2007 picture of Ray Sparre

Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67


October 19, 2015

Good morning, dear people.

Cloudy—but no rain—yet. Becki and I did a walk/jog. Good time. Hardly any traffic encountered on Short Fellows Road.

My list is so big—I think I’ll go fishing. I wish. Fat chance. But, someday. I eagerly want to snag a salmon or steelhead to stick in our TRAEGER grill.

Becki and I did something extremely rare—went to a theater. Yup! On a Sunday evening no less. But it was almost like going to church. I was very positively surprised to behold such a great movie production in favor of a positive and practical Biblical worldview—WAR ROOM. Very relevant.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

19 October
1 Timothy 5
Focus: "I charge you…to keep these instructions without partiality…” 1 Timothy 5:21.

There are times, more than others, when I see clearly the parallel God’s Word makes between humans and sheep. Both are kind of dumb. Both are weak. Both tend to wander off and follow their own simple minds. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus saw the picture clearly. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). I have a hunch that you and I could easily have been in those crowds. Peter says this: “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

Question: How does this Shepherd of our souls do this shepherding work? For one thing, He imparts His Spirit that enlightens and guides the hearts and minds of those who are sensitive and seeking. And a large part of it is a matter of our listening (“My sheep listen to my voice…”) and obeying (“…and they follow me.” John 10:27).

I don’t know about you, but I am amazed at how much education I have received over the years, how many great and edifying sermons I have heard, how many seminars and conferences I have attended, how much experience I have gleaned—and yet this heart of mine, if given too much freedom, still tends to stray and wander off course. There is only one solution, as I see it. And no substitute for this solution, as I also see it. The solution takes in the matter we addressed yesterday—PERSONAL DAILY DEVOTIONS. It is not enough to hear instructions. Until they become firm habits, they must be constantly re-heard, reviewed, re-thought, and re-applied in order to maintain personal REVIVAL. It is simply our natural disposition as being people who are LIKE sheep. And that’s what PERSONAL DAILY DEVOTIONS accomplishes if done with a HEART AFTER GOD and with a diligence to “keep these instructions without partiality.” It definitely requires staying close to the Shepherd.

“QUESTION: Where will you be and what will you be doing 10 years from nowIF you keep on doing what you’re doing now?”

PS: The bottom line of my personal devotional thoughts and meditations of late continue to focus on the essential of a HEART AFTER GOD. I wish I could communicate effectively this concept…because it seems so clearly and critically important to the success and fulfillment of human life on this planet. Indeed the Creator has designed human life to not function well independent of its Maker. This is at the core of all true human success…and all human failure. I wish I could challenge EVERYONE. So if, for whatever reason, you have any kind of sense that you are not equipped with a HEART AFTER GOD, I want to urge you to do everything in your power to get one.