Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good day, dear people.
It’s not as nice out today—cloudy sky—but at least it’s not raining. That will help me to follow through with a plan to go stick some vinyl graphics on a big-rig truck tractor. I may go do that right after sending this.
Sure would be nice if I could just call up the LORD and ask Him specifically what He would like me to do for the rest of my life—a step-by-step plan—all lined out in nice chronological order. But since He chooses to not do things that way, I’ll just have to do my best to figure it all out—while leaning as best I can on Him and His “everlasting arms.” Man!—I don’t even know exactly how to do the rest of today, let alone the rest of my life. All I know is that there isn’t much of either left. I also know that this dumb sheep had better stay as close as he can to The Shepherd—the One Who knows everything about everything—if I am going to travel anywhere close to safe and successful.
Blessings on your today.
Love, Dad/Ray.
Putting aside the resources of technology, what would you say is the most valuable tool available to us all for the effective communication of the Biblical Gospel? As I sit here and ponder that question I think I’m coming up with a good, if not the best, answer: JOY. That’s it! THE JOY OF THE LORD!—the impossible-to-hide passionate love relationship with our God and Savior—a HEART AFTER GOD. It’s the result of the ongoing choice to “Delight yourself in the LORD” (Psalm 37:4). After all, who, in their right mind, is really attracted to confusion, frustration, depression, or a sour-puss faith?
Let’s apply the question to a collective setting. Have you ever been around a local church fellowship that was riddled with tension, conflict, power-struggles, and disunity? They may even be talking about “winning the lost” and implementing outreach strategies. But how in the world could such a fellowship function as “a city set on a hill”—while failing to emit the light of loving God and each other? Jesus definitely gave outsiders the right to evaluate the insiders by that standard. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).
David blew it surrounding that Bathsheba deal—blew it bad. And while we may not blow it in the same way, we still face the ability to come up with creative ways of blowing it today. But David still rises in my estimation as a worthy role model. How so? Because he demonstrates that his overarching HEART AFTER GOD came to aid in his rescue from failure—demonstrating that although he fell, he did not fall for good—he was not utterly cast down, for the LORD upheld him by His hand of sustaining grace and forgiveness. David came to see clearly that his failure and resulting guilt severely damaged his being—causing him to lose something extremely valuable toward maintaining his own sense of well-being and relationship with his LORD, as well as in modeling the benefits of a HEART AFTER GOD to others. He has lost his JOY—a huge loss. So it’s a broken and miserable man that cries out to His Savior in Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love (v. 1)…Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight (v. 4)…Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you” (vv. 10-13).
I’m presently reminded of a good piece of advice I’ve heard somewhere recently—“Never trust or follow someone who does not walk with a limp.” That’s one reason I’m inclined to trust and follow David—he walks with a limp.
“The prospect of the righteous is joy.” And the ultimate prospect of a HEART AFTER GOD is way beyond temporal JOY—it’s eternal! “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of JOY; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11, KJV). Wow! How good is that?!
That’s the final applause of David as he wraps up Psalm 41…