Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello, dear ones.

It’s fairly warm, clear, and windy out there at present. Not sure how much time I’ll spend out there. I want to try to follow through with machining out a run of cedar tongue and groove paneling, some of which to be used on a wall in our family room.

The little boys are here. I think they’re still out in the mill shed playing in the fresh pile of sawdust from yesterday’s 4-hour mill job where I sliced up 11 fir logs—not cedar as I indicated yesterday.

I was feeling some waves of nostalgia in the house while looking after the boys during the time Becki was doing her shower routine. Thano had been called early to work at Safeway. Becki had put into one of the TVs a VHS tape of some of our time in the Solomon Islands back in 1991. What a chapter of adventure that was. I videotaped the trip aboard a landing craft called the Saikile where we moved all our goods from Honiara to the Western Province to set up house and home at Noro on the island of New Georgia. The scene that really got my blood pumping was watching my friend Sikwauta and the crew aboard that ship excitedly pulling in a beautiful 25-pound yellow fin tuna using a handline I provided. Everyone on board had a good meal out of that. I tend to chalk that up as a “precious memory.” Man—I have a bunch of them!

We’re about to find out how memorable today will be.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Lots of questions arise in my little head surrounding this situation. Why were these guys demon-possessed? What wrong choices or negative experiences in their background brought about this ugly condition? Was it instantaneous or slow-brewing? How did the demons within these men know so much about Who Jesus was, when normal people hardly had a clue? Why would demons prefer to inhabit pigs if they were to be evicted from these two men? Did the demons know that their pig occupancy would be so short-lived? Once the pigs were dead in the lake, then what?—what did the demons do after that, and where did they go? And here is a question that I think is particularly worth pondering: Is being demon-possessed any worse a status than the condition of the community residents that rejected Jesus and wanted Him to leave town. In so many words they were saying, “We quite like the order and routine surrounding our pig farming and demon-possessed crazies. Please, Jesus, just leave us alone.”

I’ve never been a demon before—at least, not in the real sense. So I don’t really know exactly how they think and why. But they are displaying a clear awareness of some truths that tend to elude many humans, if not most. Firstly, they recognized that Jesus held Sovereign Authority over them. Don’t you agree that’s a pretty good concept for humans to live with? Secondly, they recognized that their own status with limited freedoms were only temporary—that they were on a timeline heading for certain judgment and termination. Don’t you also agree we would all be benefitted by that awareness?

An idea is growing on me as it relates to the attitudes we hold toward Sovereign God. With or without Bibles and churches and preaching, it just makes a lot of sense to me that ALL MEN ARE OBLIGATED TO SEEK AND PLEASE GOD—NO MATTER WHAT! My sense of logic and reasoning says that I HAVE NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVE BUT TO DO SO. How I perceive His character—whether good or evil—really makes no difference. I still have no choice. It is absolutely in my best interests to please an ABSOLUTE GOD. The simple ratio between the bulk of His authority and power over the miniscule bulk of mine leaves no contest. There is no amount of criticism, disagreement, or questioning of His moral character that can hope to modify Him closer to my liking—or alter my accountability to Him.

Thankfully, you’re not a demon either. And thankfully, the Sovereign God of the Bible is not evil, but is presented as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6, KJV). We are wise to know that our status of limited freedoms are only temporary too. And we are wise to beware: Those freedoms, if consumed without discretion, can be intoxicating!