Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, dear people.
I see that Becki just returned from delivering Kaden to his school bus stop in Molalla. He spent the night here. Nick is here. Both will be returned this evening.
Yesterday was a full one with a morning doctor appointment at 9:30am. Becki joined me. Since this naturopathic doctor is a believer, it seems we did more talking on the level of our mutual Biblical faith than we did with medical and health stuff.
A pile of work awaits my attention. So I’d better get on with it. Blessings.
Love, Dad/Ray.
We don’t normally think of the word “the” as being one that is full of inspiration and encouragement. But it has occurred to me, while meditating on these things, that “the” could be, in fact, one of the most inspiring words in the Bible. Take for example Jesus words in John 11:25-26: “I am THE resurrection and THE life.” He is not A resurrection or LIKE a resurrection or symbolic of resurrection. HE IS THE RESURRECTION!—WITHOUT WHOM THERE IS NO RESURRECTION! And He is not A life, or life-LIKE, or representative of life. HE IS THE LIFE!—WITHOUT WHOM THERE IS NO LIFE! This is either a bunch of idealistic overstatement—or it is THE TRUTH—which is also what Jesus claimed to be—and which, by the way, I believe to be TRUE.
Since Paul has been enabled to comprehend a measure of this TRUTH, is it any wonder, that he would make this revolutionary confession of faith and priority? Listen again to the passion of his personal testimony from THE MESSAGE translation: “The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash — along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant — dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ — God's righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it” (Philippians 3:7-11—from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
This is a testimony worth pondering.