Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Boo! And good morning.
Did I scare you? I’m still here. Not dead yet. But I’ve allowed work pressure along with diminishing energy to set my pace of late. I decided to interrupt that trend this morning and compose some responses to the last Psalm.
Almost 2 weeks ago I had to rescue Becki who was driving home from her water aerobics session, spun off the road, and wiped out our car. I’m just very glad and very thankful she was not harmed in the mishap. I had to rescue her again yesterday. While driving our van to her Bible Study in Woodburn, the rig just shut down. We were able to cripple it to a shop that was able to diagnose and repair it before the day had ended—replacing the alternator.
The large accumulation of snow on the mountain is calling me. I’m anxious to respond so I can try out my new “fat” skis. Too much work is holding me back so far. Oh well…
May you have a blessed day as you fill your obligation to PRAISE THE LORD.
Love, Dad/Ray.
Is there anything more basic and fundamental to our very existence than to exercise our gifting of objective human intelligence so as to recognize cause and effect?—that we are NOT of our own making?—that we have a MAKER?—and that His purposes for our being should trump our own?
May I suggest that “his sanctuary” is none other than the “temple of the Holy Spirit” as in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20. Here’s that quote: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor (praise) God with your body.”
If PRAISING THE LORD is so appropriate and important, exactly HOW do we do it? Is it enough to just sing some memorized or read praise songs?—or say some nice praise words in prayer? I don’t think so. I have to judge that anyone attempting to PRAISE THE LORD independent of a HEART AFTER GOD is basically wasting their time—in the same way that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). In other words, praise without the accompaniment of heart-level love for God, heart-level desire to live pleasing to Him, and heart-level obedience to His Word, is just so much empty, cold, ineffective RELIGION!—“henceforth good for nothing” (Matthew 5:13, KJV).
Reflect on the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:20—“Therefore honor God with your body.” Please live with the awareness of what an extravagant composition of miracles your body represents. It hears, it sees, it smells, it digests, it moves, it thinks, it reasons, it plans, it chooses, it pumps blood, and it breaths. The psalmist here in this last psalm picks up on that last feature and uses it as a standard for determining who or what is obligated to PRAISE THE LORD. Therefore…