Author Archives: 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

Jun 12 2010

Praise the LORD!


Psalm 150

Let Everything Praise the LORD
Praise the LORD!
Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

It is the view of many that we who are Christians should not praise God with everything. Musical instruments in their understanding are excluded. (I assume they would forbid dance as a way to praise the Lord too…)

The Bible says to praise God with musical instruments and even dance. Who decided this form of praising God is no longer valid?

If instruments are so wrong why would the symbolism of harps and trumpets be used in the book of Revelation which is a glimpse into eternity future?

Some even say whole churches will be lost because they have a piano or guitar accompany singing in worship. And, almost unbelievably they argue the point from what the Bible does not say.

I seriously doubt that Psalm 150 only applied to ancient people thousands of years ago. God is worthy of our praise and He alone has the prerogative of deciding what is fitting as His creatures praise him.

Royce

Jun 5 2010

The Secret of Christian Unity


You are probably asking, “What! Another article on unity? Why?” Yes, because I think most of the articles, blog posts, and even books miss the core meaning of Christian unity.

Parts of Ephesians 4 are usually quoted where Paul instructed the Ephesian believers to “maintain” the unity of the Spirit in verse 4 and in verse 13 he spoke of the goal of Christian ministry being to “attain” unity.

I think this definition of the English word is very accurate, and in the context of this brief study.

“Unity is defined as the state of being undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting. It is the smallest whole numeral representation. It has the quality of being united into one. Unity can denote a combining of all the parts, elements and individuals into an effective whole.” (Wikipedia)

I appreciate most this statement, “It is the smallest whole numeral representation”. That would be the word “one” used to describe the many.

So then how you worship, what church you attend, or even your conclusions on a particular Bible doctrine are not causes, or even clues of Christian unity. Many of us have a list of beliefs and practices that others must comply with before we can unify with them. That is not “unity”, that is “uniformity”. Saying the same things and doing the same things doesn’t even come close to making  believers “one”.

A careful and thoughtful reading of Jesus’ prayer for his own in John 17 shines the light on true Christian unity as well as any place in the Bible. Hear his words…

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20–24)

Here it is! Just as the Father and the Son are “one” those of us who have Christ are “one”. Unity begins and has its source in our individual relationships with Jesus Christ. If you are not one with God, through Christ, you can’t have unity with another Christian. It is this supernatural love relationship that results in “unity”, not the observable expressions of our faith like which church we attend, how we worship, what we approve or disapprove, etc., etc.

Every true Christian is one with God the Father, one with Jesus, and because of that infinite oneness, one with every other person who is in Christ. This is why Jesus would say these astonishing words about God’s love for us.

“…and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23b)

When I first understood what Jesus had said in his great prayer I could hardly take it in. God loves me like he loves Jesus! God loves you dear believer with the same unpolluted divine love he has for his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Wow! That is the bedrock of Christian unity. “God so loved the world…” It is that God-love that brings us together and binds us and creates the lowest number to describe God and his people, “One!”

Unity is a love gift, it is the ultimate expression of God’s matchless grace. God was in Christ who with one hand holding on to God the Father and with the other hand holding on to wicked, ungodly sinners he brought the two together making them “one”. We have been “reconciled”, “set right” with God by the doing and dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this happened outside of us without our schemes and abilities.

So you see, you don’t have the latitude to decide who you will have fellowship with, who you will love. Any place on earth where you find a person who is rightly related to Jesus, who is at peace with God, you by family relationship are united to that person.

If  you are in the family of God, rejoice and give thanks for God’s amazing grace. If you are not in the family, come on in. You will be welcome at the table.

Agape’

Royce