Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

The day is definitely under way. The two little boys arrived at 5:30am again. They just walked out to the highway with me, about 200 yards from the house, to deposit the trash and recycle bins there for pickup. They carried the toy wooden rifles I made for them…to protect me from the man-eating tigers. All that protection was welcome…and I wasn’t eaten.

No telling where this day will go. I know where I need to begin, but for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…then I’ll figure out how to formulate my reaction to that reaction…and things will take shape from there. So now you know exactly what I’m doing today.

As you do your acting and reacting today, try to make sure you do it with A HEART AFTER GOD.

Love, Dad/Ray.

It had to be remarkable to behold Jesus performing miraculous healings of those who were obviously sick and physically impaired. It was particularly dramatic to see this paralyzed guy lowered into the crowded room by his friends from an opening they made in the roof. That act of urgency and faith was wonderfully rewarded and the paralyzed person went home walking on his own strong legs. It is no surprise that those gathered there would have been “filled with awe and said, ‘we have seen remarkable things today.’”

However, let’s be reminded that just seeing remarkable things doesn’t save anyone by itself. Observing the power of God does not necessarily align one with God. Seeing is not necessarily believing. In fact, just because one sees, does not ensure that one sees adequately or correctly. I am sure that there were present on this occasion those discerning souls who recognized Jesus’ forgiveness of sins and His healing power as profound evidences of his divinity and Messiahship. But there were others who judged what they saw and heard as acts of blasphemy. Same event—different conclusions.

It all goes together to confirm in my mind a basic thesis that I have held for a long time—a concept that you will see me often repeating in these devotional missives—and one I have not yet found any substantial evidence against: THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGULAR INGREDIENT IN YOUR LIFE IS A HEART AFTER GOD—a heart that sincerely seeks to know God, to love Him, to please Him, and to serve Him—a heart that is willing to lay aside self-righteousness and preconceived ideas in quest of that high objective (Philippians 3:7-11). With that heart condition, everything one needs will fall into place according to God’s sovereign grace and provision (Matthew 6:33). But without it, all those great experiences, even those “divine encounters,” all the miracles, all the healings, all the great meetings, all the ministry achievements, all the wonderful sermons, all the impressive memories, all the conviction, all those prayers “to receive Christ,” and all the ecstatic displays around church altars—they don’t really amount to a hill of beans.