2016 picture of Ray Sparre

Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67



These devotional messages are personalized as messages to Ray's granddaughter, Samara.

18 January 2017

Hi, Mara

There is now no evidence of snow on the ground. That will help me with some of the outdoor work I need to do.

Picture of Zane cutting wood with chain saw

We presently have friends here from Southern Oregon. We’ve been dealing with some of the stuff required for our applications required for this upcoming short-term mission trip to Vanuatu. Lots of stuff to process. Lots of hoops to jump through.

Hope you’re having a good day doing what you need to do.

Love, Tua.


Proverbs 18
Focus: “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.” Proverbs 18:2.

PLEASURE can be one your most valuable friends, or one of your very worst enemies. The point is that PLEASURE is probably the most common driving force of life—why people do the things they do. Who enjoys doing what they don’t enjoy? So if a person enjoys doing drugs enough to do everything they can to get drugs, if they enjoy eating candy enough to steal it, or enjoy money and stuff enough to rob, kill, and burglarize, it’s to be expected that they will pursue and do those things. Duh! In the same way, if a person loves to learn history, loves to craft wood into beauty and utility, loves to make music with a piano, or loves to learn from God and His Word how to do life and manage it so as to please Him—well, of course, that person will be doing those things.

Think about it, Samara—how often do you notice a person trying to convince others of how important he is by his “airing his own opinions” concerning things that are not important? If you learn to understand how life works right as well as how it works wrong, you will discover insight into understanding people (including yourself) by discerning what is that “delights” them. Jesus spoke of this principle of life when He said, “For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). But, of course, it’s not only demonstrated by what the “mouth speaks,” but by everything else that person says and does—and shown by what “floats his boat.”

The good advice to glean here is this: MAKE SURE YOU ENJOY LEARNING WISDOM, SINCE IT RESULTS IN UNDERSTANDING.

“From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled;with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.”
~ Proverbs 18:20 ~