Insightful Musings on the New Testamentby
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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28 Dec 10
Good morning, special people.
My fingers are on the keyboard, punching out these words, at 6:59am. It’s still pretty dark out this window. And my view of exactly how this day will unfold is still pretty dark. All I know is that if I listed everything out and measured my self-worth by how successful I was at achieving—I could get pretty depressed. So—I’m not going to view it that way. It’s a whole lot safer to make use of my transcending source of authority (the Word) and simply affirm, “This is the day the LORD hath made; we (I) will rejoice in it and be glad” (Psalm 118:24).
Keep looking up…if you know what I mean. That is our only source of real blessing.
Love, Dad/Ray
28 December 2010
Passage: Revelation 19:11-21
Focus: “With justice he judges and makes war.” Revelation 19:11.
A comment I heard recently from Dr. R. C. Sproul was to this effect: “Before you try to build a worldview, it is important to build a God-view.” The point is that if God is truly the Author and Sustainer of all things, then even the physical world around us must be viewed through a theological (metaphysical, God-view) lens. It makes good sense to me that if my perspective of this Author/Sustainer and His character are incorrect, so shall be my view of everything else.
I do believe that this passage in the form of symbolic and divine “show business” is very important in honing an accurate view of the REAL Jesus/God of the Bible. Without this kind of exposure, we may be tempted to think that the God of the Old Testament is far more harsh and demanding than the God of the New Testament—as though they are different Gods. But this passage helps to demonstrate a seamless and consistent flow between the two. Read it again and see how it compares with the gentle loving Jesus/God that many prefer to embrace—to the neglect, or even rejection, of His justice and anger against deliberate sin and rebellion.
I recently made reference to Psalm 111:10 (Christmas Day). It begins by stating, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” I don’t think I would do any injustice to that statement by rephrasing it this way: “The fear of the Lord (an accurate God-view) is the beginning of a sound and accurate Biblical worldview.”
“A good deal of trouble has been caused in the world by too much intelligence and too little wisdom.”