Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

Beautiful cold clear morning here again. Becki and I did a walk/jog excursion up the hill again. Now we want to get off on a little trip south for a couple days.

I did not achieve my objective of installing all 6 posts of that project yesterday. I arrived there too late and ran out of light. I did get three posts mounted in concrete. At least it will now be easier to do the next three using the first three rigid posts as points of reference.

In brainstorming on a devotional reading course for this new year, I’ve landed on a plan that would lead us on two passes through the Psalms at the rate of one chapter/psalm per day (except for Psalm 119 which we could assign as 22 segments of reading according to its own Hebrew alphabet divisions), along with a daily chapter of the Proverbs. That will leave a remainder of 21 days, which I figured would allow us to do another pass through the book of Revelation at the end of the year. If the world is still here by then, we could use that reading to update our connecting dots between its cryptic descriptions and current events. Are you OK with that? Great! Let’s go for it! I’ll try to soon work up a spreadsheet reading schedule so we can cruise in relative unity.

Blessings on your first day of this year.

Love, Dad/Ray.

On this first day of the year, Psalm 1 is definitely a capsule of timely advice for navigating these critical times.

It is as though “THE FALL” (original sin) has placed us all as passengers aboard a sinking ship. Whether we like it or not, this thing is going down! No—that’s not a pleasant thought, but it sure is good to know—rather than not know. That knowledge is supposed to have profound influence on everything else—our thinking, our planning, our attitudes, and behavior—toward coming out of this promised crisis as survivors rather than casualties. (See 2 Peter 3:11-12)

While the first three verses of Psalm 1offer vital instruction and positive promise, the last three verses present an absolute negative promise—that is, those who persist at hanging onto the ship, believing that it represents their safety and survival, are not going to make it—they are going down with the ship! The very last word in my translation is “perish.” Where have we heard that word used before in the context of a well-known Biblical quote? John 3:16—of course!

What a wonderful, WONDERFUL life preserver we are graciously given!—think of it—an EVERLASTING LIFE PRESERVER! Receive it! Wear it! Protect it! This is not just some opinionated warning—it’s the rescue opportunity of a lifetime!