July | 2015 | Craig T. Owens

July 2015
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Links & Quotes

July 21, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“How much foolish talking and jesting would at once end if we said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place.’ … Let your recreation be free from sin; let your amusements be such that you can enjoy them while God looks on. If, too, we felt that God was in this place, how much oftener should we talk of Him and of Christ.” —Charles Spurgeon

“David celebrates God as the sovereign, ‘with-us’ God Who is absolutely for His people and determined to do them good. He is Father to the fatherless, Defender of widows, the One Who gives homes to the homeless and release to captives (Psalm 68:5-6). He gives them gifts, blessings, and salvation (vv. 18-20), and He calls them into His presence to celebrate His magnificence in worship (vv. 24-28). He gives strength for His people to do all His bidding (v. 28) and to know Him in His glory in the heavens (v. 33). Over His people Israel, God is strong, excellent, awesome, and powerful.” —T.M. Moore (emphasis added)

Fast Company published an article from Dr. Tim Elmore on how to bridge the gap between potential and performance. As always, his stuff is spot-on!

“Kids are getting turned on by watching video, but physiologically they are less aroused. We call it P.I.E.D.—Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction.” —Dr. Philip Zimbardo. Check out this really fast-moving TEDx talk Dr. Zimbardo gave…

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: addiction, BibleGateway, Charles Spurgeon, conversation, David, Dr. Tim Elmore, Generation Y, God's presence, King David, pornography, potential, Psalm, quotes, recreation, relationships, sexuality, T.M. Moore, video, youth. Leave a Comment »

Is It Okay To Question The Bible?

July 21, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

God is not intimidated by your questions. In fact, if you look in the Bible itself, you will see lots and lots of question marks: questions asked by God, and questions asked of God. So go ahead and question!

And check out this great video from the Impact 360 Institute…

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, doubt, God questions, questions, video. Leave a Comment »

Brain-Savvy Leaders (book review)

July 21, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

The human brain is an amazingly complex invention that only Someone like the Creator God could have designed! The brain plays a huge part in our day-to-day interactions with other people, so Charles Stone has given us a great resource in Brain-Savvy Leaders: The Science of Significant Ministry.

In the introduction, Charles explains the purpose of this book: “By intersecting biblical insights with insights about the brain, we can develop new learnings and language to help us become better leaders, like actually listening to a board member disagree with you rather than becoming defensive and cutting him or her off.”

Charles Stone brings a unique combination of mechanical engineering, pastoral studies, and his own family’s personal journey with a daughter going through multiple brain surgeries. This diverse background was very readable for me, as I believe it will be for anyone who believes that the Creator of the brain is the best One to describe its operational aspects.

Because we learn best using both our logical (left) brain and our creative (right) brain, Charles presents all of his concepts with logical words, descriptive pictures, and memorable acronyms for each of the main sections. Charles presents the technical information in a way that a non-medical layman can comprehend, and in a way that will be easy to apply in both your personal and corporate roles.

Although the book has “leaders” in its title, Brain-Savvy Leaders is a good read for anyone who would like to step up their interpersonal skills.

I am an Abingdon Press reviewer.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, brain, Creator, engineering, interpersonal, leadership, medical science, mind, ministry, relationships, theology. 6 Comments »

My Going Is Your Calling

July 20, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

This morning I shared some cool thoughts on Luke 10:1-3—

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”

Are you following me on Periscope? My username is @craigtowens. If you subscribe, you can see these types of broadcasts live. But, not to worry, I have uploaded it here as well…

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, disciples, Gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ, missional, missionary, Periscope, video, YouTube. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

July 20, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The very first words [of the Lord’s Prayer] are Our Father. Do you now see what those words mean? They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself in the place of a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending. Because, of course, the moment you realize what the words mean, you realize that you are not a son of God. You are not being like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father: you are a bundle of self-centered fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death. So that, in a way, this dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek. But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity

“Prayer is the form of faith that connects us today with the grace that will make us adequate for tomorrow’s ministry.” —John Piper

“When you fulfill your spiritual gift to serve someone tomorrow, you will be serving ‘by the strength that God supplies’ tomorrow. The word is supplies, not supplied. God goes on, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, supplying the ‘strength’ in which we minister.” —John Piper, commenting on 1 Peter 4:10-11

“Never say you will pray about a thing; pray about it. … It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer.” —Oswald Chambers

For all my fellow Detroit Tigers fans, this is an interesting post about the greatest Tiger of all-time: Cobb or Kaline. In my book, they both were phenomenal, but I would give the slight edge to Ty Cobb.

Ernie Johnson: A Man’s Man

July 20, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

I love these types of stories that portray REAL men—great work ethic, professional, totally committed as a husband and father. Way to go, Ernie! And thanks to ESPN E:60 for such a positive story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNHkWVystEE

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: basketball, disability, Ernie Johnson, ESPN, father, husband, integrity, NBA, professional, video, work ethic. Leave a Comment »

Tears And Humility

July 20, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Just has God sent His holy Son “below the line” to rescue us, so we who are in Jesus have been sent below the line to those who are staggering to death. If we are going to be effective rescuers, what must our attitude be?

John Bradford, when he saw a convicted criminal on his way to the gallows said, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” He also said to those who questioned his deep emotional response when preaching, “You blame me for weeping, but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction?”

Isn’t a humble, empathetic rescuer going to be more effective in reaching those staggering to their eternal demise than one who stands aloof, saying, “You got yourself into this mess”?

Resh (Psalm 119:153-160) shows us our posture: It signifies a head bowed; it means we are confidently humble. Confident that God delivers us, defends us, redeems us, preserves us, and saves us (vv. 153-154); but humble enough to know that we could never have earned this!

We have to have this confidently humble posture in order to be effective as His holy rescuers. We grieve for those who are without God because of what they face—

“Salvation” is only gibberish to the wicked because they’ve never looked it up in Your dictionary. (v. 155, MSG)
They don’t know His compassion is great (v. 156), nor how great is Your tender mercy and loving-kindness (AMP).
They become the foes who persecute Christians (v. 157). How they will grieve on Judgment Day, if they don’t repent!
Their actions are loathed (not them as a person!). What God said of the Israelites who went into captivity will be true for those who don’t accept Jesus before they die—Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices. (Ezekiel 6:9, emphasis added)

Tears and humility will keep us in the proper position to reclaim these lost treasures for our King!

I will be continuing our series on Psalm 119 in our P119 Spiritual Workout next Sunday. Hope you can join me!

If you are interested in watching the entire message, the video is below—

If you have missed any of the messages in our P119 series, you can access them all by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, Calvary Assembly of God, confidence, Ezekiel, George Whitefield, humility, Jesus Christ, Psalm 119, salvation, sermon, video. 3 Comments »

Links & Quotes

July 18, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“‘And Enoch walked with God’ [Genesis 5:24]. If so much as this can be truly said of you and me after our decease, we shall not have any reason to complain that we have lived in vain.” —George Whitefield

“A neglect of secret prayer has been frequently an inlet to many spiritual diseases, and has been attended with fatal consequences.” —George Whitefield

“You have heard many men’s dying words, and these are mine: A life spent in communion with God is the pleasantest life in the world.” —Matthew Henry, to a friend when near his death

Sgt. Jason Kelley is a wonderful asset to my hometown, and our surrounding area. So I couldn’t be happier that he has been named Kent County Deputy of the Year!

We are losing a pastor who has been so involved in our city. Pastor Tom Holloway is moving to South Carolina, and I am going to miss him.

A U.S. Army chaplain has found an innovative way to water baptize soldiers. Love it!

Eric Metaxas asks, “How can anyone defend Planned Parenthood after the sickening video came to light this week?” Check out his insightful answer.

[VIDEO] Here is the video from another Periscope broadcast I did about handling fear—

Throw Down!

July 18, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

In the spiritual battle Christians face, the enemy lies and slanders. Here is wise counsel from Charles Spurgeon on how to throw down against his onslaught!

“What multitudes of foes has our faith had to meet with; but how it has swallowed them all up. There were our old sins. The devil threw them down before us, and they turned to serpents. What multitudes! How they hiss in the air! How horrible are their deadly poison-fangs, the gaping jaws, their forked tongues! But the Cross of Jesus, like Aaron’s rod, destroys them all. Faith in Christ makes short work of all our sins, for it is written, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’

“Then the devil stirs up another generation of vipers, and shows us our inbred corruptions, our neglects of duty, our slackness in prayer, our unbeliefs, our backslidings, our wanderings of heart; and sometimes you and I get so tormented by these reptiles, that we grow alarmed, and are half inclined to flee. Do not run, brother, but throw down Aaron’s rod, and it will swallow up all these serpents, even though they were poisonous as the cobra, or fierce as the rattlesnake. You shall overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Jesus is able ‘to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.’ The battle is the Lord’s, and He will deliver them into your hands.

“The old enemy will throw down another host of serpents in the form of worldly trials, diabolical suggestions, temptations to blasphemy, ill thoughts of God, hard thoughts of His providence, rash thoughts of His promises, and such like, till you will be almost distracted. You will wonder how you can meet such a host as this. Remember to stand fast, and throw down Aaron’s rod—your simple trust and faith in Jesus Christ—and it must and shall swallow up all these rods.” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Exodus 7:12 (emphasis added)