Here are the quotes I used this morning in my message on prayer.
“Our Lord in His teaching regarding prayer never once referred to unanswered prayer; He said God always answers prayer.” —Oswald Chambers
“Trust is not a belief that God can bless, that He will bless, but that He does bless, here and now. Trust always operates in the present tense. Hope looks toward the future. Trust looks to the present. Hope expects. Trust possesses. Trust receives what prayer acquires.” —E.M. Bounds
Here are the books I read and reviewed in 2013. Click a title to read the review…
10 People Every Christian Should Know
Did The Resurrection Happen … Really?
I Never Thought I’d See The Day
One Year Book Of Personal Prayer
Pouring Holy Water On Strange Fire
Raising Your Child To Love God
Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn
The Baptism With The Holy Spirit
The Secrets Of Intercessory Prayer
You Don’t Need A Title To Be A Leader
For my book reviews of 2011 click here, and for 2012’s list click here.
My dear fellow pastor, please be on guard! Be careful to remain physically fit, spiritually full, emotionally strong, and mentally stimulated. Keep your relationships healthy and guard against the attacks of the enemy.
Heed these wise words of A.W. Tozer—
“Yet the ministry is one of the most perilous of professions. The devil hates the Spirit-filled minister with an intensity second only to that which he feels for Christ Himself. The source of this hatred is not difficult to discover. An effective, Christ-like minister is a constant embarrassment to the devil, a threat to his dominion, a rebuttal of his best arguments and a dogged reminder of his coming overthrow. No wonder he hates him. satan knows that the downfall of a prophet of God is a strategic victory for him, so he rests not day or night devising hidden snares and deadfalls for the ministry. Perhaps a better figure would be the poison dart that only paralyzes its victim, for I think that satan has little interest in killing the preacher outright. An ineffective, half-alive minister is a better advertisement for hell than a good man dead. So the preacher’s dangers are likely to be spiritual rather than physical, though sometimes the enemy works through bodily weaknesses to get to the preacher’s soul.”
What do you do to keep yourself healthy and on-guard?
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.
God Is Love
In the future, when trial and difficulties await you, do not be fearful, whatever and whoever you may lose faith in, let not this faith slip from you—God is Love; whisper it not only to your heart in its hour of darkness, but here in your corner of God’s earth and man’s great city, live in the belief of it; preach it by your sweetened, chastened, happy life; sing it in consecrated moments of peaceful joy….
The world does not bid you sing, but God does. Song is the sign of an unburdened heart; then sing your songs of love unbidden, ever rising higher and higher into a fuller conception of the greatest, grandest fact on the stage of Time—God is Love.
From The Love Of God
Here’s to a new year filled with a greater revelation in your heart of God’s amazing love! May 2014 be full of your love songs to the Greatest Love Of All!
![Week of prayer [2014]](https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/week-of-prayer-2014.jpg)
I love beginning the year with prayer. We talk about prayer, and most importantly we set aside lots of time to pray.
In addition to our Sunday series on prayer—If You Will Ask—we will be having a special prayer focus each day next week. You can download our prayer guide here → Week of prayer guides ←
The church building will be open for prayer Sunday from 5-6pm and Monday through Friday from 5:30-6:30pm. If you are able to join us, we would love to have you come pray with us. If not physically, please join your prayers with ours each day next week as you pray from home, work or school.
Pray, without ceasing pray, your Captain gives the word; His summons cheerfully obey, and call upon the Lord: To God your every want in instant prayer display; pray always: pray, and never faint; pray, without ceasing, pray.
In fellowship, alone, to God with faith draw near; approach His courts, besiege His throne with all the power of prayer: His mercy now implore, and now show forth His praise; in shouts, our silent awe, adore His miracles of grace. —Charles Wesley
I am very challenged by this quote, and it is one I will attempt to live out this year.
“Now more than at any other time in generations, the believer is in a position to go on the offensive. The world is lost on a wide sea, and Christians alone know the way to the desired haven. While things were going well, the world scorned them with their Bible and hymns, but now the world needs them desperately, and it needs that despised Bible, too. For in the Bible, and there only, is found the chart to tell us where we are going on this rough and unknown ocean. The day when Christians should meekly apologize is over—they can get the world’s attention not by trying to please, but by boldly declaring the truth of divine revelation. They can make themselves heard not by compromise, but by taking the affirmative and sturdily declaring, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’” —A.W. Tozer
![If [web]](https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/if-web.jpg)
Prayer is powerful. Ask anyone who has ever had answer from God in prayer, and they will quickly tell you just how valuable and powerful that prayer was to them.
With that in mind here’s a simple question: why don’t we pray more? It seems like prayer is often the thing we turn to when everything else we have tried has failed. Or we pray after we have messed something up, instead of before we attempted it.
The Bible says this—
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14, emphasis added)
Notice that key qualifier: IF we will ask there is an incredible confidence in God’s answer.
Prayer should be first and continual. That’s why l like beginning each year with a renewed emphasis on prayer. This Sunday is part one in our series If You Will Ask, where we will be exploring the mind-blowing things God gives to His children who ask Him … things like insight, patience, power and initiative.
Please join me at 10:30am this Sunday as we begin our reinvigorating look at the power of prayer.
Although The 13th Resolution was originally written by Charles Sheldon in 1928, it’s an excellent book to read (or re-read) if you are thinking about making New Year’s resolutions.
This book is short, but Sheldon’s writing quickly endears the Blaisdell family to us. We get to listen in as Mr. Blaisdell is reading his list of resolutions to his family. Some of the resolutions pertain just to him, and some involve the entire family. We then get to see a brief glimpse as these resolutions are put into effect in their first couple of days, but quickly the story jumps to the family gathering on New Year’s Day one year later. We hear the Blaisdells telling what changed over the past year, what resolutions stuck, and what resolutions flopped, but we are left to fill in the details of how that transpired.
You can read this book aloud to your family in less time that it would take to watch a sitcom on TV, and then see what sort of discussion it sparks in your home. Very enjoyable!
My friend, God is fully aware of the situation you are facing. He knows what is happening in your life. Here’s the good news—the great news: you are not going down, but you are going through!
“What does God want from you in your difficult time? He wants you to believe His Word—His promises! He wants you to fully trust that He is with you in your struggle. It does not matter if all hell is coming at you, His presence will never be taken from you, even in the midst of your fears and tears. No dart of the devil—no powerful attack against you—will destroy you. Your Father already has a plan of deliverance in place. God is waiting for you to cling to Him in blind trust. He wants you to be able to face all your ferocious temptations, and say, ‘I may not understand this but I know my Lord will not forsake me. I am trusting Him to see me through!’ … God is saying, ‘You’re not going down. I am with you through all of this! If you will just seek My face and trust Me, I will bring you through—because I am always with you!’” —David Wilkerson
In Hebrews 13:5 God says, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”
But in English this isn’t quite strong enough. In this short phrase the Greek language uses five negatives. Let me try to state God’s words as they are literally written—
I will never, certainly not, by no means ever loosen My grip on you, and I will never, certainly not, by no means ever leave you behind, nor leave you helpless, nor leave you abandoned.
Commenting on this verse, Charles Spurgeon wrote—
“This priceless Scripture does not promise us exemption from trouble, but it does secure us against desertion. We may be called to traverse strange ways, but we shall always have our Lord’s company, assistance, and provision. … Come, my heart; if God says He will never leave you nor forsake you, be much in prayer for grace that you may never leave the Lord, nor even for a moment forsake His ways.”
Oh my, what a word of hope! God has not abandoned you, friend. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that He is close to the brokenhearted and the beat-up. He will never, certainly not, by no means ever leave you, so don’t leave Him but cling even more tightly to His unshakable promise!
I get so tired of people calling themselves “a self-made man.” There is no such thing! It is equally as distasteful when pastors pat themselves on the back talking about “the ministry I have built.”
Dick Brogden
Here are important words to remember—
“Wherever we go in ministry and mission, we either benefit from the labor of others or we contribute to the future benefit of those that will follow. If we see fruit, we can be assured that it is not solely due to our dedication or vision but because others went ahead of us and did the hard work. Often prayer accomplishes this hard work. Regularly those on the ground preceding us did this hard work.” (Dick Brogden)
And this—
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)
What do you think?
Craig T. Owens 