Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

We should be warned of spending much time listening to the news. And when we do, I think it’s safest to do so with a carefully maintained Biblical filter. Otherwise we run the risk of being duped in our regard for THINGS IMPORTANT. Very seldom does the news media lead us there. This is just an off-the-cuff impulsive comment.

Having said that, we are now ready to take on another day with all the choices and pressures it has to offer. Knowing who we are, Who’s we are, where we’ve come from, what we’re made of, why we’re here, and where we’re going sure helps. Sorry…I didn’t mean to keep preaching. But now for the offering…not really.

May your choices and actions be right in His sight today.

Love. Dad/Ray.

You’ve got to love these lepers. This wasn’t rocket science. It wasn’t a display of exceptional brilliance. It was just plain straight forward sound-minded logical objective reasoning. Would to God there were more people in our world who would choose to make intellectual role models of these four lepers. Don’t let their common sense wisdom get by you.

If your line of thinking is close to mine, you probably already know where I’m going with this. Maybe I’ll approach it by stating some obvious points and then try to link them up to their practical application.

1. PEOPLE IN THIS SETTING WERE FACING CERTAIN DEATH. This applied to both sick people (lepers) and well people (healthy). In parallel to today, one’s current health status or degree of happiness have absolutely no affect on the statistical fact of mortality. And no one can escape the universal siege of SIN and its certain results.
2. SURRENDER TO THE SUPERIOR POWER WAS THE ONLY OPTION THAT OFFERED ANY HOPE FOR SURVIVAL. While these men were only thinking in terms of temporary survival, it’s easy to draw a parallel to our own eternal survival. Is He not our ONE AND ONLY HOPE?!
3. DREAMING AND DISCUSSION CHANGE NOTHING—ACTION IS REQUIRED. These men had to put their ideologies into decisive action. In a technical sense, we too are saved by our action—by our work. Consider this exchange in John 6: “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent’” (John 6:28-29). So the work “God requires” is “to believe” (John 3:16)—believe enough to follow and obey. If Jesus calls it work, why shouldn’t we?
4. THEIR SOUND REASONING AND ACTION NOT ONLY LED THEM TO SOLUTION BUT TO A SENSE OF MISSION. It was just too good to keep only for themselves. It must be shared. “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves…Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace” (7:9). This conscientious reasoning also required action. They purposed to go to those they knew were ignorant, without hope, and dying, and they proclaimed the good news.

The famous entry in the 1949 personal journal of Jim Elliot back before his violent death in 1956 impacted me as a young person—and still does today. It’s more simple common sense reasoning. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” And the Spirit-inspired affect of that heart-level giving of our lives to our Maker, is a sense of mission—the realization that this is simply too good and too important to NOT share.

Please say, “Amen.”