Monthly Archives: June 2010

Jun 30 2010

The Little Church that Could…


If you see your sister church with more kids than the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, temporary BP workers that need transportation to their jobs on the coast, and many, many who need a ride to church on Sunday and Wednesday, and you say to her, “Fill it up! and Happy Motoring!” and your spare van sits idle and doing no good, what have you accomplished?

The Hemley Road Church of Christ in Bayou La Batre, Alabama desperately needs another good van. They have a good one and two that are pretty much used up. In addition to their regular and ongoing need for transportation they are now trying to help members and neighbors get to their temporary jobs. Many of the citizens in Bayou La Batre either don’t have a vehicle or can’t afford to keep it on the road.

The University Church in Shreveport gave them a nice van not many months ago but it is essential to their ministry that they have one more good, solid van that needs no work to make it serviceable. If you know of any possibilities please comment and I’ll get the message to the folks in Bayou La Batre.

The town is getting lots of attention. Daphne German was on CNN last night and will be on the Today Show on Thursday a.m.  The networks are swarming the coastal area looking for a scoop. We are glad for the publicity for the work there.

Many naysayers wrote this little church off long ago, others hinted there was no way they could make it, but they have trusted God and He has provided. And, He will provide this time too.

Thanks for your consideration and prayers.

For Jesus,
Royce

Royce

Jun 27 2010

Are you a good lover?


The most well-known New Testament verse in the Bible begins with the words “God so loved the world…” It does not say simply that God loved, it says He “so loved“. That is He loved in such a way that the expression of His love is the apex of time and eternity. He “so loved” less than lovable people so that He would come to earth leaving the splendor of the heavenlies, meeting all of His own just demands, living up to His own standard for righteousness, taking upon Himself the short comings of every person, then becoming an accursed one dying outside the city as a common criminal.

God “so loved”…. What about you? What about me?

The great love chapter, a favorite reading at weddings, begins as it ends, with the superiority of being a lover. In the first part of the chapter (1 Corinthians 13) the great Apostle says if he becomes the best orator ever, without being a lover he is only making irritating noise. And, he said if he knew everything, past, present, and future and yet was not a good lover he would be zero, nothing. Then before he explains the God/love he says that if he had enough faith to move a mountain, gave everything he had to the poor, and became a martyr burned at the stake he would have gained nothing.

Wow, doesn’t this pretty much wipe out much of what modern religion is? I mean, isn’t the things he mentions what we strive for to a large degree?

We better start Loving!

Jesus, when asked “What is the greatest commandment?” answered this.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:37-40)

Do you love theology? I do. Have you spent many years learning the Bible, exploring the richness of its treasures? I have. It’s a waste of time without being a good lover. The Law and the Prophets have no meaning without love.

Paul ends the great chapter on love with these words.

“Love never ends”

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:8a, 13)

You and I have a lot of loving to do don’t we? Where is the next object of your love? Someone at work, a neighbor, a relative, a friend?

Remember God “so loved“. Unless love is a verb it is nothing more than a sham, some warm emotion that is fleeting and will never make any sacrifice for another, including God. We too, you and I, must “so love” that others can tell it. And when we do we will have in that act loved God.

Be a somebody, go love someone!

Because God so loved,

Royce


Jun 26 2010

I am officially old!


It’s a 1945 model, from North Carolina, and like me, still running strong!

June the 27th of 1945 my daddy was in the tobacco field when my mother started into labor. He threw down his hoe and as quickly as possible made the 25 mile drive to Spruce Pine to the doctor’s office. He was the closest who could properly deliver a baby and even had 8 beds in the back room of his office for expectant moms and those who were new moms. I entered the world at 11:oo a.m. that day. My father met me the next day. He dropped my mom off and went right back to the tobacco patch to get his work done.

If I can live my life as humble as my beginnings I’ll be OK. I was born to mountain people in one of the poorest parts of the country but my people were some of the greatest people who ever lived. They were honest through and through, worked very hard, and had faith in God. At least some of that rubbed of on me and now 65 years later I can say that I wouldn’t change much if I could.

My life has given me a generous helping of hard times, disappointments, rejection of some of those I loved most, and as is true in every long life, I’ve been to far to many funerals. The most significant was the one for my Jeanine in 1997. And, I’m happy to report, I have been blessed by God and treated very well by most of the people I have ever known.

I have arrived at age 65 in excellent health for a guy my age. Even with low maintainance and very high mileage, with the exception of  some cosmetic flaws and some joints that are reminders of too much fun in my youth, I am running straight up and into the wind.

I have not blogged much in the past couple of weeks. I have had grandsons here, my daughter in the hospital (a wonderfully successful surgery behind her now, thank God!) and other responsibilities that have taken me away from the keyboard.

Writing continues to be a blessing to me personally and so I’ll continue to blog some, write some letters to old friends and a few who need a friend, and do what I can to point people to Jesus.

If I could hit the rewind button on the reel of my life….. I would surrender more fully to God, strive to become more holy, and better represent Christ to a watching world. Had I done that well the other parts of my history that I’m not proud of would likely not be there.

God is faithful! Christ has rescued me from myself and my moral failures and has given me life that doesn’t flinch at the undertaker. Christ is my life, my blessed hope, my assurance, my peace, my joy, and my constant and consistent advocate in heaven. I am safe in Him, saved.

Some day if the Lord doesn’t return first, I’ll make my last ride in a Cadillac or a Lincoln but I’ll be horizontal. I don’t look forward to that day but neither do I fear it even a tiny bit. So, I look forward to many great years ahead with joy and blessing watching my grandchildren grow up, enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, catching lots of fish, and loving the people God puts in my pathway.

So, like a good old pick up that stands the test of time, I’m not what I once was but I’m ready for the next trip.

May God’s best be experienced in your life for Jesus sake.

Royce

Jun 20 2010

The Gospel Filled Wallet, What the Bible really says about money – A Review


The Gospel Filled Wallet is like a dish pan of cold water in the face of anyone who claims to love God. At a minimum, this little book is a “gut check” for the believer.

Jeff Weddle takes an honest, thorough, look at what God says about money and people’s natural attachment to it. He begins with this biblical principal, “You can’t love God and money”, you will serve who, or what, you love.

Weddle examines verse after verse in the Bible with simple, frank commentary, and with each page your vision will become more and more clear concerning how you personally think about money and riches.

I especially appreciate the author’s transparency. He readily admits that he struggles with money in the light of God’s truth. (I hate reading books where the author comes across as “holier than thou”)

The Gospel Filled Wallet does not examine everything God says about money and a Christians relationship to it, but it absolutely gets to the heart of the problem by citing many verses from the Bible and by looking at the lives of many biblical characters. This book pulls back the curtain and reveals a professing church that is very far off base when it comes to wealth.

I have been challenged to reexamine my heart and how I use what God has provided. I recommend the work and hope that everyone who reads it will in the end love and serve God more and use their blessings more wisely to God’s glory.

Weddle’s writing style is simple, bite sized, and easy to digest. The book is available at Amazon.com and other outlets and the author has a blog with the same name where he talks more about this subject.

This book is a project of Transforming Publishing and my friend Milton Stanley. Milton blogs at Transforming Sermons and is well known around Christian blogdom. He is an author as well and I look forward to other books to follow as Transfroming Publishing gets its feet on the ground. If Milton Stanly publishes it, I recommend it.

Agape’

Royce Ogle