Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good afternoon, dear ones.

It is definitely a summer day. I just set up the little boys outside to play with the hose and some blaster squirt guns. Now Thano has to run off to work.

I gained an early start on the challenge I faced. And it paid off. I was just zinging in the last screw for the installation of the mural frame when I received a call from the cement company. They were ready to deliver at about 11:30am rather than 2pm. Fortunately, I was ready to receive. So the basic installation was done about 1pm. Due to that early start I’m doing a later dispatch of this devotional than normal.

I may attempt to apply finish to the frame later today. But I really need to get moving on fabricating the roof frame that I’ve designed to set in place atop this structure as a one-piece.

Blessings on the rest of your day. Love, Dad/Ray

The hearts and minds of all those Jewish legalists who condemned Jesus to death were obviously blind to what they were initiating. The irony of it all is overwhelming—and disturbing. Here they were very familiar with the whole system of sacrificing innocent animals for the sins of guilty humans based on the Scriptural principle that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22), but their cold religious bondage left them with no clue that they were transacting the premiere once-for-all fulfillment of that very tradition—sacrificing the very “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Question: Was Jesus telling the truth when he said, “I tell you the truth?” I believe He was. And if your answer is YES, and you personally embrace the finished work of “the Lamb of God,” be reminded of your own wonderful future. I have every reason to believe that you too will make that same transfer to “paradise” when you pass through the door of death. There’s nothing gloomy about that prospect.

This is not to say that I know very much about life after death. I’ve never died before. But I have become absolutely convinced that there is such a thing—life after death. Neither do I claim to understand all that goes on between the Holy God and a sinful man that allows that condemned sinner to so drastically change his heart, his course, and his destiny—and qualify him for ETERNAL LIFE. All I know is that it can and does happen in response to humble seeking, confession, and repentance. And it happened to this condemned criminal, not while kneeling at an altar in some church or evangelistic campaign, but while hanging on a cross and opening his heart to Jesus. Ponder that fact.