Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones, on still another cold beautiful morning.

I was wrong yesterday when I mentioned it looked overcast. It was simply too early for the sun to lighting up the place. It was actually clear all day yesterday.

I have a building project to knock out by the end of the week. It involves setting up a shed with some extensions. Hey…maybe I’ll also stick on a shot of that shed just to help you visualize.

OK…please have a nice day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

I have a pretty good hunch that our transition from time to eternity will carry with it some incredible revelations that we never could have dreamed of. There’s scriptural support for that hunch too (1 Corinthians 2:9). But for the time being, I think it is quite proper for us to dream, wonder, and contemplate some of the content of those revelations before we get there. This verse alone opens up a massive bank of questions, wonder, and marvel at the magnitude, wisdom, and omnipotence of Creator God. Think of it. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (11:3).

Hang for a moment on that word “visible.” God is invisible. The Bible defines Him as Spirit. If without Him there was not anything made that was made (John 1:3), does it not follow that everything is made out of God? A narrow-minded physicist would likely object and pass such an idea off as a bunch of #+@!! He might point out that “we are quite aware that all things are composed of atoms that are arranged in different configurations so as to determine the nature and quality of matter.” I know I’ve talked about this kind of thing before, but I think it is worth repeating—and it just makes a lot of sense to me that if we can recognize God as Author of the MICROCOSM (infinitely small, invisible), it’s easy to embrace Him as Author of the MACROCOSM (infinitely big, visible). I would like to reply, “Dear Mr. Physicist: How well do you really see atoms? And if you could see them clearly, can you tell me what in the world makes them stick together and work the way they do? What makes those little protons, neutrons, and electrons obit around the nucleus? Why is there even movement? What are those protons and their relatives made from? And do you think you could ever create even one atom?—out of nothing? Anyway, it seems to me that all you know are some characteristics of atoms rather than what really makes them exist.”

“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; 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). “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Before I sign off let me draw your attention to verse 13. It encompasses the 7 names of role models that have been mentioned so far in this “Faith Hall of Fame” (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah). “All these people were still living by faith when they died.” I choose to accept this standard as my personal priority job description—to do what I can to continue living by faith. I’m not dead yet—but it can’t be very far away.