A few years ago Bill, a retired pastor and seminary professor, convinced me and Tim, another pastor friend, that it would be good for the three of us to memorize the Book of Revelation and recite it before our church on a Sunday evening.

A few days before the event, when I was scrambling to prepare, fearing I would make a complete fool of myself in front of a lot of people (1,000 people turned out), I was thinking it was easy for him to talk about memorizing a third of a book in the Bible; he had time, for heaven's sake. But I didn't. What was I thinking?

That night, just before we went out and did this terrifying thing, Bill reminded us that no matter how poorly we might do in the memory department, God was pleased with us and would bless his Word.

He was right: for two and a half hours all the people, children included, listened as three men simply recited the Word of God from the last book of the Bible, beginning to end. The Word was all it says it is: a hammer, a sword, rain, light, truth, ...