The Holy Spirit loves to give us those “lightbulb moments” when the Word of God almost leaps off the page! I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
It has long been believed that some migratory animals use the earth’s magnetic force to help them navigate. Some researchers discovered that moths can see both the magnetic fields and the stars to plot their course. The lead researcher wrote, “If you have this tiny insect with a brain a tenth the volume of a grain of rice and eyes smaller than a pinhead, that they can do this is surprising.” The protein in their eyes that allow them to do this is unevolved—it’s always been there, implant from the beginning by our awesome Creator!
In the God Speaks Science reading plan on YouVersion, John Von Sloten wrote, “Creation is God’s first book. To read it we need science. Science is not the enemy of the Christian faith; it’s an ally! … We need to read biblical creation references with the Author’s omniscience and original intent in mind. To do that, we need science. … What if you try to connect the next scientific truth you encounter to an attribute of our ever-near God? If everything comes from God’s mind, then everything has something to say about God’s nature.”
Competitive leaders need to keep both winning and losing in perspective. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had about competition on The Craig and Greg Show.
God made you uniquely YOU! You have been made on purpose and for a purpose. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“The wise recognize before the fight that adversity will come and therefore are not surprised by it. The wise recognize in the fight that adversity is a formidable foe and thus steel themselves for a long, hard struggle to the death. The wise recognize after winning a fight that the war is not over and so never let down their guard nor release their weapons.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied
Astronomers have discovered planet-sized objects that are puzzling the best minds. In fact, they have had to create a new category for these objects: Jupiter Mass Binary Objects (JuMBOs). What is baffling the brightest minds is that these planets don’t orbit a star but appear to be gravitationally bound to other JuMBOs. My favorite line is this one: “The new phenomenon challenges current frameworks explaining how stars and planets form within nebula, with astrophysicists claiming such objects should not exist.” There is at least one who isn’t baffled: The One who created JuMBOs along with everything else in our universe.
T.M. Moore is in the midst of a series of posts about the Christian and the government. They are excellent! Here is just a short sample—“The Christian understands that government is a servant of God for good, and that God, therefore, must define the terms of goodness by which a government fulfills its appointed task. As Paul reminds us, the Law of God is holy and righteous and good (Romans 7:12). It is important, therefore, that Christians understand the Law of God and consider the best ways of bringing its influence to bear in the arena of public policy. … Public policy is not about what governments can do, but what they should do, that is, if they are to fulfill their callings as God’s servants for good. When it comes to applying the Law of God to public policy, Christians must make this first principle foundational in the logic with which they approach the work of influencing and shaping public policy.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Leaders are naturally wired to be either confident or humble. Both kinds of leaders need to remain coachable. Greg and I unpacked this idea on this episode of The Craig And Greg Show, and I also discuss it in greater depth in my book Shepherd Leadership.
Shalom—the peace that comes from God—could be defined simply as “nothing missing.” But couldn’t it also be defined as “no one missing”? It sure could! What peace there is when no one is missing from Heaven! Check out more of this message here. And be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
“Despite the moon’s apparently simple shape, uniformitarian scientists have long had great difficulty explaining how it could form by natural processes apart from a supernatural Creator. One Harvard astrophysicist once quipped that the best explanation for the moon’s existence was observational error—the moon doesn’t really exist!” This is a very interesting post from the Institute for Creation Research.
“Do we not miss very much of the sweetness and efficacy of prayer by a want of careful meditation before it, and hopeful expectation after it? … We too often rush into the presence of God without forethought or humility. We are like people who present themselves before a king without a petition, and what wonder is it that we often miss the end of prayer? We should be careful to keep the stream of meditation always running, for this is the water to drive the mill of prayer. … Prayer without fervency is like hunting with a dead dog, and prayer without preparation is hawking with a blind falcon. Prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit, but He works by means. God made man, but He used the dust of the earth as a material. The Holy Ghost is the Author of prayer, but He employs the thoughts of a fervent soul as the gold with which to fashion the vessel. Let our prayers and praises be not the flashes of a hot and hasty brain but the steady burning of a well-kindled fire.” —Charles Spurgeon, in Spurgeon and the Psalms
What a powerful word to pastors from T.M. Moore’s post First Things First. “Pastors sometimes complain that their people don’t seem very hungry or thirsty for the things of the Lord. Sated on the junk food of getting-and-spending, generously ladled over with pop culture, God’s people have little appetite for Christ or His Word. But what about us? Does our hunger and thirst for Christ make them long for the same? Do they see in us that earnest desire to be with the Lord that tells them they’re missing something of great importance? Loving Christ and delighting to be with Him is infectious. If the people we serve see it in us, they’ll want it for themselves, more than anything this world might offer.”
We don’t read about Jesus getting angry that often, but what usually got Him upset was when people in need were being kept from the God who could meet their needs. Sadly, it was usually man-made rules and practices that kept people away. I don’t want to make Jesus angry, so I need to evaluate anything in my life that may be standing in the way of connecting needy people with a need-satisfying God.
“So in our broader culture, people no longer sin; they make mistakes. What about our Christian environment? In our case, sin is not denied. Instead it is often redefined to refer to the more flagrant sins of society. We tend to ignore our own sins of pride, selfishness, gossip, and the like. So, effectively, no one sins anymore. The reason is that we have lost sight of the biblical meaning of sin. Typically, if we are not actually murderers, felons, or adulterers, we tend to think of our common sins as no more serious than a parking violation. We are so used to living with pride, selfishness, envy, gossip, and a whole host of other ‘respectable sins’ that we don’t even think of them as sin. But the fact is that, as serial sinners, we are all as guilty before God as that murderer. You and I sin every day in thought, word, deed, and motive. And whether those sins appear great or small in our own sight, in reality every sin we commit is an act of rebellion against God, a rejection and attempted negation of His sovereignty and rulership over us.” —Jerry Bridges
Leaders always go first. I want to develop myself so that I have something to give to other emerging leaders around me. If I’m not growing, I’m not going to be able to help others. Check out this full conversation Greg and I had our on leadership podcast The Craig And Greg Show. And be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.” —Albert Einstein
This is sort of gross, but kind of cool at the same time. “A new study in the journal Scientific Reports concludes that 12 severed hands discovered in 2011 at Tell el-Dab’a (the site of the ancient Hyksos capital of Avaris) constitute the first bioarchaeological evidence of the gruesome ‘trophy taking’ practice of amputating the right hands of defeated enemies.” Read more about this find here. This is a corroboration of the ‘trophy taking’ David performed for King Saul in the Bible.
The more scientists learn about Creation, the more in awe of our Creator I am! Recently, researchers have discovered even more happening inside our cells that keep everything operating optimally. And then there’s this: “Besides the origin of the eye, Darwin had a problem with the origin of flowering plants (angiosperms—plants that produce seeds within an enclosure, i.e., a fruiting plant), known as Darwin’s abominable mystery. The biblical model of origins maintains that the first forms of life created by God were land plants on Day 3 of the creation week. Land plants were fully-formed and functional—‘in the beginning.’”
Dan Reiland encourages leaders to look at their weaknesses differently. “The chinks in your armor allow you to develop empathy and compassion. They give you insight to human nature. They help you genuinely connect with people. Without these things it’s difficult to lead with God’s heart.”
I am a proud member of the Assembly of God fellowship, so I especially loved reading this report on Breakpoint:
“According to recent research by pastor Ryan Burge of eight major Protestant denominations, only the Assemblies of God has seen a steady increase in church membership since 1987. Each of the others, mostly denominations that are fully progressive theologically and culturally, are experiencing steady decline.
“Denominations like The Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) began long ago to move away from orthodoxy and capitulate to new ideas about sex, gender, and marriage. On the other hand, the Assemblies of God (AG) remained committed to orthodoxy on matters of Scriptural authority, the Deity of Christ, the Resurrection, and on sexual matters. It supports the protection of life at all stages, marriage between one man and one woman, and it insists that the body determines identity as male and female.
“Christians are constantly pressured, within the Church and without, to evolve on these issues or, we are told, we will die out. It seems however, that biblical orthodoxy draws people in. Maybe because it provides an anchor in confusing times.”
I have a series of nearly 70 posts on the topic of godly leadership. Here is the latest installment about going all in. Be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
T.M. Moore writes persuasively to Christians to encourage them to build for the future. He wrote, “For most Christians today, the Kingdom which Daniel saw, Jesus proclaimed and brought near, and the Spirit inaugurated on that first Christian Pentecost—that Kingdom is little more than a theological idea, or a distant hope. It is not a daily reality to be sought, seized, shared, and strengthened in every nook and cranny of our Personal Mission Fields. Christians today are trapped in their past or mired in their present, and they have little or no sense of what it means to build for the future so that righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit increase wherever they live, move, and have their being.”
And another piece of research from both paleontologists and entomologists points to the Flood described in the Bible as historically viable. Researchers discovered fossilized giant ants in Canada where evolutionists claim they shouldn’t be. The Institute for Creation Research commented, “There is no need to postulate ants trekking across the Arctic to explain the distribution. Nor is there a need to inject short ‘hyperthermal’ episodes to allow passage from one continent to another. The global Flood explains what we observe the best. The warmer pre-Flood conditions and likely higher oxygen levels explain the large size of the ants. And their fossil distribution is best explained by their transport off the highest pre-Flood hills as the waters were receding.”
“If we were to look at Jesus’s death merely as a result of a betrayer’s deceit and the Sanhedrin’s envy and Pilate’s spinelessness and the soldiers’ nails and spear, it might seem very involuntary. And the benefit of salvation that comes to us who believe might be viewed as God’s way of making a virtue out of a necessity. But once you read Luke 9:51, all such thoughts vanish. Jesus was not accidentally entangled in a web of injustice. The saving benefits of His death for sinners were not an afterthought. God planned it all out of infinite love to sinners like us, and He appointed a time.” —John Piper, Love To The Uttermost reading plan on YouVersion
There are some long-lasting benefits in keeping a journal. Here’s one benefit I shared with some ministry interns. If you haven’t already done so, please check out my YouTube channel for more great content.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is causing problems for Big Bang proponents. In a recent post from the Institute for Creation Research, some of these problematic areas were laid out. “As noted in a previous Creation Science Update and Impact article, data from the JWST show that distant galaxies look more ‘mature’ and ‘developed’ than predicted by Big Bang theorists. Big Bang astronomers assume light from the most distant galaxies took almost 14 billion years to reach Earth. Although this may sound reasonable, creation scientists think this assumption is open to challenge. But in any case, by Big Bang reckoning, we should be seeing these very distant galaxies—not as they are now, but as they were almost 14 billion years ago. Hence, these galaxies should appear very “unevolved” and ‘immature.’ Yet, this expectation is routinely contradicted, and data from the JWST are making the disagreement even worse.” One thing the JWST has definitely done: It has shown the beauty and the power of our Creator!
John Piper said, “One of the greatest hope-killers is that you have tried for so long to change, and have not succeeded.” This is an encouraging word for anyone who has prayed, and prayed, and prayed for a breakthrough. “Take heart, struggler. Keep asking, seeking, knocking. Keep looking to Christ. If God gets glory by saving robbers in the eleventh hour, he surely has his purposes why he has waited till now to give you the breakthrough you have sought for years.”
This is pretty compelling evidence for the global Flood that is described in the Book of Genesis—
Let’s celebrate others 🎉 Don’t just rattle off, “How are you?” and not even listen for the answer. Let’s ask more specific, meaningful questions to help people celebrate what’s good in their lives. Check out my latest Monday Motivation video, and then please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Check out my exclusive Patreon video teaching on this idea of the lessons that can be learned whether we are delivered from trials or whether we go through trials.
“But friendship is precious; not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.” —Thomas Jefferson
“People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” —Abraham Lincoln
“Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue.” —Augustine
When you praise God, despite your surroundings, you magnify Him. And when you magnify God, you invite others to magnify Him with you!
“Manhood first and then gentleness.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dan Reiland wrote, “Church leadership always carries with it seasons of success and setbacks, momentum and grind, joy and discouragement. Yet, we all do better through those seasons when we have learned the rhythms of resilience—the lifelines we need.” Check out the 6 sustaining lifelines for leaders that he shared.
The Institute for Creation Research reported, “Two separate studies claim massive tsunamis and earthquakes from an asteroid impact profoundly affected the rock record. … [Yet] these global phenomena are better explained by the global Flood described in Genesis.”
“Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.” —Francis Bacon
Immature people only want to do the bare minimum, but mature people want to do more than is expected of them. Jesus called these people those that went the second mile. That was a topic in my most recent Monday Motivation series.
I am a big fan of The Babylon Bee. If you haven’t checked out their satirical wit, please do so! One post that caught my eye this week is called What Your Favorite Book Of The Bible Says About You. Wow, did this one make me laugh! If you would like to check out some real Bible studies, I have some here and here.
Cold-case detective and Christian apologist J. Warner Wallace discusses how Jesus impacted other world religions—
The drought in north Texas has revealed some more dinosaur tracks, raising some new questions about these massive animals that roamed Earth.
The devil loves to try to pervert the conviction of the Holy Spirit into condemnation. Here is the freeing truth we can stand on: There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Craig T. Owens 