Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

Wind and rain seemed to be the norm all night. At present it’s just wind.

Yesterday morning it suddenly became clear to us both that Becki had succumbed to the early stages of another case of pneumonia. So, although she felt good enough to go to church, then the afternoon Gospel Sing, we made a point to have her checked at the local urgent care clinic…then begin a course of antibiotics. We’re confident that catching it early will profoundly reduce down time.

I definitely have a lot of commercial work on my plate, but whereas today is a holiday (President’s Day), I may take it as an excuse to follow through with a home project that I began on Saturday—installing cedar paneling that I made on a wall in our family room. I crafted the paneling from round logs, dried the boards, then machined them with a molder/planer into about 1x5 tongue and groove material. Looks nice. I chose to angle the layup at 45 degrees.

Do I talk too much? Have a great day. Blessings.

Love, Dad/Ray.

“Hey!—Are you calling me a sinner?” That’s a common retort among sinners in response to a common misunderstanding of the Biblical Gospel. Deceived and deceitful sinners tend to get real reactionary and defensive whenever any attention is drawn to their sinfulness. But here’s the Biblical TRUTH that is available to anyone willing to seek Biblical TRUTH: It is actually the Sovereign God of the Universe Who knows everything about everything Who is calling every human a SINNER. Just to underscore the point, that includes you and me. But it’s not a matter of name-calling. It’s more on a par with the honest diagnosis of a good doctor who is more concerned with the objective truth relating to his patient’s delicate health than with his delicate subjective feelings. God knows that our sins must be “wiped out” before our sins wipe us out. That’s just the way it is. There is no argument, anger, excuse, complaint, or defense that can alter that fundamental fact. And to fight that fact is to place the prescription and wonderful cure entirely out of reach.

Why in the world do people stumble over the simplicity of the Gospel?—this marvelous good news that only renders good to the recipient. It would seem almost like those condemning the Gospel as narrow-minded nonsense are governed by some sort of mind-altering magic spell or spiritual bondage that prevents their intelligence from working properly. Bingo! That’s precisely what is happening. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). If there is any sadder reality on planet earth than this one, I have no idea what it could be.

Making this Gospel message clear to human hearts has to be the root motivation for the healing of the crippled beggar. In fact, I have reason to believe that only a short time ago Jesus Himself passed by this beggar on His way to or from the temple, but never saw fit to heal him. But now, the time was right. The Holy Spirit appointed Peter as the means to the miracle as well as the mouthpiece of the message that followed. As a result, there were many more conversions to Jesus as the Christ. This offers further evidence that miraculous healings are not to be viewed as ends in themselves, but a means to an end—drawing attention to the greater eternal healing value of the Biblical Gospel.