Insightful Musings on the Scripturesby
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 has followed, and an archive of all his daily devotional writings for 2010 and 2011.
| Daily Reading Guide | 2011 Devotion Archives | 2010 Devotion Archives |
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7 Feb 11
Greetings, dear people.
Cloudy, windy, about 45 degrees. I’m really not a meteorologist, but there’s our present weather report. It would be nice if we could get some outside work done without rain…but we’ll take it as it comes. So what, if I don’t like it? I’m just a weather reporter, not a weather controller.
There are certainly some things we are responsible to control. I trust you have a pretty good idea as to what they are. That knowledge offers your only hope for blessing. So get out there and control the things you can and should—and don’t worry about what you can’t. How’s that from a wise old sage that has as much trouble following that advice as anyone?
Blessings.
Love, Dad/Ray
7 February 2011
Proverbs 7
Focus: “Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!” Proverbs 7:18.
I bring up this matter of sex again—not because it’s my favorite topic of discussion—but because we cannot avoid the fact that this is the primary theme again of this chapter. And, from the father/author’s perspective, it is for good reason that he be repetitious. After all, this being one of the most powerful drives known to mankind, it also presents one of the most powerful and common causes for damage and failure known to mankind. The father/author knows this full well and wants to do everything he can to help his son (children) live above the deception and destruction that wrong choices WILL cause.
It is of particular importance to note how this “adulteress/wayward wife” distorts and twists the word LOVE. In this hypothetical scene, her seducing rhetoric goes, “Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!” But this is NOT LOVE—not in the truest, healthiest, most Biblical use of the word. It is perversion because it puts “the cart before the horse” insofar as God’s design and prescription is concerned for human behavior. This perverse display of LOVE begins in the emotional/physical and pulls wrong choices into action, leaving a deposit guilt. God’s standard for LOVE, however, is that it begins in the will (at least uses wise choices to set boundaries) and pulls the emotional/physical into action, leaving a deposit of fulfillment.
I realize that this kind of perspective would cause me to be judged by many as some kind of whacked ridiculous prude. But that’s OK—like, what else is new? God’s prescription for SUCCESS has always been in conflict with the NATURAL SIN NATURE—which governs “the world.”
Be assured that the same kind of perversion demonstrated by the “adulteress/wayward wife” is with us today—BIG TIME. And our youth desperately need to understand the Biblical meaning and concept of LOVE in order to avoid impulsive stupid choices that render them guaranteed casualties.
So please help your youth to get it straight! Help them to seek God, trust God, and understand that their HEAVENLY REWARD is so incredibly wonderful and beyond their wildest imagination that this very thing they are most passionately attracted to won’t even be there! (See Matthew 22:29-32)
“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” - Henry Drummond