Author Archives: Royce

Jun 18 2007

Daddy


In the early morning hours of May 7, 1993 my father was promoted into the presence of Jesus. After being without him for over 14 years I still miss his voice on the phone, his stories, and his encouragement. And, on Father’s Day I especially miss him.

One of 13 children, dad grew up in the hills of Yancey County North Carolina in a pioneer world that I never experienced but only heard about from daddy, momma, grand parents and uncles and aunts. Life in the mountains was hard, the winters cold, the cupboard often bare, but a crop that seemed to flourish was character.

My father, (always called “Daddy” by my brother and I, and most of the time by my mom) was the most honest man I have ever known. He was always truthful, always generous with the little he had, always a faithful husband and he was always my hero.

We were not close during my childhood. My dad worked harder than any person I have ever known and he fished and hunted with the same intensity. Often, there was little time for me in those early years. By the time he seemed to want to have a relationship with me I had discovered fast cars, girls, and neon lights.

When I was in my mid 30’s I had been praying for and talking to daddy about Christ for almost a decade or so and seemingly to no avail. Finally, in a little country church on a Sunday night, my father made his peace with God and he was wonderfully converted to Christ.

From that day until his last day he was a faithful witness to the love and grace of God and my best friend. I experienced for the first time the love of my earthly father and it was consistent and worderful. I watched as my dad bravely and expectantly faced a terminal illness with never an obvious fear or hint of uncertianty. He was well prepared to die and had made every provision possible so that mom would be well cared for.

By any standard by which you can measure the greatness of a man, my dad was the best. He was a tough as they get but as tender hearted as any man I’ve known. His compassion for those who did not have a relationship with Christ was one of his most well known traits. His last known conversation before he went on to be with the Lord was to plead with tears with his cousin to take Christ’s gift of forgiveness and salvation and to meet him in heaven. I was happy to learn that just a few months later that cousin was born again and was full of joy when he told me personally about dad telling him about Jesus.

I have had a wonderful day today with gifts from my daughter and visits from my 3 grandsons and then a private dinner this afternoon with just Papa and Corbin, one of my twin grandsons. I had great conversations on the phone with my son and his wife and with my son-in-law, all telling me they love and appreciate me.

I have had a great Father’s Day but I really, really miss daddy today.

Grace to you,
Royce Ogle 06/17/07

Jun 6 2007

Bayou La Batre update…


Last Friday Carol and I drove to Bayou La , Alabama to spend the weekend with the believers there and the volunteers who were there to help. It was a blessed weekend of new beginnings.

First, the little congregation met for the first time for services in their soon to be “own” building. Members of the El Campo Church of Christ from El Campo, Texas came to spend a week working in the relief effort and part of that work was to hang dry wall, tape and bed, and expand the kitchen in the fellowship hall. They did marvelous work and we gladly met together in the fellowship hall to worship and enjoy fellowship. The El Campo gang are wonderful people who love Jesus and others with all their hearts. I know that my friend John McCord, the preacher there, is very proud and thankful for such wonderful folks.

People from Hill Top Rescue and Relief and Servants Unite were also in attendence as well. One of our co-ministers at Whites Ferry Road Church in West Monroe, Bro’ Alan Robertson, preached a great message of encouragement. He and his wife Lisa enjoyed meeting the people Carol and I have loved for so long.

At the invitation, a young girl responded, requesting to be baptised. It was my joy to baptise her in the Gulf after the service. Then on Monday, after we were back in Monroe, we received the glad news that two of the girl’s cousins were baptised as well. I had shared the good news with these three young ladies on Saturday and I am delighted to have these children in the faith.

The name of the Bayou La Batre church will soon be changed to Hemley Road Church of Christ. The most obvious reason is the new location and building which is on Hemley Road in Bayou La Batre. Then, there is the chance for a new beginning, leaving the past in the past with all its problems, and looking to the future.

The revovery work of Bayou Recovery Project and of the infant congregation is making great strides. Friends, mostly believers, though some are not, have given and worked very hard to make things better for the people of the Bayou area. What a wonderful opportunity to share Christ when “not-yet-believers” come to help work on houses along side Christians.

Perhaps another $50,000 is urgently needed to complete the purchase of the building and to do the minimum repair work to make it functional. If your congregation has not been involved in missions recently, or if you want to increase your missions effort, there is no more worthwhile place you can put the Lord’s money.

Satan has fought on every front from without and within but Christ is daily giving victory after victory for which we are humbled and thankful. There are some whose only motive appears to be to preserve tradition without regard for others who get damaged in their wake. God will sort them out. We keep sowing the good seed of the good news about Jesus, actively loving the people right where they are in the physical and spiritual debris of live, and God continues to bless beyond our expectations and dreams.

In the small corner of the kingdom of God where we live and work, Carol and I want to make much of Christ and his love for sinners. We have no agenda other than His agenda, to seek and save that which was lost and to bind up the broken hearted along the way with hugs, smiles, encouragement, and hope for today and forever.

When you go to your secret place to talk to God, please mention us to Him and the work we love so much. When the sun sets on our last day on earth my earnest hope is that we have made a difference for time, and for eternity.

Grace to you,
Royce Ogle

May 25 2007

Give me that old time religion…..?


“It was good enough for my mother and its good enough for me, give me that old time religion, give me that old time religion.” My earliest memories of church include hearing that song at home prayer meetings, little country churches, and the front porches of rough wooden houses in the Blue Ridge hills of North Carolina.

 But do we really want that “Old time religion”?

 I fear that most of what was experienced then, and much of what is experienced now, is just that, “religion”. In my view religion is a series of attempts to find favor with God. In other words, it is trying to do some act, or several acts with a view of getting God to like us, or perhaps to even love us. The opposite of religion is Christianity which  is God’s perfect work of setting undeserving trangressors right with Himself and entering into a loving relationship with them through Christ and wholly upon Christ’s merit.

 Are you religious or are you in a loving relationship with God through Jesus? What is passed off as Christianity in many places is nothing more or less than “that old time religion”. What motivates your Sunday morning attendence at church  services? Duty or love? If you attend and sing 3 to 5 songs, give some money, listen to 2 or 3 prayers, participate in the  Lord’s Supper, and listen to the preacher, have you really worshipped? Is that what worship is about, doing things? I will  readily admit that all of these 5 things can be worshipful, but the simple doing of them is not necessarily worship.

 You  see, a lost person can do those things quite well, and even more according to Jesus’ own words. (Matthew 7:21-23) Jesus made it quite clear that not everyone who says he or she is a Christian really is. (Matthew 7:21)

 Paul’s letter to the church at Rome made it clear that worship is much more than tagging the bases on Sunday. He characterized worshippers as “living sacrifices” whose lives are marked with holy living. This he says is “reasonable” acts of service, or a better translation is “spiritual service of worship”. (Romans 12:1,2) Worship is spiritual according to Jesus. (John 4:21-24) He said God “is seeking” people to worship Him who will worship in “spirit” and in “truth”. 

We flesh bound humans tend to go to one extreme or the other. We either lean heavily on the “spirit” part of the equation, resulting in many of the problems Paul addressed in the Corinthian church related to giftedness and the use of spiritual gifts, or we put far to much emphasis on “truth” at the expense of “Spirit” and go through the motions “having
 a form of Godliness but denying His power”. (2 Timothy 3:5) The context Paul was addressing to young Timothy was false teachers but the principal applies to all of us. Jesus made it clear when He spoke of those who honor Him with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him. (Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6) I ask this, are the people who only go through  the motions on Sunday morning with hearts far from God in any better standing with God than the ones who are moral, don’t use bad language, raise good kids, and do good works through a civic club like the Lions Club or some other?

 It is clear that many do think so, and not only do they believe they are right, but also believe they are far superior to everyone else, even other “Christians”. Now, let me quickly add that I can’t see a persons heart as Christ can. But an honest, casual observer can spot a sham with little effort.

 Christ died in your place and mine, not to make actors but to give everlasting life to spiritually dead sinners whose lives were an offence to a Holy God. He did not come to offer a new start but rather a new heart.

How sad to be religious but lost. Jesus gave a parable about a sheepfold and the way in by “The good Shepherd” (John 10:1-16) Those who try to enter by their own faithfulness, their own “doing”, will be lost. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me”. (John 14:6).

 All of the religion of a thousand worlds, the good deeds of every person, and the faithfulness of the best of human history can not give life to the dead. (Ephesians 2:1-4)

 “Give me that old time religion”? No, give me Jesus!

Grace to you,
Royce