January | 2015 | Craig T. Owens

January 2015
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Links & Quotes

January 13, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“We all have the sneaking idea that we are the favorites of God—‘It’s alright for me to do this, God will understand.’ If I as a child of God commit sin, I will be as sternly dealt with as if I were not His child.” ―Oswald Chambers

“I did not think that I had done anything when I hear them [his congregation] applauding, but when I saw them weeping.” —Augustine

“God uses our struggles for His glory!” Read more from Max Lucado in his post A Season Of Suffering.

“Pain is terrible, but surely you need not have fear as well? Can you not see death as the friend and deliverer? It means stripping off that body which is tormenting you: like taking off a hair-shirt or getting out of a dungeon. What is there to be afraid of?” ―C.S. Lewis

“You can blame your unhappiness on poor health, being misunderstood, or having an uncaring mate, boss or friend. In fact, you can blame it on anything you choose. But the truth is that there is no excuse for a Christian to live as a slave to the devil.” Read more from David Wilkerson in his post The Lack Of Victory.

Pastor Dave Barringer shares 7 prayers you may be the answer for.

Great question, great post: What Keeps Us From Having Deeper Friendships?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Augustine, C.S. Lewis, cartoon, Christian, Dave Barringer, David Wilkerson, death, devil, friendship, God's glory, Max Lucado, Oswald Chambers, pain, pastoring, prayer, quotes, relationships, sermon, sin, social media, suffering, victory. Leave a Comment »

JumpStart Your Leadership (book review)

January 13, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

John Maxwell always gives his readers a treasure-trove of helpful thoughts for personal growth! I would highly recommend anyone to grab any one of his books and dive in. But a good place to start may be JumpStart Your Leadership.

This book is setup as a 90-day journey of leadership growth. Whether someone is just beginning in a leadership position, or has been in a position of leadership for quite some time, this is a tremendous resource. Each day has a quote, a short teaching point from John Maxwell, and then a page to respond to the question of the day. After three months, I am confident you will feel your leadership surging forward.

Small book, big dividends. Get this book and get growing!

I am a Center Street book reviewer.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, John Maxwell, journey, leadership, lifelong learner, personal growth, quotes, reading. 2 Comments »

Links & Quotes

January 12, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“O I would beloved, that the Holy Spirit would make you feel the promise as being spoken to you; out of this vast assembly forget the rest and only think of yourself, for the promises are unto you, meant for you. O grasp them. It is ill to get into a way of reading Scripture for the whole church, read it for yourselves, and specially hear the Master say to you, ‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.’” —Charles Spurgeon

“Freedom from greed comes from faith in God’s future grace.” —John Piper

John Piper has a great reminder in his post What God Can Do In Five Seconds.

Seth Godin suggests another story for “failure” in his post Failure Imagined (24 Variations).

History buffs will love this―The Real Story Of George Washington’s Christmas Attack At Trenton.

“My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart, and to heal the broken one” —John Newton

[VIDEO] John Maxwell and Nick Vujicic on the uniqueness that is you―

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: American history, Bible study, Charles Spurgeon, failure, George Washington, God's promise, grace, greed, Holy Spirit, John Maxwell, John Newton, John Piper, military, Nick Vujicic, pastors, preaching, quotes, sermon, Seth Godin, uniqueness, video. Leave a Comment »

Pray & Dig

January 12, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

The fact is far too many of us get ourselves into hot water all on our own, and then we want to call on God like an insurance policy to bail us out. We usually have some reasonable-sounding excuses:

“It seemed like a good idea at the time”
“It was so practical and common sense I didn’t think I needed to pray about it”
“I’ve done this dozens of times before and never had any trouble.”

There’s a story in 2 Kings where three kings got together for a battle. To them it seemed like a pretty good idea―there were three of them going to war against just one king, they knew the terrain, so it would be an easy victory.

Except it wasn’t.

The Bible says that after a 7-day roundabout march, the three armies were out of food, out of water, stranded in the desert, and about to be defeated without the enemy ever firing an arrow or swinging a sword.

One king wanted to blame God. The king of Israel said, “Bad news! God has gotten us three kings out here to dump us into the hand of Moab.” (2 Kings 3:10, MSG). But fortunately the king of Judah thought to ask, “Isn’t there a prophet of God around that can call on God for us?” (v. 11).

Here’s one of the most amazing things: Elisha―the representative of God’s presence―was right there with them! Think about that … these kings hadn’t asked God for help, and hadn’t invited Elisha along, but there was the prophet right in their midst!

It’s a good reminder for us: God is ALWAYS with us. But it’s up to us to recognize Him and go to Him in prayer.

When these kings finally asked God for help with their water problem, Elisha said, “It’s an easy thing for God to provide water for you. You’ve prayed, now it’s time to prepare for His supply.” The armies were called on to dig lots and lots of ditches. God would send a supply of water without rain to take care of the troops. And if that wasn’t enough, God also said He would give them victory over their enemy. As Matthew Henry wrote, “God’s grants out-do our requests and expectations.”

Pray first. Pray continually. Pray always. And then when God tells you to dig ditches, get ready for His abundant blessings. But get the order right: Don’t dig and then pray; pray first, then dig!

If you’re in the Cedar Springs area, please join me next Sunday as we continue our series The Prayers Of Elisha.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, Elisha, God's presence, prayer, sermon. 1 Comment »

Links & Quotes

January 10, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“Another point is that on that view you would have to regard the accounts of the Man as being legends. Now, as a literary historian, I am perfectly convinced that whatever else the Gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of thing. They are not artistic enough to be legends. From an imaginative point of view they are clumsy, they don’t work up to things properly. Most of the life of Jesus is totally unknown to us, as is the life of anyone else who lived at that time, and no people building up a legend would allow that to be so. Apart from bits of the Platonic dialogues, there are no conversations that I know of in ancient literature like the Fourth Gospel. There is nothing, even in modern literature, until about a hundred years ago when the realistic novel came into existence. In the story of the woman taken in adultery we are told Christ bent down and scribbled in the dust with His finger. Nothing comes of this. No one has ever based any doctrine on it. And the art of inventing little irrelevant details to make an imaginary scene more convincing is a purely modern art. Surely the only explanation of this passage is that the thing really happened? The author put it in simply because he had seen it.” ―C.S. Lewis

“It takes more than academic rigor to win the world for Christ. Correct doctrine alone isn’t enough. Proclamation and teaching aren’t enough. God must be invited to ‘confirm the Word with signs following’ (see Hebrews 2:4). In other words, the gospel must be preached with the involvement of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.” Read more from Jim Cymbala in his post With Signs Following.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apologetic, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Gospels, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Jim Cymbala, legend, literature, miracles, preaching, quotes. Leave a Comment »

Poetry Saturday—Come, My Soul, With Every Care

January 10, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:

Jesus loves to answer prayer;

He Himself has bid thee pray,

Therefore will not say thee nay;

Therefore will not say thee nay.

Thou art coming to a King,

Large petitions with thee bring;

For His grace and power are such,

None can ever ask too much;

None can ever ask too much.

With my burden I begin:

Lord, remove this load of sin;

Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt,

Set my conscience free from guilt;

Set my conscience free from guilt.

Lord, I come to Thee for rest,

Take possession of my breast;

There Thy blood bought right maintain,

And without a rival reign;

And without a rival reign.

As the image in the glass

Answers the beholder’s face;

Thus unto my heart appear,

Print Thine own resemblance there;

Print Thine own resemblance there.

While I am a pilgrim here,

Let Thy love my spirit cheer;

As my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,

Lead me to my journey’s end;

Lead me to my journey’s end.

Show me what I have to do,

Every hour my strength renew:

Let me live a life of faith,

Let me die Thy people’s death;

Let me die Thy people’s death. —John Newton

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: conscience, grace, guilt, Jesus Christ, John Newton, poetry, prayer. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

January 9, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

I get really tired of the arguments from people questioning the validity of the Bible. Most of the arguments have been debunked a long time ago, and are simply repeated ad nauseum. Here is a great post from a New Testament scholar taking apart these arguments.

Almost as bad as the arguments against the validity of Scripture are the arguments for socialized medicine. Here are 5 reasons why Obamacare should be completely repealed.

Parents, you should be aware of some security issues for your kids on Instagram.

“You will do more in one year if you are really filled with the Holy Ghost than you could do in 50 years apart from Him.” ―Smith Wigglesworth

“Do not even such things as are most bitter to the flesh, tend to awaken Christians to faith and prayer, to a sight of the emptiness of this world, and the fadingness of the best it yield? … How then can we be offended at things by which we reap so much good?” ―John Bunyan

“Pride, on the other hand, is the mother of all sins, and the original sin of lucifer … an instrument strung but preferring to play itself because it thinks it knows the tune better than the Musician.” ―C.S. Lewis

“The assurance that prayer is heard is the earnest that prayer will be answered. The petition is accepted, though no answer has yet been received. Well, we can leave it there. … God never is before His time; nor is He ever too late; He comes just when He is needed.” —Charles Spurgeon

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apologetic, argument, assurance, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Chilly Chilton, Christian, faith, God's timing, Holy Spirit, Instagram, John Bunyan, lucifer, New Testament, Obamacare, parenting, prayer, pride, satan, Scripture, Smith Wigglesworth, social media, socialism, stewardship. 1 Comment »

C.S. Lewis On Prayer

January 8, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Some great quotes from C.S. Lewis on prayer…

“We must lay before God what is in us, not what we want to be in us.” —C.S. Lewis

“It is quite useless knocking at the door of Heaven for earthly comfort. It’s not the sort of comfort they supply there.” —C.S. Lewis

“Of course you will all remain in my prayers. I think it very wrong to pray for people while they are in distress and then not to continue praying, now with thanksgiving, when they are relieved. Many people think their prayers are never answered because it is the answered ones that they forget.” —C.S. Lewis

“Well, let’s now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a crossword puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us…. Now the disquieting thing is not simply that we skimp and begrudge the duty of prayer. The really disquieting thing is it should be numbered among duties at all. For we believe that we were created ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ And if the few, the very few, minutes we now spend on intercourse with God are a burden to us rather than a delight, what then?… The painful effort which prayer involves is not proof that we are doing something we were not created to do. If we were perfected, prayer would not be a duty, it would be a delight. Someday, please God, it will be.” —C.S. Lewis

“I think it wise, if possible, to move one’s main prayers from the last-thing-at-night position to some earlier time: give them a better chance to infiltrate one’s other thoughts.” —C.S. Lewis

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: C.S. Lewis, Heaven, prayer, thanksgiving, thought life, trouble. Leave a Comment »

Lifelong Learner

January 8, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

It’s no secret I love to read. But why do I read? It’s not just to get more information, but to have the tools to help others. Every year I reevaluate my reading list, and ask God to guide me to the wise people from whom I need to learn.

Check out these words from Charles Spurgeon―

C.H. Spurgeon “Paul is inspired, and yet he wants books [2 Timothy 4:13]. He has been preaching for at least thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, ‘Give attendance to reading’ [1 Timothy 4:13]. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read.” ―Charles Spurgeon

What’s on your reading list this year?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apostle Paul, Bible, book review, books, Charles Spurgeon, lifelong learner, quotes, reading. 2 Comments »

Links & Quotes

January 7, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“God has done astonishing and costly things to draw us near. He has sent His Son to suffer and to die so that through Him we might draw near. It’s all so that we might draw near. And all of this is for our joy and for His glory.” —John Piper

“The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.” —C.S. Lewis

Detroit Tiger fans know that Alan Trammell should be in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Chilly Chilton has a deathwish, and you should read about it.

“Your business is to go and ‘tell to sinners round what a dear Savior you have found’, for that is God’s way of using you to complete the unity of His Church.” —Charles Spurgeon

“The most important thing a church can have going for it is strong, biblical preaching. It can do with or without an app, a Facebook page, a glitzy web site, streaming sermons, online giving, a fancy building, free wi-fi, or a clearly defined brand. But it cannot fulfill God’s purpose without power in the pulpit.” —Mark Atteberry

“Nothing fosters courage like a clear grasp of grace. And nothing fosters fear like an ignorance of mercy.” —Max Lucado