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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13 Dec 10
            Good evening, special people.
            I can’t believe I’m still awake.  9:47pm is very late for me.  And it was a big busy day.  However, I did snag a little afternoon nap.  Maybe that’s it.  The day took off quite early and I never did get this devotional put together till now.
            Tomorrow morning I’ll try to include a photo of our creek…just to give you a glimpse of its raging status at present.  I can even hear it right now while inside the house.
            Time for bed.  Good night.  Blessings.
                        Love, Dad/Ray
 
13 December 2010
Passage: Revelation 5
Focus: “And they sang a new song...”  Revelation 5:9.
            There sure is a lot of singing and praising going on in this chapter.  Three songs by three different groups are recorded.  I don’t know if the first song causes the second song, and the second causes the third, but there is definitely a succession of expanding volume and intensity that reaches a mind-boggling crescendo in the third.  (1) The first song is presented by a comparatively small group of 24 elders, all playing heavenly guitars (harps) around the throne of God.  I sure wish I could buy one of their CDs. (2) The second song engages a huge number of angels.  They are described as “thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand,” all encircling the throne.  Just for the fun of it, I punched 3,000 into my calculator to represent the “thousands upon thousands,” then multiplied that by 10,000, and again by 10,000, making the angel choir to be roughly 300 billion.  That’s BIG!  Talk about a music extravaganza!  But wait—there’s more!  (3) The last song is bigger yet—engaging ALL CREATURES EVERYWHERE IN ALL TIME.  Awesome! As I consider the scope and magnitude of this dramatic finale, the words of Paul in Philippians 2:9-11 come to mind: “Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess (and sing) that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
            So what’s the cause for all this singing and praising?  I can only assume that these beings are experiencing a spontaneous combustion of divine revelations—making them to see and know more fully what we only see and know in part.  They all recognize the marvelous master plan of the Almighty that focuses on humans and their gracious redemption from sin and destruction by the substitutionary death and shed blood of the Lamb.
            The last verse of the chapter reads: “The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped” (v.14).  So, what are you going to do?
 
“When we recognize Jesus’ Kingship, we’ll give Him our worship.”