Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello again, dear ones.

After our Gospel Sing this afternoon, Becki and I ran to Clackamas in hopes of visiting Costco. There were times on the freeway when we could hardly see the roadway due to the downpour of rain. When we left the freeway, we found that streetlights were without power—and Costco was closed because of the outage.

The dogs are yelling at me to feed them. Good night.

Love. Dad/Ray.

Refusing to believe. Now there’s a problem—especially when the core issue is essential truth. It requires tampering with facts, rejecting evidence, and maligning those who do believe. It is irrational, unreasonable, and controlled by blind bias and prejudice. Its outcome is destructive, ugly, and deadly.

Take note of the consequential affect of refusing to believe as demonstrated by the riot that ensued at Ephesus at the influence of Demetrius. He was a real gladiator for truth! NOT! Quite the opposite! While he was a heathen Gentile whose belief system and livelihood were heathenism, he was on a par with the Jewish religious elite who also refused to believe.

Many times I have been taken back by how little it takes to set some people off on a crusade of fury and rioting. It only helps to confirm for me that the fuel for this kind of fire is not the God-given quality of intelligence toward wisdom by means of objective reasoning. Rather it is the devil-designed material of foolishness, emotional manipulation, deception, and refusing to believe.

In the therapy rendered to Thano (our last-born, nick-name for Nathaniel) following his motorcycle accident with head injury, I particularly liked an acrostic that was presented. It was STAR: Stop. Think. Analyze. Respond. I think that’s pretty good practical advice for all of us. Think about it. At least it can go a long way toward preventing the consequences of refusing to believe essential truth.