Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

OK, dear people….

Here we go—another uncertain day—getting deeper into an uncertain year—along with the wonderful certainty of Emmanuel!

I have a commitment to carry on with the installation of that structure in SE Portland. I plan to set the other 3 posts today in concrete. Hopefully, I can go up from there tomorrow. I think I’ll use the boom truck to lift and set the trusses into their positions. That means I should call in at DMV to get a trip permit for the truck. That project needs to be completed as soon as possible so I can get on with other commitments.

Blessings on your processing of today.

Love, Dad/Ray.

I vote for the ideas of community, national, and global peace as much as anyone. But if human history is true, and if the news is true, and if God’s Word is true, it will never happen this side of eternity—short of the temporary millennial reign of Christ. And while Jesus instructs us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven,” it clearly CANNOT happen perfectly and collectively while humans are still hammered with their NATURAL SIN NATURES. It can only happen partially and individually—within these personal “earthen vessels.” That is clearly where our individual responsibilities lie. You cannot be fully responsible for causing the world to align with God’s will (although you are to be a participant in that direction)—you are only responsible for the tiny capsule of your piece of earth to align with His will.

I’m finding a significant portion of my insides resonating with the FOCUS VERSE—“My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?” I’ve just scanned an article entitled, “The Danger to the Homeland Has Never Been Greater.” It features an overview of radical Islam in 2015 within our U.S. borders. The value of such a report defines where we’ve been, where we are, along with the promise of where we’re going. No one in their right mind wants to go where we’re going—but that is exactly where we are going! More hell than we want to think about is just around our historical corner. I have no wish to enforce this promise even if I could, but that’s a promise! For whatever it’s worth, I’ll stick on that article as an attachment above.

You can understand how this kind of thinking would influence my reading of the assigned Bible passages. It does. I notice the rhetorical question of “How long?” appearing in both readings. The first is directed to God—the second is directed to men. And now I’m seeing a likeness between the “sluggard” of Proverbs 6:9-11 and our human governmental and popular attitudes toward the promised threat of Islamic Jihad. “How long will you lie there, you sluggard?When will you get up from your sleep?A little sleep, a little slumber,a little folding of the hands to rest —and poverty will come on you like a banditand scarcity like an armed man.”

David resorts to some verbal manipulation in his cry to the LORD—reminding Him that He is obligated to rescue David because of His “unfailing love”—and because, “No one remembers you when he is dead.” Then David adds a rhetorical question of his own—“Who praises you from the grave?” (Psalm 6:4-5). Well, if death and the grave are to be equated with unconscious non-existence, then the obvious answer to that question is, NO ONE! But beautiful victorious calm is gleaned by answering that question in the light of Jesus’ words in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Halleluiah! I do believe this! That promise eclipses all other lesser promises.