Thursdays With Oswald—Exhausted For God

February 16, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Exhausted For God

     Jesus said to Peter, ‘Feed My sheep,’ but He gave him nothing to feed them with. The process of being made broken bread and poured out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you to the dregs. Be careful that you get your supply, or before long you will be utterly exhausted. Before other souls learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus direct, they have to draw on it through you; you have to be literally ‘sucked,’ until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and His sheep as well as for Himself.

     Has the way in which you have been serving God betrayed you into exhaustion? If so, then rally your affections. Where did you start the service from? From your own sympathy or from the basis of the Redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually go back to the foundation of your affections and recollect where the source of power is. You have no right to say, ‘O Lord, I am so exhausted.’ He saved and sanctified you in order to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that your supply comes from Him. ‘All my fresh springs shall be in Thee.’

From My Utmost For His Highest

He saved and sanctified you in order to exhaust you. I want to be continually filled up and poured out for God. But in order to be of any good to others, I have to keep going back to the Source of life. If I’m not filled up with God’s presence, I will be exhausted, but not in the right way.

I have shared quite a bit about the correct way for godly leaders to be replenished through self-care. Check out these posts.

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Growing Faith = Growing Praise

February 15, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

 

The mark of a Christian who is growing and maturing in faith is one who is always increasing their praise level.

The more knowledge we have of Him,

the more we realize the grace He’s lavished on us,

the more glory we should be giving Him…

now AND forever!

Amen.

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Boring Christianity?

February 15, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I read a lot of reports, books, and surveys that talk about the number of unchurched people in America. Sadly, my experience is that most of these are actually dechurched people. In other words, they are folks who were involved in a church at one point in their lives, but then felt like church wasn’t doing it for them any longer.

I’m not sure that I have the answer that will cure this. Actually I’ve got a lot more questions:

  • Are pastors helping people grow in their faith?
  • Are churches engaging their community in ways that make people want to be involved?
  • Are Christians tackling the pressing needs in their society?
  • Do people in local communities even think of asking the church to help with issues in their hometown?

I think the answer might be “No” to all of these questions.

“I suspect that most Christians today are fairly satisfied with the state of their faith. They have a ‘good enough’ experience of Jesus and they’re not really thirsting for much more. But the job of pastors is to help people realize that splashing around in the mud puddle of faith is nothing compared with sailing on the ocean of God’s grace and power (as C.S. Lewis says). We must whet the appetites of our people for a greater experience of the Lord’s reviving power. When we do, they will begin to seek it more fervently.” —T.M. Moore

“We’ve given people just enough of Jesus to be bored, but not enough to be transformed.” —David Kinnaman

“The outer courts are filled with distraction. It’s hard to hear. The holy place is still. And when you get into the inner courts, all the other voices vying for our attention are silenced. I’m afraid that most of us live most of our lives in the outer courts. We’re too Christian to enjoy sin, but we’re too sinful to enjoy Christ. It’s time to press in. It’s time to press on.” —Mark Batterson

If we are truly living as disciples of Jesus Christ, Christianity should be the most exciting, rewarding, and fulfilling way to live! That’s how I want it to be for me and for my church! What about you?

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Don’t Stop Now

February 14, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Today is Valentine’s Day—a day set aside for us to express our love to our sweethearts. Sadly, for many people, other than their birthday this may be the only day that someone is focused on them.

My encouragement to you is don’t stop today. Don’t let today be the only day those close to you see and hear and experience your love for them.

Don’t let your spouse wonder.
Don’t let your kids guess.
Don’t let your friends hope.

Don’t stop “studying” your loved ones. Learn what love language they speak, and then don’t stop speaking it. (If you haven’t read it already, I highly recommend Dr. Gary Chapman’s great book The Five Love Languages.)

Flowers, candy, cards, and romantic dinners today are a start. Don’t stop now. Keep it going all year long.

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Act Of Valor (movie review)

February 13, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I have always had great respect and appreciation for the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines that keep us safe. After seeing Act Of Valor, that level of appreciation has gone up significantly!

This is a realistic movie. It’s not a Hollywood-stylized action film. It portrays that way our teams operate in the field to keep our country and her citizens safe. And it shows the real men and women, and the real emotions they have to deal with as they do a very dangerous job.

This movie is rated R for very realistic combat scenes, and some language. But for your teenagers that think they know what “real combat” is because of the video games they play, take them to see this movie and use it as a discussion of what’s really real.

Go see this film. And then thank an active duty service personnel or a veteran for their incredibly selfless service to our country.

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Whose Plans?

February 13, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Sometimes what needs to go on my To Do list seems logical. But logical to whom? If I’m not careful I can get so focused on doing the next logical thing, that I miss out on the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Bruce Wilkinson said it this way—

“If we aren’t passionately and deliberately focused on carrying out God’s agenda with God’s heart, we’ll end up putting our own agenda first. We’ll increasingly look for the kind of missions we enjoy most. We’ll tend to ask God to bless our busyness for Him instead of asking Him to send us on the miracle mission of His choice.”

Ouch!

I don’t think the Bible is against To Do lists, but I need to make my lists the right way.

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15)

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

With those verses in mind, this is what I’m praying:

Dear God, I want to decided right here and now that Your agenda is more important than mine. Not my “To Do” list be done, but Yours. I die to my plans so that I might live out your plans.

I am trying to Live Dead to my agenda this week.

If you’ve missed any messages in our series called Live Dead, you can find them all by clicking here.

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Answer (Wo)Man

February 10, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

“Hey, pastor, I have a question for you….” As a pastor, do you feel like you need to have all the answers, all the time, to everyone’s questions? I’m not saying that as pastors we shouldn’t always be studying and learning and growing, but I think it’s a dangerous trap for us to feel like we need to have every answer.

Here’s what John Calvin wrote in The Institutes of the Christian Religion—

“And since the Holy Spirit always instructs us in what is useful, but altogether omits, or only touches cursorily on matters which tend little to edification, of all such matters, it certainly is our duty to remain in willing ignorance.

“…Let us here remember that on the whole subject of religion one rule of modesty and soberness is to be observed, and it is this, in obscure matters not to speak or think, or even long to know, more than the Word of God has delivered. A second rule is, that in reading the Scriptures we should constantly direct our inquiries and meditations to those things which tend to edification, not indulge in curiosity, or in studying things of no use.

“…The duty of a Theologian, however, is not to tickle the ear, but confirm the conscience, by teaching what is true, certain, and useful.”

Study for edification, not curiosity. Teach what is true and helpful, not what is tickling ears. And don’t feel like you need to have all the answers.

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The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge (book review)

February 9, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Next to being a husband, there is nothing I love more than being a Dad! I take my responsibility as a father very seriously, so that’s why I am always trying to grow in this area of my life. I just finished a 3-week journey through The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge by Carey Casey, and I am a better Dad for it.

As the name implies, this is designed to be read one day at a time over 21 days. At the end of each day’s lesson there are challenges to help Dads put into practice what they’ve just read. These challenges, I discovered, cannot be accomplished in a single day; they are intended to become lifelong habits. At the end of several of the chapters is a QR code that takes you to a short 2-minute video by Dr. Greg Smalley, who serves as a cheerleader/motivator to help Dads get moving.

I appreciated “the little things” that this book showed Dads could do right away. The principles in this book are not hard to implement, but they are simple steps that any Dad can do. At least, any Dad who wants to step up his fathering skills!

I loved it! I think lots of other Dads will too.

I am a Tyndale book reviewer.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Emotions In Christianity

February 9, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Emotions In Christianity

      Enthusiasm means, to use the phrase of a German mystic, ‘intoxicated with God.’ … The tendency is in us all to say, ‘You must not trust in feelings’; perfectly true, but if your religion is without feeling, there is nothing in it. If you are living a life right with God, you will have feeling, most emphatically so, but you will never run the risk of basing your faith on feelings. The Christian is one who bases his whole confidence in God and His work of grace, then the emotions become the beautiful ornament of the life, not the source of it.

From Biblical Ethics

God gave us a mind, a will, and emotions. We get ourselves in trouble when we elevate one above the rest, or worse yet, deny that one of those aspects are relevant.

So I don’t say, “I will obey God when I feel like it is the right thing to do.”

Nor do I say, “This feels so good, even though it makes no sense at all.”

We obey God’s Word by faith, because it is the right thing to do, and then the feelings of joy and peace and understanding will become the beautiful ornaments of our lives.

Obedience first, and the feelings will follow.

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October Baby (movie review)

February 8, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Betsy and I were privileged to see an advanced screening of October Baby last night, and I’m still trying to process all of my thoughts.

It was emotionally moving, but not sappy nor sentimental.

It was thought-provoking, but not philosophically deep.

It was laugh-provoking, but not a comedy.

It addressed a woman’s struggle, but it’s not a chick flick.

It addressed parenting, but it’s not a dry documentary.

It is just a GOOD movie.

The script was good, the acting was good, the cinematography was good, even the soundtrack was good. The message that all life is precious comes through clearly, but not in an in-your-face, shove-it-down-your-throat way.

The movie is rated PG-13 because of the subject matter (a girl on a quest to find her birth mother, after discovering that she’s the survivor of a failed abortion attempt). But because of the purity of the movie (not a single swear word, zero sexuality), I would recommend families see this together.

This is a story that needed to be told, and the Erwin brothers did a phenomenal job telling that story.

Send a message to Hollywood, go see October Baby on opening weekend, March 23-25.

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