Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

One more day to wrap up this project. Hope I can pull it off. I think it’s under control. In view of that pressure, I guess I’ll leave off the jog again. Phooey.

I guess the little boys are going to be here through the weekend. Becki will have her hands full today as Thano goes to work early.

It sure would be easy to touch on a lot more themes and ideas than I did as gleaned from these four psalms. Soooo much to talk about! Oh well. I guess I’d still rather be taxed with too much than impaired by too little.

Blessings on your day

Love, Dad/Ray.

We recently read the account of Job’s testing. For a painfully long period of time he had it pretty tough. But let’s not allow ourselves to think that Job was some kind of special case—that few others would ever be tested by being made so miserable that they would be given to “WHY?” or “WHY ME?” questions—made to wonder about God’s goodness and be tempted to think that He had abandoned them—that maybe He was even mad at them. The fact is that every child of God must be subjected to some measure of the same struggle in order to develop the qualities that the Lord desires in His children—those that serve Him by choice. Abraham was tested. Jacob was tested. Joseph was tested. David was tested. Daniel was tested. Peter and Paul were tested. Think of it—even Jesus Christ, the very eternal Son of God, was tested. So what in the world would make us think we could some how skirt the required curriculum and be exempt?

Let’s get this straight (…because if we don’t we’ll get it crooked): GOD IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO REGULARLY BOLSTER YOUR FEELINGS—TO KEEP YOU FEELING GOOD ALL THE TIME. Feelings are a very unreliable standard to live by, so He has obligated Himself to give you TRUTH as a standard to live by—as a basis for developing His Kingdom priorities of FAITH and TRUST. Herein is the glaring value of God’s Word, the Bible—a special resource of Divine TRUTH. Therefore, please be governed by what you know, not by what you feel—and not by what you wish or hope God’s Word would sanction or endorse.

If you have read the New Testament account describing the crucifixion of Christ, the words of the FOCUS VERSE will have a familiar ring. The human side of Jesus suffered intensely on the cross and His human emotions followed for a time. He actually cried out with this quote from David—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Question: Did God really forsake Him? Of course not. That ugly scene was right on schedule—achieving the Sovereign Master Plan. Did God really forsake Abraham, Job, David, and the others, just because their up-beat feelings evaporated in the furnace of trial? Of course not.

Please learn lessons from the way these great men of God learned lessons.