Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello, dear ones, on this day before the day before Christmas.

Too much talk this morning to allow time for a walk. So Dandy has had to adjust his schedule accordingly. He’s not very happy about it.

I ran my mill some yesterday—using it to cut more nails than we like. I also had an order for more milling yesterday. I need to figure out when I can knock it out. Now I need to get off to take sawmill blades to WoodMizer, order some special sheet metal for a sign, and pursue some other errands.

You’re probably already off doing your day—probably won’t even see this until it’s all over—or tomorrow morning when you check your mail. Whatever the case, I hope you have a good day where you maintain both your faith and your sanity. I think they kind of go together.

On that basis, have a great day.

Blessings. Love—Ray.

It’s clear that we human earthlings are afflicted with a lot of temptation to critique The Almighty—to pass judgment on THE JUDGE. But our limited range of awareness, perspective, and capacity simply do not adequately provide us with all the answers we crave. And the dangerous tendency is to conclude that The Almighty is not really as almighty as our traditional Bible theology declares. After all, this is not fair, and that’s not fair. It’s not fair that our good friend would be killed by a drunk driver while such a fine husband/father/provider—or that another friend would be stricken with cancer and die at such a young age—or that bad people would be allowed to perform such atrocities against good innocent people—suffering and death from the tsunami—starving children in Somalia, etc., etc., etc. How could a good Almighty not direct more of His almighty-ness toward resolving or preventing all this suffering and unfairness?

This scene in Revelation 15 actually goes a long way in supporting my personal faith. For if I can believe that this setting is true, where faithful believers are gathered in a heavenly celebration having been killed by tribulation persecutions (which doesn’t seem very fair), then I have to also believe that what they are saying in song form is true—that the Lord God Almighty is beyond fair in all His ways. I believe they are being endued with a special gift of revelation so as to be seeing things with a whole lot more clarity than I have right now. The end of their brief song declares that “your righteous acts have been revealed” (v. 4). The Almighty, for His own reasons, obviously withholds that full revelation for then—not now.

This is not a unique theme within the repertoire of heaven’s songs and testimonies. Looking ahead into chapter 16 I notice that a major angel affirms, “You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One” (16:5). Even the altar in this heavenly drama is given a voice that states, “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments” (16:7).

I’m thinking that if I fail to bolster and maintain my faith foundations with this kind of information and reasoning, I can too easily yield to the kind of temptation I mention in my lead sentence. And that is both dangerous and not fair. Please agree—it’s not really fair for puny limited knowledge to think it can adequately contend with inexhaustible Infinite Knowledge. After all, this relationship we have with the Almighty is one of faith—not perfect knowledge and understanding. And this faith is what we are supposed to be full of—thus, faith-full. “O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant…O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.”