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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28 June 2010
Passage:  Luke 23:50-24:12
Focus:  “WHY?” Luke 24:5
            I remember as a kid my enjoyment at playing little tricks on my older brother or younger sister (or anyone else, for that matter), catching them by surprise, and scaring them.  And I confess that I still have some young boy in me.  Why would I mention that here?  Well, I have a feeling God also quite enjoys scaring human beings momentarily.  It’s not just for the purpose of inspiring fear.  Nor is it just in play.  But it is part of His positive dealings with men to get their attention and shock them out of the bondage of their own narrow-mindedness.  Here is an example where these angels of the Lord scare the daylights out of these very nice and well-meaning ladies by making such a bright and dramatic appearance in the dim light of the early morning.  It certainly was not what they were expecting.  But it certainly got their attention.
            What’s more, I also have a feeling that God quite enjoys asking shocking questions of humans that He knows they are not going to answer.  The angels asked such a question here:  “WHY do you look for the living among the dead?”  Wow!  Talk about a provocative question!  It was the kind of question that took them totally by surprise and would no doubt cause much reflection for each of these ladies for the rest of their lives as they would lay in bed at night mediating.  But if one of them had the presence of mind to answer the angels, they may have presented a question of their own like, “WHY would you angels say such a thing?  You must have made a mistake.  We came here looking for someone’s body that we know was very much dead.  So we’re looking for a dead person right where we know he’s supposed to be.”  I think God was smiling.  He enjoys presenting hard surprising questions.  He likes the shock treatment of the unexpected to shock us into facing His Sovereign Majesty.
            WHY?...is a very good question indeed that should be applied to a lot of areas of our lives.  WHY is my family in confusion?  WHY is our marriage sick?  WHY is my life so spiritually weak?  WHY am I not hungry for God’s Word?  WHY do we have Holy Communion and Baptisms?  WHY does God love us?  WHY is it so hard to love my neighbor?  This kind of WHY questioning can be very good if it causes us to think carefully, go to God for answers, and submit to His Lordship.  Think about it.
 
            “Belief comes not before following, not after following, but while following.”