But The Best Part Is…

April 8, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

We had an amazing morning at Calvary Assembly of God celebrating the resurrection of Jesus!!

All of the behind-the-scenes help was servant-hearted.

The food was delicious.

The hospitality was sweet.

The music was uplifting.

The drama was powerful.

The atmosphere was inviting.

But the best part is: ten people invited Jesus into their lives!

It was a lot of work to put on our third Easter breakfast drama, but it was so worth it!

I am so grateful to our dedicated church family that works so hard to make sure Jesus is front and center in everything we do. I ♥ my church!

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Battling Depression

April 2, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Have you ever been depressed? I have. I know all too well how depression robbed me of sleep, sapped joy from my day, kept me from smiling and on the verge of tears all the time, made sunny days seem cloudy, caused me to sigh all the time and lose interest in the things that used to bring me pleasure, and brought such a sense of loneliness and isolation.

Did you know that Jesus felt the crushing load of depression too? As He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His arrest, listen to these words—

  • He began to be sorrowful and troubled
  • He became anguished and distressed
  • He began to show grief and distress of mind and was deeply depressed
  • He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”
  • He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood
  • “Abba, Father,” He cried out, “everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.” (see Matthew 26:37-38; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:44)

The writer of Hebrews wrote this about Jesus—

While Jesus was here on earth, He offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could rescue Him from death. And God heard His prayers because of His deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:7-9)

We learn something in suffering that we can’t learn any other way. Jesus learned how to experience all of the grief, anxiety, and depression that you and I will ever feel. And that is what qualifies Him to be a perfect High Priest for us.

Our part is to pray. Time and time and time again, not only did Jesus pray, but He encouraged His disciples to pray as well. As you continue to pray, Jesus is your High Priest praying for you. Only He truly knows how to translate the cry of your heart into a language Abba Father can understand.

In all their troubles, He was troubled, too. He didn’t send someone else to help them. He did it Himself, in person. (Isaiah 63:9)

If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series called Where’s God, please check them all out by clicking here.

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Growing Up

March 26, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Yesterday was an historic day at Calvary Assembly of God, and I’m still buzzing about it!

The Assembly of God fellowship has several classifications for churches, the highest one being “general council status.” Yesterday our membership voted unanimously to move into this category!

Here are some of the miracles of the day:

  • My predecessor, Joel Baxter and his wife Kristina, were in attendance. They live and minister in Wisconsin now, so I didn’t think they would be able to attend, but they showed up and surprised us all. Pastor Joel laid the foundation on which we can now build, and I am so grateful for him. I’m also grateful for the prayer of blessing he prayed over us.
  • Pastor Joel shared a couple of prophesies that had been spoken over this church. One is that we would be a light to northern Kent County, and the other was that ministry would flow from this church to the cities and communities surrounding us. Amen!
  • Two precious ladies in our church have been at Calvary since its beginning decades ago, and they got to be the first two signers of our general council resolution.
  • We had several people visiting for the first time that stuck around to watch this historic vote. I love the testimony that this was for them.
  • Every vote we have taken among our membership has been unanimous. Truly this is a group of people who are one in spirit and purpose.

Notice that I said that we are growing up—not grown up. I’m thrilled with where we are, but we still have a long way to go to…

…prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:12-13)

And in case you haven’t heard me say it lately:

I ♥ My Church!

If you live in West Michigan and don’t have a church home, I would love for you to join us next Sunday!

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My Healer

March 26, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

In yesterday’s “Where’s God?” series, I looked at the very difficult question: Where’s God in my sickness?

The word disease has an interesting origin. In the Old French the word literally means without ease. So we could call any disease our place of dis-ease. Whether it’s in the physical, the emotional, or the spiritual part of us, we have all experienced times of dis-ease.

God did not create disease. He did not create sickness. He did not create sin. We did. When we push our physical bodies too far, when we exploit our natural resources, when we rebel against God’s design, we are opening ourselves up to dis-ease. When we experience the painful results of this, God would be perfectly justified in standing aloof from our situation.

But this is the absolute miracle of the Incarnation—

Jesus choose to step into our pain!

He choose to personally experience our dis-ease!

But the fact is, it was our pains He carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought He brought it on Himself, that God was punishing Him for His own failures. But it was our sins that did that to Him, that ripped and tore and crushed Him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. (Isaiah 53:4-5, The Message)

Only One who is fully Man and fully God could know our dis-ease and heal our dis-ease. Jesus is our Healer!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series, please check them all out by clicking here.

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We Must Pray

March 13, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I don’t want to make my plans, and then ask God to bless them.

Instead, I want to ask God what He will bless, and then go do that.

There’s a huge difference. In order to know the difference, we must pray!

Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“Let it be a standing ordinance in the church that at certain times and occasions many shall meet together to pray, and supplication shall be their sole object. The private Christian will read, and hear, and meditate, but none of these can be a substitute for prayer: the same truth holds good upon the larger scale, the church should listen to her teachers, and receive edification from gospel ordinances, but she must also pray; nothing can compensate for the neglect of devotion.”

I have called for our church to have times that prayer will be our sole object. On Friday, March 23, and Friday, March 30, we will be meeting to pray. No singing, no devotional thoughts; just prayer for an hour starting at 5:30pm. If you are in the area, I welcome you to join us. If you’re not in the area, you can still join us in prayer.

Specifically, we’ll be praying for God to move on people’s hearts as we approach the Passion Week. We don’t want to just make a bunch of plans. We want to know what God would have us do during that week that will glorify His Name.

We must pray!

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Every Sunday Is Easter

March 12, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

At most churches, Easter Sunday is the most well-attended service of the year. Perhaps this is appropriate, since the resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone event of the Christian faith. Without Christ’s resurrection, what hope would we have?!

The first Christians were so convinced of the life-changing power of this singular event that they began to gather for worship on the first day of the week (Sunday), in honor of the resurrection. For them, every Sunday was resurrection Sunday.

What if we treated every Sunday like Easter?

Would we invite more people to church? I’m sure we would!

Of all the days of the week we could pick to gather together, why Sunday? Because Sunday reminds us of what happened 2000 years ago at a garden tomb in Jerusalem. Jesus arose from the dead!

When I look at the first followers of Jesus (see John 1:35-51), I see something amazingly simple in the lives of Andrew and Philip. It’s as simple as 1-2-3…

  1. They encountered Jesus.
  2. They immediately went to find a friend to tell them about this encounter.
  3. They invited their friend to “Come and see” Jesus for themselves.

Has Jesus changed your life? Then find a friend and say, “Come and see!” Don’t wait for Easter Sunday to invite someone to meet Jesus. Invite them to come this Sunday! (If you don’t have a church home, and you live in West Michigan, I invite you to come join me at Calvary Assembly of God.)

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Where’s God?

March 7, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

It is one of the most painful, gut-wrenching cries in all of history. Hanging on the Cross, suspended between Heaven and earth, Jesus Christ cries out, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?!”

Ever been there?

Ever been in such a dark, painful place that you wonder if God has abandoned you?

You are not alone.

We’ve all been there. And best of all, Jesus Himself has been there. The Bible tells us that because Jesus has been there—where your pain is so intense, and the darkness is pitch-black—that He is the best One to help you.

Next Sunday we are kicking off a brand new series called Where’s God? In the darkest moments of our lives, where is God? what is He doing? how can anything good come from this? Please come join us.

If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series, check them our here:

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Mammon

March 5, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

It’s a funny-sounding word, but it has deadly consequences!

Jesus said we cannot serve both God and mammon (Luke 16:13 KJV). That word mammon had no direct translation in the English language, so the translators of the King James Version of the Bible simply did a transliteration: they took the Greek word and carried the same word into English. The translators of the New International Version did something different with this word: they made it Money, with a capital M.

The idea behind this word is placing our trust or reliance in anything except God. For us, the means of our security and basic living needs seems to be money, so Money (with a capital M) seems like an appropriate way to translate mammon.

Jesus recommended giving an offering—above and beyond our tithe—as a way to defeat the Mammon Monster. Giving our tithe is simply obedience to God’s commands. But giving our offering shows our trust in God’s provision.

Giving an offering to God is counterintuitive.

After all, less money is less than more money! If I receive money, I tend to hang on to it. I tell myself, “This might come in handy if the economy nosedives, or if something unexpected comes up.” When I start thinking this way, I start to make money Mammon, because I see money as my provider, instead of God.

What an appropriate way to wrap up our Live Dead series yesterday, as we made faith promises to God. We said, “God, I believe You will provide the amount of money I should give as an offering. And when You do provide, I promise to give it.” Placing my trust in God not only helps me to live dead to the pull of Mammon, but also Jesus promised—

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)

I don’t give to get. I give because I trust God to provide.

P.S. By the way, all of the offerings that come in as a result of these faith promises will be going directly to missions. Calvary Assembly of God will not be keeping one cent of these faith promise offerings.

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

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I-Have-To-Have-It Attitude

February 27, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

In our Live Dead series, we have been talking about different areas we need to allow to die, so that we might truly live for Christ as His disciples.

One of the things that often gets in the way of our pursuit of Christ is our cravings. This word—which the dictionary defines as a longing or an eager desire—has an interesting origin. The root word in both Latin and Old English means to lay claim to or to demand by right.

In other words, a craving is when something that was originally a want has now become a need in my mind. So I lay claim to it, saying that it’s something that is owed to me.

The Apostle Paul talks about cravings that we all had before we came to know Christ as Savior when he wrote, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:3).

This same Greek word shows up in Christ’s parable of the sower when He talks about the seed that falls among the weeds. These people, He explains, allow the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word (Mark 4:19).

Gratifying my cravings = Choking out the life of Christ in me

The problem is that this craving or desire for things other than Christ is often an unconscious habit. We have allowed them to become cravings—laying our claim to them as needs—without even realizing it.

The antidote: fasting. When we give up something, the Holy Spirit can show us if that thing has created an I-Have-To-Have-It attitude in our hearts. This spiritual discipline is hard because our bodies will rebel against having to give up “a right.” But when we press through with this discipline of fasting, God describes the results:

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I. (Isaiah 58:8-9)

That’s how I want to live! So I must live dead to my cravings. I can only do this when I allow a time of fasting to open my heart to hear the Holy Spirit point out all my I-Have-To-Have-It attitudes.

To check out all of the messages in our Live Dead series, please click here.

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Live Dead

February 7, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Put this in the category of “contradiction” or maybe “oxymoron.” However you want to classify it, the phrase just doesn’t make sense to the natural mind. Jesus tells us to die so that we might live—

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

We are to deny our agenda, to follow His.

We are to not seek our advancement, but His.

We are not to pursue our passions, but His.

We have to die to self to live for Him.

We have to live dead.

I’m going to be diving into this topic beginning this Sunday. Many have already purchased a Live Dead journal, in order to take a 30-day journey of building our understanding of what it means to live dead. If you are near Cedar Springs, please join me this Sunday. If you live elsewhere, I encourage you to check out the live dead materials (click here to go to their website), and begin your own journey of dying to yourself so that you might live for Christ.

Check out of the messages in this series:

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