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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30 Oct 10
            Dear ones.
            Are we having fun yet?  We must be—‘cause time is flying.  It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of October.  Oh well, since I still have some skier left in me, I was inspired yesterday on a drive north to see big beautiful Mt. Hood all dressed  up in a clean new gown of fresh snow.  She was gorgeous.
            I have a major decision to make today.  It seems that we never break free of our need to lean on His “Everlasting Arms”…and from acknowledging Him in all our ways—so that He can be free to direct our paths.
            Be blessed today.
                        Love, Dad/Ray
 
30 October 2010
Passage: John 4:1-26
Focus; “Yet a time is coming and has now come…”  John 4:23.
            The debate over how, when, and where to worship seems to be quite alive and well today among those who are held as captives to religious formalism.  That issue comes up in this exchange between Jesus and the woman he encounters at the Samaritan well.  The woman is a bit shaken to learn that this man (Jesus) knows a lot more about her than she could have dreamed.  She says, “I can see that you are a prophet.  Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem” (4:19-20).  It would seem that she purposely shifts the attention of the conversation to this debate so as to side-step the discomfort she was suddenly feeling with too much attention being drawn to her personally.  Jesus responds, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…Yet A TIME IS COMING AND HAS NOW COME when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:21, 23-24).
            There seems to me to be only one way to understand these words of Jesus.  He is disclosing to this woman the great theme and objective of the Gospel, indeed of the New Testament—indeed of the entire Bible.  It is an internalization and individualization of the Kingdom of God.  I believe Jesus is stating, in so many words, that how, when, and where one worships is not so important.  That one DOES worship from a sincere heart (HEART AFTER GOD) through the mediation of Christ is very, VERY important
            I hope you will not tire of my repetition, but I think the central idea of Jesus’ words is pretty well summed up in the theme, “Christ in you, the hope of Glory” (Col. 1:27).  Think about it.
            You really don’t need a fancy new method for worship.  You don’t need to emphasize some special time.  You don’t need to run off to some special place.  Those are clearly vestiges of religion—religious formalism (superficial legalism).  What you need is to simply DO IT.  And, DO IT NOW.
 
“The word WORSHIP is a shortened form of the old word WORTHSHIP,
which means showing God the worth He holds in your life.”