Through the year 2007, my wife and I read through six versions of the New Testament. We read them all simultaneously reading about 3 to 5 chapters each week. On Monday we read from the Greek Diaglott (English transliteration portion), Tuesday, the American Standard, Wednesday the New American Standard, Thursday the King James, Friday the New King James, Saturday the New International Version. We read only the New Testament, no commentaries because we wanted to focus on what God said, and not on what any human had to say about the passage. Every morning, we got up one hour early, usually about 5:00 a.m., before we got our day started and read. We sat in our living room, across the room from each other, both of us under a nice reading light. We sipped a cup of coffee as we read, but we did not say anything. We just read silently. After about an hour or sometime less, one would finish and just sit quietly or possibly in a silent prayer waiting for the other to complete the reading for the day. I kept a pad and pen by me and jotted questions or comments or special notes from a reference in the text. Each day I kept the notes, and when we finished for the day, we usually talked about something that got our attention in the particular reading. So six days each week we read the same passage six times, meaning that in the year we had read the New Testament through fairly thoroughly. We found many,

“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Revelation 21:22-27 NKJV) We will all know God.

As my wife and I with our family taught the Gospel in Tehran, Iran, we lived on the second floor of a house with the church meeting place on the ground floor. One could see for miles around from the picture windows of the kitchen on two sides. My wife, Sylvia, drew great comfort and security, confidence and hope, looking north toward the big El Bourz Mountains. Down below, almost coming up under a balcony porch off the side of the house, a shepherd daily brought his flock of sheep to drink in a brook running past our house. She often marveled at the gentle way he led them, talking to them and even singing. As they reached the water, he generally reclined on the bank in a position to see them all. At times, he even would sit under that balcony where he could lean against our house, keeping an eye on his sheep. Frequently—almost always, one at a time the sheep would come to him. He would scratch their ears and around behind their ears or pat them on the head, always saying something in a soothing tone, allaying any fear or uneasiness they must have felt. A number of different sheep would come to him each day, and each would seem to have its own story or problem it confided to him. As they were filled, he rose and slowly walked away. He did not command them to follow; he merely walked on, and they followed. Sylvia commented to