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In
Memory of
Dr. Roy Key
Invitations to Read
Works by Roy Key:
For
My Grandchildren
What
on Earth Do You Want When Everything Under Heaven Is Yours?
Apocalypse
(Then and Now)
Wrapped in a Rainbow
What in Creation is God Doing?
Bread
for the Journey
When
We are Real...
I
Believe
Fire
In My Bones -
Sword In My Soul
Aggravating
Essays
On Controversial
Issues
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Greetings!
I
like writing, crafting words freighted with emotion... and information.
Early I came to believe that, “the pen is mightier than the
sword.”
As a teenager I read stacks and stacks of books, most of them
westerns and space adventures. One
day I decided to write. I
located an ancient Oliver upright with keys looped and, like organs
pipes, ranked on either side. On
this typewriter, using the hunt-and-peck system, I began a volume
entitled Bill “
Texas
” Smith and The X-Bar-X Boys at
Rattle Snake Gulch. After
writing several chapters, I quit, deciding that if I was to spend
countless hours at the task, I should produce something more than the
thrill of an imaginary shootout between fictional “good guys” and
“bad guys.” There’s a
real “shootout” going on, and we’re smack in the middle, deciding
which gang we’ll join.
It was a long time, however, before I realized how important a
place in my life writing would be. For
years I prepared to teach in a Christian college and serve struggling
churches on weekends. However,
either Satan or God, had other plans.
I was rejected as “too liberal” for
Church
of
Christ
colleges. Shattered, I
turned to writing and serving small churches where I was still accepted.
My pen had opposite results:
1) in Churches of Christ it helped clear the way for a richer
understanding of salvation by grace through faith;
2) it burned the last board in the bridge between me and the
power structures. Further,
it made clear that I would have to move to the Disciples, or somewhere
else, if I was to continue in the ministry.
The “somewhere else” was a choice I would not make.
The move, though excruciatingly painful, has proved an untold blessing
to me. I am humbled and gratified at the reception Disciples have
offered, and I am still trying to make payments on that immeasurable
debt. It is in this spirit
that I offer a few samples from the store accumulated over the years.
Yours
and His,
Roy
Key
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FOR
MY GRANDCHILDREN
was written for children, grandchildren and all those who love them,
who want to speak to open minds and tender hearts, who want to lift them
up to our Heavenly Father in prayer, who want to recapture something of
that spirit of our own childhood and help prepare those who will be
keepers of the flame and stewards of this spaceship “Earth” long
after we are gone.
Click HERE
to read
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WHAT
ON EARTH DO YOU WANT WHEN EVERYTHING UNDER HEAVEN IS YOURS?
Is
the relation of God to Nature and Human Nature issues with which you
struggle? One book of the
New Testament deals with these basic questions. A short letter to some
folks in Colossae, written from a Roman prison by the
Apostle Paul offers the Clue to this ancient “mystery.”
Here is a series of five lectures I was asked to give to College
Students on this now “open secret.”
Click
HERE
to read
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APOCALYPSE
(Then and Now)
Revelation
is not a book of secret lore from which we figure out the precise date and
nature of the end time. It’s
an answer to the cry, “Where are you, God, when we really need
You?’’ We learn that beyond all the Caesars of the centuries, for the
victims of oppression a Loving and Just Power works in this world,
insuring that God’s creative intent shall "be done on earth as it
is in heaven." For the
martyrs a special Homecoming awaits.
Click
HERE
to read
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WRAPPED
IN A
RAINBOW
I
know what it is to struggle with low self-esteem.
I know what it is to enlist help in that struggle.
This is truly a love letter to “the poor in spirit.” My heart
goes out to those who encounter defeat and are almost ready to despair.
Let’s see if we can fight this battle together.
Click HERE
to read
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WHAT
IN CREATION IS GOD DOING?
IS GOD DOING ANYTHING THAT MATTERS?
A giant question mark hangs over the head of contemporary humanity.
The question is not so much about God’s existence as about
God’s relevance. What kind
of God is God, and does it make any difference to us?
Click
HERE
to read
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BREAD
FOR THE JOURNEY
When
asked to contribute a series of articles to a
Springdale
weekly, I entitled them “Bread For the
Journey.” These devotionals,
geared to the Christian Calendar, offer nourishment to travelers on the
way. Since Christians are
citizens of two worlds, and the secular calendar cannot, and should not,
be ignored, a few entries focus on secular holidays. The Christian
Calendar, though, assists us in full-filling our time.
The First Semester (God’s Half-Year) lifts up God’s work for
us. The Second Semester
(Church’s Half-Year) lifts up our grateful response.
Click
HERE
to read
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WHEN
WE ARE REAL…
Stopped
cold by a severe auto accident, I saw that Reality was something I
couldn’t con. So I pondered
how best to cooperate. My
question was, “How can we find the Way?”
I concluded that our prime temptation is pretense, as from our
wardrobe stuffed with masks the empty silence thunders.
We can be real only when all that garb goes, and we stand stark
naked before the Holy God, but by His grace re-clothed before one another.
Here is one attempt to point to the Way it happens.
Click
HERE to
read
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I
BELIEVE…
This
statement was written for my family. Since
the church in which we grew up branded me a “heretic” and
“infidel,” I wanted my children to know my faith and be able to judge
for themselves whether it is biblically grounded or a loose-knit rag of
sentimental subjectivity. Of course, this assumes that the reader knows
the Bible well enough to be a competent judge.
Since I share this with you, I trust that you do.
Click
HERE to
read
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FIRE
IN MY BONES – SWORD IN MY SOUL
This
I had to write. To make one
more attempt to reach back across the gulf to family and friends who could
not understand why I am gone. To
let “Disciples” know who this sojourner is among them, why he came,
the road he traveled, the dream that lures him still, and the pain that
will not stop as long as the rift remains.
Click
HERE to
read
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AGGRAVATING
ESSAYS ON CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
FIRE…
AND SWORD…
I thought was my last word to those in Churches of Christ.
However, the book stirred requests for discussion of a number of
current controversial issues. Some
of them are very much alive in the wider Church, and I trust they are of
both interest and help to any student of the Christian faith.
Click
HERE to read
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