2007 picture of Ray Sparre

Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67


January 13, 2013

Hello, nice people.

If you are a generally nice person, I have to believe you have been shaped by non-natural influences. I just returned here to the studio from the house where two little boys are, on one hand cute, and on the other extremely ugly and perverse in their selfish jealous hurtful way of treating each other—demonstrating in Technicolor clarity the reality of their in-born SIN NATURE.

The same demonstration is glaring as I read these chapters in Genesis. About the only character in the script that responds properly to the magnetism of sin and sex is Joseph. Within these three chapters, please make Joseph your role model…and no one else!

We’re going to try to take in an early church service…so need to keep moving.

Blessings on your asking, seeking, and knocking.

Love, Dad/Ray.

13 January
Passage: Genesis 37-39
Focus: “The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.” Genesis 39:2.

After reading that perverse account in chapter 38 surrounding Judah and Tamar (which raises more questions than I can answer), this focus verse hits me with a burst of light and hope. Joseph was positively different than the rest. (A HEART AFTER GOD will always make one positively different.) And, as chapters 37 and 39 reveal, that positive difference came with a negative social price tag.

Question: Why did Joseph have A HEART AFTER GOD and his brothers did not? Is it not reasonable to believe they all had the same basic training? (—went to the same church?) Is it not reasonable to conclude that the big difference was a matter of personal choice? There you have it!—the bottom-line best answer to explain the difference. Most people are manipulated and controlled by the deceitfulness of their own SIN NATURE and choose not to be a seeker of God with an aim toward pleasing Him. But for those who choose to seek and please Him, the conditional promise of Jesus is proven true—“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

So, why was the LORD with Joseph? Because Joseph was with the LORD—by choice.


“The recognition of sin is the beginning of salvation.” ~ Martin Luther