24 | June | 2014 | Craig T. Owens

June 2014
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Links & Quotes

June 24, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading from today…

“Married women are notably safer than their unmarried peers, and girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father.” See what else Eric Metaxas shares in Men Who Serve And Protect.

“A rejection, or in Scripture’s strong language, a crucifixion of the natural self is the passport to everlasting life. Nothing that has not died will be resurrected.” —C.S. Lewis

“If Bible Christianity is to survive the present world upheaval, we shall need to recapture the spirit of worship. We shall need to have a fresh revelation of the greatness of God and the beauty of Jesus. We shall need to put away our phobias and our prejudices against the deeper life and seek again to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” —A.W. Tozer

The state of California is going to pay abortion providers more money to kill babies. Guess where the funds are coming from? Yep, those doctors who are trying to save lives will be paid less! Bishop Jaime Soto speaks out.

Planned Parenthood wrote an open letter saying the word abortion is not mentioned in Scripture, so that somehow makes it okay to kill innocent lives. Pastor Garrett Kell has a wonderful, biblical response.

In a Family Talk interview with Ryan Dobson, here are some great quotes from Nick Vujicic: “Fear will disable you more than your physical limitations. … When we give God our broken pieces, he can turn our broken pieces into something beautiful. … You’re not important because of how many people know you; you’re important because you’re a child of God. … Don’t be a bystander, be on stand by. I will not allow a bully to bully others. I will not laugh at his jokes, I will not remain silent. I will stand up and say ‘Enough is enough.’”

“Our resources are the Christlikeness we win while immersed in battle. They are the lessons, the faith, the character we gain from warfare with the enemy.” —David Wilkerson

I Like Giving (book review)

June 24, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

When you read a title like I Like Giving you might immediately think, “This is a book telling me to tithe, or give bigger offerings to my church, or support my local charity.” And you would be dead wrong. Brad Formsma’s book isn’t really about giving money away, it’s about giving yourself away.

Brad writes, “When we choose to give, we change, and the people around us change. When we move from awareness to action, miracles happen. When we allow giving to be our idea, a world of possibilities opens up before us, and we discover new levels of joy.”

Indeed, Brad weaves together his own personal stories, with stories from other givers, and even a healthy dose of medical and psychological research data to show us just how life-transforming and joy-producing it is when we are giving people. Not only are the gift receivers benefitted, but so are the gift givers.

Let me state it again: this book isn’t about giving your money to a charitable organization or a church; it’s about you seeing a need and finding a way to take care of that need. If everyone took on this mindset, just imagine how our communities would change!

One final thought from author Brad Formsma—“I don’t think we can ever overestimate just how profound the effects of giving can be. You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving. The reality is that other people are watching how we live our lives, and what we do can have extraordinary effects in our communities. Generosity is for all of us. It is available to all of us, even when the cultural tide is moving in the opposite direction. Why not be brave and live differently?” (emphasis added)

Let I Like Giving be a springboard for you to live differently and to make a difference where you live!

I am a Waterbrook book reviewer.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, Brad Formsma, charity, community, community involvement, joy, love, make a difference, medical science, neighbor, paradigm, psychology. Leave a Comment »

The Solomon Seduction (book review)

June 24, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I love Bible character studies that read like a biography, and in The Solomon Seduction by Mark Atteberry, that’s exactly what I got. Not only that, but this book is an excellent discussion book for men and a pretty good leadership lesson as well.

Pastor Atteberry uses the life and writings of King Solomon to show us that even someone called the wisest man can be reduced to a fool. Solomon was given a gift of wisdom unequaled in any other man, but his gift was misused and mismanaged by Solomon, and led to his downfall.

This is a timely book for men today. Atteberry wrote early on in the book—

“Simply put, Solomon was better equipped to see through satan’s deceptions than any man who has ever lived, other than Jesus. But in the end, he became just as blind to them as everyone else. This, of course, is quite a tribute to satan’s cleverness. If he were an author, his blockbuster best seller would be How I Made A Fool Out Of The Wisest Man Who Ever Lived (And Why The Program Still Works). And it does still work.”

It’s true: satan’s seductions still work today, and Atteberry gives us ten seductions that worked on wise King Solomon, and will work on men today if we don’t pay attention to them.

I hope men not only read The Solomon Seduction, but that they use it as a springboard for discussion with other men too. This is a needed book for our time.

I am a Thomas Nelson book reviewer.