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  |
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 July 10
                Good evening, dear ones.
                The time presently is 10:13pm.  My head is definitely shutting down. There is the sound of fireworks around the area…causing the dogs to freak out.  I don’t think they even finished their bowls of supper because of the distraction.  Even with the noise, I’m quite sure that when I lay down, I won’t toss and turn for much more than about 30 seconds before being gone to the world.
                Good night.  Blessings.
                                Love, Dad/Ray
 
4 July 2010
Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5
Focus: “May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  1 Thessalonians 5:23.
                Think of it!  By God doing His part (love and grace) and you doing your part (faith and obedience), you can actually come through this dirty, dark, dangerous, disturbing, diverting, deceptive, and damaging world BLAMELESS!  Now is that good news or what?  This is not to say that there will be no bumps and bruises or no frustrations and failures.  It does mean that IF, through it all, we learn to prioritize pleasing God and appropriating His Word, we will be able to remove from ourselves the universal cause for man standing guilty and condemned before a Holy God, and be abundantly ready when Christ returns for His “glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle,” absolutely blame-free. (Read again Rom. 8:1-2)
                Let’s take a moment here to look again at verse 23 in its entirety:  “May the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Please understand that half conversion (if that is possible) and luke-warmness are not adequate antidotes to the wrath of God (see again verse 9).  If we are at all concerned with being right and repaired and ready before God, we MUST understand the high importance of our striving to be sanctified completely—“through and through” (see II Cor. 7:1) to the point that our entire “spirit, soul and body” are made and maintained BLAMELESS.  You and I will be wise to give these matters our most careful attention.
 
                “You can wash the windows—but you can’t make the sun shine.”