Free To Be A Slave

April 25, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I just love the oxymorons in the Bible! Without the spiritual component, these statements appear to make no sense at all. But through the lens of God’s Word, they are energizing!

Like this one: I can be free to be a slave.

Usually we think of freedom in terms of, “I’m free to do whatever I want to do.” In the natural this is freedom; but in the spiritual it’s slavery.

Think of it this way. When I say, “I’m free to do whatever I want to do,” I’m saying that I am in charge. But I am sinful … selfish … envious … short-sighted … petty … vengeful … and a whole laundry list of other nasty things. So when I want to do what I want to do—when I think I’m free to control my own life—I’m still a slave. A slave to sin.

There’s a price for this “freedom” to be my own boss. The price is death (see Romans 6:23).

But because of what Jesus did for me on the Cross, I don’t have to have this “freedom” that leads to death. I can be free to be a slave. Check this out:

But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. (Romans 6:22)

I have a choice to make:

  1. I can choose to call my own shots (so-called “freedom”), and have to pay the penalty of death; or,
  2. I can choose to be a slave of God, and receive His gifts of holiness and eternal life.

I’m choosing option #2!

How about you?

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Got Hope?

April 24, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

In my position as a pastor, you can probably imagine that many people come to me with pretty desperate situations. One of the common things I hear from these hurting people is something along the lines of, “I really thought God had directed me on this, but it seems like it’s not going to work out.”

In other words, their hope is wavering.

For a Christian, hope is not blind trust. It’s not a feeling that things might work out. It’s not even holding on tighter.

For a Christian, hope is about a promise and a Person.

It’s about what God said and Who God is.

It’s about believing that His Word is true and that He is trustworthy.

Let me stitch together a few phrases about Abraham—

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. …Without weakening his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead… yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. (Romans 4:18-21)

Abraham didn’t deny the facts, but he trusted the promise and the One Who gave him the promise!

And then there’s this promise for us about hope—

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:2-5)

Do you need hope? Get the promise from God’s Word, and then trust the One Who spoke that word. Hang on—God IS doing something great!

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Revelation Or Speculation

April 23, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

In answering questions that have been submitted for The Q Series, I noticed a recurring trend: How much of our “conventional thought” in church circles is not revelation, but speculation.

Yesterday I had some tough questions on Heaven, Hell, suicide, our resurrected bodies, the after-life, and so on. In answering these questions, I used many passages from the Bible, but I also quoted from Charles Spurgeon, Charles Dickens, and C.S. Lewis. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with quoting from extra-biblical sources, but we have to be very careful what we do with those.

I once heard renowned evangelist C.M. Ward say something like this:

“The Word of God is completely good; you can devour all of it. But reading anything else is like eating chicken. There is some meat that’s good, and there are some bones, and gristle, and fat that you should spit out. Be very careful of what you take in, unless it is the pure Word of God.”

The Bible reveals so much for our lives, and we put ourselves in a place God can bless us when we are obedient to the revelation of His Word. But we put ourselves on shaky ground when we live by speculation of what we think may be truth.

The Apostle Peter said it this way:

For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it [to do so — it never came by human impulse], but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21 AMP)

So whether you are looking for an answer yourself—or you are asking someone for an answer—make sure you are getting revelation from God’s Word, and not the speculation of man’s opinion.

Check out other questions in our Q Series by clicking here.

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Do You Know Your Community?

April 20, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Jesus called His followers to be salt and light. It’s pretty easy to figure out that the salt cannot season the food if it stays in the saltshaker, and the light cannot illuminate the darkness if it stays covered up. In order to season and shine in your community, you have to know your community.

And, pastor, that starts with you.

What you do is a much more effective sermon that what you say. Pastor, you need to know your community, so that you can be involved in your community, so that you and your church can season and shine in your community together.

So let me ask a couple of questions:

  • Do you know your Mayor / City Manager / Township Supervisor? If you don’t know them, how can you affirm their leadership (Romans 13:1-7)?
  • Do you attend City / Township Council meetings? If you don’t, how will you know what issues they’re wrestling with? If you don’t know those issues, how can you pray effectively for them (1 Timothy 2:1-2)?
  • Are you involved in your community? Don’t just assume people in your community will come to your church to sit among stranger to hear a stranger speak; instead, be so involved in your community that they will come to church to fellowship with friends and hear a friend speak (John 2:1-2).

I opened with the question, “Do you know your community?” But maybe a better way to ask this is, “Does your community know you?”

Does the community come to you to ask for help? This may be the best barometer of your involvement in your community: how often they seek your help or assistance in addressing issues within your community.

If you’re not as involved as you should be, the good news is that it’s never too late to start! Go get involved—go season and shine!

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Thursdays With Oswald—How To Think About Sin

April 19, 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.

How To Think About Sin

     We have to face the problem that our hearts may be right with God while our heads have a startling affinity with a great deal that is antagonistic to the Bible teaching. What we need, and what we get if we go on with God, is an intellectual re-birth as well as a heart re-birth.

     The trouble with the modern statements regarding sin is that they make sin far too slight. Sin according to the modern view simply means selfishness, and preachers and teachers are as dead against selfishness as the New Testament is. Immediately we come to the Bible we find that sin is much deeper than that. According to the Bible, sin in its final analysis is not a defect but a defiance, a defiance that means death to the life of God in us. …

     According to the Bible, sin is doing without God. Sin is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.

From Biblical Ethics

Sometimes I just have to read Oswald Chambers, let it soak in, read it again, and then sit back and exhale deeply. His profound insights into how a Christian should live always seem to hit me right between the eyes.

Here’s what I’m pondering: “The trouble with the modern statements regarding sin is that they make sin far too slight.” Do I make excuses for sin? Do I say, “It’s not that big of a deal”?

And this: “Sin is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.” Am I living each and every moment totally dependent on God? It’s when I think I can do it on my own that I am the most vulnerable to sinning.

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The Treasure Principle (book review)

April 18, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

One of the knocks I often hear about the church is that we talk too much about money. I don’t feel that’s an accurate assessment, especially considering that Jesus talked about money and possessions more than He did about Heaven and Hell. In The Treasure Principle: Unlocking The Secret Of Joyful Giving, Randy Alcorn shares the keys that Jesus taught about this important topic.

In just the first few pages, Randy sets the stage for this book by stating:

“Why did Jesus put such an emphasis on money and possessions? Because there’s a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we think about and handle money. We may try to divorce our faith and our finances, but God sees them as inseparable.”

The Treasure Principle mixes biblical instruction on handling our money, Randy’s insights into those scriptures, as well as Randy’s own personal experiences with finances. These are all used to support six treasure principle keys.

One of my favorite parts of the book comes at the very end. Randy shares “31 Radical, Liberating Questions To Ask God About Your Giving.” This is where the rubber meets the road (or the principles meet the pocketbook!). This is setup for you to read one question daily for a month, to really allow God to speak to you through His Word and through this book about your financial perspectives and practices. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I’m looking forward to continuing my month-long journey through these radical questions.

I am a Multnomah book reviewer.

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Church-In-A-Box

April 18, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Did you ever play with a Jack-in-a-box? You turned the crank, listened to the song, and waited for the funny-looking Jack to pop out of the box. Then you stuffed Jack back in the box and did it again.

And again, and again!

It was predictable.

It happened like clockwork. After awhile, though, the predictability became boring, and the Jack-in-a-box ended up collecting dust on the shelf.

Sometimes I’m concerned that our churches are becoming like a church-in-a-box. Like the predictable Jack-in-a-box, we turn the crank of showing up on Sunday, going through the same routine, waiting for God to show up, and then stuffing it all back into the box, only to repeat it all again the next Sunday.

And the next Sunday, and the next Sunday!

It’s predictable. It happens like clockwork. After awhile, though, the predictability can become boring, and our church-in-a-box ends up collecting dust on the shelf.

Here’s what I’m pondering:

  • Why do we meet on Sunday mornings?

There are as many mentions in the Bible about Christians meeting on other days as there are mentions about the first day of the week.

  • Why do we get so hung up on the “order of service”?

None of the New Testament writers taught about that. Yet if you want to anger some folks, just change up the Sunday routine.

  • Why do we dress a certain way to go to church?

Jesus had only one set of clothes, which means He wore the same thing to the synagogue as He wore the rest of the week. Yet we expect people to “dress correctly” for church.

  • Why do we call what happens on Sunday “worship,” and what happens the rest of the week “work”?

Shouldn’t everything we do bring glory to God? Shouldn’t all of our lives be worship?

  • Why do we complain about a church service not “moving us,” when we don’t feel the Holy Spirit moving the other six days of the week?

I’m not trying to pick a fight. Really.

I’m just wondering if perhaps we’ve gotten used to church-in-a-box. And if we have, perhaps we’ve also put God in a box too. Maybe we’ve become so accustomed to showing up on Sunday, dressing a certain way, following a certain routine, singing certain songs, and then expecting God to pop out and thrill us.

And then we put it all away until the next Sunday.

Wouldn’t God be more glorified if we didn’t put Him in a box? If we worshiped Him every day, not just Sunday? If we felt His Spirit animating us in everything we do, not just in the churchy things we do? If He popped up all throughout the week, in all sorts of places (like work, school, the grocery store, home)?

What do you think? Have we put church (and God) in a box? If so, how should we change?

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What Are You Exchanging?

April 17, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

In Romans 1, the word exchanged shows up three times in just one passage (Romans 1:22-32). Quite simply, this means every encounter with God’s presence requires me to make a choice, to exchange something.

I cannot remain neutral. The interaction with God is not static, but dynamic.

There are two forces at work in my life: sin and the Holy Spirit.

Sin wants me to exchange…

  • …the creation for the Creator (Romans 1:23)
  • …lies for truth (v. 25)
  • …pleasure for purity (v. 26)
  • …depravity for holiness (v. 28)

One exchange toward sin makes the next one that much easier. Soon the downward spiral can be pulling me faster and faster until: it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! (v. 32, The Message)

C.S. Lewis said it this way:

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”

The Holy Spirit also asks for an exchange. He wants me to exchange…

  • …the momentary for the eternal
  • …self-gratification for God’s glory
  • …my desire for God’s will

You will encounter God today. The choice is yours: What exchange will you make?

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Earth Day 2012

April 16, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

One of the first commands that God gave to Adam and Eve was to work in the Garden of Eden and take care of it (Genesis 2:15). The earth is God’s, but He put mankind here to be stewards of His creation.

That’s why I am pleased that Calvary Assembly of God is going to participate in the Earth Day 2012 cleanup in Cedar Springs. This is a great way for us to show, in a tangible way, that we love our community, and that we want to take care of the environment where we live, work and worship.

If you live in Cedar Springs, please join with us on Saturday, April 28, at 10am. If you live in another community, please consider partnering with a similar cleanup effort in your hometown, or start one of your own.

I believe those who call themselves Christians should be the most environmentally-aware people in the community.

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How Much Do I Have To Do?

April 16, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I had a couple of questions along the line of “How much do I have to do” in The Q Series yesterday morning. We all have a tendency to want to know how to fill in the blanks of questions like:

  • How much time do I have to spend with God to make Him happy?
  • How holy do I have to be for God to accept me?
  • What do I have to do for God to love me more?
  • How much do I have to do to make it to Heaven?

But all of these questions start with a wrong premise. These questions all assume I can do something. If the history of mankind shows us anything, it’s that all of our attempts to build a bridge up to God always falls short.

So—wonder of wonders!—God reached down to us! Jesus gave all so that we could be restored to a relationship with God. And what does He want in return? He wants you! I love this thought from C.S. Lewis:

“For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is ourselves.”

Sometimes we look at ourselves and think, “God wants this?! God wants me?!” In fact, I received another question yesterday that simply asked, “Why does God love us?”

God wants you because He made you to be in relationship with Him. He loves you as if you were the only person on earth to love. Again, consider these wise words from C.S. Lewis—

“We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest ‘well pleased.’ …Because He already loves us He must labor to make us lovable.”

How much do you have to do to receive that love? Just believe that fact that God loves you, that He sent Jesus to pay the price for your forgiveness, and that the Holy Spirit is right now working to draw you into that ‘Divine love’ relationship.

Let me state it simply: God loves you. Will you let His love fill your life?

Check out other questions in our Q Series by clicking here.

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