Insightful Musings on the New Testament
by
Ray Sparre, NU class of '67

Ray has a wealth of experience as a Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, and student of the Word. He believes and practices his faith where the rubber meets the road. You'll find his writings to be practical, insightful, and grounded in a truly Christ-centered world view.

Below are links to a printable daily Bible reading guide which Ray is following, and an archive of all his daily devotional writings for 2010.

|  Daily Reading Guide  |  2010 Devotion Archives  |
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 22 May 10
    Good morning, folks.
    9:32am at present.  I've lined out work for the day.  Thano is here behind me weeding and masking some vinyl for a sign I need to get out today.  Then I'll have him mill up some Sequoia logs a guy recently dropped off here.  Becki and I will run off and pick up some supplies.  I need some abasive materials to clean up some log faces.  One of the components I'm fabricating is a custom rustic truss with a bottom cord of nearly 17' made from hemlock 6x8 "D" logs I've milled.  The faces of the truss parts are the natural log faces.  I'll try to clean off the gray weathering.  I think it will look nice.  Once again...I don't know why I'm telling you this.
    You try real hard to have a good day...with a heart after God.
        Love, Dad/Ray
 
22 May 2010
Passage:  Luke 5:17-39
Focus:  “We have seen remarkable things today.”  Luke 5:26
            It had to be remarkable indeed to behold Jesus performing miraculous healings of those who were obviously sick and physically impaired.  It was particularly dramatic to see this one paralyzed guy lowered into the crowded room by his friends from a hole they made in the roof.  That act of urgency and faith was wonderfully rewarded and the paralyzed guy went home walking on his own strong legs.  It is to be expected that the people would have been “filled with awe and said, ‘we have seen remarkable things today.’”
            However, let’s be reminded that just seeing remarkable things doesn’t save anyone by itself.  Observing the power of God does not necessarily align one with God.  Seeing is not necessarily believing.  In fact, just because one sees, does not ensure that one sees straight or correctly.  I am sure that there were present on this occasion those discerning souls who recognized Jesus’ forgiveness of sins and His healing power as profound evidences of his divinity and Messiahship.  But there were others who judged what they saw and heard as acts of blasphemy.  Same event, different conclusions.
            It all goes together to confirm in my mind a basic thesis that I have held for a long time—a concept that I have not yet found any substantial evidence against:  THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGULAR INGREDIENT IN YOUR LIFE IS A HEART AFTER GOD—a heart that sincerely seeks to know God, to love Him, to please Him, and to serve Him—a heart that is willing to lay aside self-righteousness and preconceived ideas in quest of that high objective.  With that heart condition, everything one needs will fall into place according to God’s sovereign grace and provision (Mtt. 6:33).  But without it, all the great experiences, all the miracles, all the healings, all the great meetings, all the wonderful sermons, all the impressive memories, all the conviction, and all the ecstatic altar calls don’t really amount to a hill of beans.
 
            “Learn from the mistakes of others—you’ll never live long enough to make them all yourself.”