Jason E. Royle's Blog, page 20

Let Us Have Peace

The earth is weary of our foolish wars. Her hills and shores were shaped for lovely things, Yet all our years are spent in bickering Beneath the astonished stars.
April by April laden with beauty comes, Autumn by Autumn turns our toil to gain, But hand at sword-hilt, still we start and strain To catch the beat of drums.
Knowledge to knowledge adding, skill to skill, We strive for other's good as for our own— And then, like cavemen snarling with a bone, We turn and rend and kill . . . 
With life so f...

Finding Hope

Having just triumphed in his contest with hundreds of prophets of Baal, Elijah finds himself the subject of a death warrant to be executed immediately (see First Kings ch.18 & 19). So Elijah did what just about any of us would do, he ran. He runs out of the city and goes a day’s journey deep into the desert. He comes to a tree in the wilderness, sits under it, and there he prays to God.              In many ways Elijah in this pa...

Love Thy Neighbor

Up to this point in the conversation the question and answer session between Jesus and the lawyer sum-up the essence of not only Judaism, but indeed of all religions—love God, love your neighbor.  But then the underlying question the lawyer really wanted to ask comes; a question to test the character of Jesus; a question which ultimately tests the character of each and every one of us: “Who is my neighbor?” (see Luke 10:25-37)
It’s an interesting question.  It’s a question in wh...

Poem on Faith

"Unshrinking Faith"
O’ for a faith that will not shrink,Though pressed by every foe;That will not tremble on the brinkOf any earthly woe.
That will not murmur or complain,Beneath the chastening rod,But, in the hour of grief or pain,Will lean upon the Lord our God.
A faith that shines more bright and clearWhen tempests rage without;And when in danger know no fear,In darkness feels no doubt.
Lord, give us such a faith as this,And then, whatever in life may honeWe’ll leave this place with hallow bli...

Repentance & Reconciliation

One of the goals God’s word longs to accomplish within us is to open our eyes.  When we hear Scripture being read we are being invited to see the bigger picture, to move beyond our own personal world and to enter into a more divine, more mysterious world. From the beginning God has commissioned human beings to help accomplish this work, to bring people into a greater awareness of the big picture.  In the Old Testament God called prophets.  In the New Testament God sent Jes...

A Dead Person

As Jesus approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out— the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.  And a large crowd from the town was with her.   When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”   Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still.  He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”   The dead man sat up and began to talk and Jesus gave him back to his mother.   They were all filled wit...

4th of July

The 4th of July is just around the corner. It’s time, once again, to celebrate Independence Day -- but what makes this day special?
What gives the Fourth of July its significance, of course, is that our Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776. It was in Philadelphia, and the signers of that document, composed by Thomas Jefferson, knew that this declaration of independence from the dictatorial rule of Great Britain might also be their death sentence.
They knew full well that the wra...

The Rainbow

This is the sign of the covenant I have establishedbetween me and all life on the earth: a rainbow.  -Genesis 9:17
God hangs a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of a promise—that never again shall all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Interesting this promise (this covenant) God makes; interesting because it’s not made explicitly to Noah and his sons, but rather is made to all living creatures and to all generations to come.  It's a straight-forward formal agreement bet...

The Confederate Flag & Dr. King

In his 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. echoed the Bible when he observed that we “see men as Jews or Gentiles, Catholics or Protestants, Chinese or American, Negroes or whites,” but that we all share God’s "divine image."   To American Christians he said: “…God is neither Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Episcopalian. God transcends our denominations.”
I believe one of King’s most outstanding contributions to the civil rights movement was his...

Thousand Gifts Thursday: 3 Pennies

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, began her orphanage with faith and a dream. She told her superiors, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” 
“Mother Teresa,” her superior’s gently pointed out, “you cannot build an orphanage with three pennies; with three pennies you can't do anything.” “I know,” she said, smiling, “but with God and three pennies I can do anything.”           ...