Tag Archives: faith

Jan 17 2026

The Simplicity of the Gospel of Christ


When asked about salvation, or the gospel, teachers, preachers, and seminary scholars will immediately refer to any number of scripture passages and then tell you what they think it means. And, I might add, they do it for good reason. The Bible is filled with teaching about this topic and if you read the Bible much they are hard to miss. Many people will select John 3 to make their case for salvation. It is a great chapter. I can’t get past John 1. That’s where I drive my stake in the ground.

The Gospel of John, the latest of the gospels, was written some 40 years after Jesus lived on earth and ascended to the Father. Most scholars agree the writer was John the disciple of Jesus from the great city of Ephesus. What a book! It begins with teaching about the divinity of Jesus, his eternal attributes, and ends with the resurrection. John covers only a few of the great miracles (Signs) of Jesus the God man and ends with these words in the 20th chapter.

“30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” This is the heart of the good news about Jesus and God’s work through Him for the sake of ungodly sinners. Being saved by believing doesn’t fit some denominational particulars and others will insist that there is much more. Before someone’s eyes bleed will you stay with me for a while?

Before we get wrapped up into a fury let’s take a deep breath and go back to a passage of scripture in John 1.

“11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

This is the way God saves sinners. It was true 40 or so years after Jesus left earth and went back to the side of the Father. It was true on the day of his resurrection, it was true on the day of Pentecost, and it is true today. He doesn’t have any other way to make a sinner fit for heaven. So…let’s take a look at what is said here.

“His own people” , the Jews largely rejected Him. Why? He didn’t fit their religious mold. Their merit based religious acts meant nothing to Him. When questioned by a member of the Jews’ highest court Jesus insisted that Nicodemus and everyone else needed to be born again. And how were they to do that? Not by another birth like the one he had already had but by simply believing, John 3:14–16

[14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

How many times does God need to say it? You must grapple with this question. Is Jesus enough? Of course he is, but by thousands and millions of people, even religious people, just can’t accept that Jesus is enough. Many, many people, well meaning people, think Jesus needs some help. So they go through rites and rituals, they chant some words to impress upon God how faithful they are, they baptize, they adhere strictly to their group’s rules, they keep holy days, they stick to dietary rules, they give money, all in a failed effort to get God to like them more than he already might. And, listen carefully, it’s all a waste of time and proves to God that you don’t think what God accomplished in the doing and dying of Jesus is quite enough. So you reject his offer of believing in Jesus.

“All” who receive Him, “All” who believe have the God given right to become children of God. Not by the will of the “flesh”, not of the will of “man” but of God.

If you have not already, will you become the “Who” of John 1:12,13

The “who” received Him are the “who” that believed in Him are the “who” that become children of God and have been born again so they also have new life, eternal life, through the one who alone could say “I am the life”.

In Jesus,

Royce Ogle

Jan 23 2024

Some things I know about heaven… and some things I don’t know


How much should I be expected to know? Not much. The following Bible passage discourages me from getting all bent out of shape because my knowledge of heaven is …well…limited.

9 But as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV)

If no one has seen it, no one has heard all about it, and no one has even imagined it, I’m not too disappointed that I’m not an expert on heaven. Having said that, God has given us just enough of a glimpse to peak our curiosity and cause us to be keenly interested. You will see in the remainder of this writing that my “knowing: is mixed with my “ignorance”. I will try to be honest so if you discover an untruth or something that needs correction, by all means drop a comment and tell me. (I have thick skin)

Some things I know

God Made it. In the first verse of the Bible we learn that God made the earth and the heavens in one swoop. In one sentence earth and all above the earth was created. But what is it and where is it? Well that’s something I don’t know. I told a friend recently that “it’s North of here” pointing upward. I believe there is the heavens (plural) which consists of what we can observe with our eyes and the best telescopes from the most distant platforms. I saw three Bible verses that mentioned the “heaven of heavens” and Paul mentioned “the third heaven”. I still don’t know where it is and to say more about that would be futile.

I was recently thinking that if someone told me to point toward heaven I would go outside and point my finger upward toward the sky and maybe I would be right. However, if a guy in Australia was asked the same question he would do the same thing i did, but because the earth is a round planet we would be pointing in exactly opposite directions. Go figure…

It’s God’s headquarters

The throne of God is there, angels are there, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is there. He sits on the right hand of God. Does he sit all the time or is that figurative? Jesus is still God/man. He is still in the flesh and he is there. In Matthew 6 the “Lord’s Prayer” is recorded. I think it is more correct to call it the “disciples prayer”. But Jesus was warning his disciples to not be hypocrites by praying, giving, and fasting to be seen of men. And in that discourse he suggested how his disciples should pray beginning with “Our Father who is in heaven” . Then later in the prayer “…thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. So there is no doubt that heaven is where God is. Mysteriously He is also everywhere else too. Think about that for a while!

Wherever the location of heaven is, it’s temporary!

Yes, you read that correctly. At some point in the future God is going to destroy the earth and the heavens and move his kingdom to the new earth he will create.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice saying “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, or the former things have passed away”. (Revelation 21 1-4 ESV)

Wow, what a packed 4 verses. We can learn much here.

God will not be distant any longer. He will live with his people

There will be no more sea

The new city of God will be the new Jerusalem

There will be no tears

There will be no death

There will be no mourning

There will be no crying

There will be no pain

All former things have passed away

That is quite a lot we can know about heaven but there is more…

According to none other than Jesus

There will be no marriages, no weddings in heaven.

“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven (Matthew 22:30 ESV)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the husband you love so very much will not be your husband in heaven. My deceased wife Jeanine Kay will be only a sibling. I see so many posts by friends on social media who are longing to be reunited with a deceased spouse. I suppose they have never read this passage or maybe didn’t want to believe it. But there it is. Marriage is only for time. It does not exist in eternity.

Shocker alert! Will we be gender neutral? What does “as the angels of God in heaven” mean? I don’t know. I know they are spirits, there is some sort of ranking, but we know little about the angels who worship God for ever. We know that some of them can be seen by humans when they want to be seen. In that way they are like Jesus in his resurrected body who is both body and spirit. He could easily disguise himself so that his closest friends didn’t know who he was until he wanted them to know. He could appear in a room without opening a window or a door and he still had scars from his crucifixion.

We will be “like” him

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not year appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2 ESV )

I will not venture a guess as to what that means but we will be more like the resurrected Jesus and less like the people we are now. That’s for sure. I think one fact that hinders our understanding of things in the future with God and his people is that we unconsciously attempt to imagine with the resources we now have. Our sight, sense of taste and smell, what we see, what we feel, and what we hear. Jesus in his glorified body transcended those limits and in some ways I don’t yet know, we will too.

We will be outside the limits of time and space

There will be no night, no sun, no moon

There will be eternal day with Jesus being the light

We will know our friends and family

We will know all of our siblings

On that day when my salvation is complete, finished sanctification, my love and affection will be perfect like that of Jesus. I will be just as pleased to see your mom as mine. I will love a sibling from a tribe I have never heard of as I will my dearest friend on earth. Try to imagine loving and being loved by God and all his people. Heaven sounds better all the time!.

The past is gone!

The last part of Revelation 4:21 says “…and the former things have passed away”. I have heard people talking about Aunt Betty looking down on a wayward boy hoping he changes his life. Or Grandpa is watching his grandson’s little league game from heaven. No, sorry, it isn’t happening. If I could look back on earth how could I not grieve for lost souls and friends who fell on hard times? It would be impossible.

No Sin, only joy and peace

Try to think of the most blessed time of your life, the most fun, the most fascinating, the most euphoric, the greatest peace you have experienced, the most beautiful thing you have ever seen or heard. Now multiply those experiences times infinity and you will not come close to the experience of living with Jesus in a place he prepared for you.

I know how you can get there.

There are many differences between you and me but in some ways we are the same. We are going to die. That is a fact that can’t be ignored. We are sinful people. God hates sin. To get into God’s heaven something must be done about our sinfulness. Only perfect righteousness will be accepted. Every human other than Jesus Christ is short of the mark. God loves you and made a way for you to be counted righteous like Jesus.

” For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV) God put all your sins on Jesus and he died like a common criminal, in your place, and for you. If you simply accept the final and finished work of Jesus for you God will count you righteous based on the perfect obedience and perfect sacrifice of Jesus alone.

11 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13 ESV)

The “who” in these verses can be “you”. Will you receive him? Will you believe on his name? Repent (change the direction of your life toward Jesus) and put your trust in Jesus and he will make you his own child. Not by the will of man, nor of human performance, but wholly of God.

Royce Ogle
Granbury, Texas

Sep 5 2013

Never Let Go – God’s Story of Healing Hurting Lives


neverletgocolorado

 

I might hold the record for starting to read books and never finishing them. Not this one! I began reading this book and couldn’t put it down, even though I knew much of the story.

God is always at work, even when He is the last thing on our minds, He is at work completing His sovereign plan to use unlikely people for His glory. The book “Never Let Go” by Mac and Mary Owen (with Travis Thrasher) is one of those stories.

It’s a story of the love of a boy and a girl, young and unwise, and the consequences of their mistakes. It is the sad tale of awful addiction and the almost certain ruin of a young family in its wake. It’s the story of a loving human father and a loving heavenly Father, both with constant, undying love for two mixed up kids who had strayed from their raising.

Mary Owen would never let go of the faith in God she had learned from her father. And, it seemed she could never let go of the loss and pain in her young life. Young Mary never considered letting go of her husband and the love of her life even though he was swirling out of control toward an untimely death because of drug addiction. Mary kept loving, kept doing the next right thing, and she kept praying.

The story unfolds the details of how God redeemed a young junkie to make him a great leader who would help hundreds of men and women beat the rap and know Jesus. It also, in an almost unbelievable narrative, tells the story of a past healed and reconciled. It’s about the God who loves His children also giving them the desires of their hearts for good measure.

For more than a decade Mac was an elder at our church here in West Monroe. He was a “recovery guy”. Everyone knew something of his past and everyone knew that he and Mary were going to the down and out and loving them to Jesus. My wife and I are honored to call these two friends. They are a precious part of our forever family and we love them dearly.

I encourage every person who reads this post to order the book at once and to read it and then share it. Tens of thousands of people need to know this story. There are those with no hope of a better tomorrow who might see a spark of sunlight as they read the story. Perhaps there are those who will be encouraged to start reaching out to others who have a hurt, a habit, or a hang up as they read this book.

Thank you Mac and Mary for telling your story and giving hope to others. I hope many lives find new direction as others learn to never let go as they follow your example.

Never Let Go can be purchased in these ways:

MacandMaryOwen.com

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Jul 25 2013

Faith Under the Microscope


“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

As you can see from this Bible verse “faith” is very important. If you want to please God you must have it. The word impossible in the above verse shuts out every other avenue of pleasing God. You must have faith! But what is faith?

Often in the New Testament the words “faith” and “believe” or “belief” are interchangeable. There is a sense in which faith and believing are one in the same. Perhaps the best illustration of both uses is this passage from Romans 10.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:5-17)

Here Paul makes a distinction between law and grace and between works and faith. In verse 6 he speaks of “righteousness based on faith and in verse 10 says “one believes and is justified”. Then at the end of the passage in verse 17 he says “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. So believing and faith have the same meaning, and by the way, the same source. Did you notice? Faith comes. It is a simple concept to understand. A person can’t call on someone in whom they have not believed and they can’t believe it they haven’t heard of him and they can’t hear unless someone tells them.. And this is really important, the preacher of the good news that brings faith must be sent.

No one naturally has faith. Faith comes by the hearing of the gospel, or the word of faith. We know this is truth based on these two passages.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7)

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Unless God changes the heart and mind of a person who is not a Christian he does not have the resources necessary to submit to God or to accept the things of God. He does not submit, and cannot. And, he does not accept, and is not able. It is not a matter of a person making a decision to not accept God’s law, or the things of the Spirit, he cannot, he is unable to do so.

So even our faith comes from God. Paul in other of his letters describes non-Christians as living in darkness and spiritual death. God must penetrate the darkness and give life to the dead. When the good news about Jesus is preached God awakens the dark minds of sinners to hear the record of His Word and faith “comes” to the heart of the hearer.

I know some will disagree with what I just wrote but if you do, what will you do with the plain, easy to read verses I posted just above?

Now, we know the source of our faith but what is it? How does it function? I suggest you consider that Biblical faith has three components.

First, Faith is Intellectual.

Before faith comes one must have access to a set of facts. The brain must hold those truths just as it does your phone number or your wife’s name. It is simply facts assembled. Many people never get past this elementary part of what faith or believe, or believing is. The Scriptures say the devils “believe and tremble“. Just to believe the facts about Jesus, even that he died and rose again, will not save you any more than knowing which direction Texas is from where you live. Head knowledge alone is not faith.

Secondly, Faith is Emotional.

Yes, you must hear the facts about Jesus and your brain stores them away and reasons upon them. But for belief to become biblical faith you must embrace those facts with your heart. At the center of your being, you must emotionally grasp and cling to those facts that you intellectually have learned. Back to that Romans 10 passages you see these phrases, “believe with your heart” (vs 9) and “with the heart one believes” (vs 10). I believe I live in Louisiana, that is a fact. But I don’t hold to that truth with my inner being, with my heart.

Thirdly, Faith is Volitional.

In the Bible the word “faith” (and believe, or believing, or believed, or trust, or trusted) is almost always a verb. For faith to be biblical faith it must involve the will. You hear the good news about Jesus, you store the facts. You then embrace those facts, they become dear to you. Now, by an act of the will you act on what you “faith” or believe.

How does one act? One way is by “saying”. Paul said it this way, “with the mouth one confesses”. The term “a confession of faith” is a familiar way to state this. All this means is that the one who has truly put his or her trust (faith) in Jesus will “say” it. You will tell someone, or many people. You might tell your best friend, or your spouse, or your pastor, or you might say it to a church full of people. But, if it is real Bible faith, you will “say” it.

In my view faith and repentance are sort of like the heads and tails of a coin. One cannot, and will not repent (change the mind and the course of lifestyle) if he does not believe on Christ. And, he will not believe on Christ and continue a sinful lifestyle. So if faith is the Bible kind of faith, that is saving faith, the person who believes will repent. Not only does a person validate faith by saying but also by showing.

And, those who put their whole trust in Jesus Christ should as quickly as possible be baptized in water. In the doing of baptism we are participating in one of the two great gospel symbols for Christians, the other being the Lord’s Supper, or communion. In water baptism, the new believer for a moment in time is completely submitted to another and as he is laid under the surface of the water he is acting out the burial of Jesus, and as he is brought up out of the water he is acting out Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The one baptized is saying by being immersed “I believe in Jesus who died for my sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead”. And he is also saying, “I am dying to my old way of living for myself and my desires and I purpose to life a new life for Jesus”. So a person is baptized into Christ, for the remission of sins, is clothed with Christ, has put on Christ, and has been baptized into Jesus’ death. All of these terms have deep meaning but each of them also have some symbolism.

Biblical faith will lead the new believer to want to participate in the Lord’s supper, the other gospel symbol. As believers eat the bread they remember the body of the Lord and as they drink from the cup they remember the blood he shed for them and together they look for his coming and are united in his love and grace.

Good works will be a by-product of everyone who has faith in Jesus. Ephesians 2:10 says:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

“We” includes all Christians. We were made for good works. People who say they are Christians but do no good works are impostors and not Christians.

I could go on mentioning things that arise from a heart set on Jesus by faith. Loving like Jesus loves, forgiving like you have been forgiven by Christ, accepting others who are not like you because he accepted you and so on.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?

Royce Ogle
Monroe, LA