I Believe in God: Praying The Apostles' Creed: Scripture-based Reflective Prayer Guide Series Volume 6

By Katherine Mills Johnson

The Apostles' Creed is considered to be a faithful summary of the Christian faith. Our current creed comes from an ancient Roman Creed that dates from around 150 A.D. Philip Schaff, 19th century Protestant theologian and church historian said,"As the Lord's Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue the Law of laws, so the Apostles' Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of fact, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order-the order of revelation-from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting." The Creed was first developed both to refute heresy and to provide a statement of faith used to instruct converts to Christianity. Christians in the early centuries were required to learn the Creed from memory. It served them as a daily prayer not to forget the commitment they had undertaken in baptism. The Creed was also used for public worship, and its repetition insured that each generation would learn the basic teachings of the faith.In this statement from Augustine, we can see how important the Creed was to the early growth of the Church in its early centuries: "The symbol of the holy mystery that you have all received together and that today you have recited one by one, are the words on which the faith of [the] Church is firmly built above the stable foundation that is Christ the Lord. You have received it and recited it, but in your minds and hearts you must keep it ever present, you must repeat it in your beds, recall it in the public squares and not forget it during meals: even when your body is asleep, you must watch over it with your hearts." This prayer guide is designed to be used for personal prayer in conjunction with praying through the Apostles' Creed using the Scripture passages that are presented for each section of the Creed. It encourages anyone who desires to go deeper in prayer to take each of the included verses and reflect on them using the Scripture-based reflective prayer model. A brief description of this type of prayer is followed by a journal-style guide which gives the reader opportunity to pray with the carefully chosen short Scripture verses. Reflecting on Scripture in this way can provide us with a powerful way to experience God's presence and love in our hearts and to encounter the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1481880497
• ISBN13: 9781481880497
• Release Date: January 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 84 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"