Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, my fine unfeathered fellow followers of the Father’s favor.

Try saying that fast five times…without anything in your mouth…otherwise you’ll have to do some cleanup.

There are rain clouds up there…but Becki and I have agreed to attempt a walk/jog in about 20 minutes. I’m noticing that my shoes are still wet inside from yesterday’s excursion in the rain. But I’m too lazy to change them now. And my ailing back is requiring more effort to do anything related to my shoes. Know what I mean?

I now have the City Manager’s signature on my copy of the contract for the mural frame at Fox Park…and she has mine. But I still don’t get any money for another week. In view of the time-line involved, I better not allow that to block progress. Whew!

Here goes another exciting episode to be recorded in our diaries. I hope you will be able to record some good stuff…blessed stuff.

Blessings on your day. Love, Dad/Ray

There is a huge amount of inspiration and guidance that can be gleaned from this passage. I could get carried away. But I’ll try to hold my “focus” to this one phrase. (I hope you read the passage.)

A very good place to draw some practical meaning from this idea of being “dressed ready for service” is Ephesians 6. That’s where Paul presents the required apparel of the Christian soldier. Even that metaphor is significant—meaning that we’re not only called to be sons and servants, but soldiers—meaning that there is warfare to wage—meaning the spiritual battle over the territory of the eternal souls of men. In review, those vital pieces of apparel to continually wear in the battle zone of life are truth (true thinking that flows from God’s Word), righteousness (right relationship with God), training (knowing what you believe and why), faith (believing God enough to obey Him), salvation (the composite result of all the above), and “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:10-18)—our only means of both defense and offense.

We could quote Psalm 119:105 to mix in some amplification of “your lamps burning.” It goes, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Without the illumination of His Word, we are indeed walking in the dark. But with it, being infilled and enlightened by it, we actually become a special kind of light in this dark world. Make no mistake about it. This is God’s intent for your role and function. In the process, you’re not going to “win them all,” but you can “let your little light shine.” Read again Matthew 5:13-16.

Do you see in this the all-encompassing importance of God’s Word? So why would we ever think we could fare well without its guidance and influence?