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Cedar Creek Cleanup

August 24, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

God told Adam and Eve that they needed to take care of the environment in which He placed them. And that directive is still in place for us today: We are to be caretakers of this amazing planet.

And as Christians, we should be excellent caretakers.

The City of Cedar Springs recently received a grant to help with some waterway cleanup. So I am very excited that a group from Calvary Assembly of God is going to be involved in the Cedar Creek Cleanup project on August 30.

This is another way for us to show our love for our community, and to live out our biblical values. I’m always so appreciative of the way this group wants to jump into any of these community projects. If I haven’t said it lately, let me repeat it loud and clear—

I ♥ My Church!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, Cedar Springs, Christianity, community involvement, environment, Genesis, stewardship. Leave a Comment »

Plant The God Seed

August 22, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Have you ever been disappointed because you had a dream that died? How do we justify this with the biblical definition of faith which says, “faith is being sure of what we hope for”?

It’s just this:

If God takes away a dream, it’s because the dream was too small.
God wants us to be more focused on the Dream Giver than we are on the dream.

So sometimes God asks us to let a dream die.

Think of a watermelon seed. It’s not very big, sort of dull in color, and it’s only a single seed. To plant the seed, means you have to take your hands off it: the seed is now out of your sight and out of your control. But it is there—dead in the ground—that a miracle happens!

A single watermelon seed grows 200,000 times its own weight! A colorless seed produces the vibrant greens and pinks of a mature watermelon. And that single seed produces 100+ seeds.

Has God given you a dream? Has He asked you to give up that dream? Then plant that seed! When you do, the results will be more than you can imagine.

“Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of faith is to see what we believe.” —Augustine

These are some of my notes from part 3 of my See The Invisible series at Calvary Assembly of God. I would love to have you join me when we continue this series on September 4.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Augustine, Calvary Assembly of God, dreams, faith, God's plan, miracles, quote, sermon. Leave a Comment »

See The Invisible

August 2, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Noted New Atheist Richard Dawkins says,

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. … Faith is not allowed to justify itself by argument.”

I wholeheartedly—and even respectfully—disagree.

The Bible does define faith as “Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Just a few verses later there is an even stronger statement about faith: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

I have evaluated the evidence. I have thought long and hard about the options. I can justify all of the arguments. And my faith stands strong!

God wants all who call on Him to grow in God-pleasing faith. So I’m really excited to dive into our brand new series called SEE THE INVISIBLE this Sunday.

I hope you can join me at 10:30am this Sunday at Calvary Assembly of God.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: atheism, Calvary Assembly of God, faith, Hebrews, Richard Dawkins, sermon. 1 Comment »

How To unDo unChristian

July 18, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Yesterday at Calvary Assembly of God, we continued our series called In It Not Of It, in which we are considering how to biblically engage our culture. In alarmingly high numbers, more and more people have thoughts that are positively unChristian toward those who call themselves Christian.

How do we undo this cultural bias? I think we have to be people of overwhelming grace.

Being grace-filled people is the only way I can see for us to unDo the unChristian mindset. To see how Jesus did this, see His interaction with a particular woman in John 8:2-11.

The Apostle Paul also gave us a good example of grace-filled living. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says he is indebted to all mankind, which makes him eager to preach the Gospel (Romans 1:14-15). I love Oswald Chambers’ commentary on these verses:

“Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent his life to express it. The greatest inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that same sense of indebtedness to Christ regarding EVERY unsaved soul? As a saint, my life’s spiritual honor and duty is to fulfill my debt to Christ in relation to these lost souls. Every tiny bit of my life that has value I owe to the redemption of Jesus Christ. Am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His redemption into evident reality in the lives of others? I will only be able to do this as the Spirit of God works into me this sense of indebtedness. …

“Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus. This is the true meaning of being broken bread and poured-out wine IN REAL LIFE.”

I am committed to living a life of overwhelming grace poured out for EVERY unsaved soul. And I am SO BLESSED to be able to pastor a church that feels and acts the same way! We’re not going to be passive reactionaries to the unChristian cultural bias … we’re going to live IN REAL LIFE as proactive, grace-filled people, so that we can unDo unChristian!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apostle Paul, Calvary Assembly of God, Christian, Gospel of John, grace, Oswald Chambers, quote, Romans, sermon, unchurched, video. 1 Comment »

Engaging Culture

June 29, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

There has been a debate in religious circles for a long, long time about how involved Christians should be in culture.

Get close to outsiders. But how close is too close?
Be friendly with your neighbors. But how friendly is too friendly?

The debate usually has two extremes: Either get immersed in your world, or don’t even touch a thing of this world. I hate either-or’s!

Instead I think there is a both-and balance that is very biblical. We need to ENGAGE our culture. Engaging culture means that we understand it and can relate to it, but we don’t give in to it nor compromise with it.

We Must Be In It But Not Of It

I’ll be addressing this topic in a new series at Calvary Assembly of God. I hope you’ll be able to join me to learn about the biblical ways we should be engaging our culture.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Both-And, Calvary Assembly of God, culture, Either-Or, sermon, testimony, witness. 2 Comments »

Weekend Review

June 20, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I feel so full after such a wonderfully full-filling weekend.

On Saturday morning our worship team helped kick-off Lifewalk 2011, by leading some worship songs during the registration time. I love doing spiritual battle alongside this team! It was a great way to remind everyone why we were there.

God gave us beautiful weather for Lifewalk! Along our route we stopped to pray at Cedar Spring City Hall, The Springs Church, Alpha Family Center, and Red Hawk school. When we returned to our starting point in Morely Park, we were greeted with the great news that Lifewalk had raised nearly $12,000!

I had the privilege of addressing the Lifewalk participants just before we released our balloons. I spoke from Ephesians 2:10, where we read that God created us in advance to do good works that would bring Him glory. Unfortunately, tens of millions of babies have been aborted before they had a chance to do their good works, so it is now up to us, the living, to redouble our efforts. We need to do not only the good works God prepared us to do, but also the good works of those aborted lives. It was a somber, yet empowering, reminder.

On Sunday morning I spoke to our Dads on Father’s Day. I told the story of Boaz the kinsman-redeemer from the book of Ruth. Boaz was a man motivated by God’s word, and a man who did not give in to culture’s pull. Boaz was also a picture of Jesus Christ as the ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer. I challenged our Dads to remember that they are the representation of Christ to their wives and kids.

The highlight of Sunday morning for me was watching all of our Dads serve Communion to the rest of the church. Powerful! What a reminder to all of us that Dads are to love and serve their families just as Christ loves and serves His Church.

To cap it all off, I got to have lunch with both my Dad and my kids. It was a very moving thing for me to not only honor my Dad, but to read the notes my kids had written to me. Part of what I wrote to my Dad was about the investment he made in my life. Then he and I both watched that investment being compounded in the lives of his grandkids. How awesome is that!

When I experience such a full weekend, only one thought dominates my mind: How blessed am I! I love living my life to honor my Heavenly Father, and I’m so grateful I get to share that life with so many other incredible people.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Alpha Family Center, Calvary Assembly of God, Ephesians, family, Father's Day, Lifewalk, pro-life. Leave a Comment »

Father’s Day

June 16, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I love digging up stories in the Old Testament that are so timely for today! And I’ve got a great story to share with our men on Father’s Day.

It’s the story of a man who had the title kinsman-redeemer. Culturally, we don’t practice this anymore. But spiritually, the concepts are so on-target for today. I am really excited to share this with our men this Sunday, and then to watch our guys step up to the challenge of becoming a modern-day kinsman redeemer for the families.

If you’re in the area, I hope you will join us for a great morning.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Boaz, Calvary Assembly of God, Father's Day, sermon. Leave a Comment »

Out Of The Box

May 13, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I know firsthand the difference the Holy Spirit has made in my life. Which is why I’m so excited to kick off a brand new series this Sunday called Out Of The Box: Unleashing The Power of the Holy Spirit.

…the Holy Spirit makes the Father’s love more real

…the Holy Spirit makes the Christ-like life more livable

…the Holy Spirit makes the Bible more readable

…the Holy Spirit makes extraordinary living more attainable!

And this Out Of The Box life is for everyone. A.W. Tozer wrote:

“For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No, He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fill and indwell His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.” (emphasis mine)

I hope you can join us at Calvary Assembly of God this Sunday at 10:30am.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: A.W. Tozer, Calvary Assembly of God, Holy Spirit, sermon. Leave a Comment »

A Mother’s Prayer

May 6, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

“Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes

I’m glad we get a special day to celebrate Moms. After all, none of us would be here without mothers! There is something unequaled in a Mom…

…her kisses heal
…her hugs reassure
…her counsel directs
…her touch soothes
…her prayers prevail

I can hardly wait for Mother’s Day to arrive so I can share the special day with my Mom. But I also have the privilege of being able to talk to all of the Moms at Calvary Assembly of God this Sunday about the power in A Mother’s Prayer.

We have a special gift for all of the Moms too! I hope you can join us for a special morning of celebration.