Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

Becki and I just returned from our walk/jog. We awoke to the sound of some dripping of water hitting our nearby bathroom skylight. Sure enough…there was a drizzling rain…even though I had heard that the weather would remain dry. Kind of like closing the gate after the cow gets out, I went out and moved the pickup truck into the carport…as I have a lot of tools in the back that I would prefer not to get wet. Oh well.

I hope to shift my work attention back to an unfinished milling job about 15 miles away. That will call for at least two days to finish up. So what’s on your agenda today.

Whatever you do, do it with a heart subservient to our Sovereign Administration (…seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness).

Love, Dad/Ray.

I sure don’t have to look far to find mysteries—things I know are real, but are way beyond my comprehension as to HOW and WHY they are real. Take something so commonplace as life itself, for example. Does anyone really understand fully HOW a mixture of water and rock (minerals…you know, like “the dust of the earth”) can be infused with this mysterious something-or-other that makes it live? This reality is so incredibly mysterious that “smarty pants” scientists CANNOT reproduce on purpose, try as they will, what they claim “nature” has produced by accident! It adds support to my conclusion that the core of what we call NATURAL is, in fact, SUPERNATURAL. And WHY anyone would choose (I think it really does boil down to a choice) to not recognize this fact is a mystery in itself!

Let me hassle your thinking further by asking you (or anyone, for that matter) WHY and HOW the atom works? Science has helped us to understand a little—that electrons, protons, and neutrons orbit a nucleus—but HOW and WHY? What makes it work? There has to be something going on there that transcends physicality.

May I suggest that the best beginning point for answering these kinds of questions is tucked away in our “FOCUS” verse of yesterday: “…all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17)? And do you remember that just before that verse, we read, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…” (1:16)? So may I also suggest that we are touching on a CORE FACT of the tangible visible world around us—that it is, in TRUTH, the very intangible invisible SPIRIT OF GOD (Christ) that makes it all HOLD TOGETHER!? There is no way we can absolutely prove this FACT scientifically—but HOW CAN IT BE OTHERWISE?!

Can you see where I’m going with this? You don’t have to fully understand the mystery of life in order to be alive. You don’t have to fully understand the mystery of atoms to be made of them and participate with them. And you don’t have to fully understand the mystery of being spiritually “born again” and being filled with a measure of the Spirit of Christ in order to participate in this wonderful and essential provision by an awesome loving God! The important thing to know is that IT WORKS? Paul testifies that this real spiritual “energy” of Christ “powerfully works in me” (1:29).

Please, by all means, let us respond the RIGHT way to “this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It’s our ONLY HOPE!