Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear people.

It’s quite a nice over-cast Spring-like morning at about 50 degrees. Becki and I did our walk/jog routine earlier…with the dog. He’s doing pretty good.

Let’s see…I think that about first on my list will to get some registration numbers applied to a friend’s new log truck. Then I have some lumber handling and sawmill work to do…hoping the rain holds off. I also have some other urgent sign work on the list. I need to keep moving. I guess I should be thankful that I can move.

Blessings on you and your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

There are things presented in and through this Biblical record that are difficult to understand. I have no problem admitting that. There are questions that arise not only over what is said, but over things not said—questions relating to WHY and HOW things are presented, determined, and allowed the way they are. Some readers will become so distraught over these questions that they “throw the baby out with the bath” and totally abandon SEEKING a transcendent God—then turn around and embrace themselves as the most qualified replacement. In grappling with this kind of thing, I have never found a more relevant and supportive capsule of Scripture to feed my struggling mind than the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 29:29—“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” I choose to accept that the LORD is under no obligation to reveal EVERYTHING to me. I choose to accept that I grossly lack the capacity to know EVERYTHING. I also choose to accept that God’s OMNISCIENCE way beyond my limitations is one of the essential qualities that makes God GOD.

OK—lots of stuff I don’t know or understand—“secrets”—but there is one thing that I get—“revealed” with increasing crystal clarity—the essential of a HEART AFTER GOD. In fact that attitude of heart and soul boils down to THE ONLY OPTION! It’s the ONLY one because if it is not chosen, the other one is automated. This is precisely what Moses is repeating over and over before all Israel before he takes his leave—it seems he’s shouting like an over-heated preacher. “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him” (29:19-20).

Here’s a very good question for everyone I know—in fact it’s a good one for everyone I don’t know: What are you going to do with this information?