Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

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March 9, 2010
    Greetings, good people.
    Yes...it's garbage out day for us.  Have you ever thought of what a mess our homes would become if there was no means for trash removal?  And what is true of our homes is true of our hearts.  Selah.
    Update on Daisy.  We finally took her in to Molalla for an exam by a new vet doctor.  Our hunch was wrong.  It was not a broken tendon...but a completely broken bone...the upper leg bone.  She now has a soft cast on it.  I wasn't prepared for that much cost.  Now we have a broken leg.  Oh well.  At least I have some credit with that vet by doing a sign for their business.
    May you be blessed again today.
        Ray

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9 March 2010
Passage: Acts 15:36-16:15
Focus: “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”  Acts 16:14.

            Like Jesus who sat down one day by a well at Samaria and simply opened conversation with a lone woman, Paul and his gang went down by the river at Philippi and simply began talking with some women that happened to be there.  I can imagine that they first talked about trivia and incidentals—maybe the weather, how the area needed rain, and how unusually warm it was for this time of year.  The ladies probably asked where Paul and his partners were from.  Timothy may have asked how high the river gets when it floods.  One of the ladies may have told how that just a few weeks ago a boy was badly bitten by an “eel-fish” at this very beach while he was butchering a goat.  But then the conversation began to shift in the direction of why Paul and his companions were traveling, and the simple Gospel message became the theme.  There were apparently no meeting plans—no printed order of the service.  There were no notices of the event spread around town.  It was very unlikely that someone like Silas led in a time of singing where the group was directed to stand and sit and stand and sit.  There was no special choir presentation from the Antioch Church youth group.  There was no PA system that was turned up loud enough to make the river quiver.  I doubt that Paul or any of the participants shifted into their loud “preacher voices.”  There were no stained glass windows, polished pews, platforms, pulpits, or worship teams.  Nevertheless, vital ministry was being transacted that day as Paul simply shared the simple Gospel message of how the Life and Spirit of the risen Christ was dramatically changing lives everywhere this message was shared.
            Lydia was one person in that group who already had a heart after God.  It says, “she was a worshipper of God.”  With that essential built-in attitude of heart, it was easy for her to receive.  She was prepared.  “The Lord (easily) opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”
            These ideas inspire me because it describes a form of ministry that is available to virtually every believer.  It simply requires that we be people who love and seek God, eat His Word, grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, and talk about it when and where we have opportunity.  It doesn’t require having a Bible School education or ministerial credentials.  It only requires that the urgency of the Gospel be high priority in our own hearts and lives.  It’s easy to talk about things most important to us.  There is dynamic New Testament ministry potential contained right here in this simple approach.  Think about it.