Ahh…there is hardly anything on earth that gives me more pleasure than hot biscuits. (I try to refrain from using the singular form of the noun, “biscuit”, since I avoid eating only one..)

My earliest memories include a pan of momma’s biscuits on the table. For more than 60 years her biscuits were as consistent as McDonald’s french fries. They were always fluffy and light and boy did they taste good! In her later years, mom made her biscuits on top of the stove in an aluminum pan. It is a hinged pan with two equal sides. She knew just the right amount of time for side A and then she would flip it over to side B and when they came out of that pan into the wicker basket they were perfect.

My dad’s lunch when he was a school boy was a biscuit sandwich of some sort. Sometimes jelly, or if they had it, a piece of pork. He loved those lunches and after many decades still had warm memories of grandma Ogle’s biscuits. He would be quick to tell you though that “Vivian’s are the best anywhere”.

Things are simpler now. A flat of Pillsbury biscuits at Sam’s Club is about $3.00, they are already cooked, and are delicious. They only need to be heated a bit and I think they are just as good as mamma’s. There is no need for the process, or the skill, of making them from scratch. You can go from hungry to munching on a wonderful biscuit in about 20 seconds!

Biscuits and gravy will surely be served at the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. How could a place really be heaven without biscuits and gravy? Carol serves up biscuits and gravy for my breakfast several times and month. Now some folks, mainly city slickers, think that sort of table fare isn’t good for you. Well, let me tell you something. This antique body is programmed to only run with perfect precision when fueled often with biscuits and pork grease.

Hot biscuits with butter and honey, with blackberry jelly, with peach preserves, or with apple butter are unbeatable. Once in a blue moon I’ll run across someone who knows what red-eye gravy is. A biscuit soaked in red-eye gravy is oh so good! My favorite I suppose is biscuits and gravy with eggs and sausage. I want the eggs over easy, the sausage spicy, and I break the biscuits in little pieces and cover the whole mess with gravy. That is right up there with good collard greens and corn bread!

Hey gals, want to make your feller happy! Give him biscuits, lots of biscuits, he’ll love you for it! I have never talked to a guy down at the service station who said “My wife makes the very best toast anywhere”. They say the way to a guy’s heart is his stomach. I’m pretty sure when God created stomachs the next thing he thought of was hot biscuits. There is no doubt biscuits have saved lots of marriages. You think I’m joking but nope, I really believe it.

See you at the local Cracker Barrel. I’ll be the old guy with a breakfast menu in my hand!

Royce

I am sick of our current liberal leadership in the U S Congress and the White House. And, I am just about equally as fed up with what is apparently their only possible opposition, the troop of people who want seats in the Congress and the Senate who are “Conservative Lite”.

I have a news alert for Republicans, Tea Party types or not. Blasting President Obama, trying to make much more of the Mosque debate than is rational, and making vague promises that mean nothing except that more hot air has been expelled an’t gonna cut it with the voters.

What Conservative will offer a list of entitlement programs he will work to cut if elected? What programs, (or departments) will you work to do away with? Don’t tell me you are going to cut the “rate of spending” or the spending “rate of growth”, that is not a cut. Don’t bother voters with political-speak, just be honest if possible. You have not cut spending unless the dollars spent last year is more than the dollars spent this year. Cutting the rate of growth in spending is still an increase. Do you think we are stupid?

There are things I like about Newt, Mitt, and Sarah, but give us some meat and potatoes we can believe. I am weary of fluff and noise with no substance. Unless Republicans or Independents can articulate a variety of positive, concrete, changes the American voter can buy into get ready for more of the same!

I’m waiting for a candidate who is more than hot air. Anyone can criticize President Obama and the Congress. It doesn’t take a great political mind to do that. Is there one statesman alive today? I don’t know one. If one person, male or female, straight or gay, will come to the platform and put America and her citizens first, and present an agenda for real change, I’ll support you and vote for you if I’m able. I’ll do everything I can to stop anyone who claims to be conservative and is only a donkey wearing an elephant head.

If anyone knows a potential Conservative Presidential candidate for 2012 who is Reagan-like, let me know. I am not aware of one yet.

I want (I don’t think I’m alone here…) the following:

• Less government, not slower growth of government.
• Less entitlement dollars spent, not less growth of spending
• Stronger Defense
• Someone who will work to enforce immigration law (someone who will fire anyone in his administration who uses the phrase “comprehensive immigration reform”.
• A candidate who if elected will actually honor and respect states rights.
• Someone who believes this country is a Constitutional Republic and governs as if they believe it.
• A person who will tell the UN to take a hike and run them out of the country. How could they be more useless?
• Someone who believes in the free enterprize system, who doesn’t believe profit is evil, who will admit in public that Al Gore is a bag of wind, and who has the courage to call our national enemies out by name.

Well, I want more, but this would do for a start. We are in big time trouble!

American citizen,

Royce ogle

By almost any measure I am an old man. By the calendar, the scars, the painful joints, and the odometer, I have been here for a while!
But, I am not done yet!

Things I would like to do, or have, but probably will not.

1. Own a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. The Little General vetoes this one.
2. Own or build a 1937 Ford flat-back sedan street rod. Bank account says “No way Jack!”
3. Visit Scotland, the home of my ancestry. Maybe…
4. Get a tattoo. I don’t have an answer! I just like a meaningful, tasteful tat, that’s all.
5. Catch a bass over 14 lbs. Could January be the magic time?
6. Live to see my 6 grandchildren grown up. …and be healthy when I get there.
7. Spend a day on the lake with Hank Parker.
8. Compete in a NASCAR race. Hey! It’s my list!
9. Hike the Appalachian Trail with my brother. At least several miles of it.
10. Have dinner with Newt Gingrich.

Things I should do and can do but probably will not.

1. Write poetry again.
2. Write content on GraceDigest.com that is what I enjoy, and less what I think needs to be written.
3. Write a book. This is a completely selfish pipe dream and I don’t even have a pipe!
4. Seek out more preaching opportunities. It helps me stay focused on what is most important.
5. Smile more on purpose even when it doesn’t come easy.
6. Stay in touch with old friends even when they don’t respond in like kind. I need what they offer, even when it’s difficult to get it from them.
7. Watch the news on TV less. I have actually been doing much better on this one. It makes me negative and cynical.
8. Give more attention to focused prayer, especially intercession. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray He taught them to intercede for others and he taught them to pray together.
9. Encourage more prayer in the small groups I am a part of.
10. Become a better man. Trust me, I know where to start.

Things I regret.

Oh sure, I have a list but I’m not telling you! If you really think you need to know ask God, I told him.

I am full of thanksgiving for all the manifest ways God has blessed my life. I completely understand that I don’t deserve one tiny good thing, every good thing is a symbol of God’s grace toward me.

I have nothing legitimate to complain about. My life is full and rich and wonderful. Tomorrow will be another chapter in a love story about a God who loved a sinner and showed it.

Royce

This is where I worship.  On the pulpit there is an inscription, “It’s not about me”. It really is about the cross.

WFR is a place where you have the absolute freedom to be you. No one needs to put on a front, you know, a “church face” to be accepted and loved. It’s a church that loves people where they are, like they are, with no promised expectation.

This couple is an elder and his wife. They lead our Celebrate Recovery Ministry. Mac and Mary Owen are two of the reasons I love Whites Ferry Road church. They are two ordinary people with an extraordinary passion for helping the down and out find Jesus and abundant life.

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The guy below is an elder too. He is a famous duck hunter, duck call maker and has the number one show on the Outdoor Channel. He is also a guy with a passion to tell as many people as possible that “There is a way out of here alive” as he puts it when he preaches to thousands every year all across America and in foreign countries.Phil Robertson and Mac Owen are two unlikely characters God has chosen to use to get the good news about what Jesus has accomplished to helpless and hopeless sinners. Regular guys, passionate about Jesus, another couple of reasons I love where I worship.

“Two preachers for the price of ….two”. We have two preachers, who are also elders. Alan Robertson and Mike Kellett share the pulpit, sometimes together, and sometimes alone, but always with simple, honest Bible messages. Grace focused, Christ honoring, preaching is what we get every Sunday. They think “ego” is a substitute for eggs at breakfast! Good, down to earth guys, who love the folks and love God.

Well, I could go on for hours, I know and worship with scores of great people! Some as odd as home made soap, but most are sincere followers of Jesus who have learned to love deeply, forgive quickly, and enjoy being Christ’s child on the way to heaven.

At WFR it is entirely possible to embrace our Restoration Movement roots without disliking other Christians who aren’t exactly like us.

On a Sunday morning you will likely see dozens of people surround those who come forward to ask for prayer, confess some sin, to be baptized, or to share a victory. I think of our auditorium as “the family room”.

WFR church is a place where you can be you, the real you, and you will not be rejected if the real you is a flawed, sometimes sinful, person. You will be loved, forgiven, encouraged, and hugged…over and over and over until the light of God’s amazing love comes on in your life.

The stories of God’s redemption are legend. The reach of these usual people is unusual and world wide. Come by for a visit. If you don’t stay you’ll probably wish you could. It’s a grace place with few rules. Love God and love your neighbor and tell someone the good news. That’s about it.

For ten years my wife and I have been loved and supported and have enjoyed one of the most unusual churches in America. We are so blessed to worship at White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ.

Royce