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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26 June 2010
Passage: Luke 22:66-23:25
Focus: “But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.”  Luke 23:23.
            This passage paints another picture that displays the ugliness of human nature without God.  Please pay attention.  The ugliness is made worse when noting that the main actors of this real drama who are causing all the ugly are actually claiming all the while to be absolute representatives for God. There’s religion for you!  Religion without relationship (personal relationship with God) becomes about as perverse and diabolical as it gets.  History supports that.
            Here is a lesson worth remembering: INTENSITY OF PASSION AND LOUDNESS OF EXPRESSION MAY GOVERN POLITICS AND WIN VERDICTS, BUT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUTH. There was a lot of noise and chaos displayed in this ordeal.  Can you imagine being in such a mob that is agitated to fever pitch, who cannot bear anything reasonable or orderly, and can only vent their anger with shouting, “Crucify him!  Crucify him!” (v. 21)?  Be reminded of the stark contrast between such human style as compared with God’s.  His method of communicating with the human heart remains on the level with a “gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12).  And only those who have adjusted their internal settings with A HEART AFTER GOD are able to detect those divine signals.
            Yesterday’s emphasis was on the importance of prayer.  You can be sure that there wasn’t much prayer going on in the camp of “the chief priests and teachers of the law”—at least not REAL prayer.  Yes, they said prayers all the time—that was their specialty.  But their heart attitudes did not allow for authentic prayer that prioritized relationship with the Most High—and reveled in the grace of that relationship.  Please pay attention.
 
            “When we cease to wonder, we cease to worship.”