Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones.

Once again, I hear the rain pelting the metal roof of the pole barn about 16 feet above me. I’m undecided about whether or not I want to do a jog in the rain.

My plate is definitely full. A huge pile of work awaits my attention.

I had a new experience on Saturday. After finally getting this old 5-yard dump truck running and checked out that I had in the care of a mechanic friend for a year and a half (still unable to resolve the need for the equivalent of a parking brake), I decided to do a run up to a nearby quarry and try picking up a load of gravel. I’ve never done that before. It worked fine. I dumped it in a mud-prone section of my drive way and spread it out with the skid steer. But I need to sell that truck. It’s just nice to know it functions OK.

Have a blessed day. Love, Dad/Ray.

This is a rhetorical question stated by Jesus in response to the appeal by the father with the demon-possessed son—“But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (v. 22).

I really like the illustration given us by the children’s color book exercise of connecting dots. I hope I don’t use it too much. But I believe that the Heavenly Father (with Jesus) is doing essentially the same thing with His children (disciples). He arranges a bunch of dots before us and expects us to intelligently connect them to form a bigger more comprehensive picture.

Let’s take a moment to review some of the lesson notes (dots) presented by Jesus via Mark so far. Are you paying attention? We clearly see Jesus as the Master over physical human bodies. That’s a glaring dot. Look how many He healed of sickness and disease. Jesus is proven to be the Master over demons. Notice how many evil spirits He has kicked out—one even by remote control (when He told the Syrophoenician woman to go home as the evil spirit had been evicted from her daughter). Jesus is shown to the Master over matter. Look how many thousands of people He fed with a little bit of nothing. Jesus is presented as the Master over physical laws. See Him walking on the sea, a feat that requires the transcendence of gravity and the normal instability of fluid. Jesus is the Master of the weather and the elements. At His command the storm died down to the comfort levels. Jesus is the Master of Spiritual power and anointing for ministry. See Him giving a special endowment to His disciples for a special ministry tour. But, perhaps the biggest dot of all, Jesus is presented as the Master over DEATH. He has already raised the dead girl to life. The capstone of this wonderful truth is His own resurrection from the dead yet to come. Wow! I must say, I really can’t think of any scripture more wonderful and exciting in the entire Bible than what Jesus states and proves in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Are you paying attention? Are you connecting dots? What kind of picture do you see forming?

There are lots of other trails of thought that lead out from this passage. Maybe we’ll let this one suffice for now. It seems to be an often-repeated theme. But that’s OK. Let’s be reminded again exactly Who we are serving and living to please. He is the Lord and Master of ALL. Let me repeat—ALL! However, just because He has all this power over everything does not mean you’ll never have to face the consequences of a fallen world here below—sickness, storms, sinking in water, demonic attacks, hunger, or physical death. But it does show Him as a mighty Savior Who has promised to never leave those who trust Him—all the way through time and eternity. And that’s GOOD NEWS indeed!