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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10 June 11
Good day, dear people.
It’s already been an interesting day. The work is challenging and I’m going in a bunch of directions at once. My limited multi-tasking abilities are being taxed. I’ve done some sawmill work, dropped a couple trees, all in the course of keeping Thano and Kash busy, plus engaged in a bit of “preaching,” counseling a fellow that happened in with a lot of difficult burdens in his life. You don’t have to look far to find human needs, for sure.
I’m still trying to find some time to get the garden planted…plus a lot of other domestic projects.
Blessings on your day…as you maintain Jesus as LORD.
Love, Dad/Ray
10 June 2011
Psalm 39
Focus: “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.” Psalm 39:4.
What if you were filling out some application and you were startled to come onto a question that asked, “What age will you be when you die?” What would you put down?
Many years ago when I was leading a Sunday School class where we were dealing with an overview of cult religions, I took the initiative to visit a “spiritualist” lady in the community just to ask some questions and glean some first-hand information as to what they were all about. She explained that they were serving as “spiritual healers”—that they had ways of consulting a large number of deceased professional people from “the other side” who were happy to pass on their knowledge and skills back to this side in regards to diagnosing and treating all manner of ailments and diseases. Interesting.
As is the case with so many of these little compositions, I seldom know exactly where I’m going when I begin. Whereas I started down this trail, I think it could be appropriate to carry on a bit further because I think the general topic is important to take on. I want to reiterate my Biblical worldview perspective that there are only TWO KINGDOMS out there. So when these ladies engage in consultation with the spirits of those deceased professional people, is it true? Are those spirits truly who they claim to be? And which kingdom is being entered with this kind of activity? My view is NO—they are not who they claim. They are lying spirits within the kingdom of Satan who is described in Scripture as the arch deceiver—a “liar and the father of lies” (Matthew 8:44). The highly developed art and craft of that kingdom is DECEPTION aimed at DESTRUCTION. My own opinion is that the camp of EVIL has a lot of fun with this kind of charade—freaking humans out and distracting them away from God by displaying physical phenomena and “twilight zone” stuff that eludes objective scientific verification, including things like UFOs, “Sasquatch,” and ghosts. But back to the “spiritual healer” people, how can we explain people being physically helped and healed by such means? I can’t argue that such benefits are rendered, but I believe there are sinister spiritual strings attached that the gullible do not see. For a very good handling of this from a Biblical perspective, I recommend you read “THE BEAUTIFUL SIDE OF EVIL” by Johanna Michaelson.
Anyway, I don’t remember a lot about my interview with that lady. But I do remember that she put forth a kind of strange prophecy over me. She said something to the effect that she felt impressed to tell me that I was basically a good boy and that if I would follow along this path of goodness I would live to the ripe old age of 82. So do I believe that to be a valid prediction? Nope! I have no idea what my age will be when I die—except that it will have to be above 67. There is no Biblical evidence that God chooses to foretell the death ages of people. If I banked on a number like that, given my natural propensity to sin, I might concoct some stupid plan to live like hell until I’m 81 ≤!
I judge that God’s Word does a very good job at telling me “how fleeting is my life.” It’s fleeting in relation to what? Eternity. I simply choose to do a good job (at least my best) at configuring my life and values by that standard.
The high point of this psalm, as I see it, is in verse 7: “But now, LORD, what do I look for? (That is, what is my priority pursuit?) My hope is in you.” I tell you what, if my hope is not in Him, it’s hopeless!
“Life is like a well—the deeper you go in God, the more life you will find.”