How do you digest the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments?
One verse at a time, one phrase, one line, one word at a time.
Meditate on it. Pray with it. Remember it. Quote it. Hear those words come back in crucial moments. Now and then you seize on words that the Holy Spirit uses to change your life.
Martin Luther experienced that in 1517. He read “the just shall live by faith…” in Romans and Lamentations. As sometimes happens when we read the Bible, he got stuck. Those words, “the just shall live by faith” perplexed him and haunted him until they became part of him. Those words transformed his relationship with God and his outlook on life. Those words propelled a movement that we celebrate on Reformation Day, October 31. It has been 498 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Door of the Wittenburg Church in Germany. Today, we call that movement the Reformation. We recognize that just as we need to be transformed, by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12), so does the church. We need to be transformed and reformed from time to time. Read More on Reformation Day.
Gary Reddish
Gary Reddish was the Associate Pastor of Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church when I met him, responsible for discipleship, visiting, choir, organ, started and mentored the Stephen Ministry, which became the largest in the country, supervisor of interns. He was my supervisor. Not just another bullet point in the PD, he met with me often. Called me Dowie (Hebrew for David). We were both from Lincoln, NE. He often took me out to eat and paid. Once, he took me to the mall and bought me shoes. I guess he felt this seminary student needed some decent shoes.
Loving, Wild, generous. Lived fully. Never married. Irreverent. Empathy. Lived out loud. Bizarre. Caring. Prayerful. Unconventional – he would put signs down on the sidewalk at the high school where we met. High speed. Crazy.
In his 60s he started a descent into insanity. More than dementia or Alzheimers’, he lost his mind. His craziness became literal insanity.
He died Nov. 25, 2012, age 69. At his memorial service at CCPC, which I recently watched via Youtube, a pastor recalled visiting him in a psych hospital after after an episode of some sort.
His thoughts and his speech compressed to 30 second loops. Near the end, he was at Porter Hospital – he was in a cage. Had an episode. Hair was gone. He seemed confused and lost. Rocking back and forth. 5 second loops.
The pastor leaned forward to hear what Gary was saying.
“We just love the Lord…we love the Lord…we love the Lord…”
He had the mind of Christ. He loved God with all his heart, soul and mind. I remember Gary saying that verse to me – the “Shema” he called it, from Deuteronomy 6:4. After he lost almost everything, he still had these words of assurance.