Assembly of God | Craig T. Owens

May 2024
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Links & Quotes

April 20, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Jesus asks us to proclaim the message about Him, not argue about Him. The best witness is one who truthfully shares his or her personal life-changing experience with Jesus. There is never a reason to quarrel about this! Check out this whole message here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“In 1977, 40 years after arriving in Guatemala, the Franklins retired from full-time ministry, returning to the United States. They made numerous short-term trips back to Guatemala to rejoice with the people who had become their family. From the five small groups of believers they found in 1937, God had blessed them with 600 established churches, 700 licensed ministers, and 55,000 Assemblies of God believers.” What an amazing testimony of faithful, Christ-honoring ministry!

“Enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

“When we are out of the way of duty, we are in the way of temptation.” —Matthew Henry

“Work of the enemy! Such deeds he loves: friend at war with friend, loyalty divided, and confusion of hearts.” —Gandalf, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King

I absolutely love the leadership insights I discover during my daily Bible reading. I have turned many of these insights into an ongoing series called Godly Leadership.

“Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person. … If we think of the Holy Spirit as so many do as merely a power or influence, our constant thought will be, ‘How can I get more of the Holy Spirit,’ but if we think of Him in the Biblical way as a Divine Person, our thought will rather be, ‘How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?’” —R.A. Torrey, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

Links & Quotes

March 2, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Many of the examples Jesus used to tell us about the Kingdom of God seem like such small things. But those small beginnings have irresistible growth potential! Check out more thoughts in my series of posts called Kingdom Praying. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

My wife is a school teacher and I also work quite a bit in our local schools. I think T.M. Moore is spot-on in his analysis of the breakdown in our current educational system: “This commitment to the Law and Word of God as foundational to the education of the young was everywhere practiced throughout the pre-revolutionary period in colonial America. It was unthinkable in the colonies that young people should be submitted to any instruction for any length of time without being taught the commandments and statutes of God, including the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Parents insisted on it, colonial and local statutes required it, and local school boards dutifully saw to it in all their schools.Since the middle of the previous century, assailed by specious invocations of ‘the separation of Church and State,’ educational policy in America has increasingly denied a place to God, His commandments, and His Word in the public-school curriculum. Generations of American children have grown up in a ‘disenchanted’ world (Charles Taylor), a world in which God, spiritual things, and the Law of God are deemed to be irrelevant if not oppressive, or at least a nuisance. The present crisis of morality, culture, and social upheaval is only the most visible consequence of that policy.”

David Mathis shared some thoughts about the healthy pace of ministry Jesus demonstrates for us. He said, “Let’s sit together at the feet of Jesus, and consider the pace and patterns of His life and ministry. He was not idle. Nor was He frenzied. From all we can tell from the Gospels, Jesus’s days were full. I think it would be fair to say He was busy, but He was not frantic. He lived to the full, and yet He did not seem to be in a hurry. In Jesus, we observe a human life with holy habits and patterns: rhythms of retreating from society and then reentering to do the work of ministry. Even as God Himself in human flesh, Jesus prioritized time away with His Father. He chose again and again, in His perfect wisdom and love, to give His first and best moments to seeking His Father’s face.“ These words resonate with me, because they are thoughts that I considered quite extensively for my book Shepherd Leadership.

I love reading stories like these that show how a relationship with Jesus utterly transforms a person’s life! “Opal W. Eubanks joined the Mississippi Highway Patrol during the race riots of 1964. A large, broad-shouldered white man, he relished the opportunity to strike fear in the hearts of African-Americans who were in trouble with the law. By his own admission, he was a foul-mouthed sinner who liked ‘rough stuff.’ A radical conversion to Christ in the early 1970s altered the course of Eubanks’ life, and his hardened heart became tender toward African-Americans in his rural community. He and his wife, Thelma, ultimately pioneered an Assemblies of God congregation consisting mostly of African-Americans, which they pastored for 21 years.”

The Greek word for “teaching” in Mark 9:31 means an ongoing dialogue. It’s an imperfect verb here because it is an activity that is never fully completed. Jesus wants us to abide with Him—to dialogue with Him—to continually learn from Him. The New Living Translation says it this way, ”For He wanted to spend more time with His disciples and teach them.” This is just as true for us today!

J. Warner Wallace addresses the claims that the Old Testament prophets actually foretold that Jesus would be the Messiah. I love considering the apologetics for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and this video will become an added resource for me in the future.

Links & Quotes

February 17, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Unforgiveness keeps our eyes on our offenders and off our God. Free yourself by forgiving those who have hurt you. You can check out this full sermon here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.” —Chuck Yeager

As I have shared before, I am so impressed with the He Gets Us social media campaign! Some people are still trying to figure out exactly what this campaign is. Sean McDowell and his podcast partner Scott Ray had a great conversation with Ed Stetzer about this. Check out the video!

Some people have been critical of the He Gets Us commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, but I thought they were outstanding! This is a social media outreach designed and funded by some of the most biblically-grounded, evangelistically-minded people I know. It is a social media campaign. It is not designed as a sermon (which is why there are no Bible verses shown in the commercial). The idea is to get past the barriers and misconceptions skeptics have come to believe about Jesus, and then be enticed to go to the hegetsus.com website. It is at this site that the Gospel message is introduced and visitors are given Bible verses and other materials to go deeper.

John Stonestreet wrote, “Before it was the corporate creation of greeting card companies, it was a day to remember third-century Christian martyr Valentinus of Rome.” This post is a good reminder of what Christians really should be remembering on Valentine’s Day, as well as the higher definition of love.

“The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.” —John McEnroe

Links & Quotes

February 10, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Our anxiety is usually tied to our insecurity about our needs being met. Philippians 4:6-7 counsels us to turn those anxieties into prayer. It’s not what we can provide for ourselves, but trusting what our Heavenly Father has already provided for us. Check out this amazing series on prayer. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

A recent post at the Institute for Creation Research says, “despite popular perception, the impact theory of dinosaur extinction has problems and is still a source of contention among even conventional scientists.” In fact, “Despite uniformitarian claims to the contrary, these rocks and fossils are best explained by the Genesis Flood that covered the earth about 4,500 years ago. All the air-breathing, land-dwelling creatures outside the Ark perished. However, the representatives of these animals that God brought on board the Ark, including dinosaurs, survived, reproduced, and spread across the Earth after the Flood. Many ancient peoples wrote about and described what appear to be dinosaurs, even though they called them by other names, e.g., dragons. In the creation Flood model, impacts may have hit the earth during the Flood, but none of them caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.” This article is a good overview of the geological and paleontological evidence that supports the biblical account of the Flood.

“Scripture teaches us that there are two points of view from which we may regard Christ’s death upon the Cross. The one is the redemption of the Cross: Christ dying for us as our complete deliverance from the curse of sin. The other, the fellowship of the Cross: Christ taking us up to die with Him and making us partakers of the fellowship of His death in our own experience. … O Christian, when the world crucified Christ, it crucified you with Him, when Christ overcame the world on the Cross, He made you an overcomer too. He calls you now, at whatever cost of self-denial, to regard the world, in its hostility to God and His kingdom, as a crucified enemy over whom the Cross can ever keep you conqueror. What a different relationship to the pleasures and attractions of the world the Christian has who by the Holy Spirit has learned to say: ‘I have been crucified with Christ;…[the crucified] Christ lives in me!’ (Galatians 2:20).” —Andrew Murray

Sullivan and Addie Chainey were both deaf, but that didn’t stop them from becoming premier missionaries in the Assembly of God fellowship. Their work with other deaf people was amazing! I love this concluding thought in this short biography of their ministry work: “The Chaineys’ story testifies that God can empower those who are marginalized in society to do redemptive work in their own communities and beyond.”

“Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce

Years later, Boaz was obeying this commandment in Leviticus 19:9. That allowed Ruth to be in his field, which led to a marriage that began the family line of King David, which traces all the way to Jesus! Obedience matters. Just imagine if Boaz had been disobedient in this. The Messiah still would have come, but Boaz and Ruth (and their children and grandchildren) would have missed out on this blessing.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Andrew Murray, Assembly of God, Boaz, C.S. Lewis, Flood, Galatians, geology, Heaven, Hell, Institute for Creation Research, Leviticus, Lord's Prayer, missionary, paleontology, prayer, quotes, Ruth, video. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

February 3, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Stop praying to yourself! God isn’t impressed with your “powerful” prayer! Jesus tells an interesting story about two men: one thought very highly of his spiritual status and the only could barely lift his eyes. Jesus said that the proud man’s prayer received no help from God, but only the humble man’s prayer was heard. This is a short clip from my series called Kingdom Praying. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“If the fetus gets in the way, ditch it. If the old person gets in the way, ditch it. If you get in the way…” —Francis Schaeffer

“The god of convenience, ruling capriciously in the hearts of men and women, and supported by worshipers of the god of wealth—greedy, self-interested profit-takers in the guise of abortionists and abortion-rights advocates—is the putative lord of life and death where children in the womb are concerned. … Christians must insist that all political candidates seeking their support, at whatever level of government, be firm in their commitment to resist the present abortion regime and expose the lie of the pro-choice agenda by every available means. …The Law of God is holy and righteous and good. Abortion is unholy, unrighteous, and evil. If we want a just and loving society, we will worship God and obey His Law, and we will work to dethrone the god of convenience and to expose the folly and self-interest of all its followers. And we will look to God to explain the nature, meaning, and value of all lives.” —T.M. Moore

Elihu is angry at Job “because he justified himself before God.” Better stated: “Job was more concerned about justifying himself—making himself look good—than he was about making God look good.” Elihu is angry at Job’s three friends because they acted like God and pronounced a guilty verdict against Job. Elihu is righteously provoked. After holding his tongue for 31 chapters, he cannot remain silent any longer! I conclude that Elihu is righteous in his response because God doesn’t have anything negative to say to or about Elihu (as He does with the three friends) at the end of the Book of Job.

Long before the term “fake news” made it into our lexicon, Charles E. Robinson wrote an article in 1934 “as a solemn warning to all Christians” about the rising tide of anti-Semitism. He was especially upset about a book that made an erroneous case blaming Jews for global economic and political turmoil. I am thrilled with the strong spiritual and intellectual legacy in the Assembly of God fellowship!

“There’s a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success.” —Paul Bear Bryant

Dr. Bruce Hindmarsh looks at the rare friendship between one of my favorite authors and a gifted poet whose work I also admire: John Newton and William Cowper.

Links & Quotes

November 11, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

This is just one example of the power of a leader’s storytelling. Check the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” —Benjamin Franklin

George Jeffreys was born with a limiting speech impediment, but with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, George and his brother Stephen led incredible Pentecostal revivals in England and Wales. They were said to be the greatest evangelists since George Whitefield and John Wesley. Someone asked Jeffreys how long a revival should last, and he responded, “Thank God, a revival started in my heart 30 years ago, and it has never stopped; it will never end.” He continued by saying, “As long as Jesus is kept in the front, and made the center of fellowship and blessing and unity, the revival will never end.” Check out this mini biography about his life.

John Stonestreet uses the example of C.S. Lewis’ Aslan to talk about how God can speak to us through our pain. John writes, “Pain is never the point of God’s plans, any more than it is the purpose of physical exercise. Never pushing ourselves to the point that it hurts means never improving our health. On the other hand, seeking pain is more likely to do harm than to aid our wellbeing. In and of itself, pain is not good, but it is meaningful. Pain indicates that something is wrong and needs to be addressed.”

“The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up.” —Dame Anna Wintour

Because of the extensive prayer, research, and work I put into my book Shepherd Leadership, I am frequently drawn to passages of Scripture that reinforce the idea of pastors as shepherds. I was meditating on Hebrews 5:2 the other day, and I shared some of my thoughts with some of my pastor friends.

Links & Quotes

October 14, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Leaders, you need to determine the coachability factor before you start trying to coach a teammate. Check out our full conversation on The Craig and Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

Sextortion is when someone demands money or other favors in exchange for not sharing an explicit photo or video of the targeted victim. The sextortion of minor children runs into the thousands every month. Axis reported, “Most targets of sextortion are teen boys, who seem to be more likely than girls to send an explicit selfie to someone they aren’t having a romantic relationship with. Anonymous scammers will reach out to their target over social media, engaging in a flirtation and eventually asking for nudes.” Axis also shared these helpful resources, “Families can prepare by telling their teens about resources like TakeItDown, a free service which will remove nudes from the internet within two days, and the 24/7 Crisis Text Line, which connects teens with professional counselors via text at any time.”

“First, government is not God; instead, government is God’s servant for the good of those served. And second, the people are not God, and therefore must not be allowed the last word on what defines the terms of ‘good’ public policy. Only God can define what is good for people, for He alone is good (Mark 10:18; Psalm 119:68).” —T.M. Moore

“Since the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision more than 50 years ago, almost 40% of all abortions in America have been in the Black community, resulting in erasing the lives and destinies of an estimated 23 million Black babies.” The National Black Fellowship is aggressively working to change this.

Can New Testament Christians claim Old Testament promises? Yes! John Piper shares 8 “filters” to help us with this application.

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

J. Warner Wallace uses forensic evidence to demonstrate why we should believe the New Testament was written much closer to the time of the actual event than most skeptics believe. Check out this video.

Links & Quotes

September 23, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Questions engage people more than statements do. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

How should Christians engage with artificial intelligence (AI)? This is a very thoughtful and biblically-centric post.

The Bible records the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC and to the Romans in AD 70. For the first time, archeologists have discovered evidence of both armies in close proximity to each other. Yet again, archeology confirms the historicity of the Bible.

“In America, we have a tendency to worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.” —Lenny Esposito

“Young people are told, ‘You’ve got plenty of time, live a little, first,’ as if life ends after the wedding. The truth about marriage, however, is that it is, statistically, the single best predictor of long-term happiness. Making this even more important to understand is that for at least the last 20 years now, Americans have been steadily getting less happy.” Here’s how John Stonestreet shares this report from the University of Chicago.

T.M. Moore shared an interesting component of early-colonial American lawmaking: “Peruse the civil codes of the American colonies and you will discover a curious phenomenon. Frequently, colonial legislators drafted their civil codes by looking to the Old Testament Law of God.”

Dr. Tim Clarey said, “The global Flood also answers why dinosaurs were still alive and flourishing until the end of the Cretaceous. At that moment in the Flood, they were likely trying to stay on the highest ground available as waters encroached closer, week by week. As the dry land rapidly disappeared, many species herded together. This explains why varied types of dinosaurs were buried together at the end of the Cretaceous. The Flood’s tsunami-like waves eventually crashed over the remaining dinosaurs and entombed them in what’s called Upper Cretaceous strata.” Check out more evidence for the Flood that is recorded in the Book of Genesis.

Links & Quotes

September 2, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

The Holy Spirit who inspired the words of the Bible is the same Holy Spirit in you. He can illuminate the biblical promises for your prayer time, and He can help you apply the biblical principles to your everyday circumstances. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“Carl M. ‘Daddy” Hanson (1865-1954), a spiritual father to many early Pentecostals on the northern Great Plains, earned his Pentecostal stripes on both sides of Azusa Street. He experienced the Pentecostal distinctive of speaking in tongues in the 19th century, and he became an early leader in the Assemblies of God in the first half of the 20th century.” Check out this mini-biography of this Pentecostal pioneer.

I love studying the historicity of the Bible! Isaiah is such an important work both prophetically and historically. “Jesus in John 12:37-40, as well as Paul in Romans 10:16, 20-21 both quote from the beginning and ending of the book attributing it to Isaiah the prophet.” Check out these archeological discoveries relating to the Book of Isaiah.

Absolutely astounding! The silk of spider webs has unique properties that medical science is beginning to use in humans. What an amazing Creator we serve!

In my sermon about parenting, I quoted from Proverbs 22:6. Commenting on this verse, Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied, wrote, “The principle regarding our children is that the things they are taught early on will give them every opportunity for stability later in life. This reality does not guarantee that they will make right choices (including whether or not to follow Jesus); it does guarantee that they have the resource of wisdom to draw on should they choose. … Whatever their choice, we can rest in the peace that we laid up for them every resource for good. Our peace (regarding our children) comes from what we have done with our heart and resources, not what they have done with theirs.”

Links & Quotes

August 19, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Salvation doesn’t arrive on Air Force One. This simple but profound reminder from Chuck Colson should send Christians to prayer instead of seeking a merely political solution. Check out my full message about trusting God vs. trusting the government here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science, says, “Sleep is the universal health care provider: whatever the physical or mental ailment, sleep has a prescription it can dispense.” It’s not just medical science, but the Bible also talks about the value of sleep, as Scott Hubbard explains in this post. I’ve also shared some posts about sleep here, here, and here.

Don’t you love the beautiful melody of songbirds? Being a percussionist, I’m attracted to the woodpeckers. Scientists have found that woodpeckers are the only non-songbird that share an identical genetic marker in their brains with songbirds. That means that the drumming of woodpeckers is actually a song! Check out some additional fascinating insights about our drumming friends in this post.

I love this story from the early 1900s! Small prayer meetings began to converge to become a Pentecostal revival in the Pacific Northwest.

“What is the best thing in the world? To please its Creator. What is His will? To fulfill what He commanded, that is, to live rightly and dutifully to seek the Eternal; for duty and justice are the will of Him Who is dutiful and right. How do we seek this goal? By application. Then we must apply ourselves in duty and justice. What helps to maintain this practice? Understanding, which, while it winnows the remainder and finds nothing solid to rest in amongst those things which the world possesses, turns in wisdom to the one thing which is eternal.” —Columbanus

“Jesus taught us to pray that the Kingdom would come on earth in the same way that it exists in heaven. … Jesus made praying for the Kingdom the highest priority in our prayers after praising and honoring God. The Kingdom is more important than our daily needs. The Kingdom is more to be desired than that our sins should be forgiven or that we should be rescued through temptation [Matthew 6:9-13].” —T. M. Moore

Stephen O. Presley wrote, “If our modern world resembles the ancient one, perhaps we could glean some wisdom from the ways the early church navigated these murky waters. As Polycarp testifies, the Scriptures were essential to the early Christian apologetic. Passages such as Romans 13:1 and Matthew 22:21, alongside the examples of Old Testament figures such as Joseph and Daniel, guided the church’s vision for engaging the unbelieving world.” His post especially caught my eye after I shared a very similar message to my flock this past Sunday.

Sean McDowell sits down with an Old Testament professor to discuss 10 of the most bizarre OT passages (as selected by Sean’s X followers).