Marriage Math

July 25, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

Martin Luther said:

“There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.”

Unfortunately our culture has watered-down and diminished the value of marriage. Far too often marriage is seen as something which diminishes life, instead of enhancing it.

Perhaps this is because we have been viewing marriage with the wrong math.

Marriage is NOT ½ + ½ = 1

That makes sense mathematically, but it’s inaccurate. God didn’t create us a half-people. God created us whole and complete. So our spouse is not our better half, he/she is our better whole.

Marriage is NOT 1 + 1 = 2

Again, this makes sense mathematically, but it is not biblical. Why? Because 2 is divisible, and the Bible makes it clear that a man and woman who are married are one flesh.

Marriage IS 1 X 1 = 1

Not only does this work mathematically, but biblically too. God sees marriage as one whole man and one whole woman coming together to make one whole marriage.

Not coincidentally, X (chi) is the first Greek letter of the name Christ. When Christ is at the center of a marriage, and when the husband and wife are more in love with Him than they are with their spouse, then a wholeness exists in the marriage.

1 X 1 = 1 is the type of marriage that glorifies God.

1 X 1 =1 is the type of marriage that is so lovely, friendly, and charming.

If you are single, keep yourself pure so you can bring your “oneness” as a gift to your future spouse. If you are married, keep the X—Jesus Christ—at the center of your marriage.

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Majesty On Display

June 4, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

These pictures from NASA (and video compliments of Chris Abbas) show the majesty of our Creator…

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
      The skies display His craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
      night after night they make Him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
      their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
      and their words to all the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

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You’re Better Than A Star

May 12, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple or Spotify.

Astronomers admit that they cannot observe the entire universe, because it’s simply too vast for any equipment that has been made. In the Milky Way galaxy alone there are something like 10 trillion stars.

But that’s just one galaxy.

Astronomers used to estimate that there are another 10 trillion galaxies, but they have recently admitted that there are likely three times more stars than they originally thought. Which makes the total number in the observable universe 300 sextillion stars.

300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars

But here’s what is more amazing: God knows each of those stars by name!

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

As awesome as the stars are, here’s what God thinks about you…

When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers—the moon and the stars You set in place—what are mere mortals that You should think about them, human beings that You should care for them? Yet You made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:3-5)

And most amazingly of all, God not only knows the 300 sextillion stars by name, but He knows you by name too (Exodus 33:17)!

Friend, in God’s eyes you shine brighter than a star! He knows you by name. If not one star is missing from His view, how much more does He see you!

If you’re feeling discouraged or alone or forgotten, step outside tonight and look up at the stars. God knows them all by name, but He knows you too—and He thinks the world of you!

You are not alone—God sees you and He loves you!

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Good For What?

April 8, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

There is a power in what we say. This is probably most true in what we say to ourselves.

Far too many people are so quick to beat themselves up and run themselves down. Do you ever do that?

  • How could I have missed that? I’m so stupid!
  • Grrr! I forgot my wallet again. I’m so forgetful!
  • I can’t believe I said that! I’m so insensitive!
  • I could never paint like that. I’m so uncreative!
  • I really messed that one up. I’m such an idiot!
  • I can’t seem to do anything right. I’m just a good-for-nothing!

If you talked to your friends the same way you talk to yourself, would you have any friends left?

The things you say to yourself have got to change. The way you think about yourself has got to change.

God made you the way He made you on purpose. In all of human history, there has never been another you. Right now among the nearly 7 billion people on earth, there isn’t anyone like you.

You are you because God made you. He loves what He made. He loves you!

Perfect? No way! None of us are. That’s one of the few things you and I have in common with everyone else.

Unique? You better believe it!

One of a kind? You sure are!

Good for something? Yep! You have the talents and abilities and personality and temperament that God intended for you to have.

STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP!

Look into God’s mirror and let Him reflect back to you just how wonderful you are! Spend quiet time with your Creator, with your Lover. Hear Him whisper to your heart how special you are.

Then be you. The world needs you to be you. The world is a better place with you in it.

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Holy Curiosity

March 13, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Brandon and I spent the morning at the Van Andel Science Institute for a great father-son time called “Science On Saturday.”

What fun we had exploring God’s creation close-up and hands-on. Albert Einstein talked about the value of continual learning. He said, “Never lose a holy curiosity.” I’m a big believer in science and exploration because I believe the more we learn, the better we can worship God.

Here’s to lifelong learning and a greater wonder and awe of our Creator.

By the way, pictures of our exploration time are here.

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Treating People Like Pesticides

September 18, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

So I spent all day yesterday studying for my exam which is required in my new tentmaking position. I was reading all about pesticide laws, protective equipment, governmental oversight, properly-formatted labels, and the like. I’m trying to remember it all for my exam with the Department of Agriculture in a couple of weeks.

I was deeply engrossed in the chapter on “Pesticides and the Environment,” sorting out all of the terms I needed to keep in mind…

  • Solubility
  • Adsorption
  • Persistence
  • Degradation
  • Volatility
  • Vapor drift
  • Toxicity
  • Particle drift
  • Permeability

…and all of sudden it hit me how specifically each pesticide is treated. When you take into account the active and inactive ingredients, the concentrations, the particle sizes, the atmospheric conditions at the time of application, along with all of the factors I just listed above, it’s almost as though each pesticide application is unique.

We consider all of these factors for a chemical, yet we are so quick to put people into well-defined boxes with nice, neat labels:

  • “Well, you know, his parents were…”
  • “Of course she’s a…”
  • “I wouldn’t trust him because he…”
  • “Didn’t you know? She once was a…”

Neat labels that keep people in their place. Yet God says every person is unique. What if we took enough time to get to know people—I mean really get to know them. I think the more we know about others, the less likely it is we’ll put them in one of our convenient boxes.

Here’s what I’m thinking about today: Do I want others to neatly label me? Or do I want to be treated as a unique individual? What if I treated people as carefully and with as much attention to the fine details as I must with my pesticides? Hmm, treating people like pesticides: not a bad idea.

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Living Sculptures

September 10, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

Last night in our Impact! youth service we played a fun game called “Living Sculptures” (pictures are here). It was a whole lot of fun watching the groups invent and then reinvent one another within their group.

Sculptures are works of art. A person or a point in history captured in solid three dimensions for all time. The sculpture doesn’t change. At least it doesn’t usually change in a positive, beautifying way. The sculpture may erode or be broken or crumble, but that’s not a good change. The sculpture ceases to be what the artist intended it to be.

However, our lives are living, breathing sculptures. We change, or rather The Artist changes us. And the change is good when we are in the hands of the right Artist: our Creator.

Michelangelo’s famous David sculpture came about because Michelangelo said he saw David in the marble and just released him. So too with God, the Artist of our lives: He sees what we can become and is in the process of releasing our beauty, our potential.

God began sculpting your life even before you were born…

Oh yes, You shaped me first inside, then out;
You formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank You, High God—You’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
You know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, You watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before You,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

…and He is continuing to form you into something beautiful…

As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.

…until you become the masterpiece that He saw in you all along…

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

God is the perfect Artist. Let Him work on you today to make you into His masterpiece: a one-of-a-kind creation that brings glory to the Artist.

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Knowing Greatness

August 10, 2009 — Craig T. Owens
galaziesO Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
 
          Then sings my soul
          My Savior God to Thee
          How great Thou art
          How great Thou art
 
Galaxies and snowflakes.
Volcanoes and water geysers.
Summer and winter.
Day and night.snowflake_
Puppies and mosquitoes.
Red blood cells and white.
Me.
 
          You made them all.
          You know them all.
          You are in them all.
          How great Thou art!
 
I want to praise You more.
To praise You more,
I must know You more.
To know You more,
I must experience You more.
 
          Give my eyes sharper sight.
          My ears more attentive hearing.
          Give my tongue better tasting.
          My nose more acute smelling.
          Give my skin more sensitive feeling.
 
All my senses more keenly aware of all Your creation.
More aware of my Creator in creation.lightning
 
          You are in every sight.
          Sound.
          Taste.
          Smell.
          Touch.
          You are in all.
 
Today I want to experience You more.
To praise You more.
To know Your greatness more.
To realize Your love more.
How great Thou art!
s
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Apples To Apples

May 11, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

As I was packing some sliced apples in school lunches I was contemplating the cliché about comparing apples-to-apples. We use this cliché when things are similar, or at least in the same category. If things are dissimilar or in different categories we might say we’re comparing apples-to-oranges.

If your life was in the “apple” category, to what other “apple” would you compare? Interesting question!

You are a unique individual. God has not made—ever—anyone like you, nor will He ever—in all of the future—make another “apple” like you. You are a one-of-a-kind, completely distinct from the 7 billion human beings on Earth right now. No one who has ever lived or ever will live is an “apple” like you.

So comparing yourself to anyone else is always an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Again I ask you to consider: to what other “apple” would you compare?

I believe the only other apple to which you can honestly and realistically compare yourself is: YOU! You can only compare yourself to the God-given potential in you. You are your own apple-to-apple comparison because no one else is in your category. God doesn’t expect you to be an Albert Einstein or a Winston Churchill or a Madam Curie—He just expects you to be you. To be the best you He created you to be.

Earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (1 Corinthians 12:31 AMP).

When you expect nothing less than your very best from yourself, you will help bring out the very best in others too. If your apples-to-apples comparison is just a you-to-you comparison, it relieves the pressure from others to compare their apple to your orange.

Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out (1 Thessalonians 5:15, The Message).

Check out these great quotes about doing your personal-apple-best—

  • “Doing your best is more important than being the best.” —John Wooden
  • “It was ever Alexander The Great’s nature, if he had no rival, to strive to better his best.” —Arrian
  • “From day to day I do the best I can and will continue to do so till the end.” —Abraham Lincoln
  • “One of satan’s wiliest tricks is to destroy the best by the good.” —E.M. Bounds
  • “To find the best in others, and to give of oneself; to leave the world a better place whether by a healthy child, a redeemed social condition, or a garden patch; to have lived your life with enthusiasm and to have sung with exaltation; and finally to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have been successful.” —Emerson

Do your personal-apple-best today, and stop comparing yourself to another’s orange. When you can do this you will find it easier to encourage others to do their personal-apple-best too.

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God’s Big Hands

April 22, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple or Spotify.

Mahalia Jackson sang it so well, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” Beautiful song … incredible truth!

But what does that mean? How can we grasp that concept? The prophet Isaiah tried to capture the essence of this when he asked who else but God “has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens?” (Isaiah 40:12).

Hold your hand palm up, fingers tight together to make a “dish” in the palm of your hand. How much water can you hold in that hollow of your hand? I just tried it and I couldn’t even hold ¼-cup of water. Yet Isaiah says that the hollow of God’s hand holds all the water of the earth.

How much is that? According to the US Geological Survey, the total water supply of the world is 326 million cubic miles. A cubic mile is an imaginary cube measuring one mile on each side. A cubic mile of water equals more than one trillion gallons (that‘s a 1 with 12 zeros following it!)—

One cubic mile of water (1 trillion gallons) x 326 million cubic miles =
326 quintillion gallons of water (326 followed by 18 zeros)!!
God holds ALL of this in the hollow of His hand!

Now stretch out your fingers as wide apart as you can. What is the distance from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your pinky finger? The breadth of my hand is about nine inches. Isaiah says that all of the stars in the universe fit into the breadth of God‘s hand.

How many is that? According to the European Space Agency, there are something like 10 trillion stars (a 10 followed by 12 zeros) just in our galaxy, and they estimate there are something like 10 trillion galaxies—

10 trillion stars in our galaxy x 10 trillion galaxies =
10 septillion stars (10 followed by 24 zeros)!!
God holds ALL of these stars in the breadth of His hand!

To say God’s hands are big and powerful is an understatement of astronomical proportions!

You might be thinking, “With hands that big, I’m so insignificant. I’m lost to God’s sight because His hands are so big.” But there is another aspect to God’s hands—they are not only big, but they are loving.

“Behold, I have indelibly imprinted—tattooed a picture of you—on the palm of each of My hands…” (Isaiah 49:16 AMP). God knows you by name—you are tattooed on His loving hands. His hands which are big enough to hold all the water and all the stars are loving enough to hold you!

Wow, what an incredible God! Powerful enough to protect and provide for us, tender enough to love each of us as though we were the only person in the universe to love!

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