Rev. A.J. Ogden

As a young lad growing up in the nineteen thirties, we didn’t have much in the way of entertainment. Money was scarce in those depression years for my mother and me who lived together with hardly any visible means of support. We just had to work at anything we could find, mostly fishing and hunting and gardening.

But a circus came to town almost every year. Most of them I missed because I did not have the nickels for admission. I’d go to them anyway and get as close to the big tent as possible so I would be able to hear the bands playing Glen Miller and Guy Lumbardo music. It was fun just to listen, even if I could not see the performances. I would pick up coke and soft drink bottles off the ground and sell them for a penny each – big money!

I had a little boy friend whose nick name was Weasel. He was a good example for me at times, and a bad one at other times. He told us at school about how he went to the big tent and lay down on the grass on the side of the canvas and kind of rolled over and ended in the big tent and saw the whole show free. Not being a Christian at that age, I was tempted to do likewise!

So the show came to town, I went; I laid down at the edge of the big tent and accidentally rolled over into where the big show was in progress. What Weasel forgot to tell me was they had a guard in there just for that purpose who caught me, scolded me, and publicly threw me out. I went to get my sack of bottles and some thief like me had stolen them. Sin does not pay!

At the age of twenty-five I finally came to know Christ as my Saviour, who changed me forever by giving me a new heart and new desires. Perhaps someone out there needs to read John 10:1-2, as I did, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door (Jesus) is the shepherd of the sheep.” Scripture says the porter will open the door for him. We can’t slip into Heaven, we can’t steal our way into the Big Tent of Heaven, but we can humble ourselves, confess our sins and have forgiveness. I am sorry for my sins and transgressions, and asked him for pardon and he has given me peace for my soul.