Service Sunday

May 21, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

On Sunday we left our church service to go serve our great city of Cedar Springs. It was so wonderful to join with other churches in town as we weeded and planted flowers, sang at the Metron nursing home, delivered cookies to those who were working in businesses on Sundays, and provided full-service to customers at the Wesco gas station

Thanks to Solon Center Weslyan Church and North Kent Community Church for helping serve our city. Here are just a few pictures from Service Sunday (photo credits Delbridge Langdon Jr and Rich Tolar).

Can’t wait to do this again next year (if not sooner!).

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Flame Award

May 21, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This award is recognition from our fellowship that Calvary Assembly of God is growing up. The award says that we have achieved the highest level of recognition in our fellowship.

While we are extremely honored to have come this far, we recognize that we haven’t “arrived” yet. Not by a long shot! If we could paraphrase what Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, we would say,

Brothers, we do not consider ourselves yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing we do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, we press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14).

So we humbly accepted this recognition, but we are pressing on for all that God has for Calvary Assembly of God!

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The Hard Word

May 18, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

As a pastor, you are going to have to deliver the hard word from time to time. You will have to address touchy subjects, both corporately and privately. It is very instructive to see how the apostle Paul approached the hard word.

In Romans 9, Paul is getting ready to address one of the most sensitive subjects of his day. The Jews felt they were “in” with God just because they were Jews, and the Gentiles were “out” with God just because they weren’t Jews. Paul is going to have to deliver the word that both Jews and Gentiles can be accepted by God because of what Jesus did on the Cross.

So notice how he begins:

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

1. I speak the truth in Christ. It wasn’t his opinion, but the word from God. I must settle this matter before delivering the hard word. Far too often we can put our preferences on par with God’s Word. I cannot do this!

2. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. Before I speak a hard word that people may not like to hear, I need to make sure my conscience is right before the Holy Spirit. He alone confirms His Word. The reaction of the audience, however, may or may not confirm what God says.

3. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. It should be a major red flag if I looked forward to delivering a painful/challenging/correcting word. I need to put myself in their place, not try to put someone else in their place!

My job as a pastor is not to condemn, nor even to convict; the Holy Spirit will do that. My job is to (a) hear God’s truth, (b) get my conscience right with the Spirit, and (c) empathize with people as I lovingly speak the truth to them.

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Thursdays With Oswald—In Christ I Can

May 17, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

In Christ I Can

     We are made sons and daughters of God through the Atonement and we have a tremendous dignity to maintain; we have no business to bow our necks to any yoke saving the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ [Matthew 11:28-30]. …

     Every detail of our physical life is to be absolutely under the control of the new disposition which God planted in us by means of identification with Jesus Christ, and we shall no longer be allowed to murmur ‘can’t.’ There is no such word as ‘can’t’ in a Christian’s vocabulary if he is rightly related to God; there is only one word and that is ‘can.’

From Biblical Psychology

Sometimes Christians are known more for what we’re against than what we’re for. I think Oswald Chambers would say that is because we don’t really understand the full power of the Atonement.

We can better understand that word by saying it “at one-ment.” We have been made one with Christ. You hear this in Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17, “I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and definitely recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them even as You have loved Me.”

When we are in this sort of relationship, we don’t even say can’t to sin. Instead, we say I can live a holy life because of Christ in me!

As Paul said, we can say:

I CAN do everything through Christ Who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)

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Immersed

May 16, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

What happens when we truly let the Holy Spirit have His way in our lives?

Could we experience today the things that are recorded in the Book of Acts?

Is it possible that God wants to do so much more through our lives than we are allowing Him to do now?

That last question, I believe is the most important one. One of the apostle Paul’s prayers went like this:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21)

This is an expansive prayer … a mind-blowing prayer … a prayer that is asking God to go beyond our ability to contain all that He has for us.

The only way we can get to this place (and I want all of us to get to this place) is if we let go. In other words, if we will let the Holy Spirit totally immerse us in His presence, if we will not try to box Him up, or shut Him out of any area of our lives.

We’ll be learning more about Immersed this Sunday at Calvary Assembly of God. If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series, you can check them out here:

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Thoughts From C.S. Lewis

May 16, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I’ve been re-reading some of my notes that I made on a collection of essays from C.S. Lewis. He is one of my favorite authors, always helping me to see the spiritual realm in a whole new light.

These are just a few quotes that have me thinking…

“A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble—because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.”

“There are two ways in which the human machine goes wrong. One is when human individuals drift apart from one another, or else collide with one another and do one another damage. The other is when things go wrong inside the individual—when the different parts of him either drift apart or interfere with one another.”

“Those cautions which the tempter whispers in our ears are all plausible…. That is the truth in the temptation. The lie consists in the suggestion that our best protection is a prudent regard for the safety of our pocket, our habitual indulgences, and our ambitions.”

“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. … Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.”

If you haven’t read C.S. Lewis for yourself, he writes in so many different genres that you can find something for almost any taste: science fiction, children’s fairy tales, theology, apologetics, and on and on. He was truly gifted by God to see our world in a different light, and you will be greatly enriched by reading as much as you can from this master author.

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Fearless (book review)

May 15, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I recently read Fearless by Eric Blehm, the story about Adam Brown, who was a SEAL Team 6 operator. It was an amazing story!

The publisher was concerned that since a Navy SEAL was on the front cover, perhaps some church folks (especially pastors) might pass by this book. But let me assure you, this is a completely Christ-centered, God-honoring story. Check out the video review I did for Waterbrook Multnomah —

I am a Multnomah book reviewer.

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Getting A Checkup

May 15, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Probably almost everyone has heard the so-called Golden Rule that Jesus gave us:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

Most of the time we apply this verse from an I-perspective. That is, we ask, “How would I want to be treated in this situation,” and then we treat others like that.

What about if we switch it? What if we took the time to find out how the other person wanted to be treated?

In Romans 12, Paul says we are all interdependent on one another (v. 6). And he gives us some ways to live out the Golden Rule from an others-perspective. So from his teaching, here’s a checkup I’m giving myself:

  • Am I truly devoted to others, like I would be to my own family members (v. 10a)?
  • Do I honor others’ wishes ahead of my own (v. 10b)?
  • Do I work to find harmony (v. 16)?
  • Am I willing to do what others think is right (v. 17)?
  • Do I work hard to find a peaceful solution for everyone involved (v. 18)?

Now here’s the real test:

  • How would others answer the above questions about me?
  • How would someone who doesn’t like me answer those questions about me (v. 20)?

This checkup is making me think. How about you?

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I Am A Follower (book review)

May 14, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

About a decade ago I was moved into a position of leadership that seemed way too big for me. So to prepare myself, I began to read all of the leadership materials I could find: Bible-based leadership, marketplace leadership, anything I could find that would help me grow as a leader. I thought I was progressing as a leader, until I read I Am A Follower by Leonard Sweet.

Just a few pages into I Am A Follower I read this: “Following is the most underrated form of leadership in existence.” And thus I was confronted by a message that seemed 180-degrees out-of-phase with what I’ve been learning for the past decade.

In pointing time and time and time again to the life of Jesus, Len Sweet makes the case that Jesus is the only Leader, and the rest of us are followers. Jesus showed us perfect leadership by being a perfect Follower. In fact, He is the perfect Follower, as no one has ever followed God as He did. Some of us may follow Christ a little sooner, or a little closer, or a little more persuasively. Those, Dr. Sweet would say, are better called “first followers.”

Dr. Sweet uses phrases like the dance of life, and the transformation of viewpoint. These are not phrases that a leader uses, but they are the paradigm of followers. Check out this quote:

“The cry for leadership is deafening amid our social disintegration, our moral disorientation. We have come to believe that we have a leadership crisis while all along we have been in a drought of discipleship. The Jesus paradox is that only Christians lead by following.” (Leonard Sweet)

This book is a prophetic word: it is calling us back to true biblical-centeredness, true Christ-likeness, true discipleship. This is a book that took me a while to read, and will take me even longer to process. It’s a paradigm-busting game-changer…

…and it’s right on target.

Go get this book today!

I am a Thomas Nelson book reviewer.

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My Amazingly Loving Church

May 14, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

If you’ve followed my blog for even a short period of time, you have see this phrase often: I ♥ My Church!

Here’s just one more reason why…

If you live in West Michigan and you are looking for a church home, you couldn’t find a more loving church that Calvary Assembly of God! I hope to see you soon.

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