Insightful Musings on the New Testament
by
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 is following, and an archive of all his daily devotional writings for 2010.

|  Daily Reading Guide  |  2010 Devotion Archives  |
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21 May 10
    Greetings, dear people.
    I only have 5 minutes left for saying "Good morning."  It's 11:55am.
    I need to get out and stir up dust...sawdust that is.  Why don't you come help me?
    Have a blessed day stirring up your own kind of dust.
        Love and prayers, Dad/Ray
 
21 May 2010
Passage:  Luke 5:1-16
Focus:  “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”  Luke 5:16
            If it is so well established that Jesus prioritized prayer, how much more should we?  We only need to be reminded that prayer is not so much something we say or do, but something we are.  It is a medium of fellowship, the outflow of relationship with God.
            I’ve decided here to just copy an excerpt out of my Full Life Study Bible, notes written by Donald Stamps.  “Luke stresses more than the other Gospel writers the place of prayer in the life and work of Jesus.  When the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at the Jordan, he was ‘praying’ (3:21); at times he withdrew from the multitudes ‘and prayed’ (5:16), and he ‘spent the night praying’ before choosing the twelve disciples (6:12).  He was ‘praying in private’ before he asked his disciples an important question (9:18); at his transfiguration he climbed the mountain ‘to pray’ (9:28); the actual transfiguration occurred while ‘he was praying’ (9:29); and he ‘was praying’ just before he taught the disciples the Lord’s Prayer (11:1).  In Gethsemane he ‘prayed more earnestly’ (22:44); on the cross he prayed for others (23:34); and the last words he uttered before his death were a prayer (23:46).  Luke also records that Jesus prayed after his resurrection (24:30).”
 
            “Prayer is the breath of the soul; without it you will turn blue.”