Just Rambling...

It seems fall here in Northeast Louisiana will last for part of one afternoon. Right now, at 2:24 p.m. it is 76 and the mosquitoes are slightly smaller than hummingbirds. The low tonight will be 64 and the low tomorrow night will be 30. I suppose we will have a Norther on its way to Texas.

The trees are short here put just as pretty as they can be. The colors are brilliant and will be gone in two weeks or so. I and my fire ants are healthy, my wife is on the mend. Although she will likely be back almost to normal in a few weeks, she has advised me that I will have to wait on her "hand and foot" for months. I am wise enough to not challenge her warning. She has done exactly that for me for years!

______________________________

The Democrats are crowing like young roosters, and I'll admit, it was a great victory for them. However, they really didn't beat the Republicans, the Republicans beat themselves. We conservatives only do well in elections when we "walk the talk". Only when we govern like conservatives to we do very well at the polls. We have largely failed in the White House and the Congress. With the exceptions of judges, tax cuts, and the war on terror (which are not to sneeze at by the way) our Republican friends, including President Bush, have been an embarrassing failure in my view. They have presided over runaway spending, have crated more entitlement programs, and have not done squat about our porous borders.

Now it is Nancy Pelosi's team at bat. Let's see how they govern. She is off to a poor start by any reasonable standard. I predict the Dems will eat their own by late next year. Hillary Clinton vs. Gov. Mitt Romney, how is that for a battle? I think Romney can win easily unless Ms. Pelosi and gang govern differently than they talk. And, we should be able to win control of the House and Senate again too. I hope we have learned some lessons.

____________________________

Because Israel did not perform as well as most of us expected recently, do not think that the same will be true if or when they take on Iran. Never doubt, Israel will not allow Iran to have a nuke. If Israel has to go completely alone, they will do it. They can make Iran as flat as a Wal-Mart parking lot in less than 48 hours if they choose.

_______________________________

Well, I almost have my breath regular again after sitting at my desk for a few minutes. I have been up and down the stairs into the attic over a dozen times it seems bringing Christmas trees, decorations, and all the other necessary stuff to my wife who is quite well enough to bark commands like a Paris Island drill Sargent. (She is as sweet as honey..)

We in the Ogle family have the favor of God. What an incredible fact, GOD IS FOR US! If that is so, and it surely is, then "Who can be against us?" The answer is No thing, and No person. Our hope and security is in Jesus our Lord who reigns in our lives.

Merry Christmas!

Grace and Peace,

Royce Ogle

Tent Parking

Thanksgiving

“In everything give thanks” (I Thessalonians 5:18)

Today is Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday set aside for the purpose of encouraging our nation’s people to give thanks to the Creator God for our bounty. We, of all the earth’s millions should be profoundly thankful. Our most destitute are well off by the worlds standards.

Those of us Americans who are Christians have even more about which to be thankful. An ugly sinful past, sinful acts that are future, and an awful end in hell, have been erased by the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. For this truth, I am deeply grateful.

Each of us could quickly create a great list of things, situations, and people for which we are thankful. Paul’s declaration of long ago in the 1st century was not as it sometimes quoted. The complete statement in verse 18 says, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you”. If your doctor has just given you the news that your tumor is cancer and you only have a few months to live, that is not something God expects you to be thankful for.

God does not want us to be thankful “for everything”, but to be thankful “in everything”, there is quite a difference. My wife is now in pain recovering from back surgery. I am not thankful that she is in pain, but I am thankful that she was afforded the opportunity to have some surgery needed to rid her of persistent pain she has suffered for years. Our moms are almost 85 and 86. Both are loosing their memories and are pretty feeble. I am not thankful about that. I am thankful that God has blessed my life with good women including these two.

For the past few days I have been a cook, housekeeper, and nurse. I am not thankful for that. I am thankful that I can care for a wonderful wife who usually waits on me hand and foot. I am thankful for that.

Grace and Peace,
Royce Ogle

Virgin Birth of Christ Part 2

Why the virgin birth of Christ? Part 2

In a previous post I asked the question, “Why did God choose that Jesus would be born of a virgin?” In this post I will answer that question.

Almost every list of essential doctrines for the Christian faith I have seen includes “the virgin birth of Jesus”, or “the deity of Christ”, along with the inspiration of the Bible, and others. Of course these lists vary, one of which I saw unbelievably did not include the bodily resurrection of Jesus which was at the heart of the Apostles preaching.

Just to be clear, these “essential doctrines” I would frame as ones Christians should embrace, they are not all necessary for sinners to believe in order to become Christians. Those 1st Century thousands who were saved in the first weeks after Pentecost had very little theological understanding. What they knew was what they had heard from eye witnesses of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, who claimed to be God.

The deity of Jesus stands or falls upon his birth to a virgin girl without having a human father. Had Jesus been the son of Joseph and Mary he would have been just like all other men, inherently sinful. But he was not like other men in that he uniquely had no human father.

I will not labor here to show the prophetic texts concerning his birth nor the gospel records of his birth and the events leading up to it. I will assume that all who read this post gladly accept the biblical record that Jesus was born of a virgin girl, Mary, who had not been with a man. The focus is why birth by a virgin?

1. There was no other way for God to interject himself into the human race. The creative act of God causing the virgin to conceive and bear a son naturally and supernaturally made the child the unique Son of God. He was Mary’s son and God’s son. He was not Joseph’s son. So, part of the plan was Immanuel “God with us”
2. There was no other way for Jesus to be a perfect sacrifice. When Adam sinned in the garden he died spiritually and eventually physically. Therefore the Bible says “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” And “by one man’s offence death reigned”. Every descendent of Adam was born with a built in propensity to sin. He was by nature a liar, dishonest, disobedient, and capable of every sinful act. Jesus was not Adam’s descendent; He descended from God his father. He could not sin because while he was fully human he was also fully God. (God with us)
3. To become a perfect sacrifice he had to be not only sinless, but pure in every way. The physical body of Jesus was uniquely prepared by God. Hebrews 10 makes this clear. “ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me”.(verse 5) And then also in that same chapter we learn that only the sacrifice of a body would be sufficient to once for all time take away sin. “Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them ” (which are offered according to the law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”.(verses 8-10)
4. In this unique body, prepared by God, with no human father, Jesus was at once “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world”, the great high priest who is able to make one offering for the sins of the worlds people of every age never to be repeated again. His was the body foretold by the prophets and according to their word not one bone was broken in the punishment of the crucifixion. On the cross Jesus declared “It is finished” and the anger of a Holy God against sin had been completely exhausted and his justice fully satisfied. Now by the blood of Jesus God can declare a sinner, who puts his faith in Jesus, righteous and do so without compromising his holiness and justice.

In the same way, we who are saved are the body of Christ. Because of His perfect sacrifice of a perfect body and the cleansing of His blood, we too are “blameless”, “perfected”, “without spot or wrinkle” in the sight of God. We are loved just as God loved the Lord Jesus and He sees us as if we had never sinned and as if we had perfectly obeyed.

It is not possible to overhaul, or to repair a sinner so that he meets God’s standard. No, there must be a new birth. There must be a new man whose desire is to please God. He is a man upon whose heart is written the law of God. It is that inner man who serves God. The sinner is dead in his or her sins and the perfect object lesson is seen in baptism. The old man goes into death with Christ and the new man is resurrected to serve and love the Lord Jesus and to glorify the Father through Him.

The universal body of believers is called “the bride of Christ”. She is a pure, perfect, chaste bride, whose will is to please the bridegroom. It is God’s purpose to present to Himself one day a perfect people made pure by the body and blood of Jesus who in His perfect doing and dying, perfect living and loving, offered Himself a perfect sacrifice once forever for the sins of every man and woman and sat down on the right hand of God.

At the resurrection, our mortal bodies will be changed, mortality will be swallowed up in immortality and our bodies will not have one microscopic hint of sin. We will at last be finally saved completely, freed from the very presence of sin.

None of this would have been possible had Jesus not been conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin girl. In a human body, God fulfilled the law and offered Himself to Himself to put away sin forever. Thanks be to God for the virgin birth of Jesus.

Grace and Peace,
Royce Ogle