Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones.

Once again, here it is evening and I thought I had already sent this. I’m getting bad. I’ve spent the entire day putting together a 14-foot canoe…a promise I made a few months ago to grandson, Devyn. His 12th birthday is coming up too. The basic shell is together now. We’ll have to finish it another time. It’s time to take him back home to Dallas. That means bedtime will probably not be before 11pm.

Have a good night. Love, Dad/Ray.

I can identify with this account. I have gathered some experience of my own at being in storms at sea in small vessels. Not fun. And life can often become like that—a storm at sea. Not fun. I’ve had some experience there too. In those passages there may be the winds of adversity and trouble. There may be the waves of persecution and opposition. There may be the contrary current of opinion and peer pressure. There may be the lurching of confusion and disorientation. There may come the utter exhaustion of tending to relentless survival details and the weakness of insufficient emotional and spiritual nourishment. Amidst those circumstances of life, Paul’s advice stands as good as it ever was: “Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” About then, a little bald guy in the group piped up and hollered, “So what?! Who’s worried about hair at a time like this?!”

Oops! There goes my imagination again. I just made up the bald guy response. But I’m not making up the fact that your survival is not possible without nourishment—whether you think you have time for it or not. It’s not an option. And God’s Word is the perfect food source for soul and spirit—packed with all kinds of high-energy vitamins and nutrients when taken along with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. Once again, let’s recall the words of Jesus when He quotes, “Man shall not live by bread (physical food) alone, but by every word (spiritual food) that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Additionally, be reminded of the practical benefits of the Word as presented in Paul’s illustration in Ephesians 6. About that passage, someone has said, “With this application, you become a guaranteed victor. Without it, you become a guaranteed casualty.”