Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, special ones.

It’s another beautiful morning out there. I actually have this little notebook computer on the breakfast table with me…take a bite, type a bit, take a bite, etc. Thano will be joining me soon to run to the sawmill. I just spoke with the landowner on the phone. He’s happy. I just wanted to see if he had any other comments or instructions—since I left him on Saturday before he was finished hauling the sawn lumber up the hill to his barn.

Becki’s sister and brother-in-law, Lorna and Ray Wilson, were taken to the airport yesterday morning by their daughter and son-in-law just after 11am. It was kind of an emotional parting—their final good-byes to us and a few others—but also their final departure from this home they love in a location they love surrounded by a network of friends they have come to love—now moving into an assisted living facility near their daughters in Pasadena, California. But it’s time. I guess we all have a time to grapple with major change.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Don’t you just love these wonderful Jewish religious leaders! They were such upstanding role models—the kind you would want to live next door to—the kind of men you’d like your daughters to meet. NOT! The fact is they were on a par with radical Al-Qaeda or ISIS—with an attitude that says, “Agree with us or we will kill you!” Little wonder that Jesus warned His disciples, “…do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach” (Mtt. 23:3).

Do you see the dramatic contrast in views presented here? While the Jewish leaders were looking down on Stephen, he was looking up. “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God.” It’s a contrast of horizontal versus vertical. It’s possible that Stephen was remembering the words of the Psalmist at that point, “My help comes from the Lord” (Ps. 121:2; 144:7). That’s up and above everything else. In harmony, Paul says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1).

This scene also presents a contrast in fullness. Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. What were they full of? Don’t say it! But to be sure, everyone is full of something all the time. Jesus made the principle of fullness clear when He said, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow (fullness) of his heart his mouth speaks” (Lk. 6:46).

I think it’s a good testing and training exercise for my own faith to play a kind of WHAT IF game in my mind in response to dramatic real life stories I read or hear concerning victorious believers. So in this case I raise these questions: What if I were there in Stephen’s shoes (or sandals)? How would I deal with a similar set of circumstances? What kind of faith would I demonstrate? Where would I be looking?—up or down? Prayer: “Lord—help me to be a LOOKING UP believer.”

Now you and I may never be “rocked to sleep” like Stephen. We may never be chased like David, or face the lions like Daniel, or be beheaded or tortured or shot like many other serious followers of Christ down through the ages. But be assured that somewhere along the line you will meet hard times, you will be tested and persecuted, you will stand before the firing squad of social rejection, you will face the inescapable decision to choose “to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” (Heb. 11:25). “In fact everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus WILL be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). You can bank on it. Are you prepared? Are you, like Stephen, remaining full of the Holy Spirit and looking up? Such an attitude is far more important than an American Express card—DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!