2007 picture of Ray SparreInsightful 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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9 July 2010
Passage:  I Corinthians 2
Focus: “God’s secret wisdom.”  I Corinthians 2:7
               
It has become commonplace for banks, phone companies, and other organizations protect the privacy and the provision of valuable services for their members by equipping them with secret numbers that the member can use to access their personal accounts or special services.  In a sense, God protects the holiness and purity of His Kingdom and the wonderful services that He offers by equipping His people with a special personal measure of GOD’S SECRET WISDOM.  This special gift is imparted only to true believers whose spirits are activated and made alive by His Spirit.  So “the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (2:14).
                Let’s understand that the Kingdom of God is indeed a secret organization in the sense that it does not include everyone.  Its human members are exclusively those who have been born of the Spirit and continue to walk in the Spirit.  God did not design His Word for everyone, but only for those who choose to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).  So those unconverted who try to read and understand the scriptures are always plagued with the confusion of one who is reading someone else’s mail.  It is tremendously helpful to my understanding to recognize that God has given His Word, the Bible, as the practical medium of imparting His Spirit, which is the life of Christ.  I believe that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63).  He also confirmed that “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).  Peter declares that “you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (I Pet. 1:23).  Those who promote the doctrine that all men are eternal children of God and will enjoy a heavenly eternity are simply not reading their Bibles properly.
                It is a modern form of crime for some crooked people to find someone’s secret banking number for example, and steal from their account. Unfortunately, even though modern man has all kinds of clever technological ways of minimizing this kind of problem, they are still not perfect enough to stop all the crookedness and cleverness of men’s deceitful hearts.  So some accomplish this kind of crime undetected.  But let us understand that no such thing can happen within the true Kingdom of God.  There are many who try to use the name of “Jesus” or “Our Heavenly Father” as though they were true members of the Kingdom Company of God.  But their deceit is always recognized by the flawless knowledge and record system of the Omniscient God.  They try to make use of the God’s Kingdom services of blessing, protection, healing, prosperity, and salvation, but they are only playing a self-deceiving game and their eternal accounts are empty.
                Yet GOD’S SECRET WISDOM is wonderfully available to absolutely anyone who has a sincerely hungry and seeking heart after Him.  Please know it, use it, obey it, grow in it, and be eternally blessed by it.
 
                “David said, ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.’  What’s following you?”