Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

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April 10, 2010

    Dear fellow earthlings...
    ...stuggling to survive and thrive in a foreign environment.  "This world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through..."
    This is a hope-I-get-a-lot-done Saturday.  Optimism is good, you know.  But reality is that I will most likely end it as a glad-I-got-a-little-done Saturday.  We'll see.

    I hope you get a lot done too.  Blessings.

        Dad/Ray

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10 April 2010
Passage: Mark 6:1-29
Focus: “Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him.”  Mark 6:19.

            The NIV Bible uses an interesting English expression to describe Herodias’ bitterness toward John the Baptist: She “nursed a grudge against John.” 

            We’re all familiar with the idea of a mother caring for and feeding her baby.  We say she “nurses” him.  She has a strong God-given desire to keep her child both alive and healthy.  Herodias was doing that with her hatred for John the Baptist—which was definitely not God-given—quite the opposite.  She wanted her unhealthy attitude to remain alive and healthy.  It created an emotional focus that found her alert and ready to gain revenge when the opportunity came.

            Have you ever nursed a grudge?  I’m sure you have.  And I’m sure that if you’ve ever tried to do that as a serious Christian, you soon learned that maintaining a healthy grudge was absolutely incompatible with maintaining a healthy faith.  The two are at odds and cannot peacefully coexist.  A grudge is to hate.  Faith is to love.

            Turn grudge around into an opposite emotional focus and you have the essence of love.  If you love God, for example, you will nurse that attitude and keep it alive and healthy.  It will produce the spontaneous fruit of obedience and righteousness when opportunities come.