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May 30 2011

Political Correctness and Men With Lacey Underwear


I have had my fill of “Political Correctness“! And, I am equally fed up with those who live every waking moment afraid they might offend someone. In my view there are lots of folks who need to be offended.

Today I read a tweet from a Dallas area preacher wondering if it is wrong for a church to display an American flag in church. After all it might offend someone. There might be a passivist in the crowd. Yes, Rev, and there could even be someone who hates America in the audience too. Well guess what, you have offended me!

Political correctness and the herd mentality have walked hand in hand into our everyday lives and into our houses of worship. Preachers avoid certain Bible topics because they are so afraid of offending someone. News Flash!! There are topics in the Bible designed to offend! Jesus promised that the good news about him would be offensive to many, if not most. Preacher, if you aren’t ever offending anyone you should be worried. I am not elevating the presence of the American flag to the level of importance of the gospel. I am saying that being paralyzed by the fear of offending someone is foolish.

In our politically correct culture and even in our churches we are largely following the “herd mentality“. Consensus is the rule and the result is that the herd (or congregation, or small group) never rises above the level of the smallest mind in the herd. What is desperately needed in our governments and in our churches is bold leadership. We need men and women who make judgments, take risks, and lead based on principles and not on the direction of the political wind.

Several members of my family have given their blood in defense of the country the American Flag represents. And it is true of almost every family in any church in the United States. Even the hint that it is wrong to have an American flag in a church building, especially on this day, is insulting.

Royce Ogle – A proud American

 

May 27 2011

Top 10 Posts of All Time


Questions churches should ask when hiring a preacher but don’t.
Church of Christ? What is it?
3 Baptisms in Acts 2
The Palen pick, risky or brilliant?
The Parade of Pharisees
How to build a 1st Century church in the 21st Century
Jay Guin, Change Agent
Before the Throne of God I Stand
God is angry!
The future of Progressive churches of Christ?

 

________________________

I am surprised that some of these posts continue to get read almost every day. I have written others that in my opinion were far better. Maybe the title wasn’t as interesting, or perhaps it was the categories or tags I used?

For whatever reason I am honored and humbled to still have readers. That my personal therapy is interesting to others, and even helpful and enlightening to a few, is indeed appreciated deeply.

June 29th will mark my 5th year as a blogger. I remember that I almost quit once. I’m glad some of my friends encouraged me to continue. Even if I didn’t publish here I would still write my thoughts.

Thank you readers (The vast majority never have commented, less than 1% do) for continuing to read the musings of an old man who loves Jesus.

Royce Ogle
Monroe, LA

 
May 24 2011

The Quick Fix


A frantic call comes to the counselors office, “I need to talk to someone. My husband might be having an affair and I am so worried…” Eventually, a 30 ish couple sits before the counselor and one after the other they punch and counter punch, shifting blame, denying responsibility, and once they have finally aired their laundry, they both look at the professional fixer of broken people and their faces ask “What now?”

The man and his wife were raised by parents who were careful to not offend their child’s sensibilities, resulting in few hard rules, and blurred limits that resulted in controlled chaos. The wife’s parents ruled by consensus with each member of the family having a voice in solving any problems. The husband’s mother is a domineering woman married to a man who is passive personified. The result is two children who are immature, spoiled, and every slight bump in the road of life causes them both to quickly play the victim card. Everything is someone else’s fault.

The counselor, now two and a half years into his practice, is a trained professional. His specialized training fits this case perfectly. Had they not both already declared each is a victim he would have done it for them. What he knows is that everyone’s social problems as adults are not really their fault but a result of childhood emotional trauma.

This husband and wife just wasted a large fee because they are sitting in the office of a person who is not equipped to tell them the truth but will only play to their weaknesses. The counselor is frustrated too because he knows this couple is headed for divorce court and he can do little to stop it. He will spend the next six weeks asking the wrong questions, gathering data that us useless. Information is not the answer, truth is.

I think in most cases a “Christian Counselor” is better than one who is not a Christian. I know for sure that a “Biblical Counselor” is better than a “Christian Counselor”. He or she may be a PhD with a certification in family therapy. Or it might be a pastor, some other church leader, or a trusted friend who is brave enough to tell troubled people the truth. A trained counselor who happens to be a Christian is far different from a trained counselor who is a “Biblical counselor”.

The problem with failed marriages is almost always SIN. There are often as in this example sins of infidelity and other “big sins”. But there is also selfishness, unforgiveness, lying, and a host of others that cause couples who were once deeply in love to look for a way out. It takes courage to look someone in the eye and tell them the obvious but it needs to be done.

Divorce is at epidemic levels even among evangelical Christians. The bad news is that the trend will continue as long as church leaders accept unrepentant people whose lives are full of sin as members in good standing in their congregations. The Quick Fix is divorce. Just hire an attorney, tell the kids, split up the stuff, and move on. The problem isn’t solved. Yes, a marriage is dissolved. But, one or more people leaves the court-house still in rebellion against the former spouse and God.

A Christian man and a Christian woman, both of whom are walking in the Spirit, are daily experiencing, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A person who is living in this reality does not have divorce on his or her mind. It is the person who is experiencing some of these things, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like who is ready for the Quick Fix.

A person who has a sin filled life needs to hear one word plainly and forcefully, Repent! Our churches are filled with Christians who are trying desperately to live the Christ life in the energy and resources of the flesh. It has never worked and it will not work. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit is it possible to live in the victory of the Christ life. We are to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Christians are to live their lives in happy submission to each other and especially so in marriage.

There is little doubt that if two troubled people will sincerely repent, forsaking every known sin and asking their God to fill them with himself, they can do what is necessary to save a holy union. Paul encouraged the Ephesians saying,

“put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self,created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
(Ephesians 4:22-24)

A believer can live like the old person or like the new person created to please God. Don’t go for the Quick Fix. Honestly, the best you know how, confess your sins and purpose to turn away from them and trust God to change you into the person you really want to be.

I write this as one who long ago was in a divorce court. I have many, many friends who are divorced, some as many as 3 times. It isn’t right. It is against God and his will. I do hope we, all of us who call Christ our Lord, will try to do things God’s way and not our way which always fails.

Royce Ogle

May 10 2011

Blessed Assurance – 1st John (4th post)


The basis of our fellowship with Him (God) and with each other.

 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)

Fellowship is not based on our doing but rather upon our being. A casual glance at this familiar passage might lead you to think the opposite is true, but a closer look makes the basis of fellowship clear.

“If we say…” can be far different from what we are in reality. Those who are Christ’s have a lifestyle that proves up that relationship. Those who “say” one thing and live another are liars. Our churches have impostors among the true believers. One “practices truth” and the other lives a lie. How a person lives always proves who he is.

Those who “walk in the light” are those who know the source of light. They have fellowship with God and with each other. No amount of good works will change one from darkness to light. God is light and those who are in union with Christ live in that light.

We are very good at setting boundaries of fellowship that only reflect our immaturity and not God’s intentions. Jesus prayed for his faith-followers in John 17 saying,

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 17:20-23)

Becoming a oneness community is based on our relationship to God through Christ, not on our worship, views of certain doctrines, or other preferences. What we “do” rises from who we “are” and whose we are, not the reverse.

(to be continued)

living in light,

Royce