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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19 Oct 10
            Greetings in the morning, dear people.
            It looks like another beauty in the making—cold and clear.  It’s sure to warm up soon.
            It was about dark last evening that Thano and I finished up the sawmilling order for a customer building a big new home—calling for a package of big posts and beams—12x12s, 10x10s, etc.  Today is off to clean-up and new challenges.
            While you do your day, please stay “in the secret place of The Most High.”
                        Love, Dad/Ray
 
19 October 2010
Passage: 1 Timothy 5
Focus: “I charge you…to keep these instructions without partiality…” 1 Timothy 5:21.
            There are times, more than others, when I see clearly the parallel God’s Word makes between men and sheep.  Both are kind of dumb.  Both are weak.  Both tend to wander off and follow their own simple minds. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).  Jesus saw the picture clearly. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).  I have a hunch that you and I could easily have been in those crowds.  Peter says this: “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).
            Question: How does this Shepherd of our souls do this shepherding work?  For one thing, He imparts His Spirit that enlightens and guides the hearts and minds of those who are sensitive and seeking.  And a large part of it is a matter of our listening (“My sheep listen to my voice…”) and keeping them (“…and they follow me.”  John 10:27).
            I don’t know about you, but I am amazed at how much education I have received over the years, how many great and edifying sermons I have heard, how many seminars and conferences I have attended, how much experience I have gleaned—and yet this heart of mine, if given too much freedom, still tends to stray and wander off course.  There is only one solution as I see it.  And there is hardly a substitute for this solution.  The solution takes in the matter we addressed yesterday—PERSONAL DAILY DEVOTIONS.  It is not enough to hear instructions.  Until they become firm habits, they must be constantly re-heard, reviewed, re-thought, and re-applied in order to maintain personal REVIVAL.  It is simply our natural disposition as being people who are LIKE sheep.  And that’s what PERSONAL DAILY DEVOTIONS is designed to deal with and achieve—an ongoing commitment to “keep these instructions without partiality.”  It requires staying close to the Shepherd.
 
“Where will you be and what will you be doing 10 years from now
IF you keep on doing what you’re doing now?”