Pastors can only fulfill their calling as shepherd leaders with the vitalizing power of prayer, and must pray for themselves first. A healthy, prayer-full pastor is an effective pastor. My newest book is to help pastors in this vital discipline of prayer.
Amen Indeed fuels growth by providing more than 100 prayers for pastors to pray for their own mental, physical, spiritual, and relational growth. Each is sourced from Scripture and rings with the “Amen” that Jesus promised to add (2 Corinthians 1:20).
“There is one assured way for our prayers to be answered: It is to pray the will of God.
“There is one assured way to pray the will of God: It is to pray Scripture.
“As ministers of the Gospel we would be wise then to primarily pray Scripture, for ‘the word of our God stands forever’ (Isaiah 40:8).” —Dick Brogden, Founder of the Live Dead Movement
“When it comes to prayer, we need some help. And in Amen Indeed, help is at hand. Whatever is keeping us from prayer, Craig Owens can help us push through to a more consistent and more consistently joyful and fruitful life of prayer.” —T.M. Moore, Principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
Looking at King David, we can see an imperfect picture of our perfect King Jesus.
Let’s be honest: Coming into the king’s presence can be a fearful activity. Does he know something about you that you don’t know? Is he in a good mood? For the law-abiding citizen of Israel, coming before King David was without fear or punishment, but with a healthy respect of who he was. But with King David, we see a healthy, loving attitude that the people had.
David and all Israel celebrated when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:5).
And the way David blessed all the people following this would have raised the level of esteem they had for him.
God was pleased with David too: The Lord gave David victory wherever he went (8:6).
David continued to do the right thing (8:15).
At the end of David’s life the eyes of all Israel were on David to see who he would select to sit on his throne after him.
Psalm 99 appears to be one that was written during the reign of King David. This royal psalm looks at the limited reign of David to see a better picture of the throne room of King Jesus.
The opening words tell us “the LORD reigns” (v. 1a). The word tremble can have two definitions. The first is to be perturbed or disquieted. This is addressed to the nations who don’t bow their knee to Yahweh, as a result they shake in fear. Second, this word tremble can also mean to be excited about coming before the King.
King Jesus is called “great, exalted over all the nations” (not just Israel), and He is said to have a “great and awesome name.”
“He IS holy,” which means He is the undisputed standard of all that is right and wrong, and no one can question His ruling. The nations that don’t know the King as their King tremble and shake, but those who do know Him as their King praise His awesome name (Revelation 5:13).
In many translations the word King is capitalized in v. 4, but we don’t know if this is referring to God or David. Since v. 2 refers to the “LORD in Zion,” that would appear to be a capital “K” King. But v. 4 mentions Jacob (not Zion), so I believe this is a lower case “k” referring to David. Let me restate verse 4 this way: “David is mighty, David loves justice—David has established equity; in Jacob David has done what is just and right.”
David’s own prayers also bear out this interpretation (see Psalm 20:6-9; 21:1-7). This is what the royal psalms do: Point us to David to show us a better picture in Jesus.
This is the end of stanza 1 which ends with this call to worship (v. 5).
Verses 6-7 give us another example (prior to the era of the kings) of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. These priests could call on God’s name and expect to receive an answer from Him. They lived obediently to all God spoke to them (v. 7b). Then v. 8 reminds us that God still speaks and forgives, but He is also the final Judge who will punish “misdeeds.” These verses clearly speak to Jesus who is both King and Priest before God’s throne.
This is the end of stanza 2, which has a similar call to worship as stanza 1 (v. 9).
I want you to also notice some places of worship:
between the cherubim (v. 1)—God’s mercyseat. This is where sin was atoned every year under the old system of David’s era, but where Jesus has has presented the once-for-all atonement for all who will believe on Him.
His footstool (v. 5)—another name for the ark of the covenant of the LORD (1 Chronicles 28:2).
the pillar of cloud (v. 7)—the covering of God’s presence and the reminder of His protection.
His holy mountain (v. 9)—see Hebrews 12:18-29.
Remember Psalm 99:4 in the AMPC—The strength of the king who loves righteousness and equity You establish in uprightness; You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob (Israel).
King Jesus is the perfect King of justice and righteousness (Isaiah 9:7; Revelation 5:12).
One day every knee will bow at the footstool of God’s holy mountain. They will either bow in despair and shaking because they did not put their faith in Jesus, or they will bow in humble adoration for the atonement that King Jesus made for them.
For those who don’t know Jesus—Away from Me, all you evildoers! There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. (Luke 13:27-28)
For those who know King Jesus, there is no fear (Luke 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57)!
Christians must live every day exalting and worship God, bowing gratefully at His footstool. This lifestyle of adoration of the great and awesome King is our testimony to a skeptical and searching world.
“Expect great things from God: Attempt great things for God.” —William Carey
“God gave us a self, not so that we would have something to exult in, but something to exult with. He gave us a self, not to be the object of our joy, but the subject of joy. That is, not to be the focus of happiness in front of the mirror or the selfie, but the furnace of happiness in front of Jesus. He gave us a self, not as an instrument of self-worth but as an instrument of worship.” —John Piper
“In reference to this command [Leviticus 19:17], the rabbis teach that if we feel offended by someone, we must go to him, tell him how we feel, give him a chance to explain and possibly apologize, and then forget and forgive.” —Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider
“Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.” —Jonathan Edwards
“The struggle itself is not proof that something is wrong with your faith. Rather, it is evidence that something is alive in you that now opposes sin. Before Christ, there was no real fight. Now there is tension, resistance, even grief over sin.” —Dr. Mike Paalz, commenting on Romans 7:14-23
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
When it comes to leaders being hurt by those under their care, it is not a matter of if but when. How leaders respond to these attacks reveal three key attributes that must be addressed.
On the Ailbe Podcast, T.M. Moore and Rusty Rabon asked me what attributes pastors needed to develop to respond to sheep bites in a God-honoring way. I believe the three most important attributes are:
Humility
Vulnerability
Accountability
Humility is the ability of a leader to be open to the possibility that the sheep bite may have been in reaction to something the shepherd did or failed to do. To go a little deeper on this point, check out Pay Attention to the Bites.
Vulnerability is used in the context of bearing our souls to a true friend. T.M. Moore has written extensively about “soul friends,” and we discussed that in more detail in a previous appearance on the Ailbe Podcast which you can check out here. [soul friends]
Accountability is really a direct result of our humility with ourselves and our vulnerability with a soul friend. As the Bible tells us over and over again, we need to remain in relationship with fellow saints that can encourage us, empower us, and sometimes correct us. Check out the blog post and video Accountability to Saints.
If you desire to grow as a godly shepherd leader, please check out my book Shepherd Leadership.
If you want to learn more about how to recover from sheep bites and how to handle future attacks in a biblical, Christ-like way, please pick up a copy of When Sheep Bite.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
…When He was reviled, did not revile (1 Peter 2:23 NKJV).
In the Greek language, this phrase is loidoreo antiloidoreo ou antiloidoreo.
Loidoreo means to insult, reproach, and revile.
Antiloidoreo means not to do those things.
Reviling others—especially those who have already reviled us—is a natural response. But not reviling or responding to revilers with reviling of our own is a supernatural response.
Anyone can speak or act unkindly, and it’s sort of expected when someone else has reviled you first. But to bless someone that has revealed first or to remain silent as Jesus did, requires Spirit-empowered self-control (see 1 Corinthians 4:12 and 1 Peter 3:9).
Our silence in these situations speaks volumes!
Was Jesus really silent? Peter says Jesus “entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.” I think Jesus had an internal dialogue with His Father, something like, “Father, You hear the hurtful reviling they are heaping on Me. I trust You to handle this so that I don’t have to.”
The only words Jesus spoke aloud to those who were reviling Him were still words spoken to His Father: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus responded with supernaturalantiloidoreo, which spoke louder than their naturalloidoreo!
So this has me thinking: When loidoreo is hurled at me, will I respond naturally with more loidoreo? Or will I allow the Holy Spirit to help me respond supernaturally with antiloidoreo?
My book When Sheep Bite is all about seeking to respond supernaturally when we have been treated unfairly and unkindly. This book is especially for pastors, but I also shared several posts and videos for all Christians in a series called When Sheep Bite Sheep.
You may also want to check out these related blog posts:
I spent a year with G.K. Chesterton, reading through excerpts of his writings each day for the whole year. It was educational, eye-opening, and quite enjoyable. Please check out my book review of A Year With G.K. Chesterton.
There’s no way I could pick my top Chesterton quotes, so here are just a handful from the top of the list. My Patreon supporters have dozens of more quotes. You can get access to those as well by clicking here.
“A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.”
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.”
“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
“People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.”
“Job was comfortless before the speech of Jehovah and is comforted after it. He has been told nothing, but he feels the terrible and tingling atmosphere of something which is too good to be told. The refusal of God to explain His design is itself a burning hint of His design. The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”
“Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.”
“The man of the true religious tradition understands two things: liberty and obedience. The first means knowing what you really want. The second means knowing what you really trust.”
“There are many ways to fall down, but there’s only one way to stand up straight.”
“This is, indeed, the supreme absurdity of the modern world, that it imagines that it can introduce anarchy into the intellect without introducing anarchy into the commonwealth. It imagines that it can make its thoughts go crooked and its motor-cars will still go straight.”
“Jesus promised His disciples three things: they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.”
“Pornography is not a thing to be argued about with one’s intellect, but to be stamped on with one’s heel.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
Alexander the Great startled a dozing soldier on guard duty and learned that his name was also Alexander. Clearly, this soldier’s conduct was not representative of his leader who had the same name.
Brennan Manning astutely noted: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
Whenever I am confronted by the Holy Spirit with something I have read or heard from God’s Word, I need to stop to ask, “Do I need to change my conduct or do I need to change my name?”
If I call myself a CHRISTian, I want to make sure that people see Christ in me.
You can check out the full sermon from which this clip came by clicking here.
“The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” —Timothy Keller
Abdu Murray addressed an audience about what it means to be human, and how modern culture has “began to under-spiritualize and over-psychologize what it meant to be human.” I found his history lesson and applications to be quite fascination.
T.M. Moore is presenting a series of posts about the use of our time. “The only time we ever have is the present moment, supplied as an act of free grace by the eternal God and His Word. He has a purpose for the time He gives us: to know Him, enjoy His Presence and blessings, do His work, express His glory, and spread His grace in every moment of our everyday Christian lives. … Time is precious. We can make better use of it than we do.”
“Remember that you can never be really whole till you are holy, for holiness is spiritual sanity; it is the curing of the mind and heart from the disease which sin brought upon them.” —Charles Spurgeon
“What we call ‘being in love’ is a glorious state, and, in several ways, good for us. It helps to make us generous and courageous, it opens our eyes not only to the beauty of the beloved but to all beauty, and it subordinates (especially at first) our merely animal sexuality; in that sense, love is the great conqueror of lust.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
“A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.” —Winston Churchill
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
When I would be struggling with stick-to-it-iveness, my Mom would say to me, “Anything worth having is worth working for.” From a young age, she was encouraging me to grind through the tough work to get to the payoff on the other side.
This is a great leadership principle, not only for leaders but for the teams they lead as well. Check out this clip where Greg and I talk about the grind necessary to achieve greatness.
You can watch the full Craig and Greg Show episode where we discuss how the leadership builder of resilience can keep at bay the leadership killer of resignation.
My book When Sheep Bite will help pastors who are trying to grind through the painful experience of biting sheep. This book has helped so many pastors see the factors that led up to the bite, the biblical responses to bites, and the resilience we can discover to help these shepherd leaders stay faithful to God’s calling. Check it out!
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
My podcast cohost, Greg Heeres, and I just finished our first co-authored book in our seriesBusiness by the Book. This book is both biblical wisdom and practical insight into how a CEO casts vision for themselves and the organization they lead.
We write about the God-honoring way to cast vision, but there is another way—the human way. In their book Spiritual Leadership, Henry and Richard Blackaby describe it like this:
“The Gospel of Luke provides a graphic contrast between peoples’ agendas and God’s [Luke 9:28-36]. Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him up a mountain to experience a divine encounter. God the Father was unfolding His specific will for His Son. The Father brought Moses and Elijah to encourage Jesus for the enormous work of redemption He was about to accomplish. So sacred was that moment that Jesus radiated the glory of His divinity. Peter and his companions, however, had been sleeping. When they awoke and saw the magnificent scene unfolding, Peter spoke up: ‘Master, it’s good for us to be here! Let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ (v. 33). Peter’s first thought was to build something tangible to institutionalize the divine encounter. Peter, a natural leader, could already envision the ongoing ministry he and his friends would administer as a result of that encounter. However, the instant Peter began talking, the vision was removed, and only Jesus remained visible. Clearly Peter’s plan was not God’s agenda. The heavenly Father immediately rebuked Peter, saying, ‘This is My Son, the Chosen One; listen to Him!’ (v. 35). Peter, because he was human, instinctively thought in temporal terms. He envisioned something he could control and manage. He wanted to move Jesus, Moses, Elijah, James, and John on to his agenda instead of seeking to understand God’s will and adjusting his own life accordingly. Peter’s ignorance of spiritual ways is all too prevalent among today’s spiritual leaders. Too often people assume that along with their role of leader comes the responsibility of determining what should be done. They develop aggressive goals. They imagine grandiose dreams. They cast grand visions. Then they pray and ask God to join them in their agenda and bless their efforts. That’s not the spiritual leader’s role. Spiritual leaders seek God’s will, whether it is for their church, family, or corporation, and then they mobilize their people to pursue God’s plan. …
“We must emphasize that planning or goal setting is not wrong. Organizations must have direction and order. The key is the source of those plans. Spiritual leaders seek God’s guidance in discerning God’s purposes for their organization. Then they mobilize their organizations to effectively accomplish what God assigns.”
One final thought from the Blackabys: “God has the vision of what He wants to do. God does not ask leaders to dream big dreams for Him or to solve the problems confronting them with their own best thinking. He asks leaders to walk with Him so intimately that when He reveals His agenda they immediately adjust their lives and their organizations to His will and the results bring glory to God.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
What’s more impactful: living a good life or doing good deeds? Let’s talk about that on this episode of The Podcast.
I mentioned that the apostle Peter’s first letter was written to Christians who are citizens of heaven while living on earth. I taught a whole series about this called Aliens and Strangers.
Pastors can only fulfill their calling as shepherd leaders with the vitalizing power of prayer, and must pray for themselves first. A healthy, prayer-full pastor is an effective pastor. My newest book is to help pastors in this vital discipline of prayer.
Craig T. Owens 