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

[daniel1212]

My testimony is just the opposite, raised devout RC, said my prayers and believed in God and did not knowingly doubt what i was taught and affirmed, but no real reality. So later i worked and partied till God convicted me at age 25 of my lost state, and i really repented, went to confession, but then trusted the Lord Jesus to save me by His merit, not mine own, with evangelical radio helping.

Even nature seemed new to me after that, but being in a RC area and not knowing much of any other church, i contd to go to every RC service, taught CCD and became a lector, seeking to serve God (also going on a 8 day retreat) while witnessing to other souls about being saved.

Only a couple in my parish could identify with what i experienced in my conversion, others had no real interest in talking much about the Bible and salvation. I sought for some life in the (marginalized) RC charismatic meetings, which were better, but handicapped by hierarchy (which joined them to a Marxist “peace and justice” commission) and traditions. And on my own i was led by God do such things as tell people outside strip joints to repent (after working about 60 hours a week).

But when i finally had the faith to ask God to show me if it was His will to go another church then the Lord did so the next day, and which decision He has abundantly affirmed.

I go to a evangelical church, thank God, and have no personal animosity against Rome (i wish priests would talk to me rather than walking away when i try to raise issues), but with truly born again souls, unlike with RCs, the particular church one goes to is not central, but peripheral, as their fellowship is around the person of Christ, having a shared conversion experience and relationship with the Lord Jesus.

My desire is that all that is within me cry glory to the Lord, and to see the Lord Jesus exalted in my heart and thru me (and others) as i serve Him, which i daily seek to do but grieve over that which contrary to that in heart or deed, yet and rejoice in the daily manifestations of God’s grace and His using me. And growth in grace is contrary to the institutionalized religion which predominates among Catholics and most mainline Prot church as well. May the Lord alone be exalted. Which He will be. (Is. 2:11,17)

[Iscool]

"Give us this bread always," they said. Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." At this point the Jews understood him to be speaking metaphorically.

The bible doesn't indicate at all what those disciples believed or understood...And while you call it a metaphor, Jesus was speaking spiritually...Of course Jesus wasn't speaking of physically eating at all...

Notice that Jesus made no attempt to soften what he said, no attempt to correct "misunderstandings," for there were none. Our Lord’s listeners understood him perfectly well. They no longer thought he was speaking metaphorically. If they had, if they mistook what he said, why no correction?

Because Jesus was separating the wheat from the chaff...Jesus said that he already knew which of the 'disciples' did not believe...

It wouldn't have mattered had Jesus told the disciples that they would have to eat each other...Jesus was looking for disciples who would believe on him and whatever it is that he said regardless of how crazy it might sound...

When confronted, Peter did not question whether Jesus was speaking literally or spiritually...It didn't matter to Peter because he believed Jesus regardless of what he said...

Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Peter didn't say he understood...All too often the disciples didn't understand...But they believed...And that's what mattered...

Joh 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

NOT because they ate or didn't eat something, but that they believed on Jesus...

Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

In John 6:60 we read: "Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’" These were his disciples, people used to his remarkable ways.

No...Most of these people were following Jesus because he provided food for them...This is the group of 5000 plus who came to hear what he had to say and he fed them all...They followed him so they were called disciples...They were unbelieving disciples...And Jesus knew it...

He warned them not to think carnally, but spiritually:
"It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63; cf. 1 Cor. 2:12–14).

Exactly what we have been telling you guys for years...But yet, you continue to interpret this thing carnally...

Both the Jews, who were suspicious of him, and his disciples, who had accepted everything up to this point, would have remained with him had he said he was speaking only symbolically.

Of course not...Read the scripture again...No one left at that point...It wasn't until Jesus said:

Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
Joh 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
Joh 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

These people were not separated into unbelieving Jews and disciples...They are all called disciples because they all followed Jesus, for a while...

On other occasions when there was confusion, Christ explained just what he meant (cf. Matt. 16:5–12). Here, where any misunderstanding would be fatal, there was no effort by Jesus to correct. Instead, he repeated himself for greater emphasis.

On other occasions Jesus only explained what he was talking about AFTER the unbelieving 'disciples' left...Jesus again was weeding them out...

[daniel1212]

(By the way, do you think the Catholics who actually wrote all the "books" of the New Testament knew the Bible pretty well? How about St. Jerome?)

Yes, how about St. Jerome, who translated them but rejected the Apocrypha , while wresting Scripture to support his unbalanced (God hates a false balance) doctrine on celibacy vs marriage.

[verga]

Inaccurate but funny. I love the cherry picking prots engage in.

[verga]

It would appear you need more experience.

[verga]

Cherry picked quote from a prot source do not bolster your position. they just confirm mine, not that I needed support.

[smvoice]

Your testimony was beautiful, Daniel. It is the sorrow in life that brings such joy when He saves us from ourselves. I have been doing a lot of praying lately for the Body of Christ, that He would open doors for us and embolden us to be effective ambassadors for Christ. Your post has done just that. Our job is not easy now, the enemy has little time left, and he knows it. I thank God for you and all my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is my greatest joy and at times pain, to be an ambassador, preaching and teaching reconciliation between God and man. Thank you again for sharing your circumstances that led you to Him and His finished work on your behalf.

So thankful to be IN CHRIST,

smvoice

[verga]

I will pray for your reversion tot he truth.

[Iscool]

Great testimony...

[Iscool]

I will pray for your reversion tot he truth.

If I may be so bold as to speak for Daniel, a prayer to Mary will have no influence on Daniel's decision to become a born again Christian...

[NKP_Vet]

He also said if they HATED ME, THEY WILL HATE YOU!! Guess what, Christians are hated all over the world, especially by members of Islam.

[NKP_Vet]

Your faith is what you make of it. It is up to you. You have to have faith in God. Your faith was lagging. Only the Catholic Church has the fullness of the faith. I’ll pray that one day you will see the light and come back home to God’s Pilgrim Church on Earth. How anyone could give up the Eucharist is beyond me. Did you believe in the Real Presence? If you did, how could turn away from God?

[Elsie]

Verga; I expected so much better from you; of all people.

[Elsie]

I love the cherry picking prots engage in.

You SHOULD!

[Elsie]

I love the cherry picking prots engage in.

Are you changing the subject; or complaining when your arguments are quashed by Scripture?

[Elsie]

Cherry picked quote from a prot source do not bolster your position.

So it only works when you CP from a Catholic one.

Got it...

[Elsie]

Hail Mary; Mother of GOD, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.

[Elsie]

Did you believe in the Real Presence?

I don't.

It's illogical and unbiblical.

[Elsie]

halfway there - WOOHOO!