Live Dead

February 7, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Put this in the category of “contradiction” or maybe “oxymoron.” However you want to classify it, the phrase just doesn’t make sense to the natural mind. Jesus tells us to die so that we might live—

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

We are to deny our agenda, to follow His.

We are to not seek our advancement, but His.

We are not to pursue our passions, but His.

We have to die to self to live for Him.

We have to live dead.

I’m going to be diving into this topic beginning this Sunday. Many have already purchased a Live Dead journal, in order to take a 30-day journey of building our understanding of what it means to live dead. If you are near Cedar Springs, please join me this Sunday. If you live elsewhere, I encourage you to check out the live dead materials (click here to go to their website), and begin your own journey of dying to yourself so that you might live for Christ.

Check out of the messages in this series:

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A Spiritual Reflex

February 6, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I love this quote from Martin Luther—

“I first lay down these two propositions concerning spiritual liberty and servitude. A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.”

Yesterday we had our annual business meeting—although it was really our annual celebration. The one thing that stood out to me about 2011 is how much serving Calvary Assembly of God did in Cedar Springs. We are servants to everyone!

We picked up trash, put on carnivals, cleaned the Cedar Creek, helped our neighbors, worked with other community organizations, and presented a living nativity. We answered the call to serve whenever and however it came to us. We served individuals, our city governments, our ministerial association, and other churches and non-profit organizations.

Doctors routinely check our patellar reflex, where they tap our leg just below the knee cap and watch the involuntarily response of our leg. This reflex helps maintain posture and balance, allowing us to keep our balance with little effort or conscious thought.

I want my and Calvary Assembly of God’s spiritual patellar reflex in 2012 to be servanthood. When anyone asks for help, our involuntary response should be service. This is the best way to keep our posture and balance as servants of Jesus Christ and servants of our Cedar Springs neighbors.

This is why so many people around here say, “I ♥ My Church!” Come join us in serving in 2012.

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Today We Are Rich (book review)

February 3, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Tim Sanders has an amazing way of synthesizing business practices, thoughts from other authors, and his own personal experiences into bite-sized, readable nuggets of life-changing truths. Today We Are Rich: Harnessing The Power Of Total Confidence relies heavily on his personal experiences with his grandmother Billye, and it may be his most personally impacting book to date.

This book reads a lot like Tim’s autobiography, as he tells so many personal stories about his childhood and early adulthood. But then Tim steps out of his personal memoirs to give us some great insights from what he has learned. The amazing thing to me was how he could make his story seem so applicable to my story.

I found this book very readable and instantly applicable. It’s a book you can read rather quickly, but you will be applying and working on the principles for years to come.

Highly recommended!

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Start It With Me

February 3, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Pastors, I wrote earlier about the idea that you have to preach your message to yourself before you preach it you’re your congregation. But I want to back up a step to the motivation for that.

These words from William Law are challenging—

“The first business of a clergyman awakened by God into a sensibility and love of the truths of the Gospel, and of making them equally felt and loved by others, is to thankfully, joyfully, and calmly adhere to and give way to the increase of this new-risen light, and by true introversion of his heart to God, as the sole Author of it, humbly beg of Him that all that he feels a desire of doing to those under his care may be first truly and fully done in himself.”

God, if You want to do something in my congregation, start it with me. Right here, right now, in the privacy of my study, begin with me. When I come before my congregation this weekend, may my life be the example of the work You want to do in us all.

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Thinking About Commitments

February 2, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

My friend Jeff Hlavin wrote an article about making commitments. This is good stuff!

1. I cannot expect the strength of an emotion to turn a decision into a commitment.

Confusing a crisis with a commitment is a mistake — commitment can come out of a crisis, but the two are not the same thing.

2. I do not need to try to feel committed in order to validate a commitment.

True commitment shows itself in the very absence of feelings; any immature person can do what they feel like doing.

3. A commitment is best made by approaching the Lord out of the confidence that He wants to help me, rather than making elaborate promises to Him.

4. My best commitments come out of making specific, knowledgeable and attainable goals.

5. I need to ask for help from others whenever I need to do so,

6. Gaining a vision of myself accomplishing my commitments is a key to having them worked into my character.

If you are near Cedar Springs this Sunday, February 5, I am excited to invite you to come hear Jeff Hlavin speak at Calvary Assembly of God. We’ll get things rolling at 10:30am. Please come and join us!

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Thursdays With Oswald—Am I Anti-Christ?

February 2, 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.

Am I Being Anti-Christ?

     Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Over and over again a man’s personal relationship to Jesus Christ gets into his convictions and splits them, like new wine put into old wine-skins, and if he sticks to his convictions before long he will become anti-Christ. The standard for my conscience and for the conscience of the whole human race is the Cross, and if I do not take care to rectify my individual conscience by the Cross I become ‘persnickety’ and end in criticizing God. The standard for the Christian is never—Is this thing right or wrong? but, is it related to the blood and passion and agony of the Cross of Christ?

From Biblical Ethics

Every time I read God’s Word, or the Holy Spirit challenges me on my paradigm, I have a choice to make: am I going to try to justify my position, or am I going to submit to His position?

It’s a tough word, but it is right on target. If I persist in sticking with what I know is right, and I disregard the voice of the Holy Spirit, I am becoming anti-Christ and pro-Me.

I must die to my own agenda, so that He may live fully in me.

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Better Pray-ers

February 1, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Have you ever heard someone that can pray really well? And then isn’t it a bit intimidating when you’re asked to pray right after that master pray-er?

Or maybe you hear about people that spend extended time praying. But you think, “I run out of things to say after just a few minutes,” or “I get so distracted when I’m trying to pray.”

Here’s a thought from Mark Batterson’s book The Circle Maker which may help you—

“Prayer was never meant to be a monologue; it was meant to be a dialogue. Think of Scripture as God’s part of the script; prayer is our part. Scripture is God’s way of initiating a conversation; prayer is our response. The paradigm shift happens when you realize that the Bible wasn’t meant to be read through; the Bible was meant to be prayed through. And if you pray through it, you’ll never run out of things to talk about.”

Think about it this way. If you are a parent, doesn’t it get your attention when your child says, “Dad, you said…”? I know that makes my ears perk up. It’s the same way when we use Scripture to pray. It’s like saying to God, “Dad, you said….”

Praying Scripture also helps you personalize the promises you come across. Whether you need courage, health, money, wisdom, protection, or anything else, there is a promise in the Bible that you can pray to God.

As Mark said, don’t just read through your Bible, pray through your Bible!

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Faith Is Always Doing

January 31, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

The apostle James said it this way:

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

And I love Martin Luther’s commentary on this:

“Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words.”

A question for us to ponder: Can people see my faith by what I am doing?

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Stop Yawning!

January 30, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

A challenging quote from Oswald Chambers—

“We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says ‘Sit,’ and He says ‘Go,’ go! When the body says ‘Eat,’ and He says ‘Fast,’ fast! When the body says ‘Yawn,’ and He says ‘Pray,’ pray!”

I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27)

Wow! Time for me to redouble my efforts to Go, Fast, and Pray.

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Don’t Get Pulled Back Down

January 30, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

We wrapped up our series on The Danger Of Prayerlessness by looking at a very innocent thing: just doing what seems the natural thing to do.

In Luke 18, Jesus told a story about a persistent widow who would not stop approaching a judge to get justice. She had been wronged, but she didn’t take matters into her own hands, nor did she get tired of asking the judge for help. Either of these responses would have been very natural responses. But that’s the point: they would be natural, and not spiritual; they would depend on us, and not on God.

Luke introduces this story like this: Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up (Luke 18:1).

The word for give up is one that means to slide back to the natural way of doing, feeling or acting. In other words, to handle things like we always have before. But Jesus said there was a better way: keep taking your request to our Heavenly Father.

Prayer overcomes the “gravitational pull” of my natural tendencies to do things on my own. Prayer is the rocket fuel to help me break free!

Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in EVERY circumstance and in EVERYthing, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. (Philippians 4:6 AMP)

Don’t get pulled back down. Instead always pray and never, ever give up! Let your prayers take you higher and higher!

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