Grace Digest

To Blog or not to Blog

July 10, 2009 · 3 Comments

?…..that is the question!

I have been blogging since June 29th of 2006, slightly over four years. I began blogging as an outlet for a frustrated wannabe writer, to publish some of my Bible study conclusions, and finally I thought I might be able to help someone more fully trust Christ or consider Him for the first time.

There has been times in these months and years when I have experienced great joy. The feedback in blog comments and emails from people all across the country have been reasons to keep blogging. To think that I might be able to instruct or encourage someone, anyone, so that they experience God more fully is awesome.

On the other hand there is the negativity. A few people are so intolerant of any view that challenges them to think outside of their well defined presuppositions that they lash out with fury at anyone who thinks differently. And, some folks are just mean. Oh, they are mean in the name of Jesus, but they are mean nonetheless.

I have never dodged or ducked a good healthy debate if it is civil. I have published comments from people that were pretty ugly but I have deleted many comments that were hellishly so. And, of course these people with such nasty attitudes and harsh words claim to be Christians. I don’t cherish any more of those attacks when my offence is teaching the truth about what Christ has accomplished for sinful men.

Then there is the temptation to only write posts that will get high traffic counts. While I admit readily that I like readers, I don’t want to write subject matter just for increasing numbers. I have said previously that my first priority in blogging is selfish, it fulfills my desire to write, an exercise I enjoy immensely. I know the subjects that increase traffic but they are old and worn and serve no good purpose for the most part.

I don’t think Christian blogging needs another blog with daily devotionals and there are already blogs that are funny, give great glimpses into the lives of great families, and plenty that would seem to have the stated goal of stirring controversy. None of that appeals to me. I doubt the masses care what I had for breakfast or what the neighbor’s dog did yesterday.

So, I am faced with a few options. I can just stop blogging. Or, I can just blog much less than I once did (the option I have chosen most recently). Or I can completely change the way I blog and that choice presents another set of possibilities. If I choose the last option I can post cute little chatty type posts, top 10 lists, light commentary on news worthy events, etc, etc. Or, I can blog on themes, doing series on subjects that interest me. And of course another option is to keep blogging as I have and turn off comments.

The subject that fires me up is the good news about Jesus and that so many people, even people who claim him as Lord just don’t really know what the good news is. That subject is my passion but it is largely ignored by readers. Recently on GraceConversation I have posted lengthy (perhaps too lengthy, sorry guys) comments detailing my view of the gospel story and with few exceptions elicit only silence. My comments on other blogs and my posts are scriptural and I have few disagreements in print except for that minority who are to theology what pigs are to astronomy. So, why do it?

The bottom line is that I don’t enjoy blogging as I once did. I am trying to learn why that is and if I should only change or stop.

To blog or not to blog, that is the question.

Royce

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The United States of America – Still Blessed

July 5, 2009 · 4 Comments

flagIt  has become increasingly faddishto pontificate on the shortcomings of our great country. From the White House on down those who believe they alone hold the moral high ground and are so much smarter than the rest of of us, they have created a cabin industry of blaming America for everything imaginable. I cringe each time President Obama gives yet another “blame America first” talk while skillfully reading from a teleprompter. Fortunately the facts do not support the rants of socialist leaning pointy heads who think government is the answer to every question and America in the genesis of every world problem.

The hope and promise of America still is alive and well. Not only is it burning in the hearts of most Americans but people the world over still dream of being able to come to our shores to experience the opportunity of a better life and to share the freedoms that is our national birth right and history.

We, American citizens, are still the bravest, hardest working people on planet earth. Our common creativity and work ethic has given the world invention after invention and products and services that have made countless lives better.

The harshest critics of U.S. government policies and our American culture still pay the big bucks to send their children here to have them educated. From the whole earth those who can afford it come to the United States for the best health care on earth.

We are still the most generous people in the history of the world. Our giving both as a national government and privately is unrivaled in human history. Just in the last few weeks several people I know have gone abroad to help the less fortunate in amazing ways. And I just read in Christianity Today that charitable giving is still very, very strong in the face of the gloom and doom that is piped into our homes by the hour.

Our men and women have paid with life and limb to liberate millions from the tyranny of evil men and their oppressive regimes. We have done what no country has done that I am aware of and rebuilt the countries of our former enemies to the tune of trillions of dollars and the sacrifice of our people.

And, from our shores the good news about Chrsit has gone out to all the world and continues til this day. I am very aware things are changing, but we American believers have been the light on the hill for the worlds masses. We should never forget our history and the possibilities of our future.

Although our freedoms are eroding, we are still the freest people on earth in the history of man and our hopes and promise we still hold out to the worlds masses who will come here legally and with good intentions.

Do I think we are perfect as a people or deserve better than the downtrodden of other lands, absolutely not. Over the decades many of our citizens have adopted the morals of dogs and the erosion is growing. We, like all people, have made huge mistakes both in U.S. policy and implementation and as citizens. While that is true, I am weary of the constant barrage of nay sayers  whose delight is to innumerate all of the perceived ills and flaws of our people and our government.

Do we deserve God’s blessing for these past 233 years? NO! Are we somehow God’s chosen people? NO! Are we, or should we be a Christian nation? NO! No, we deserve what we have not received, that my friend is called God’s mercy. How long will this national experiment  that was dreamed by our forefathers survive? Only God knows.

With all of our faults, our warts and bumps, mixed with our good, there is no people on earth who are more free, more blessed, and have more to be thankful for. America is truly the home of the brave and the land of the free.

May God bless America.

A proud American,
Royce

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Three cords and the truth…

June 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

1818country_music

“Three cords and the truth” is the way one person once described country music. I think it is a fitting description.

On my birthday, June 27th, Carol and I visited the Country Music Hall of Fame in Music City. It is educational, entertaining, and for country music fans, Mecca.

The building is spectacular and alone worth seeing. We chose the audio tour and were able to listen to the stories and music of each display along the way. It is the history of an art form born of the experiences of simple people, the joys of life, but more often the struggles of making a living, relationships, and failed remedies for disappointment and heart ache.

In my childhood it was not uncommon to hear the twangy rhythms of guitars, banjos, and fiddles coming from front porches on summer nights. Atrip to the store often included a concert by the men who were drawn together by the music. The hills of North Carolina (my home), the hollers of West Virgina, and the smoky vistas of East Tennessee were then, and are now, accented by the sometimes mournful and sometimes joyful sounds of country music.

Be it Bluegrass, traditional country, or rock-a-billy, country music tells a story. It is the lives of country people on frets and bows and lyrics, transparent and laid bare. Love found and love lost, fighting and faith, hope and despair, tied to the music of the mountains that grips the human spirit.

Some only see this art form only as songs about dogs, pickup trucks, drinking, and mama in jail. I see it as an expose’ of the human quest for peace and happiness, most often ending in failure. I suppose it is the story of men and women who are looking for love in all the wrong places. (forgive me..)

Friday afternoon we strolled along Broadway in Nashville where wannabes, somebodies and nobodies, ply their trades in hopes of the big break. Street singers, one after another, pick a tune and sing a lyric, for a buck tossed into the guitar case. You will never see them on the Oprystage. But, at Tootsies open mike night, an occasional star is born. Dozens of bars with a stage for singers and players dot the street anchored by Tootsies Orchid Bar and Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop.

The highway from Tootsies or some other small venue to the Opry stage, or the Country Music Hall of Fame, is most often many years long and winds through broken hearts and shattered dreams deep into the valley where only the most determined keep plucking along.

Why do I like country music? It’s the people and places, the sounds and scenes, they tell my story in a unique way that has become part of who I am. No, I don’t endorse the themes of many songs but they are the truth, much more often than we are comfortable admitting.

Royce

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The Art of Flyfishing

June 30, 2009 · 6 Comments

brookTroutLast week I realized a dream and it was better than I could have imagined.

I went back to my roots in the mountains of Western North Carolina following in the footsteps of my father who was an accomplished fly fisherman.

I joined my good friend Don Yelton (WFR Relief director/AMEN founder) for two outings to hone my very limited skills with a fly rod. I was delighted to catch a native speckled trout on a dry fly, my first ever, and enjoy some of the most beautiful of God’s artistry.

We had contracted the services of a guide who was to take us on a float trip down the Watagua River in East Tenn but that plan was scrapped due to rising water because of power generation at the dam above. Instead we met our guide, a very nice guy named Lou, and traveled far back into the mountains to a secluded stream off the beaten path and only accessible by clients of the outfitters.

I am a novice fly fisherman, that day I believe was only my fourth time to fish with a fly rod. With Lou’s tips and education about the insects the trout were feeding on that morning I started casting the fly and hoping. I didn’t catch many trout, only three for the half day trip, but it was the half day of a life time!

I caught a very rare native brook trout, much like the one in the picture. It was so rare the guide would not have believed it without seeing it with his own eyes. In that stream, in that part of the country, a large native brook is exceptional. The colors were amazing! After admiring the beauty as much as we dared, Lou carefully lowered him into the chilly water and he returned to grow and fight again another day.

The last fish of the day was a gorgeous rainbow, a text book catch. It was the sort of catch a TV fishing host would want broadcast unedited. I cast a minnow impersonating fly in the swift current of a small water fall and let the torrent sweep it along until it settled in the slow water. On my 5th or 6th cast into the same spot, suddenly the line stopped and when I set the hook the fish jumped about five feet out of the water and the fight was on.

 Between me and this fat rainbow was very swift water and a 2 lb test leader. After many runs and more acrobatic jumps, Lou came with his net and finally I guided him into the net. This is the experience that causes men and women to spend hundreds of dollars and stumble on slick rocks in frigid water. Those two to five minutes will never be forgotten.

The day was completed by making a new friend and the fellowship of an old friend and taking in the beauty of creation that reflects the glory of Jesus Christ. “…by Him, and for Him, and it continues to be by His mighty power“.

enjoying the Life,
Royce

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The Silence of Scriptures

June 23, 2009 · 6 Comments

Tonight I received correspondence from a friend, a preacher at a mission church. A part of the statement that always appears on his posts says in part, “We speak where the Bible speaks and we are silent where the Bible is silent”. I just “googled” this phrase and 44,600 hits came up. Of course, this is a part of the “Restoration plea…..”.

Am I nuts? Wouldn’t almost all of the splits and quarrels among Restoration people not have happend if we practiced this principal? Lets be honest, I must agree with the preacher who quipped “.. and where the Bible is silent we have even more to say!“. How true!

It is most often those things the Bible does not address that become often as important or more important than the gospel.

What is it that drives people to place personal preferences and tradition on the same level of authority as what the Bible clearly teaches? I think it might be that they don’t really know what the Bible does say. Knowing  two dozen or so passages that are used over and over and over to prove up a few particular distinctives is a poor substitute for having  some understanding of the scheme of redemption revealed in the Bible.

NO! I don’t claim to know the whole Bible or even most of it. I do know that much of what some coC folks will fiight to the death over can’t be proved up by the Bible. What is needed in our churches is Bible preachers, not church preachers.

Royce

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