Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear fellow prisoners.

I trust that you will agree from reading below that such a title (“fellow prisoners”) is not a bad one—indeed a good one.

It was 33 years ago today that our fourth child was born. It fell between our missionary terms in the Solomon Islands. So Thano’s birthplace happened to be at a chiropractor midwife’s clinic in Salem, Oregon in 1982. I remember there were some tensions in the delivery when it was learned that a cord-wrap was close to suffocating the little guy. After the doctor scrambling to perform some emergency procedures, he finally came out fine. Praise the Lord. Our lives have never been the same.

It’s been raining and windy, but it’s not falling much now. I think I’ll attempt an on-campus jog after sending this. Becki is too wrapped up in preparing for her Woodburn Bible Study to participate.

Have a blessed day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Paul is now a prisoner. But he’s not a normal one. Did you notice the last verse of the previous chapter? The verse I cited above is a repeat of that description—“Then he (Governor Felix) ordered that Paul be kept UNDER GUARD in Herod’s palace.” Wow! Herod’s palace! I don’t know what that was like, but I can imagine that it could have been something akin to a fancy hotel. It was definitely not a typical prison. The FOCUS VERSE indicates that he had considerable freedom and could receive all the visitors he wanted. The only catch was that he was UNDER GUARD. But I’m quite sure that even that was entirely OK with Paul. After all, his guards represented further opportunities to share Christ.

It’s not reasonable to think that Paul sat around doing the equivalent of watching TV, soaking in the hot tub, playing video games, and getting fat on fancy food. He was busy. In fact, I wonder if God didn’t actually design this set of circumstances to give Paul the freedom and opportunity to do some high value work that is now part of our New Testament. For it was while he was in this prison situation that he wrote the great letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and 2 Timothy.

The beauty and glory of it all was that Paul was not only UNDER GUARD by the Roman legal system that protected him from the hatred and physical harm of the Jews, but he was also UNDER GUARD by a very big God. And so are you!—if you, like Paul, are dedicated to doing His will. After all, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under (UNDER GUARD of) the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). By his own testimony, Paul was that kind of prisoner since his dramatic conversion. He even presents himself that way (Ephesians 3:1; Philemon:1). It occurs to me that everyone is a like a prisoner to something—and this is the very best prison opportunity available.