2007 picture of Ray Sparre

Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67



November 1, 2015

Good morning, dear people.

Becki and I just returned from our walk/jog up Short Fellows Road. We only met one vehicle on that road. It was the first time in months that Dandy was able to do a dunk in his favorite cool-off pool at the bottom of the hill. The rains have been heavy enough to reactivate the stream. It’s raining pretty serious right now.

IAfter reporting some of my heart rates and rhythms to my naturopathic doctor as I did last night, he now responds with some serious condemnation of my cardiologist who simply exclaimed at the end of my last visit, “Keep doing what you’re doing!” The naturopath says that with heart rates now in the 30s and 40s, that’s a stupid conclusion. I just paused to take my pulse sitting right here and monitored a very irregular 41. I guess the reality that drives these medical pros so loony is that I’m so irregular. Hmm—I suppose that could apply to about everything else I do—including the way I think. I made a comment like that to Becki. She said, “That’s very true.” Well, phooey—why stop now?! Question: What do you suppose is the standard for being REGULAR, NORMAL? Would that mean becoming just like you? Just asking.

Moving right along—let’s go to church!

Love, Dad/Ray.


01 November
John 5:1-30
Focus: "I tell you the truth…” John 5:19.

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I did a concordance check to find out the number of times that Jesus used these words, “I tell you the truth,” in the NIV translation of John. It turned up 25 times—3 in this chapter alone. Beyond that, I’ve taken time to study each word of that statement in the original language along with an English dictionary. After all that technical scrutiny, here is the best and most accurate rendering of what Jesus really means by that statement: I TELL YOU THE TRUTH. That’s it! All we need to do now is determine whether or not Jesus was telling the truth when He said, “I tell you the truth.” (Confession: I’m not really telling the truth when I said I did all that study and research. But it is true that I could if I really wanted.)

I’m going to proceed to do something non-typical. This will be longer than normal, but please bear with me. I’ve decided to list out those 25 verses below. If we truly believe that Jesus is TRUTH, I think it stands to reason that we could be benefitted and refreshed by considering those things that He particularly declares as TRUTH. I also think it would be a good exercise to go through the list and use your devotion notebook to write down the main idea of each entry as it applies to you personally.

“Infidelity (atheism and agnosticism) never wrote one line that is comforting on a death bed.”

PS: An objective point is worth making about all this: IF IT CAN BE ESTABLISHED THAT WHAT JESUS SAYS IS TRUE IS ACTUALLY NOT TRUE, THEN FORGET IT!—HE IS NOT WORTH ANY MORE OF YOUR TIME AND ATTENTION—HE IS A LIAR AND MASTER CON-ARTIST. It cannot be otherwise. Isn’t that TRUE? It’s part of the logical law of non-contradiction. I have to conclude it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. So, on the other hand, IF JESUS IS TRULY TRUTH AND THE BEARER THEREOF, THEN…you can finish the sentence yourself.