Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings on this beautiful Oregon morning, dear ones.

I wanted to be out slaving away on this project by now. I have greater urgency to make progress than yesterday morning at this time. I came to face the ugly fact that I had made a terrible mistake in cutting the base of the last log post I created with the sawmill. That one little wrong cut caused me to end up with two posts that were exactly alike…when they need to be mirrored opposites. Phooey! Major setback. Most of the day was spent in scrambling to identify and cut another log. The first one I did proved to have too high of moisture content to safely accommodate the finish…so I did another. Whew!

One of the benefits of having a studio/office setting away from the house is that it allows me to make noise by myself without bothering anyone. Maybe something is wrong with me, but I think there is some value in praying and singing out loud…with freedom to emphasize loud. I made some noise this morning singing…”Down from His glory—ever living story—my God and Savior came, and Jesus was His name. Born in a manger, to His own a stranger—a Man of sorrow, tears, and agony. Oh how I love Him—how I adore Him—my breath my sunshine—my all in all! The Great Creator became my Savior, and all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him.” I guess I’m letting you eavesdrop. Wish we could make a choir out of it.

Blessings on your day. Keep seeking and singing.

Love, Dad/Ray

What?! Why would Jesus refuse to answer their straight-forward question? All this group of antagonists asked was “by what authority are you doing these things (miracles, teaching, etc.)? Who gave you this authority?” (19:2). Jesus could have taken this as an opportunity and launched into a spell-binding account of His pre-incarnation existence, His direct relationship with Father God, and expounded on the Divine plan for the redemption of mankind. But now that we know something of what Jesus knew all along, it would have been of no value whatsoever for Jesus to answer accurately. They were just that—antagonists—their mindset was solidified—so it didn’t matter what He said—they were antagonists!

The way Jesus responded to their question was by asking another: “Tell me, John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?” So why did they not answer His question clearly? It’s because Jesus knew their heart condition and nailed them at that heart level—and any answer would have been incriminating. Jesus knew all too well that the same attitudes of pride, control, and religious bondage that prevented their acceptance of John (“John the Baptist”) was the same set of attitudes that was preventing their acceptance of Him—the very Son of God—Sovereign God in human form (Colossians 2:9).

Here I go again, inserting the essential of A HEART AFTER GOD—a heart that honestly seeks TRUTH as authored by He Who Is TRUTH—a heart that cries out from the chaos and confusion of life on this planet—a heart with a soul thirst that says, “Oh God, if You are there, I want to know You, I want to please You, I want to worship You.” Without this vital ingredient, men are automatically made into antagonists against God and His plans—amounting to automatic confused losers. Without it, what difference does it make who thinks what, where, when, and why? In fact, why would it matter what is right or wrong, fact or fallacy, or anything else? With such a confused disposition of heart, all the accurate information in the world is of no more value than a boat without a bottom, a flashlight without batteries, an engine without fuel, a fish without water, or hunger without food! “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul (because he lacks A HEART AFTER GOD)?” (Mark 8:36).