - notwithstanding Servetus denied the Trinity among other heresies. Tyndale's crimes were much more worthy of death, apparently.

[narses]

So Scripture doesn’t mean anything in your odd cult? What does? Your opinion?