Have you ever got lost in the story, while reading the Bible? Don\u2019t worry, you are not alone. Many of us Christians, both Catholics and non-Catholics, have somewhat experienced losing track and getting confused as we read the story of Sacred Scripture. Oftentimes, we get started reading Genesis in a comfortable pace going through the creation story, to Noah, then to Abraham and to Moses until we arrive to the first chapters of Leviticus then suddenly we get confused and bored as the story turn into a series of laws, customs and prohibitions. It is then important to have a pattern to look upon, one that will keep us on track when\u00a0we read the books that we are not so familiar with. We don\u2019t have to be biblical scholars and experts in order to understand the Bible cover to cover.<\/p>\n
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Things to remember as you read the Sacred Scriptures<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong>\u00a0The Bible is about God’s love for us.\u00a0It is about history, “HIS Story”<\/strong>, of how much He wants us to be with Him and experience His immense love for us.<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The Bible tells us how\u00a0God repeatedly made\u00a0covenants with us\u00a0since the beginning. This is called\u00a0“Covenant\u00a0Theology”. Dr. Scott Hahn, an ex-Protestant converted to Catholicism, who specializes in this theology, said that the\u00a0covenant\u00a0is the key to understanding the story of the Bible.<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong>\u00a0A covenant\u00a0is not like a contract. A contract is an agreement of persons or parties in a legalistic way. While\u00a0a\u00a0covenant\u00a0is an agreement that form a relationship\u00a0of the persons or parties involved, specifically like a family. As we will know, God made several covenants with us. Hence, God repeatedly made relationships with us.<\/p>\n 4.<\/strong>\u00a0The fulfillment of the\u00a0covenant\u00a0is Jesus Christ.\u00a0He made a covenant with us inviting us to share His relationship with the Father. We cannot understand the very point of the Bible if we do not know who Jesus Christ is. It is in Jesus that this relationship is\u00a0manifested fully.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE KEY: GOD’S\u00a0COVENANT<\/strong><\/p>\n The Bible is about how God’s plan to make\u00a0covenants with us throughout\u00a0history. As we go through the Bible, we can use this list of covenants as a road-map.<\/p>\n 1. God made a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with Adam and Eve –\u00a0Marriage<\/strong><\/p>\n 2. He made a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with Noah –\u00a0Family<\/strong><\/p>\n 3. He made a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with Abraham –\u00a0Tribe<\/strong><\/p>\n 4. He made a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with Moses –\u00a0Nation<\/strong><\/p>\n 5. He made a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with David –\u00a0Kingdom<\/strong><\/p>\n 6. Finally, He made a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with us through His only Son Jesus Christ –\u00a0Universal<\/strong><\/p>\n Notice that God\u2019s\u00a0covenant\u00a0with us is getting bigger in scope as He intends to be in a relationship with all of His beloved children.<\/p>\n When the word \u201cCatholic\u201d makes sense<\/strong><\/p>\n Knowing all of these, we can now see and appreciate how God really wants to make a\u00a0covenant\u00a0with all of us. That’s why we call our belief as\u00a0“religion”, which comes from the Latin word\u00a0“religio<\/em>”\u00a0which means\u00a0to bind firmly or to be connected. That is why religion is more than an institution. It is a relationship with God. Religion is meant to bring us closer to God by making relationship with Him. We cannot separate religion from relationship. The Bible tells us that God wants to have a relationship with us, not just on a personal level but also on a universal level. That is why it makes more sense because the Catholic word comes from the Greek word\u00a0“kata-holos<\/em>”\u00a0which means “universal”\u00a0or\u00a0“according to the whole”. This is the point of the Bible. This is the story of God’s love for us. God continues to invite His children to have a “Catholic” relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. As Pope Francis said, \u201cThe Church is a love story, not an institution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever got lost in the story, while reading the Bible? Don\u2019t worry, you are not alone. Many of us Christians, both Catholics and non-Catholics, have somewhat experienced losing track and getting confused as we read the story of Sacred Scripture. Oftentimes, we get started reading Genesis in a comfortable pace going through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,296,35,293],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelization","tag-bible","tag-catholic","tag-covenant","tag-evangelization"],"yoast_head":"\n