Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Hello, dear one...
…following a lengthy silence. It sure is easy to become overwhelmed with STUFF—of all kinds—not the least of which is waning energy. The work pile and complications of life don’t seem to diminish—but my energy does.
I just returned from a jog, and now I had better get to the house and kick grandson Zane out of bed, feed him, then see if we can finish up a milling job today. Becki and Thano are off and running to an appointment in Portland.
I’d like to say more…but better get on with the urgent.
Blessings on your day.
Love, Dad/Ray.
Sorry—physical sickness is here to stay here on planet earth—on this side of eternity—no matter what anybody says. There are those who say otherwise, who like to present themselves as exempt from that fact—that healing of the body, they say, is absolutely and unequivocally offered to all believers via Christ’s atoning work on the cross. They quote, “By His stripes we ARE healed!”—which I judge as a misrepresentation of Isaiah 53. They may teach that a believer receives their physical healing in the same way they receive their spiritual salvation from sin—just believe and receive. Bingo! Done deal! But the glaring discrepancy of such claims is right there for all to see. Take even a casual look at the person spouting such spiritual superiorities. They’re wearing glasses, using hearing aids, obese, wrinkled skin, have high blood pressure, struggle with diabetes, have heart disease, take all kinds of medications, get cancer, get old, and then die. And, to be sure, those of us who are in the older age class understand that old age is indeed an infirmity. We’re all heading toward the very same terminus—death. And dying is not very physically healthy!
What good is it to have a HEALTHY BODY and a SICK SOUL/SPIRIT? That’s a parallel rendering of what I would draw from Jesus’ rhetorical question in Mark 8:36—“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (KJV).
“A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness.” Let’s qualify that statement. It has to refer to a positive spiritual orientation—not just any old spiritual condition. After all, we all come on the scene SPIRITUALLY SICK as a result of our inherited NATURAL SIN NATURE. And a healed and HEALTHY spirit definitely helps to sustain a person with a SICK body. Our Bibles certainly speak to that priority need. For example, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16, KJV). Please understand that yielding to the “lust of the flesh” is a clear symptom of a SICK SPIRIT. Listen to Paul pray for the Colossian believers: “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-13, KJV). The essential point is that SPIRITUAL HEALTH demonstrated by a HEART AFTER GOD that seeks first His Kingdom and right relationship with Him sustains the true believer in everything—no matter the circumstances.
That really is the last-verse punch line of David in Psalm 29—
the LORD blesses his people with peace.”