Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones.

I see “Dandy” the dog out the window chasing a tennis ball that Thano has thrown. The little boys are here now too, and it’s good to see evidence that they like the dog and the dog likes them. Correction: I mentioned yesterday that this dog is an Australian Shepherd. But he’s a Border Collie. I’m not sure of the technical differences.

Yesterday I let him off the tether and he demonstrated no inclination whatever to run off. He stayed right by me all day…or lay outside our front door. So I was both surprised and concerned when I went out the front door this morning about 4am and there was no dog to be found. Nor was he on the back deck. But when I was back in the house fixing Becki’s tea, I heard something at the back door…and there he was. I think he made a bed of his own out under the back deck. I hope he can figure out at some point that he’s supposed to be guarding the chickens at night.

On with the day. Blessings on yours.

Love, Dad/Ray.

There is nothing more basic and important for fine-tuning a Biblical worldview than the two options presented here. The two FOCUS VERSES above put forth the POSITIVE option, and the two preceding verses present the NEGATIVE—which goes like this: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (17:5-6). It’s really quite straight-forward and simple—representing two heart-level dispositions and two lifestyle results—corresponding with two kingdoms and two ultimate destinies—all determined by two basic choices. Notice that both choices operate on the basis of TRUST—the NEGATIVE option TRUSTS in man, human strength, human schemes, and human opinions (man-made idols and ideologies) and faces the status of CURSED. The POSITIVE option TRUSTS in the LORD—His purposes, His provisions, and His promises, and faces the status of BLESSED. Question: With these two basic heart-level orientations of choice at large in our world, what do you suppose are the chances of mankind achieving peace and unity? I suggest ZERO.

Now consider the next two verses—“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve’” (17:9-10). God’s psycho-spiritual diagnosis of the human condition has to be the foremost cause for men rejecting a Biblical worldview—yet it is the foremost cause for God so loving “the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” This diagnosis flies in the face of modern psychology and popular opinion. For humans to give up believing that they are basically good when the Bible declares them basically bad—or to admit that they are SINNERS IN NEED OF A SAVIOR before a Sovereign Holy God—that whole angle looms as a very hard pill to swallow. But if our Maker’s Word is more authoritative than man’s opinions, their choice actually confirms the truth of His diagnosis—demonstrating the effectiveness of their own built-in deception that deceives them into believing that they are not deceived. Question: What are the chances that a person leaning on his own natural deceptive mindset will ever discover the POSITIVE option? I suggest ZERO—at least not without that person seeking and/or receiving divine illumination.

If it is true that the supernatural ever-present surveillance system of the Sovereign Holy God is constantly screening the HEART and MIND of every person 24/7, along with their resulting behavior, do you see why His premiere command is to love Him with all our HEART and MIND?—or why we keep returning to the supreme over-arching importance of a personal HEART AFTER GOD?