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 Sept 10
            Greetings in the morning, dear people.
            Here goes another round of adventure!—today.  My list is way longer than my capacities.  I guess all I can do is give it my full capacity and see what happens.
            Be blessed…as you do your day.
                        In Him, love—Dad/Ray
 
22 September 2010
Passage: Colossians 2:6-23
Focus: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”  Colossians 2:8.
            Once again, we have a huge amount of inspirational material to process in this short reading.  For now the word “captive” captivates my attention.  Whether we like it or not, if Biblical revelation is TRUE, we all enter life as captives to “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”  That’s simply a natural consequence of THE FALL which deposits into the DNA of the entire human race a SIN NATURE.  The GOSPEL proclaims, however, that we are not required to remain in that condition—that we can respond positively to God’s gracious love Gift and be BORN AGAIN—transformed by the Divine Nature (John 1:12; 2 Peter 1:3-4).  And that’s why the GOSPEL is GOOD NEWS!
            Remember the incident early in Jesus’ ministry where the scroll of Isaiah was handed to him on a Sabbath with the expectation to read and comment?  Here is the passage He read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,(That’s us!) and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised…” (Luke 4:18, KJV).  Then He said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21, KJV).
            We could make a list a mile long (…at least a kilometer) of supportive scriptures.  I’ll just remind you of Jesus’ words in John 8:31 and 32: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
            Here’s how it works: MAN’S WORDS AND IDEAS PERPETUATE DECEPTION AND CAPTIVITY.  GOD’S WORD OFFERS TRUTH AND FREEDOM.
 
            “The more we read the Sacred pages, the more we know the Rock of Ages.”