Bible Study

For five years, my sister has been attending a Bible study program: Called By Faith. It helps people study the Bible in the light of the Catholic faith. Every year for six years now, they have chosen a book of the Bible and met weekly from Fall through Spring. They read and prepare beforehand, then attend the weekly session for prayer, a lecture, and small group discussion. This year they decided to use the Great Adventure Bible Study materials. (The program fee covers the cost.)

This year I'll be attending along with my sister, who generously offered to pay for it. We had attended a one-day Great Adventure seminar last year, so I am already familiar with some of the materials. In fact, at the seminar I purchased the index tabs. Practically the first thing I did when I arrived back home was to get those tabs into my Bible. And yet--although the seminar itself was interesting and exciting--once I had the tabs in, I never cracked open my Bible again until today! Obviously, I'm not the most self-motivated person on the planet.

I'm not completely without exposure to the Scriptures. Most of the time I can find a passage I'm looking for when it's needed. I sometimes go over the Mass readings ahead of time and try to make some connections between the passages. I get bits and snippets of the Scriptures from various blogs and online sources, as well as from books and periodicals. But I have never read the entire Bible.

So when my sister said her Bible study group was going to study the Great Adventure materials and asked if I'd like to go with her this year, I jumped at the chance! It is so much easier for me to get things done when I feel a degree of accountability to other people. Now, I know that it's a matter of human respect. After all, my accountability to God is more a matter of my actions, not whether I feel like doing something. He's interested in how much I love, not whether others are of the general opinion that I am a fine human being.

Nevertheless, I freely admit: I need the little push of knowing that my sister will be picking me up for meetings and that I will be expected to contribute to small group discussions. I'll be getting a general overview of salvation history as we study 14 key books of the Bible in chronological order. The remaining books of the Bible will make more sense, too, in the context of where they fit into the story--and a three-month Bible reading plan is provided. Besides the actual Bible study, I hope to develop some discipline and to make regular habits of Scripture reading and study for the rest of my life.

It's very likely that some of what I discover will wind up in my blog . . . I can hardly wait to get started!