Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear people.

We picked nearly 2.5 pounds of blackberries in fairly short order this morning before returning home from our WOG. I just wiped out the last of our most recent blackberry cobbler, so I’m hoping another one is forthcoming.

I’m looking at a white panel van out this window. Before the day is out, I need to get it all decked out with fresh graphics to feature this guy’s flooring business. Another guy just called, wanting to pick up his special order of lumber. It’s ready to go. Good. This is all part of fund-raising…for a very good cause…our survival.

Blessings on your day and whatever it contains.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Here is another one of those cryptic rhetorical questions where the author puts forth a question, but offers no answer. Allow me to put forth an answer: Those who are given sufficient divine illumination so as to believe the message of the Biblical Gospel are exclusively people with a HEART AFTER GOD—those who have become or are becoming members of the family of God. This contrasting distinction of people is reflected in the words of Paul when he observes, “For the message of the cross (the Biblical Gospel) is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Bear in mind that the “born again” experience is not so much an event as it is a process.

There have been times that I’ve been tempted to complain to the LORD, “Why didn’t you have your Word written in such a clear and plain way that there would be no confusion whatsoever about what is being said?” But now I am more inclined to applaud His brilliance at having it written the way it is—a way that requires seeking God and being activated and illuminated by His Spirit, so that only family members (or those becoming) will be able to grasp what is being said. That’s the essential idea of John’s message when he says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). Family!

Imagine walking along a sidewalk and notice a folded piece of paper that someone dropped. You pick it up and begin to read, realizing it is a personal letter addressed to a family member telling all about family members and activities. Although you can read the words written in a language you know, there is much that is unknown simply because you are unfamiliar with this particular family. You don’t have a clue as to who “Aunt Hazel” is, or “Uncle Carl,” or what “caused Harriet to die so suddenly,” and you can’t really visualize catching “catfish from the pond behind Bertha’s barn.” You have an understandable problem with trying to understand someone else’s mail.

Let’s recall the Ethiopian eunuch as described in Acts 8. At the point of Philip intercepting him as a marathon runner, the Ethiopian was clearly a seeker, but not yet “born of the Spirit.” His seeking, however, caused him to be led by God to this specific intersection, giving him enlightened opportunity for the vital experience of rebirth. Up to that point, his reading of Isaiah 53 was like reading someone else’s mail. But now—oh the change! Now he saw! Now he understood! Now he was family! Praise God! “The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Matthew 21:42).

Please take time, as a good family member, to read again the Isaiah 53 portion of God’s family letter.