A Deeper Christian Life

Another wonderful way to get to know your Lord more deeply and more intimately is to pray, or pray-read, the Scriptures. This is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, with many contemporary practitioners throughout the ranks of the Christian Church. In this particular form of this exercise, I will draw from some inspiration the Lord gave me through a teaching from Frank Viola in one of his messages on his Deeper Christian Life Network. The gist of this exercise involves pray-reading, rewording and reciting Romans 8:28-39 as something of a love letter and word of reassurance from God the Father to you (and me), the individual believer. Here's my particular interpretation (based loosely on the rendering found in the Legacy Standard Bible): Starting now with Romans 8:28: “Thomas, you know that, for those who love Me  –  and that includes you  –  I make everything in your day, everything in your life, work together for good, for those I have called accordin...

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; because by Him everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, all by Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning; the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. Because all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him, and to reconcile everything to Himself through Him by making peace through the blood of His cross -- whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1: 15-20, English Standard Version)