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PRAYING THE
NEW
TESTAMENT
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BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR Knowing God Through Fasting Praying the Psalms Praying the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon Praying the Book of Job Praying the Book of Revelation Praying the Gospels Praying the Book of Acts and the General Epistles Praying Paul’s Letters
AVAILABLE FROM DESTINY IMAGE PUBLISHERS
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PRAYING THE
NEW
TESTAMENT Elmer L. Towns
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© Copyright 2008 — Elmer L. Towns All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please note that Destiny Image’s publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some publishers’ styles. Take note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized. We choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules. DESTINY IMAGE® PUBLISHERS, INC. P.O. Box 310, Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310 “Speaking to the Purposes of God for this Generation and for the Generations to Come.” This book and all other Destiny Image, Revival Press, Mercy Place, Fresh Bread, Destiny Image Fiction, and Treasure House books are available at Christian bookstores and distributors worldwide. For a U.S. bookstore nearest you, call 1-800-722-6774. For more information on foreign distributors, call 717-532-3040. Reach us on the Internet at www.destinyimage.com. ISBN 10: 0-7684-2704-5 ISBN 13: 978-0-7684-2704-2 For Worldwide Distribution, Printed in the U.S.A. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 / 11 10 09 08
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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 PRAYING THE GOSPELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 PART ONE Jesus—Immanuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 1 The Gospel of Luke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Chapter 2 An Angel Speaks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Chapter 3 The Birth of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Chapter 4 Egypt and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Chapter 5 The Gospel of John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 PART TWO Jesus—The Son of God and Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Chapter 6 Jesus, Disciples, and Miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Chapter 7 My Father’s House and Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Chapter 8 Jesus Heals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Chapter 9 The Sermons of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
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Chapter 10 John the Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Chapter 11 Feeding His People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Chapter 12 The Absolute Love of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Chapter 13 Parables of Lost Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 PART THREE Jesus—The Redeemer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Chapter 14 Jesus in Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Chapter 15 The Prayers of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Chapter 16 Jesus’ Last Days on Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Chapter 17 The Resurrection of Jesus Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 PRAYING THE BOOK OF ACTS Praying the Book of Acts 1:1–28:31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Chapter 18 The Story of Writing the Book of Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Chapter 19 The Story of the Ascension of Jesus to Heaven. . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Chapter 20 The Story of Barnabas: The Rich Young Ruler . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Chapter 21 The Story of Choosing Seven Deacons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Chapter 22 The Story of Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
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Chapter 23 The Story of Saul’s Rise to Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Chapter 24 The Story of Paul’s Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 Chapter 25 The Story of the Antioch Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 PRAYING PAUL’S LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 Praying With Me the Letters of Paul. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 ROMANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 Chapter 26 The Story of Writing the Book of Romans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Chapter 27 Praying the Book of Romans 1:1–16:27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 FIRST CORINTHIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 Chapter 28 The Story of Writing the Book of First Corinthians . . . . . . . . 487 Chapter 29 Praying the Book of First Corinthians 1:1–16:24 . . . . . . . . . . 491 SECOND CORINTHIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 Chapter 30 The Story of Writing the Book of Second Corinthians . . . . . . 535 Chapter 31 Praying the Book of Second Corinthians 1:1–13:14. . . . . . . . 539 GALATIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 Chapter 32 The Story of Writing the Book of Galatians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571 Chapter 33 Praying the Book of Galatians 1:1–6:18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
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EPHESIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 Chapter 34 The Story of Writing the Book of Ephesians . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 Chapter 35 Praying the Book of Ephesians 1:1–6:24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 PHILIPPIANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Chapter 36 The Story of Writing the Book of Philippians. . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 Chapter 37 Praying the Book of Philippians 1:1–4:23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615 COLOSSIANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625 Chapter 38 The Story of Writing the Book of Colossians . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627 Chapter 39 Praying the Book of Colossians 1:1–4:18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631 FIRST THESSALONIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 Chapter 40 The Story of Writing the Book of First Thessalonians . . . . . . . 643 Chapter 41 Praying the Book of First Thessalonians 1:1–5:28 . . . . . . . . . 647 SECOND THESSALONIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657 Chapter 42 The Story of Writing the Book of Second Thessalonians . . . . . 659 Chapter 43 Praying the Book of Second Thessalonians 1:1–3:18 . . . . . . . 663 FIRST TIMOTHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669 Chapter 44 The Story of Writing the Book of First Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . 671 Chapter 45 Praying the Book of First Timothy 1:1–6:21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
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SECOND TIMOTHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Chapter 46 The Story of Writing the Book of Second Timothy . . . . . . . . . 691 Chapter 47 Praying the Book of Second Timothy 1:1–4:22 . . . . . . . . . . . 697 TITUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705 Chapter 48 The Story of Writing the Book of Titus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707 Chapter 49 Praying the Book of Titus 1:1–3:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 PHILEMON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715 Chapter 50 The Story of Writing the Book of Philemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 Chapter 51 Praying the Book of Philemon 1:1-25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 PRAYING THE GENERAL EPISTLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725 HEBREWS Praying the Book of Hebrews 1:1–13:25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727 Chapter 52 The Story of Writing the Book of Hebrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729 JAMES Praying the Book of James 1:1–5:20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759 Chapter 53 The Story of Writing the Book of James. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761 FIRST PETER Praying the Book of First Peter 1:1–5:14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773 Chapter 54 The Story of Writing the Book of First Peter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775
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SECOND PETER Praying the Book of Second Peter 1:1–3:18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798 Chapter 55 The Story of Writing the Book of Second Peter . . . . . . . . . . . 791 FIRST JOHN Praying the Book of First John 1:1–5:21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801 Chapter 56 The Story of Writing the First Letter of John . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803 SECOND JOHN Praying the Book of Second John 1–13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815 Chapter 57 The Story of Writing the Second Letter of John . . . . . . . . . . . 817 THIRD JOHN Praying the Book of Third John 1–14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821 Chapter 58 The Story of Writing the Third Letter of John. . . . . . . . . . . . . 823 JUDE Praying the Book of Jude 1–25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827 Chapter 59 The Story of Writing the Book of Jude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829 PRAYING THE BOOK OF REVELATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837 Praying the Book of Revelation 1:1–22:21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839 Chapter 60 Worship: When You Come to the End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841 Chapter 61 Worship: Waiting in Jesus’ Presence for His Message . . . . . . . 853
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Chapter 62 Worship: Immediately Upon Entering Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . 865 Chapter 63 Worshiping the Lamb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881 Chapter 64 Martyrs Worship as They Enter Heaven, and The Seven Trumpet-Judgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895 Chapter 65 Worship: When We First See the Ark, and The Seven Personages of the Future Tribulation . . . . . . . . . . . 915 Chapter 66 The Unknown Song of the 144,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933 Chapter 67 Worshiping the Lamb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943 Chapter 68 Worship at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Chapter 69 Seeing the Future Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975
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INTRODUCTION
W
hen you pray your way through the New Testament, you are traveling the way of Christ. As you read, you will be transported to the time when the Holy Spirit was inspiring writers to tell His story. This book is a compilation of four of my previously published books in the series Praying the Scriptures: Praying the Gospels, Praying the Book of Acts and the General Epistles, Praying Paul’s Letter, and Praying the Book of Revelation. The first project in this series began one morning when I was translating Psalm 37 into popular, everyday English, then transposing it into the second person—a prayer to God for my own spiritual growth. It went so well that I decided to translate the entire Book of Psalms. As with the previous seven books in this series, this book is a translation of Scripture from the original Greek into modern language—not a wordfor-word translation, rather a thought-for-thought edition. It contains vivid descriptions of events and prayers that will touch your intellect, emotion, and spirit—transforming your life and growing your faith. Why should you pray the Scriptures? Praying is a heart response to God, while reading the Bible is usually a head response to Him. Please note that this is not an inspired version of Scripture, but a human paraphrase; so read your Bible along with praying the Scriptures. May God open your eyes as you read Praying the New Testament, and may Christ fill your heart and mind with His almighty love and enduring favor. Sincerely yours in Christ, Elmer Towns Written at my home at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains Spring 2008
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PRAYING THE GOSPELS
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Part One
JESUS—IMMANUEL
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Chapter 1
THE GOSPEL
OF
LUKE
Luke 1:1-4
W
hile Paul was in prison in Caesarea, Luke wrote a biography of Jesus and addressed it to a rich Christian named Theophilus (his name means “lover of wisdom”). A church probably met in Theophilus’ house, and since he was rich, he probably had a library where he kept books for casual reading or serious study. Probably some Christian manuscripts were kept there also. Most wealthy men had an educated slave who could copy manuscripts for his master. Perhaps Theophilus had sent his slave to copy some of Paul’s letters, to places like Colosse (the Book of Colossians) and Ephesus (the Book of Ephesians) and Galatia (the Book of Galatians). Theophilus probably sent money to pay for Paul’s expenses while he was in prison. In return, Luke sent Theophilus a complete biography of the life and works of Jesus, and explained, “I have interviewed original eyewitnesses of the life of Christ, so I could write a complete narrative giving accurate information about the life of Christ” (Luke 1:2-3 ELT). Luke also read all the bits and pieces of stories about Jesus and used them as sources for his biography of Jesus, “Many have undertaken the task of writing the things we believe about Jesus…I in turn have gone over the whole course of their description…” (Luke 1:1,3 ELT). Like a newspaper reporter gathering all the facts before writing a story, Luke did his research in books and interviews (he did his research and writing while Paul was two years in prison). As Luke began to write, it was not the usual process of writing. Luke was inspired by the Holy Spirit so that what he wrote was accurate and without error. Luke was even aware of what was happening because he said, “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first…”
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P R AY I N G T H E N E W T E S TA M E N T
(Luke 1:3 KJV). The phrase “from the very first,” is anothen in the original Greek which means “from above.” Luke testified he had perfect understanding from above—from God. The Gospel of Luke is the authority of God because he wrote what God told him to write, and he did it with the inspirational help of God. Introduction to Luke Luke 1:1-4 Lord, Luke said that many others have written a biography Of the events of Jesus on the earth; He researched carefully the reports they wrote And he interviews disciples who followed Him, And eyewitnesses who saw these things. So that he would have perfect understanding To write an accurate account of Jesus, Luke wrote the events in perfect sequence, Being inspired by God from on high. Therefore, Theophilus had confidence in The things that have been taught to him. Lord, I have confidence in the things That have been taught to me from Your Word, And I will study it carefully to know what You said.
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