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

[terycarl]

The Word of God is so above mere religion.

no it isn't, Christ gave us a religion (Catholic) to help explain and spread His word....we can't have a myriad of miscellaneous interpretations floating around or we'd have........oh, excuse me, protastantism

[Iscool]

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

Of course it does...But what you posted is not scripture...

[terycarl]

I thought only MormonISM was the religion that went back to help out the dearly departed, by being proxy baptized for them. Now poor ol' John has been made a CATHOLIC!

lets say that you painted pictures in prehistoric times, let's say that over the years people who painted pictures became known as artists...now let's say that someone found your pictures and declared that they were painted by an early ARTIST....right or wrong...Because you were not known as an artist in 500 B.C., doesn't mean that history will not record you as an artist....John the Baptist was an early Catholic.

[Iscool]

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

It's like a Resort Hotel...Hotel California...They can check in to purgatory but they'll never be able to leave...

[boatbums]

It's a shell game. They think that by using references of Scripture - sans the ACTUAL verbiage - people will be overwhelmed by it all and conclude they must be right because, "They wouldn't lie about it, would they?". We see the same ruse in the catechism sections or when Catholic Answers get copied and pasted in great globs "proving" the Bible says what they say it does. Yet when the verses get looked at individually and read in context, it turns out that many times the passage isn't saying it at all. One thing should cause concern...if lies and deception have to be used to "sell" something, it's a good bet it isn't as good as it's claimed.

[terycarl]

So far on this thread, I’ve asked you for evidence about 3 of your specious claims. No evidence yet...

I cannot prove that there is a God

I cannot prove that Jesus was God

I cannot prove that I am right in everything I say

just take my word for it.

[boatbums]

Are you claiming that all those people who left Roman Catholicism for a purer faith in Jesus Christ of course not, but since there is no purer faith in Jesus Christ than Catholicism....yes, they are in trouble

You believe what you are told to believe and until you are able to break free of delusion you will not be able to understand my point. The pure faith in Jesus Christ is the truth as professed in Scripture and the Roman Catholic Church has perverted that truth. Salvation is found IN Christ and not through a religion. I will take Christ at His word over the boastings of mere man made religion. Jesus said, "All who come to me I will in no wise cast out.", I trust HIM.

[terycarl]

Why the Catholic superiority complex? I think we all know the answer.

it's not a complex....as muhammad ali said, if you can do it, it ain't braggin'....The Catholic religion is superior to ALL OTHERS, because Christ (God) Founded it

[Iscool]

Not only did your religion spend Centuries burning bibles (and babies and parents and kids) of those it called heretics, it apparently tries to eliminate the history of those Christians as well...

Henricians

According to Peter of Cluny, Henry's teaching is summed up as follows:

Rejection of the doctrinal and disciplinary authority of the church;
Recognition of the Gospel freely interpreted as the sole rule of faith;
Refusal to recognize any form of worship or liturgy; and Condemnation of
the baptism of infants,
the Eucharist,
the sacrifice of the mass,
the communion of saints, and
prayers for the dead;

Henry of Lausanne lived in France in the first half of the 12th century. His preaching began around 1116 and he died imprisoned around 1148

[CynicalBear]

>>He must have a way for those who never have a chance to have faith in Jesus.<<

Think about it Jvette. Jesus wouldn’t have told us to tell people about Him if they were going to heaven in some other way. There is no other way whereby we are saved but the belief in and trust of Jesus.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Romans 10:9That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

If they don’t believe in Jesus they are “condemned already”. There is only one way. Not many.

[CynicalBear]

See my post 911

[terycarl]

If we last another 200 years I swear there will be a Saint Pie Day where everyone bakes a pie for their favorite saint

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!!You protestants do come up with a great one once in a while!!

[terycarl]

Now a narses pix, like the yawning bozo or the fractal image: THEY are amusing!!

all the images, both sides, are VERY amusing, and impressive!!

[narses]

[Iscool]

The Word of God is so above mere religion.

no it isn't, Christ gave us a religion (Catholic) to help explain and spread His word

Psa_138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

Thank God for those responsible for putting the word of God into the hands of the people written in their own languages...No one has to be duped by the Catholic religion...

[Religion Moderator]

Reading the mind of another Freeper is a form of "making it personal."

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

[terycarl]

Even if you sinned only once and it was a *little* sin, and otherwise lived a perfect, sinless life, you would still go to hell.

skipped out on religion class did you??? a sin is an intentional violation of God's will....you must know that it is a sin, and you must commit the sin knowing that it is a serious sin against God....then you must never fully repent nor ask God's forgiveness (Catholic Confession fills the bill exactly)!!

[terycarl]

Enough Scripture to lead one to Jesus is found in the Hebrew Scripture which existed long before the RCC came into existence.

I can't believe that a person with your knowledge of scripture would ever say anything this inane....you would have known Jesus and learned of His wonderful teachings, and learned the lessons He taught, and learned of His miracles, and learned of His death for you, and learned of His ressurection FROM THE JEWS???????

[terycarl]

Rome can be said to essentially be a false church with many true doctrines

by who????