Insightful Musings on the Scripturesby
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 has followed, and an archive of all his daily devotional writings for 2010 and 2011.
| Daily Reading Guide | 2011 Devotion Archives | 2010 Devotion Archives |
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18 April 2011
Proverbs 18
Focus: “An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city, and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.” Proverbs 18:19.
Perhaps I will draw from the radio frequency ideas we touched on yesterday and say that I have tallied up enough experience in interpersonal relationships to make me RESONATE with these sound bytes of thought contained in the FOCUS VERSE. Here is an area that has caused me a good deal of grief and stress over the years. I hope I don’t surprise you too much—but I’m NOT perfect!—definitely not flawless! There have been times when I have offended someone—and after careful examination I’ve come to recognize that their being offended was legitimate. I was wrong, needed to confess, and ask forgiveness. But there have been times when I have caused offense, and even after plowing through the case up one side and down the other, I couldn’t make any sense of it. It was more like unnecessary trivial nonsense than anything worthy of conflict. In a few cases I came to conclude that the whole deal was based in some kind of subtle and strange psychological attempt to manipulate me and wield power and control over me.
I think I’m kind of on the sensitive side—wishing I could enjoy a good resonating relationship with just about everyone, and easily becoming distraught when things don’t play out that way. But, hey, Sparre!—get it straight!—you are really wishing for the impossible! NOT EVEN GOD CAN ACHIEVE THAT! (…at least, not while maintaining freedom of the human will.) Jesus wasn’t successful in this regard, nor was Paul, nor any other Biblical role model. So who do I think I am?
Here’s the deal as I see it: If someone you have offended will YIELD to love, acceptance, confession, forgiveness, and objective reasoning that is based in a balanced interpretation of God’s Word, the matter can be fixed. But if they are simply UNYIELDING with a white-knuckle grip on total justification and subjective reasoning, you need to recognize that you have an unfixable schism here that needs to be laid at the foot of the Cross—and then move on. There are more important things for you to do than hang around being chopped up in somebody’s meat grinder. I’m reminded of the quip that says, YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID! And there is no other way to describe some arguments!
But WHY should something like this even happen within the ranks of the Christian community?—among those who claim Biblical authority? The answer that comes to mind makes me want to dip back into my limited experience with radio. The amateur radio sets I used when I was a licensed operator in the islands all had two tuning dials for calibrating and tuning frequencies—I’ll call them the macro tune dial that moves quickly over the band, then the micro tune dial that allows precise fine tuning. The only thing I can figure is that some who claim to have their sets tuned to Biblical Christianity are not precisely fine-tuned to resonate with my fine tuning. You and I may as well accept that this is a never-ending difficulty while living on this planet.
“Two things at which a man should never be angry: what he can help, and what he cannot help.”