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

[CynicalBear]

>>The list proves NOTHING.<<

Oh but it does. It shows the RCC and whoever wrote that list is trying to dupe those gullible enough to follow the RCC or attempt to get people to take them seriously.

Here’s that Hebrews verse.

Hebrews 11:35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

The Old Testament reference.

1 Kings 17:21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. 22 And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. Then I will illustrate with a couple of others so people get the drift of what is happening.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Old Testament reference.

Deu 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

The RCC lies.

[Iscool]

Thank you for further proof that protestants on this forum are incapable of intelligent discussion.

And that, after claiming Mary is the mother of God...It is the Roman religion's claim that Mary is the wife of God and Mary is the mother of God...

After that, any whacky claim is legitimate...

In fact, I don't see how one would recognize intelligent discussion after a statement like that...It would certainly be impossible to recognize intelligent biblical discussion after that...

[boatbums]

Proof that the RCC would have executed him?

Who first had him arrested and imprisoned for heresy in France from which he escaped?

[boatbums]

I can sympathize. Blue Bell Pecan Praline is my particular weakness. ;o)

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Placemarker

[smvoice]

lol! I just went with the plain Homemade Vanilla. So I could ADD even more delicious calories! Hot fudge, whipped cream, making malts with it, banana splits, the list goes on...sadly.:)

[boatbums]

Thanks for posting the author's OWN admission that there is no definitive quotation from Jesus or the Apostles that establish the Apocryphal books as divinely-inspired Scripture. Just for grins, I looked up the last two in the list (2 Maccabees 13:14 - Hebrews 12:4 and 2 Maccabees 13:14 - Revelation 2:10) not even close!

Hey, Rashputin, why not do a little work and pick out your favorite top five in that list and quote them both showing they do what you are claiming they do?

Here is a great place to see ALL the hundreds and hundreds of places in the New Testament that validate the divine authority of the Old Testament Scriptures http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/misc/quotes.cfm. Couldn't find any that do that for those Apocryphals.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “It shows the RCC and whoever wrote that list is trying to dupe those gullible enough to follow the RCC or attempt to get people to take them seriously.” <<

.
Precisely!

There are thousands of websites set up just to explain away all of the contra-scriptural catholic mumbo-jumbo.

[Iscool]

Now if Judas hanged himself BEFORE the daily human operation we all perform, that means Christ was STILL in him. Is it possible he could actually be saved right now?? Maybe we’ve been going about this all wrong.

No doubt about it...St. Judas...(unless you're not a Catholic)

[editor-surveyor]

>> “No doubt about it...St. Judas...(unless you’re not a Catholic)” <<

.
Judas will be going to catholic heaven (the warm sulfur-smelling place)

[Iscool]

The term “hanged” at that time meant either that he was impaled on a pointed pole driven up through his torso, or that he fell on his own sword, so maybe all the blood and flesh of Yeshua leaked out?

I don't think so...If you are a Catholic, the flesh and blood that you eat and drink, and I suppose the sauerkraut and chicken livers, 'mystically' travels out of your large intestine into your soul...

Could be Catholics never have a need to use the facilities...

[metmom]

So now you're saying Scripture does not interpret Scripture. Interesting

Not at all.

Scripture certainly does interpret Scripture.

What I put no credence in is a 17 year old blog by a guy who admits that all he did is copy and paste, did not follow through with any work of his own, and asked others to do his work for him by requesting others to let him know if they found anything.

A massive fail if I ever saw one.

[Iscool]

Yeah! And Jesus command to “go into all the world” was only to “mess up a good thing” for those who would have gone to heaven.

So far more people would be going to heaven if Jesus had never shown up...

[verga]

So you are retracting that they would have executed him, since you offered no proof.
Thank you.

[Rashputin]

As your basic nitwit can see, the copyright at the bottom of my post is the link metmom refers to.

The sub-nitwit types are left to droll and stare at their navel or whatever portion of their anatomy they spend their time focused on.

[CynicalBear]

>>The sub-nitwit types are left to droll and stare at their navel or whatever portion of their anatomy they spend their time focused on.<<

Catholics keep it so classy don’t they?

[smvoice]

lol! How they can spit tobacco while wearing white gloves amazes me!

[metmom]

Catholics keep it so classy don’t they?

As usual.....

Nothing new there as someone raised in a Catholic community can attest to.

[metmom]

I don’t suppose that you’d be interested in trying again to actually provide some evidence to support you contention that the NT actually validates the deuterocanonical books?

Something that is not a massive fail, that you can actually defend instead of attacking those who expose its lack of content.

[Rashputin]

Matthew 23:27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness.

So now Jesus Christ has no class because he called a spade a spade? Wow, even for the Self and Self Alone crowd that’s amazing.