Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones.

It’s a warm late afternoon. I’m here alone at present. Becki and our granddaughter, Joanna, with her friend, Emily, will be returning soon after their run down to OSU to check out the college there. These girls are college shopping. In view of their being away for the day, Becki only read half my composition, so I’m sending this along without her full endorsement. I doubt she will complain.

Incidentally, Bimbo ran off yesterday afternoon and hasn’t been found since…at least not by us. Oh well.

There’s still a lot of non-crossed-off items on my list for the day. Blessings.

Love, Dad/Ray.

My memory of Laury Dewar presents him as a role model of a HEART AFTER GOD who served the Lord by simple service to others. He was from New Zealand. He was 84 years old in 1997 when we first met him. We would often see him riding his bicycle around Luganville (on the island of Santo, Vanuatu) when he came down from a mountain village where he stayed and helped people—a remote setting that required a two-hour hike to reach. He wasn’t a missionary in the preaching and teaching sense, but he definitely was that in the sharing, representing, and serving sense. He also offered assistance to his missionary daughter, Dorothy, who lived in Vanuatu for many years, working extensively in Bible translation. I mention him here in connection with David’s prayer contained in the FOCUS VERSE.

Whenever Laury and I would engage in conversation on the level of our mutual faith, he would spontaneously include a recollection of his conversion to Christ—a dramatic change from being a foul-mouth sinner. If no one else was surprised at the dramatic change, he was—even though he didn’t notice a profound piece of evidence right away. And the main evidence that eventually grabbed his own attention was, “Hey—I’m not cussing anymore!”

I confess to seeing a measure of potential danger attached to the FOCUS VERSE. I will not argue that David’s prayer is bad, it’s just that it can be easily misunderstood or misconstrued to delegate back to God the responsibility to keep one’s mouth clean. I believe the Lord would have me know that when garbage comes out of my mouth, it’s not really a mouth problem, but a heart problem. He would have me know that He is not going to block me from saying what I want to say. However, if I will seek Him, His rule, and His Word (as David demonstrates in 142:1-2 and 143:4), then His Spirit within has ways modifying what I want to say—cleaning up the garbage on the inside so that verbal garbage is prevented from leaking to the outside through that unruly hole in my head. Jesus affirmed, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

This truth is what Laury’s testimony demonstrates to me. It’s a lesson in cause and affect. It’s a lesson in balance. It’s a lesson that assigns responsibility where responsibility is due. It’s a lesson that puts first things first—supporting the fact that the top command is not, “Don’t cuss”—or, “Don’t be bound by any other habitual sin.” The top command is to LOVE GOD at heart level—a HEART AFTER GOD. It’s a command that allows for the Spirit’s internal cleansing. Therein is our only real solution for a dirty mouth—or a dirty anything else.