“Pilate [knew] it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him” (Mark 15:9, 10).
There was no credible evidence against Jesus, and Pilate knew it! Yet, “wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified” (v. 15). Even without evidence, Pilate was still swayed by the noise of the crowd.
How eerily similar to our culture today: Noise trumps evidence; emotions trump facts; the “popular crowd” gets their way.
It was not Christ’s words at this time—but His silence—that had the lasting impact. He did not try to defend Himself of the false charges before Pilate, but committed Himself to God (John 19:11; Luke 23:46). It was this that both amazed Pilate (Mark 5:5), and prompted the centurion to say, “Surely this Man was the Son of God!” (v. 39).
When I simply share the gospel, God will confirm His Word with miracles (Mark 16:20). I don’t need to match volume levels with the crowd, nor sink to their base rhetoric, nor defend myself—I commit myself to my God and His directive for me to be His witness (16:15). He will take care of the results!
“I want to be a soldier who is fully prepared for the battlefield. I know that victory is won long before the battle begins. It’s won in boot camp, in training and conditioning. When the enemy suddenly comes at me, I’m going to need all available ammunition, and that ammunition is supplied by the powerful Word of God as I hide it away in my heart. So, the next time the devil attacks, I’m confident I’ll have reserves to draw on. I’ll have won the battle alone with God, prior to the battlefield.” —David Wilkerson
“I know the math is impossible, but we certainly act as though the other person is the unreasonable one, no matter which side of the table he sits on.” —Seth Godin
The story goes that D.L. Moody arrived home late one evening from preaching a revival service. As the tired Moody climbed into bed, his wife asked, “So how did it go tonight?” Moody replied, “Pretty well, two and a half converts.” His wife smiled and said, “That’s sweet. How old was the child?” “No, no, no!” Moody answered, “it was two children and one adult! The children have their whole lives in front of them. The adult’s life is already half-gone.”
To say that Smith Wigglesworth was a unique minister of the Gospel is an understatement! I doubt that you can find anyone else in history quite like Wigglesworth, but what an amazing example he left for us of someone totally sold-out to God!
This video biography by Roberts Liardon is a fairly accurate picture of this great man’s life. You can also get to know Smith Wigglesworth by reading his sermons. I have posted several reviews of books which contain his sermons, as well as extensive quotes from his those sermons:
“Don’t hold onto anything so tightly that Jesus can’t take it from you.” —Corrie ten Boom
“Forgiveness doesn’t diminish justice; it just entrusts it to God. He guarantees the right retribution.” —Max Lucado
“History is a vast early warning system.” —Norman Cousins
“How do we develop such trust? We seek the Lord in prayer, meditate on His Word, and walk in obedience. You may object, ‘But those things are all works.’ I disagree. They are all acts of faith. As we observe these disciplines, we are trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work in us, building up a reservoir of strength for our time of need.” Read more of David Wilkerson’s post Entering God’s Rest.
A couple of thousand years ago Socrates called the youth generation lazy, disrespectful, and lacking responsibility. Tim Elmore points out that there are 7 changes that affect every generation. Parents, teachers, coaches, and others that work with youth need to check this out.
Every summer in Cedar Springs all of the churches combine together for a huge worship service called UNITED. This year we have a special project: united to change the world.
[VIDEO] This morning I launched my first live broadcast on Periscope. You can find me there at username @craigtowens. Here is the video from my live feed—
If you see a book entitled Forgive Me, you might think that it is a book extolling the virtue of asking forgiveness. Although author David Kirkwood is asking forgiveness from his family, friends, and neighbors, this isn’t a book telling us how or why to forgive.
David Kirkwood’s apology is to those he interacts with on an everyday basis. His sin: not telling them the simple truth about how much God loves them!
Forgive Me is an excellent book for Christians to buy in bulk, and then hand out to people they care about. David will lead the reader through a logical progression of why we are here, the futility of trying to find purpose or a lasting legacy on our own, and how God’s love led to Jesus purchasing the forgiveness from our sins.
This isn’t a deep doctrinal book, nor is it a “preachy” book. It’s loving, and kind, and easy for anyone to read. Please share this book with any of your family or friends who haven’t yet experienced the joy of knowing Jesus as their Savior.
“When we go through the trial of faith we gain so much wealth in our heavenly banking account, and the more we go through the trial of faith the wealthier we become in the heavenly regions.” —Oswald Chambers
“The promise that frees us from an unforgiving, bitter, vengeful spirit is the promise that God will settle our accounts. He will do it more justly and more thoroughly than we ever could. Therefore we can back off and leave room for God to work.” —John Piper, commenting on Romans 12:19
“‘Revenge is sweet;’ but not to the man who has tasted Christ, for he says, ‘How can I have vengeance upon my fellow, when Christ has put away my sin?’ Now, forgiveness is sweet, and he loathes malice, and turns aside from it as from venom itself.” —Charles Spurgeon
The Isaiah 53:5 Project reblogged one of my all-time favorite blog posts: The Parable Of The Lifeguard. Thanks, James!
Melinda Penner reminds us of the dangers of abusing our freedom. “If there is nothing objective to constrain our freedom, then there’s nothing objective to constrain the government. Our rights become whatever we declare them to be and whatever the government at any time and place declares them to be, changing with the fashions of the day.”
Humility has gotten a bad reputation. Many people think of a humble person as someone who never speaks up for himself, someone that can be taken advantage of, someone who becomes a doormat for everyone else. But the picture of a humble person in the Bible couldn’t be more different!
We all have to bow to someone or something. A godly humble person has chosen to bow to God and to follow God’s righteous standards.
One name for God is Jehovah Tsidkenu which means God is Righteous (see Psalm 119:137). The Hebrew word tsadhe is a part of God’s Righteous title, and it’s how we are called to live. Tsadhe means the humble, faithful servant.
In the section of Psalm 119 called tsadhe, the psalmist points out:
Your laws are right … they are fully trustworthy (vv. 137, 138).
Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and Your servant loves them (v. 140).
The way You tell me to live is always right (v. 144).
Jesus lists a whole series of rewards for those who are humbly, faithfully dependent on God for help in Matthew 5:3-12. But I especially love how tsadhe looks when we zoom in on it—the Hebrew scribes wrote it with the faithful, humble, kneeling servant depicted with a crown! Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven (Matthew 5:12).
Far from being pushed down, the humble person is the one God delights to exalt! God set the standard for righteousness, and then Jesus became our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30), so that we could receive the rewards of humble obedience to the Heavenly Father.
“The more people talk about their worldview, the more open and confident they are in making their case, the bolder they become. The bolder and more outspoken they become, the more a ‘spiral of silence’ begins to engulf those who believe otherwise. No one wants to be thought of as holding to a ‘minority position’ on anything, so, rather than speak up in the face of many who are doing so, most will remain silent. This is where the Christian community finds itself at this time, trapped in a spiral of silence before a blustering but empty secular and unbelieving worldview. So it is very important that believers in Jesus Christ make the best use of every opportunity to talk about what is good and pleasing to God.” —T.M. Moore
“Being infinite, God is inexhaustibly interesting. It is impossible, therefore, that God be boring. His continual demonstration of the most intelligent and interesting actions is volcanic. As the source of every good pleasure, He Himself pleases fully and finally. If that’s not how we experience Him, we are either dead or sleeping. It is therefore astonishing how little effort is put into knowing God. … Let us pray that our infinitely great God would open our eyes and hearts to see Him and seek to know Him more.” —John Piper
“The Lord doesn’t want our victory to be merely a one-time experience. His goal isn’t for us to emerge from a crisis, saying, ‘Thank God, I kept my faith through that.’ Yes, you may have made it through that one. But, like victorious Israel at the Red Sea, another trial will eventually come and it may be a different kind of test altogether. Living in God’s rest is a way of life. He wants us to be maintained by His peace and confidence in all our trials, knowing our High Priest is touched by the feelings of our infirmities.” —David Wilkerson
“Part of God’s fullness which He communicates is His happiness. This happiness consists in enjoying and rejoicing in Himself; so does also the creature’s happiness.” —Jonathan Edwards
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I love the United States of America! As we celebrate our country’s birthday, here are 10 quotes from my files about America.
“Throughout our history Americans have put their faith in God and no one can doubt that we have been blessed for it. The earliest settlers of this land came in search of religious freedom. Landing on a desolate shoreline, they established a spiritual foundation that has served us ever since.” —Ronald Reagan
“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” ―Harry Truman
“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” —Edward Abbey
“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” —Samuel Adams
“If American democracy is to remain the greatest hope of humanity, it must continue abundantly in the faith of the Bible.” —Calvin Coolidge
“The strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions.” —Calvin Coolidge
“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favors. … The Hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.” —George Washington
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!” —Abraham Lincoln
“We’ve staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future upon the capacity of each and every one of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” —James Madison
“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire.” —John Witherspoon
“Pilate [knew] it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him” (Mark 15:9, 10).
![Tsadhe [close up]](https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/tsadhe-close-up.jpg)
Craig T. Owens 