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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13 June 11
Good morning, dear people.
Welcome to a new week! And to kick it off, we have a brand new day! Now what? We’ll soon find out! I’m making my list…but then typically forget to check it twice.
Becki is off to a doctor’s appointment. Kash and Thano and I talked for about a half hour. I guess I did some preaching. But I didn’t take an offering. Hey!—I should do that next time.
I need to keep moving forward. Blessings. Love. Dad/Ray
13 June 2011
Psalm 42
Focus: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:5.
Feelings are real—but they are not reliable monitors of reality. So learning to live according to what I KNOW rather than according to what I FEEL continues to be one of the most important and challenging pursuits of my life.
Psalm 42 commences a new section of the Psalms. It’s presented as “BOOK II.” David is no longer in the exclusive spotlight and now shares the stage with other song writers. Apparently multiple authors join to compose pieces like this one—identified as “the Sons of Korah”—whoever they were. (I wonder what the daughters of Korah did?) I don’t know who influenced who—whether the Sons of Korah influenced David, or David influenced the sons of Korah. Whatever the case may be, they are all on the same page insofar as A HEART AFTER GOD is concerned. I can’t imagine a better poetic description of this orientation than the first verse: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”
The author(s) grapples with the common conflict between what he KNOWS and what he FEELS. He KNOWS God is real, powerful, good, loving, and intervenes in the lives of those who seek Him, but he is perplexed with the fact that his unstable FEELINGS don’t line up. In so many words he reasons, “If God is so big and wonderful and good like I believe, why in the world am I so depressed?” I would guess that you too are quite familiar with that conflict.
Notice again that this is vital SELF TALK. He is talking to his own soul and prescribing some very good advice: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Once again, this has to be sound psycho-spiritual therapy.
Question: What kind of advice do you give you?
“If you could kick the person responsible for most of your problems, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for a month.”