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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13 June 10
Greetings on this Sunday evening...a lot later than I would like.
Yes...it's been a pretty full day. As I was busy preparing for a
message this morning, Becki came into the room and said, "You're going
to love this bit of news--the pump is not working--we're out of
water." I imagined that I would only need to give some more attention
to the pressure switch...but it became clear that the pump was faulty.
So after church, we ran to Sears and bought a replacement. It was
later afternoon, following our Gospel Sing at Pheasant Pointe, that I
was finally able to get to the installation. We were able to restore
water service to the house about 8pm. Whew!
Once that was done,
I figured I would follow through with pumping out this devotional, but
alas!...that pump was out too...my new notebook computer has some kind
of virus glitch and it won't function. Had to type it twice. Oh
well. Such is real life.
Big day tomorrow too. So I need a big sleep. So I better
sign off and go do it. Good night. Blessings.
Love, Dad/Ray
13 June 2010
Passage: Luke 14:25-15:10
Focus: “Does he not…go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” Luke 15:4.
It is good to bear in mind the fundamental reason for God sending “His
only begotten Son.” John 3:16 says, in so many words, that mankind was
hopelessly LOST and doomed to “perish” apart from this remarkable
display of God’s love. Jesus says the same thing in different terms in
Luke 19:10 that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was
LOST.” The very sound of the word LOST has a chilling ring to it in
the Biblical sense. And it’s supposed to.
It is this LOST
condition of man that is the theme of Luke 15. Jesus presents this
using three different story pictures. First is the illustration of a
shepherd seeking and finding his LOST sheep. Then we are told of a
woman seeking and finding a LOST coin. Tomorrow’s reading presents the
illustration of a father being reconciled to a LOST son. In each case,
that which was LOST was something very valuable to the owner and
generated great rejoicing when found. Self-righteous Pharisees and
natural earthlings don’t seem to get the picture. But there is no
other way to legitimately interpret the main message here (that follows
through the entire body of scripture) that we all are valuable yet
hopelessly LOST without Jesus and the redeeming love of God.
If the LOST condition of mankind is truly at the center of the heart of
God, you can rest assured that it is His desire that it also be at the
center of the heart of all true members of the Family of God. Let’s
maintain our evangelistic perspective and be reminded that MEN WITHOUT
CHRIST ARE LOST…hopelessly and eternally. Let that basic New Testament
truth sink down deep into our worldview and saturate our vision. Don’t
let it evaporate. Because, “Were there is no vision (of this sort)
people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).
“Jesus came to save the lost, the last, and the least.”