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.
| Sparre Home Page | Daily Reading Guide | 2011 Devotion Archives | 2010 Devotion Archives |
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31 May 11
Hello again, dear ones.
It was a late start this morning. I slept in till about 5:15am. Max, the dog, messed up my sleep—running around all over the place outside, just yipping and yipping and yipping and yipping and yipping (get the idea?), I suppose sensing that there was some kind of critter in the area. I finally shut him up in a travel kennel.
Last day of May…still it’s more like winter. Sounds like the ski conditions are pretty good on the mountain. Hmmm.
Hey…I just saw a beaver swimming up along the far shore of the creek.
May your day be blessed as you lean on Him.
Love, Dad/Ray
31 May 2011
Psalm 29
Focus: “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” Psalm 29:2.
You don’t have to wonder if David’s worship is authentic. I do wonder sometimes about the authenticity of some. David is so absolutely heated up and super-charged with emotion over the clarity of the revelation of the Almighty surrounding him—if he were forced to sit down and be quiet, I think he would explode like a hot water tank with a faulty thermostat and no pressure relief valve. Do you know something about what that’s like? Do you think that casual superficial believers without A HEART AFTER GOD are ever smitten with such a worship experience?
Within verses 3 to 9, I count seven times that the word “voice” appears—referring to the loud and dramatic “voice of the LORD” in the form of thunder and lightning. I’ve been there—so has Martin Luther, whose experience in a thunder and lightning storm prompted a major turning point in his faith (if I remember the story correctly). I have a hunch that God actually makes use of thunder and lightning, as well as cataclysmic disasters, to graciously get man’s attention, to help avert his tendency toward arrogance, to inspire man to humble himself and look up. Can you recognize the unrestrained inflation of pride that man develops when he really believes that he has the power to control the weather, the level of ocean water, the temperature of the planet, and the like? Instead of ascribing “to the LORD glory and strength” (v. 1), he ascribes it to himself, or to impersonal nature.
I’m reminded of the use of the word “voice” in Psalm 19. Speaking of the extravagance of God’s revelation in creation, David says, “There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:3). Here is an important point, as I see it—THE VOICE OF THE LORD IS BIG, BUT HIS COMMUNICATION IS SMALL AND SUBTLE—properly perceived and translated only by A HEART AFTER GOD.
Two songs flow through my mind as I give attention to this Psalm—The DOXOLOGY, and HOW BIG IS GOD? by Stuart Hamblin. Perhaps I will attempt to quote from my faulty memory the first verse and chorus of the latter.
“Though man may strive to go beyond the reef of space,
To crawl beyond the distant glimmering stars;
This world’s a room so small within my Master’s house,
The open sky, but a portion of His yard.
How big is God? How great and wide His vast domain!
To try to tell, these lips can only start!
He’s big enough to rule this mighty universe,
Yet small enough to live within my heart!”
Once again, Colossians 1:27 looms as a bottom-line New Testament formula for success and victory—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
“I look at the universe and I know there’s an architect.” - Jack Anderson