2007 picture of Ray Sparre

Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67


January 12, 2013

Good evening, dear ones.

My head is feeling like it’s closer to midnight than only 7:30pm. My mental computer is quite slow anyway…but it slows way below normal when I reach this point in the day.

Becki had her hands full with the little boys today. Thano worked at Safeway nearly all day…and I was away on a job. Before I could get this finished up I had to do some grandpa stuff—which included cutting out a paper snowflake, then some paper dolls.

Have a good night. I think I’d like one myself.

Love, Dad/Ray

12 January
Passage: Genesis 34-36
Focus: “There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.” Genesis 35:7.

Jesus’ declaration to the confused woman at the well in John 4:24 makes a lot of sense to me—“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” It stands to reason that if God were a physical being, as some imaginations insist, He would be limited by time and space and could not possibly do all He has done. He is SPIRIT with sovereign control over everything—both PHYSICAL and SPIRITUAL. May I draw this comparison?—GOD IS PRIMARILY SPIRIT WITH ALL PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES, while MAN IS PRIMARILY PHYSICAL WITH LIMITED SPIRITUAL CAPABILITIES (by God’s design). So true worship that nurtures A HEART AFTER GOD is not a PHYSICAL reality—it’s a heart-level SPIRITUAL disposition and passion that is well represented by Psalm 42:1—“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”

I’m happy to see evidence in the record that Jacob came to embrace a personal HEART AFTER GOD, but not so his goofed up sons and family members, at least not at this point in the record. Even Jacob’s faith runs the risk of being neutralized by the PHYSICAL aspects of his SPIRITUAL encounters with God whereby he was given special revelations. While it is appropriate to do whatever one can to mark and remember those special encounters, it is important to understand that the SPIRITUAL revelation itself is far more important than the PHYSICAL place where the revelation occurred. Confusing those priorities is to create religion. And the world has quite enough of that. To be sure, cold, empty, and lifeless religious form has never benefited anyone.


“The best evidence that the Bible is the inspired Word of God is to be found within its covers. It proves itself.” ~ Charles Hodge