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.

19 February 2017

Good morning, Samara.

I did a jog, went to church, made a brief presentation of our Vanuatu trip, ate some lunch, got in a little old man nap, and now we need to run out the door to go to our Gospel Sing at Pheasant Pointe.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Tua.


Proverbs 19
Focus: “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” Proverbs 19:2.

Is it possible to be zealous about being lazy? Is there anyone out there who is passionate about being stupid? I won’t be too hasty to give an absolute answer—however it sure sounds like this volume of Proverbs offers support to an answer of YES to both questions. Just look at the next verse following the FOCUS VERSE: “A man’s own folly (being passionate about being a fool—at least eager about wanting to do foolish stuff) ruins life…” There it is! A perverted course will result in a perverted outcome. Guaranteed! Duh! But get this!—as stated in the other half of that verse—“…yet his heart rages against the LORD” (19:3). What?! Yup! Does that make any sense? Nope! But that’s how the mind of a passionate fool works! It reasons, “If God is a God of sovereign power and love, why on earth is He not sharing some of that power and love to provide me with what I want?!?!—when and how I want it?!?!” Go figure!

One little example of “zeal without knowledge” comes to mind. Within the realm of politics and governmental systems, there are a lot people who are passionate about their belief in and promotion of the ideology of COMMUNISM. But the track record glaring facts confirm that COMMUNISM has never really worked so as to make a nation or people group thrive and excel with freedom and prosperity—so as to achieve equality and utopia for everyone. As I think about it, I guess DEMOCRACY never has either—at least not for very long. The common flaw within every form of government is the self-centered self-contaminating NATURAL SIN NATURE.

The best lesson to take away from this kind of discussion is to SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! If everyone actually could/would do that, His Kingdom and Will would be done on earth as it is in heaven! But, alas!—that’s not going to happen this side of glory!—in the context of a fallen world—at least not collectively or universally. The best we can do is to pursue it personally. Bingo! That’s Biblical Christianity in a nutshell!

““He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;He who cherishes understanding prospers.”
~ Proverbs 19:8 ~