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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25 Aug 10
            Greetings on this beautiful Wednesday morning.
            The sun is blazing now.  I guess I better get out there into it…and blaze away with my work load.
            Have a blessed day.
                        Love and prayers.  Dad/Ray
 
25 August 2010
Passage: Romans 14:1-15:4
Focus: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 14:17.
            There is obviously a huge spectrum of perspective, opinion, and bias within the Body of Christ.  In dealing with it all, we face a huge challenge. Sorting out all the differences between ESSENTIAL and NONESSENTIAL is not easy.  But the difficulty is minimized by our grasping and understanding the BOTTOM LINE ESSENTIALS of the Kingdom of God.  Paul clearly states them here for us.  Don’t let this get by you.  It can serve as a valuable filter for processing just about every conflict that arises within the Church.
            I’m going to attempt my own paraphrase of this verse: “Those who truly get to participate in the full benefits of God’s plans and purposes do so, not because of their great opinions and preferences, because of their Christian DOING, or even because they have developed a wonderfully accurate theology—but because of their Christian BEING—a HEART AFTER GOD that reveals itself in attitudes and behavior—the same way that the specie and quality of a tree is demonstrated and confirmed by its fruit.  The essential fruit of God’s Kingdom begins with RIGHTEOUSNESS (right relationship with God by loving Him, right relationship with others by loving them, right response to His Word by obeying and seeking).  This status will yield the accompanying benefits of PEACE (a calm of heart, truly trusting in the Sovereign Lord) and JOY (such an internal delight and excitement in the awesome privilege of this relationship that it permeates every part of one’s life and cannot be hidden).  These are not the products of shear human effort, but, in fact, results of the inner workings of God’s Holy Spirit.”
            May I suggest that, in personal and practical terms, you need give careful attention to your own paraphrase of this verse.  However you slice it, please accept it for what it claims to be—a BOTTOM LINE ESSENTIAL of the Kingdom of God.
 
            “The most fitting response to undeserved blessing is unreserved obedience.”