Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, good people.

I didn’t get the doctor appointment of yesterday in my calendar—so the phone call reminder of the day before took me by surprise. Since the message instructed me to be fasting, I figured it was just a routine blood draw. It was another surprise to learn it was my annual physical. Oh my! I was then instructed to strip all my clothes off—and she would be back in a few minutes. Yup—she. Our primary care physician is a she. She really is a fine lady. It’s just that I wasn’t equipped with the psychological preparedness to be all nude—alone—in the presence of another woman. I had to tell myself that there was no good reason to run. I submitted. The reward was to hear her say—I heard it with my own ears—without a hearing aid, “You’re about 10 times more fit than most men your age.” Whereas I feel so many age-related things working on me at present, that sure doesn’t speak well for most men my age. I don’t know—I think maybe what she was implying is, “Good for you—you’re not quite dead yet.”

We were able to get in our little WOG (walk/jog) routine this morning—without being rained on—or without a heart attack. Cool. Now to deal with the big pile of work.

Before signing off, allow me to quote a portion of our reading here from The Message translation. Becki read it to me—and I would like to have her read it to you too—1 John 2:15-17: “15 Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. 16 Practically everything that goes on in the world — wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important — has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. 17 The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out — but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity” (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

I’ve worked with various types of epoxy. It offers a wonderful form of modern covering and/or adhesive. And I think it offers a good illustration of what John is talking about here. As you know, almost all epoxy glues and resins come in two parts—the resin base and the catalyst or hardener. The easiest epoxy products to work with are those where the two parts are mixed in equal proportions (1 to 1). Of course, there is no value or permanence of one without the other. Only as they are mixed with each other in proper ratio do they form a strong and lasting bond.

Insofar as your personal salvation and permanent eternal life are concerned, your own life and strength, in and of themselves, are as weak and unstable as water. And even though God’s Word is eternally permanent (“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”—Matthew 24:35.), on its own it is also weak and unstable in making you personally and eternally permanent—unless you cooperate with the Maker to properly mix it into your life according to prescribed proportions (see Colossians 3:16). Jesus certainly did not speak idle words when He quoted, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). In other words, “A person’s eternal permanence is not established by means of physical processes or human effort, but by the intake of God’s Word and making its principles and precepts to be infused into every area of living.”

Listen again to what Peter has to say on the subject: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable (impermanent) seed, but of imperishable (permanent), through the living and enduring word of God. For, ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.’ And this is the word that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:22-25).

In view of all this, David is a terrific role model when he says, “I have hidden (mixed) your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (making me permanent)” (Psalm 119:11).