Reading Through The Red Parts
“ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” (John 14:3) NLT
Oh, the words of divine comfort! (One of my newest favorite passages).
As a kid, I remember the old family Bible sitting on an end table in the living room. In later years, the book was perched on my mother’s dresser and was eventually relegated to the inside of her dresser drawer.
After her demise, the old King James was found stuffed in a closet, filled with many family obituaries and “special things”; memories deemed sacred and valued by her heart.
But I do recall the household rule that never, EVER, under any circumstances were any items allowed to be placed on top of the Bible, willy-nilly or otherwise. It was sacred. That was the rule. No if, ands, or buts. End of story.
It was as if God lived in there!
“But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.” (Jeremiah 10:10) NIV.
Today, I have no doubt that God is a living God. I have seen the worst of the worst turned into the beauty of God’s glory. I do not question his power of transformation of the heart (in cases thought impossible) and the redemptive power of the soul (taking the vile, the rotten, the wicked and turning that soul back to his loving ways), and I feel the solace and immeasurable greatness of his peace.
Oh, we surely have a strong God and a Great One who lives among us. I have faith that God will continue his great works for eternity, otherwise, everything would perish. Everything. But not God.
However, I don’t recall ever reading the Bible with my parents or praying together outside of church. Except when Dad would take my twin sister, Brenda, and me on a drive up to the pagoda on top of Mt. Penn (Reading, Penn.) during thunderstorms. We’d be scared to death on top of that mountain watching the storm roll in. Lightning streaked across the sky. And yes, we’d be standing outside the Hudson (that’s a car, for you youngsters). Dad would yell in response to the thunder, “Give ‘em hell, JC!”
Even though he rarely went to church, I think his mother, Ida, had a Bible in the family, too, so he was at least familiar with “JC.” But I think Dad’s faith grew enormously in WWII on D-Day when he landed on Normandy Beach as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division. I don’t think anyone could have walked away alive without stronger, humbled faith in something much greater than oneself.
But, back to the Bible. As a youngster I liked to leaf through the Bible every now and again. There was a softness of the heart just opening this treasure! I admit I had a difficult time understanding it, but I was especially intrigued by the red letters. I knew there was something special about this book, feeling almost secretive and forbidden in the mystery.
But what did it all mean, especially the red parts? I was too afraid to ask an adult about it. After all, I was just a dumb and curious kid and we had all stopped going to church or Sunday School by that point.
So today, God has me writing about the “red parts.”
Did you know Louis Klopsch (1852-1910) invented the red letter Bible? Klopsch was a German-born journalist and editor of The Christian Herald magazine. He “conceived the idea of printing some of the biblical text with red ink. When reading Jesus’s words, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20), he thought of printing all of Jesus’s words in red, the color of his blood.”1[i]
Wow! No wonder this book bears a sacredness about it. He went on to write:
“Here the actual words, quotations, references and allusions of Christ, not separated from their context, nor in a fragmentary or disconnected form, but in their own proper place, as an integral part of the Sacred Record, stand out vividly conspicuous in the distinction of color. The plan also possesses the advantage of showing how frequently and how extensively, on the Authority of Christ himself, the authenticity of the Old Testament is confirmed, thus greatly facilitating comparison and verification, and enabling the student to trace the connection between the Old and the New, link by link, passage by passage.
In the Red Letter Bible, more clearly than in any other edition of the Holy Scriptures, it becomes plain that from beginning to end, the central figure upon which all lines of law, history, poetry and prophecy converge is Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. He expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself and the Divine plan for man’s redemption, and the Red Letter Bible indicates and emphasizes this Divine exposition and personal revelation at each successive stage, making them so clear that even the simplest may understand. It sheds a new radiance upon the sacred pages, by which the reader is enabled to trace unerringly the scarlet thread of prophecy from Genesis to Malachi. Like the Star which led the Magi to Bethlehem, this light, shining through the entire Word, leads straight to the person of the Divine Messiah, as the fulfillment of the promise of all the ages.”
(Oh, the wisdom and insight of many journalist-editors!)
May I suggest, dear reader, to open the Bible today and find the “red parts”—perhaps a new red part that speaks to you from our living God. Commonly called “Red letter” Bibles are available everywhere, yet I am happy to get one into your hands if you request one via email.
You don’t need to be a scholar, just a person looking for answers and knowledge through the comfort of Christ. He waits for you through his red words in the Bible.
Bonnie Zickgraf is a retired pastor, author, columnist for The Times and an RN in mental health nursing and health plan accreditations. Send comments and prayer requests to [email protected].