Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Greetings, dear people.
Hard to believe it’s already afternoon! But I’ve addressed a bunch of details, helped Thano with getting his little sailing kayak setup, and I now have a guy coming at 1:30pm to have me mill up his pencil cedar logs. Thano is not at work at Safeway, and Becki is off to a nail appointment.
Perhaps you will recall that my projections for the reading schedule was to break Psalm 119 up into daily segments according to the Hebrew alphabet divisions.
May your day go as it should.
Love, Dad/Ray.
- First question: What makes a man evil? Answer: His NATURAL SIN NATURE—being born into a fallen world. No training is required for this. It’s the default setting. That means that all men, left to themselves with this birthright are evil. Sorry. That’s not very flattering. And lots of people get pretty upset with this unbecoming analysis. But that is clearly the Biblical diagnosis of mankind’s core problem as identified by the All-Knowing One.
- Second question: What makes a man righteous? Answer: A decision in the direction of transformation—by seeking God, embracing His exclusive Rescue Plan, Jesus Christ, and His substitutional death on the cross for “his own sin.”
- Third question: Why is a righteous man able to sing with gladness? Is it because his life is made so easy by means of his faith?—on a perpetual roll where he continually gets what he wants? Nope. Answer: It’s because he has been transformed—choosing righteousness over sin and compromise, choosing to be right before God above all else. And in those moments of personal reflection, reviewing the past, that right there is enough to cause a heart to sing and be glad. As he considers where he’s been, what he’s done, and what kind of shape he would likely be in right now if he had been “snared by his own sin,” and had not made righteous choices—how can he not be thankful?
It’s not difficult to find support for these thoughts in the Psalms passage: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9). It’s really quite the same for old men too. Just ask me. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11)—because if I don’t, I will.