Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

We didn’t do our exercise routine. Besides having a lot to distract us, the rain was a bit discouraging.

In addressing the matter of what we call END TIMES, let me offer a weblink to what is presented as a WEEKLY PROPHECY UPDATE by J. D. Farag. I judge this person as a credible resource of insight and understanding with linking Biblical revelation with current events. Apparently he generates these updates on a weekly basis. It is noteworthy that alignment between the two poles of prophecy and current events is being generated on a weekly basis. Are we getting excited yet?

I need to run off soon to apply graphics to a couple trucks in Colton.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

How in the world do we sort this one out? I wish I could meet Solomon for coffee and talk about it. (I wonder if he ever tasted coffee.) I’m quite sure he does not intend to infer that we are wise to be stupid in our own eyes—like don’t ever choose a course of known wisdom because then you will run the risk of viewing yourself as wiser than those who don’t choose that course. It seems most reasonable to equate “wise in his own eyes” with arrogance—a prideful inflated and distorted view of self.

How does the FOCUS VERSE fly if we exchange the word “wise” for “righteous?” That is, “Do you see a man RIGHTEOUS in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” Hmm. I think that fits too. In both cases, the strong implication is that arrogance is the negative contaminant.

A first impression could make it appear that David is displaying a form self-righteousness in Psalm 26. “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have led a blameless life” (v. 1). Oh, really? Let’s check the track record. We all know how blind spots can occur in one’s self-appraisal. Maybe that fact occurs to David too at this point. So now he turns to appeal to God’s omniscient appraisal and invites, “Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth” (vv. 2-3). I can interpret that as a healthy attitude to be commended—implying, “I don’t wish to be bound by what I think of me, or what others think of me—what You think of me is far more important. All I know is that you have proven Your love to me. And I hate the idea of believing anything that is not compatible with Your truth.”

Besides the general quest of LOVING GOD with a HEART AFTER GOD, I cannot imagine any attitude of heart and mind more important for us to live by in these LAST DAYS (I really believe that’s the most appropriate Biblical description of where we presently are in human history in 2016—THE LAST DAYS) than to be LOVERS OF TRUTH—God’s TRUTH—which includes a true appraisal of ourselves. If that is not our passionate orientation, we allow ourselves to be very vulnerable to subtle deception—believing little lies, and then to advance to believing the big fat LIE—the LIE that reduces accountability to the Supreme Sovereign through His Son and our only Savior as non-important. After all, Paul warns that, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). I judge that this prophetic warning from a couple thousand years ago is about as relevant and contemporary as it gets.