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 |
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4 June 11
Greetings on a beautiful Oregon morning, dear people.
I was pretty happy with the fact that Becki joined me on my jog this morning. I kind of jog in place or in circles and she walked. Many months have passed since she did that. It sure was a gorgeous morning to do it in. Then when we returned, it was so nice and pleasant out, we did our breakfast on the deck beside the creek. I’m sure the warm weather is melting the mountain snow pack quickly and the creek is a serious flow. I even took this notebook computer down onto the deck after breakfast and worked more on this composition. People pay good money to sit in such a superlative setting.
With this dryer weather, it’s time to till the garden patch…so I’m going out now to give attention to the rototiller and get it running. Lots of work to do.
Keep your connections clean and tight. Have a great day.
Love, Dad/Ray
4 June 2011
Psalm 33
Focus: “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:22.
An illustration that I’ve used many times over the years helps to clarify the concept of effective godliness (victorious Christian living). I’m borrowing from the principles of electric energy—DC (direct current). Imagine a power source—like a car battery. As you know, there is a positive terminal and a negative terminal, with electrical energy flowing only in a circuit from the positive side to the negative side—perhaps we could regard it as flowing from the superior side to the inferior side. Pretend that we want to apply power to a light bulb—how is it done? You’ll notice that there are also two contact points on the base of the bulb. First join a wire from the positive terminal to one contact on the bulb. Does it light up? Nope. Just for the sake of experimentation, disconnect that wire and join another wire from the negative side of the battery to a contact on the bulb. Does it light? Of course not. Now do it right—join the two wires to the two contacts on the bulb. Bingo! Light! It works! By working in harmony with unseen forces a seen result is achieved! Amazing!
It’s easy to see how this reality can be applied. If we understand that God is the source of all power for making the appliance of human life work right according to His design, then the illustration fits nicely. Jesus is the positive terminal, since no one get’s connected with the Father except through Him. To be sure, the wire of God’s “unfailing love” through Christ remains always connected. Now if He wanted, He could light up your life independent of any responses from you. That would be more like absolute “unconditional love.” As I see it, there is an important distinction between God’s “unfailing love” and the idea of “unconditional love.” He insists on a dual-wire circuit for the release of His power—a sacred partnership. In other words, you have to connect your wire—that’s the condition—your side of the circuit—in order to get the benefit of His power. And it must be done by His rules on his terms—it’s not “unconditional.”
The FOCUS VERSE prompted my thoughts along this track. I’m thinking of God’s “unfailing love” as the power source with a wire always connecting to whatever our need may be. We actually connect our wire on our side of the circuit when we “put our hope in you (God).” Bingo! Lights come on! Things previously unseen come into view. It’s the only safe way to power up one’s life.
For reasons that can only be accounted for by the deceitfulness of sin, man, in general, seems to have a perpetual blindness or resistance to this option—and continually seeks to connect his wire to other things in hopes of finding fulfillment and lighting up his life—pleasure, fame, education, power, wealth, booze, drugs, etc. But it’s all void of hope—or hopeless.
According to my/our Biblical worldview, there is no other hope.
“Everyone must carry his own sack to the mill.” - Italian proverb