Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good evening, dear people.
I sure meant to get this off earlier. It’s been a full day—so I didn’t get much chance. Well, I guess I could have altered my old man nap. But then I may have fallen asleep in the process. I’m almost doing that now.
We just returned from a dash to Dallas to be with family and grandkids—a couple of grandkids are having birthdays. We cut our time a little short at our Pheasant Pointe Gospel Sing in order to make that 5pm date.
Have a good night. Sleep tight.
Love, Dad/Ray.
This must have been a kind of chorus to be repeated between the verses of the psalm. It’s repeated two more times. It is a valid prayer request—as long as it is understood that being restored and made healthy and balanced is not altogether God’s responsibility. It must be understood that He delegates responsibility back to His people to love Him passionately, and that our seeking Him, obeying Him, and trusting Him is to be rooted in that motivation.
I’ve had some difficulty accepting the thesis from some theological spins that present the salvation equation as being absolutely and entirely of God. Within that mindset, man can do virtually nothing for or against. After all, they would argue, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44—KJV). But consider this question: If God assigns to me the supreme command to love Him passionately, but I am found to not love Him passionately, who is to blame?—who is responsible for the infraction? Has He failed to adequately robotically program me to love Him, or have I failed to make right choices in directing my priorities? I lean toward the latter view of cause and effect. I believe that “God’s callings (and commandings) are His enablings.” I don’t believe He whimsically throws out impossible requirements—or commands that are beyond our reach.
Indeed He does make His “face shine upon us.” That is obvious in the demonstration of His beyond-reasonable love and grace (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 John 3:1). The challenging responsibility upon us, therefore, is to walk in the “light” of that Shining Face—to “walk in the light as He is in the light, as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7). This is an exclusive opportunity. According to Biblical authority, there is simply no other way for being “saved.”