Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

It’s pretty from this window—a beautiful cool fall morning. Becki and I took in some of it already with our little walk/jog. Now we need to get on with what the list is calling for.

I’m pondering how I finished up the rendering below. The quote from Mark Twain is provocative—the difference between correct words and neutralized words. And I’m linking that idea with my last sentence where three times I used the word “absolutely.” I’m aware that the word “absolutely” is tossed around in our culture so as to almost become meaningless. “Did you do your best in school today?” “Oh, absolutely!”—meaning, “Kind of yes—like some of the time.” I’m reasoning that my use of that word is the “right word.”

OK, folks—let’s get on with it! May you be blessed in its course.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Things are sure heating up surrounding Jesus. And whether we like it or not, He still performs as the CHRIST OF CONTROVERSY. In fact, CONTROVERSY is not just a by-product of the Christian Gospel, it is embedded there—actually promised by this same CONTROVERSIAL CHRIST. Listen again to the promise He made in His own words as recorded by Luke: “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). Notice that the CONTROVERSY comes so close to home that it is not confined to tension between tribes, communities, and nations—it permeates the very private fabric of families. That helps to confirm that there is no allowance for neutrality in this CONTROVERSY. And even a non-decision is a decision by default (Matthew 12:30). Furthermore, this very Biblical view is CONTROVERSIAL!

“You will look for me but you will not find me.” May I suggest to you that EVERYONE is looking for Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord—but very few know it. I base that idea on the Biblical claim that only in and through Christ are man’s deepest needs (personal peace, purpose, guidance, happiness, joy, fulfillment, etc.) realized. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ” (Colossians 2:9-10). And the only means to fulfilling these divinely appointed provisions is to be properly aligned with the Creator’s purpose for sending “His only begotten Son” (John 3:16) and seeking above all else His Kingship and rule (Matthew 6:33). So no one is going to accidentally find Christ and what He offers independent of a HEART AFTER GOD.

“Where I am you cannot come.” That is because He is both the GOAL and the MEANS TO THE GOAL—both the DESTINATION and the PATHWAY TO THE DESTINATION. And that is precisely what He claimed to be in no uncertain terms—“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (which is ‘where I am’ with all My provisions) except through me” (John 14:6). So, in other words, “Where I am you cannot come due to your present mindset of indifference or rejection. Ah, but if you seek me with your whole heart, indeed a HEART AFTER GOD, you will find me—you will be changed, transformed, BORN AGAIN—fully prepared to be where I am forevermore” (John 14:1-4). If that’s not an absolutely wonderful opportunity, that is absolutely worthy of my attention, I absolutely don’t know what is!