Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good evening, special ones.

Wow! Almost 10pm. The bed is looking pretty good right now. It’s been a full day. And a full day is coming tomorrow.

Good night.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Today is my 72nd birthday. Why in the world would I want to boast about tomorrow? I’m a lot more thankful than I am boastful. After all, I say often that it’s really not my fault I’m still here. While I’m glad I am still here, I sometimes find myself tempted to envy those of my friends or relatives who have lived with the priority of pleasing God pass on to glory. If I really believe this Book sitting open here beside me, why wouldn’t I? “Absent from the body…present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). I also resonate with Paul’s well-known exclamation of Philippians 1:21—“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

That confidence is supported by the focal significance of this day—EASTER SUNDAY—better stated as RESURRECTION SUNDAY. Listen again to these awesome words: “…don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:3-6). Is that a wonderful hope or what?

On the subject of dying, have more wonderful authoritative words ever been spoken than what Jesus said to Martha in John 11:25 and 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.” If this Book is true, that belief determines destiny.