Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, folks.

We decided to take in a mature Australian Shepherd. We did a run over to the coast near Lincoln City to meet him and his owners, and take him home. He did quite well all the way. He does have some quirks and behaviors I trust we can modify over time…hoping to teach an old dog new tricks. We took him on a leash for our morning WOG. He did well. He is a tennis-ball-chasing-freak…and really isn’t much in to giving them back…until he’s good and ready. One of the main things that caught our attention from his ad on Craigslist is “Outdoor dog.”

I trust you can see some prophetic handwriting on the walls of current events. Please be careful with getting caught up in the typical debates. The answers most definitely do not lie in better politics, better policies, better health care, better economy (better Welfare), better education, better laws, or better military.

Enough preaching for now. There are other urgent things to do. Lord, help us!

Love, Dad/Ray.

Relatively few in our culture will go so far as to put forth the arguments of a theoretical athiest and insist with arrogant dogma, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO GOD. Nevertheless, our land is filled with practical athiests—those who do not necessarily argue against God’s existence but conduct their lives as though there was no such Sovereign Holy God to Whom they are accountable. So which form of atheism is the worst? To be sure, both are forms of “evil,” but based on Jesus’ message to the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:15-16), I will have to judge the latter as the worst. I’m reminded of that provocative question that asks, “Which is the greater sin—to believe in a God who does not exist, or to disbelieve in a God Who does exist?” Practical athesists may even attend church regularly, quote “the Lord’s Prayer,” and spout, “God bless America!” But this lifestyle of superficial faith becomes so habitual that nothing, short of a special touch from the Spirit of God that affects deep personal spiritual revival, can ever alter the habit. And since they tend to become so caught up in the treadmill of living and never quite have time or take time to SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, that essential revival never happens.

It is difficult to isolate these pronouncements of God’s judgments to apply only to Israel, and not also to our own nation. Indeed, the founding of America was a “God thing” too. But her popular backsliding is on a par with that of Israel. So why would not her judgment be too? Would to God America could officially pray, “Although our sins testify against us, O LORD, do something for the sake of your name. For our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you” (14:7). Or how about this prayer: “We hoped for peace (hope and change) but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. O LORD, we acknowledge our wickedness and the guilt of our fathers; we have indeed sinned against you…No it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this” (14: 19-20, 22). Without this humble penitance, I fear that the following ugly oracle could be put into effect: “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague” (14:11-12). Notice that although these mediums of destruction could be called, “natural disasters,” the Hand of the Sovereign LORD is behind them. However it plays out, man’s stubbornness can reach a point at which God’s patience and grace play out.

So what’s the answer? You probably already know what I’m going to say—and you’re right—a personal HEART AFTER GOD. Anything less can make one “accustomed to doing evil.”