Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

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March 17, 2010
    Good morning to you...good family and friends.
    Even as type here, I'm hearing fighter jets fly over.  It's kind of common.  They apparently do a lot of practice stuff out of the Portland airport section for the Air National Guard (I think).  Do you think it will ever become more than practice?  My hunch is...yes.  When?  My hunch is...soon.  Am I being negative?...trying to scare people?  My hunch is...no.
    You will never find a better time in all of history to LOOK UP.  And UP is upper than the economy, or politics, or international tensions, or any other form of flimsy security.
    I'd better keep cruising.  Lots on my list.  I just want to make sure that while I look down to my list I simultaneously LOOK UP.  Know what I mean?
    Blessings.
        Dad/Ray

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17 March 2010
Passage: Acts 20:17-38
Focus: “…if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me…”  Acts 20:24.

            All of us would agree that a job description is very important for anyone expected to do any kind of job.  A builder needs to know what and where he supposed to build (“Are you serious?…I built your house on the wrong lot?!”), a teacher needs to know who, and what, and where he is to teach (“Graduate students?!  I understood I was assigned to 2nd graders!”), a cook needs to know what and where to cook and for how many (“Oh, no!  Did you say 130?  I thought I read 13!”), a surgeon need to know exactly what he is supposed to be cutting out (“Oops!  Phooey!  Now what do I do?”), a pilot needs to know his plane and where he is supposed to go (“What in the world is Mt. Rainier doing next to San Fransisco?”), and a Christian needs to know what he is supposed to be doing as a servant and follower of Christ.  It is required of every believer to understand that, within the parameters of the Gospel, there is not only a salvation to receive, but also a job to do.  That’s one of the points Paul makes in his farewell speech to the Ephesian leaders: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (v. 24).
            I have to conclude that the same basic job description that God gives to Paul is the same basic job description that He gives to you and me.  It is “the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”  And it involves, as Paul says in verse 27, the objective of proclaiming, “the whole will of God.”  It’s not just a message relating to our souls in the hereafter, but the “whole will of God” for our lives in the here and now.  There is a need to know God’s will as it relates to integrity, as it relates to work, to marriage, to family, to finance, and to possessions.  It doesn’t call for brilliance to know we are surrounded with terrific needs in all these areas.
            May you be encouraged and blessed as you carry on with your job description of “testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” in every facet of your life.