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  |
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

26 Nov 10
            Dear special people.
            It looks like I only have about 8 minutes left to say “Good morning.” Where did the time go?  There has be a lot to consume my time already this morning.  I have a lot more stuff waiting to consume more of it.
            We had a superlative Thanksgiving dinner at Andy and Delaine’s place in Dallas yesterday.  Now they are calling this day by a name that I haven’t even heard till recently—“Black Friday.”  That sounds kind of creepy.  But I guess it has to do with financial accounting of stores and business who are striving to push profits into “the black” before the end of the year.  Is that right?  Anyway, the stories I hear going out there…with all the greed, competition, and covetousness indicate to me that it tends to be BLACK in more ways than one.
            Even before getting to this point in this production, I’m being called to the lunch table for a terrific turkey sandwich.  Care to join us?  (Andy did an incredible job of smoke cooking that turkey!)
            Be blessed and thankful.  Love.  Dad/Ray
 
 
26 November 2010
Passage: John 18:28-19:16
Focus: “’Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’”  John 18:34.
            Pilate is forced into examining Jesus for himself.  (And everyone is, you know.)  So he puts to Jesus a question that seems appropriate to him at the time, with an attitude of arrogance, assuming that Jesus is just another “crackpot.”  “Are you the king of the Jews?” I believe Jesus’ answer is highly significant.  “’Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’”  In other words, “Are you thinking for yourself, Pilate, or are you just a puppet in the control of those around you?”  The big implication here, as I see it, is that God expects you to make independent use of your gift of human intelligence…and not permit it to be under the control and supervision of popular opinion.  Let me venture a bit further and add something else I believe—without being absolute or overly dogmatic about it.  It seems we can always come up with unique situations and exceptions.  But here is a general conclusion that I draw: THE PROPER USE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE WILL LEAD A PERSON, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, TO GOD.
            The angry Jewish mob is a great example of the improper use of human intelligence.  Their brain waves are so goofed up and congested with anger and bias that they can’t even come close to thinking straight. Notice the irony as revealed in this brief window of the account.  “By now it was early morning and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover” (8:28).    Did you catch that?  While being bound by their religious ceremony and formalism surrounding the Passover, they reject THE PASSOVER right in front of them!—and refuse to enter the palace for fear of defilement.  Good grief!  Irony of ironies!  But THE PASSOVER LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD is ushered right into the palace to meet with Pilate.
            Nor was Pilate using his head properly.  It says, “From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.  Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’  When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out…”—and you know how it goes.  Notice how easily Pilate was manipulated and controlled by the crowd’s bias and rhetoric.  He was definitely not functioning as a free moral agent—he was a bound immoral agent.
            May I suggest that you use your own HEART AFTER GOD (Spirit-inspired human intelligence) to seek out for yourself some devotional nutrition from this serving of the Word.  And remember the words of Jesus to Pilate when He declared, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (18:37). 
 
“Never be diverted from the truth by what you would like to believe.”