Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello in the evening, special ones.

I guess it doesn’t take much to distract me. My attention has been pulled away from sending this till now. Lots of other things going on. But Becki and I are definitely having a good time discussing the issues arising from this round of reading in Revelation. There are many dots to connect to current times and events—making it very relevant.

At the risk of boring you, perhaps I’ll stick on a photo that shows some of the project I’m working on—in the setting of my messy shop. It’s that small timberframe structure that I’ve mentioned before. There will be 3 trusses in the plan. I just finished assembling the first one today—and took this photo. I’m using 14 oak pegs in each truss to pin all the parts together. I had to take time to fabricate a bunch more of the oak pegs. I use the table saw to cut them octagonal, rather than trying to make smooth round dowels. They are ¾”x7”.

Wow! It’s about my bedtime. Good night. Blessings

Love, Dad/Ray.

There are those who present and promote prayer as though they have it all figured out and completely understand it. I don’t. Although prayer is a mysterious commodity for me, I agree that it is essential to a sound Biblical worldview. This passage with its description of prayer does not reduce the mystery. It does, however, help to reinforce and confirm its importance and effectiveness.

Is it appropriate to regard prayer as being mysterious? I think so. Consider the statement of mystery composed by Agur in Proverbs 30:18-19: “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.” I resonate with Agur’s expression. I don’t have to look far to find marvels—realities that can too easily be passed by, taken for granted, and never given the rating of MARVELOUS. And I reason this way in regards to the last reality Agur mentions: If we don’t fully understand everything about the intimate love relationship between a man and a woman, how can we expect to fully understand the intimate love relationship between a man and God?!?! All that is required to understand is that loving God is extremely important, and prayer is the human side of that relationship.

The two basic components of prayer are PRAISE and PETITION. I suppose that “the prayers of all the saints” as symbolically pictured as being burnt upon “the golden altar before the throne” are of the PETITION type. I’ve never felt inspired to petition God to do thunder, lightning, and earthquakes. But when the angel symbolically casts the contents of the golden sensor onto the earth, which includes the “prayers of the saints,” that is the symbolic result. I think the bottom line idea is this: prayers processed in heaven have an effect on earth—whether we understand it all or not.

The modern world with its ever-expanding technology brings a lot of change our way. But I quite like the stabilizing truth that says, “Two things never change: God still speaks to men through His Word, and men still speak to God through prayer.” As for me, I have chosen to love God and sure have a lot to talk to Him about.