culture | Craig T. Owens

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8 Must-Have Bible Study Tools

February 29, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

It’s been said that if the only tool a man has in his toolbox is a hammer, he tends to see every problem as a nail. In other words, we try to force every project to be handled in the exactly same way.

Sadly, for many Christians, the same is true with our knowledge of the Bible. If we have limited tools, we try to make every situation look like something we can fix with that smaller toolbox. It’s not enough for us to know only a couple of verses or a few biblical principles, and then try to use those tools to handle all of life’s situations. So let me share some basic tools that will help you expand your biblical toolbox.

Time and culture—Think about how much your culture has changed just in the 70-80 years since your grandparents were born. Think about how wardrobes have changed, and technology, and manners and customs. The earliest book of the Bible was written about 1400 BC, and the most recent book was written about 100 AD. To better understand the things I read in the Bible, here are some tools I like to use:

A Bible dictionary to help you know the people and various terms of their culture. I have three of them on my bookshelf, but I also like this collection from BibleGateway.
The Archeological Study Bible has some amazing cultural and historical insights.
An atlas, to help you know where cities and major landmarks were located.
And here’s a cool biblical timeline.

Language—Even the English language has changed a lot since William Shakespeare penned his famous plays. But consider that the Bible was written in languages that are even older (not to mention they’re languages other than English!). To really get the full meaning of a passage, here are some tools I use:

A parallel Bible to help me see multiple translations side-by-side. Here’s an example from BibleGateway.
Strong’s Concordance is the gold standard for digging into the Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek definitions. It’s the book on my shelf I go to most often when I am studying, but Blue Letter Bible also has an excellent online resource.

Chain of pearls—The Bible is not a collection of isolated, independent stories or concepts, but it is a beautiful string of pearls. Every part connects to the rest of the Scripture. So some resources I use to help me discover how the pearls are strung together include:

A study Bible. The study notes open up the meanings of passages in a brilliant way. I use study Bibles like Life In The Spirit Study Bible, Archeological Study Bible, Halley’s Study Bible, and The Quest Study Bible.
Concordance. Almost every Bible has a concordance in the back pages that allow you to cross-reference a word, or you can try the “keyword search” that BibleGateway offers.

What did I miss? What are your favorite Bible study tools? In the comments, please share books, commentaries, or online resources that you use to maximize your study of God’s Word.

This Sunday I’ll be sharing some different styles of Bible studies we can all do. If you live in the Cedar Springs area, please come join a really great group of people at Calvary Assembly of God. Otherwise, watch us on Periscope.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: atlas, Bible study, BibleGateway, biblical history, Blue Letter Bible, Calvary Assembly of God, culture, sermon, Strong's Concordance, video, Vimeo. 8 Comments »

#struggles (book review)

January 12, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Do you love technology? I do! Do you love what technology does to relationships? I don’t! If you’re with me on these points, you’ll love this book. Craig Groeschel once again gives us some timely counsel that addresses a very real set of #struggles—following Jesus in a self-centered world.

Right from the beginning Pastor Groeschel expresses what many of us feel about technology’s impact on our lives—

“I have a love-hate relationship with technology. Most of us are well acquainted with this feeling, but we can’t quite put our finger on why. We know we’re obsessed with our devices, but we don’t know how to manage the challenges that come with using them, challenges that continue to multiply. We’re busy, but bored. We’re full, but empty. We’re connected, but lonelier than ever.”

So #struggle by #struggle, this book leads us through topics like recovering #contentment, restoring #intimacy, revealing #authenticity, resurrecting #compassion, reviving #integrity, remember #encouragement, reclaiming #worship, and replenishing #rest.

#struggles is not an either-or book. In other words, we’re not told to get rid of all our devices and return to the pre-internet days. Instead we are given very practical steps for keeping technology in its proper place.

“If we want to be good stewards of the amazing capabilities that technology affords us, we have to navigate very carefully. Social media allows us to connect with others in so many unique and often meaningful ways. But if we spend all our time and energy online, we lose true intimacy with the people around us. … We have to make sure technology is enhancing our relationships, not replacing them.” (emphasis added)

A great read for our current culture!

I am a Zondervan book reviewer.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, Craig Groeschel, culture, quotes, relationships, selfie, social media, technology. 5 Comments »

Links & Quotes

December 14, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“Here’s an Advent illustration for kids—and those of us who used to be kids and remember what it was like. Suppose you and your mom get separated in the grocery store, and you start to get scared and panic and don’t know which way to go, and you run to the end of an aisle, and just before you start to cry, you see a shadow on the floor at the end of the aisle that looks just like your mom. It makes you really happy and you feel hope. But which is better? The happiness of seeing the shadow, or having your mom step around the corner and it’s really her? That’s the way it is when Jesus comes to be our High Priest. That’s what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing.” —John Piper (check out Hebrews 10:1-10)

“God desires to be remembered by man. He has taken unspeakable pains to keep Himself before His creatures, so as to make forgetfulness on their part the greatest of all impossibilities. In everything that God has set before our eyes or ears, He says, Remember Me. In every star, every flower, every mountain, every stream—in every joy, every comfort, every blessing of daily life—God says, Remember Me.” —Horatius Bonar

“God gives us a new revelation of His kindness in the valley of the shadow.” —Oswald Chambers

“Allow yourself one excess: be excessively obedient.” —Francois Fenelon

“satan’s ultimate weapon against us is our own sin. If the death of Jesus takes it away, the chief weapon of the devil is taken out of his hand. He cannot make a case for our death penalty, because the Judge has acquitted us by the death of His Son!” —John Piper

“Without Jesus, we’re trapped in the expectations of others. We’re trapped in living for the approval of our peers. We’re trapped in addictions. We’ve tried to change over and over again, but we don’t have the power needed to escape. Jesus came to give us that power.” —Rick Warren

“Holidays are about history, and if we fail to remember that history or to remind our contemporaries of it, then we will only be confirming their narrow and narcissistic view of ‘history’ as ‘my-story’ and my supposed right to make of my life whatever I will.” —T.M. Moore

John Stonestreet points out the power of hype in our modern culture—Ronda Rousey, Reality TV and Jesus.

Calvary Assembly of God helping the Cedar Springs community see the true meaning of Advent.

Is it really that big of a deal for a Christian to date a non-Christian?

Detroit Tigers fans and New York Yankees fans will enjoy this comparison of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.

144 Buts

December 10, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

The book of Proverbs has so much timely wisdom. Many of the proverbs are presented as the opposite of what pop culture promotes. Nowhere is this more stark than chapters 10-15.

In these six chapters, nearly every verse uses the conjunction BUT to set apart God’s way from the world’s way. In fact, I counted 144 BUTs in these chapters. Clearly there is a lifestyle that God blesses, and a lifestyle that God rejects.

I would encourage you to read these proverbs for yourself, but let me give you just a taste of what I’m talking about. In chapter 10, the BUTs show us that doing things God’s way leads to:

Joy
Eternal treasure
Honor
Blessing
Strength
Security
Peace
Unity
Wisdom

And doing things the world’s way leads to:

Grief
Worthless things
Disgrace
Rot
Ruin
Insecurity
Violence
Dissension
Foolishness

Or consider the proverbs about our vocabulary from chapter 12:

Wicked words are out for blood, BUT upright words rescue (v. 6).
Sinful talk ensnares, BUT righteous conversation avoids trouble (v. 13).
Truthful words build an honest reputation, BUT a false witness is never trustworthy (v. 17).
Reckless words wound, BUT wise words heal (v. 18).
Lies are short-lived, BUT the truth wins out (v. 19).
God detests lies, BUT He takes delight in those who are truthful (v. 22).

Take some time to study the BUTs in these chapters, and then comment below on what you find.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, BibleGateway, counter-cultural, culture, God's wisdom, lifestyle, proverbs, vocabulary. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

November 13, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“satan is real and may have a hand in our calamities, but not the final hand, and not the decisive hand. James makes clear that God had a good purpose in all Job’s afflictions: ‘You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful’ [James 5:11]. So satan may have been involved, but the ultimate purpose was God’s, and it was ‘compassionate and merciful.’” —John Piper

“God’s will is determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good.” —C.S. Lewis

“Let us never suppose that there is any lack of charity in speaking of hell. Let us rather maintain that it is the highest love to warn men plainly of danger, and to beseech them to ‘flee from the wrath to come.’ It was satan, the deceiver, murderer, and liar, who said to Eve in the beginning, ‘You shall not surely die.’ (Genesis 3:4.) To shrink from telling men, that except they believe they will ‘die in their sins,’ may please the devil, but surely it cannot please God.” —J.C. Ryle

“You aren’t the only person with your skill. But you are the only person with your version of your skill.” —Max Lucado

“There is nothing natural about the Christian life. It is all supernatural. It’s a life dependent upon miracles from the very beginning (including your conversion). And it simply can’t be lived without faith in the supernatural.” —David Wilkerson

It is time for science to detach itself from an atheistic worldview. Douglas Rushkoff states, “By starting with Godlessness as a foundational principle of scientific reasoning, we make ourselves unnecessarily resistant to the novelty of human consciousness, its potential continuity over time, and the possibility that it has a purpose.”

Detroit Tigers fans (like me!) will love this: an interactive map that shows where every Tiger has been born.

John Stonestreet asks, “Why is pop music so angry?” Check out his answer in Bad Blood.

[VIDEO] John Maxwell challenges us to find someone we can inspire this weekend—

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apostle James, atheism, baseball, C.S. Lewis, charity, Christian, compassion, culture, David Wilkerson, Detroit Tigers, devil, Dorothy Sayers, God's will, God's wisdom, Heaven, Hell, inspiration, J.C. Ryle, Jesus Christ, job, John Maxwell, John Piper, John Stonestreet, Max Lucado, mercy, miracles, music, quotes, salvation, satan, science, skill, supernatural, trials, uniqueness, video. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

November 10, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The Kingdom of God is Good News because it ushers all who receive it into God’s good plan for their lives, a plan which brings them, among other things, pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).” —T.M. Moore

“Remember a little more the intimate connection between the body and the soul. Go to the poor man and tell him of the bread of heaven, but first give him the bread of earth, for how shall he hear you with a starving body?” —Charles Spurgeon

“We must open our Bibles every morning with this prayer—‘Give us this day our daily bread.’” —Charles Spurgeon

“The Lord rebukes his people for seeking ‘their own’ pleasure on His holy day [Isaiah 58:3-4]. But what does He mean? He means they are delighting in their business and not in the beauty of their God. He does not rebuke their hedonism. He rebukes the weakness of it. They have settled for secular interests and thus honor them above the Lord. Notice that calling the Sabbath ‘a delight’ is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord ‘honorable.’ This simply means you honor what you delight in. Or you glorify what you enjoy. The enjoyment and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite.” —John Piper

“We may conclude that the chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever. He stands supreme at the center of His own affections. For that very reason, He is a self-sufficient and inexhaustible fountain of grace.” —John Piper

David Wilkerson warns, “We think that when we fail to trust God in our daily situations, we only harm ourselves. We think we’re simply missing out on His blessings. But that isn’t the whole story. … Unbelief is the mother of all sins.”

Stan Guthrie writes about the strange spectacle of Christian surrender in cultural ideas. He states, “We need more cultural engagement, not less, particularly in the realm of ideas.”

Max Lucado recalls an amazing story from the life of John Wesley and then asks, “How bold are your prayers?”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: BibleGateway, boldness, church history, culture, David Wilkerson, enjoyment, God's glory, God's Kingdom, Good News, John Piper, John Wesley, Max Lucado, prayer, Psalm, quotes, Sabbath, sin, T.M. Moore, unbelief. Leave a Comment »

Poetry Saturday—The Rock

October 17, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

The endless cycle of idea and action,

Endless invention, endless experiment,

Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;

Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;

Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,

All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,

But nearness to death no nearer to God.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries

Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust. —T.S. Eliot

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, busyness, culture, eternal life, God's wisdom, God's Word, Heaven, knowledge, meditation, poem, poetry, solitude, T.S. Eliot. Leave a Comment »

“Playboy” Is Covering Up?!

October 15, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Part of me wanted to cheer at the news that Playboy magazine will no longer publish pictures of nude women. But then I begin to ask myself, “Why would they do this?”

Here are some reasons they might be making this move…

1. Internet pornography is easier to access, cheaper to produce, and much more titillating than purchasing a magazine with pictures taken of professional models by professional photographers.

The New York Times said, “For a generation of American men, reading Playboy was a cultural rite, an illicit thrill consumed by flashlight. Now every teenage boy has an Internet-connected phone instead. Pornographic magazines, even those as storied as Playboy, have lost their shock value, their commercial value and their cultural relevance.”

So basically internet pornography is putting a pornographic magazine on the ropes, because internet-produced porn is largely fueled by sex slaves.

2. Our porn-saturated society is no longer turned-on by the so-called “soft porn” that Playboy produced.

In their press release, Playboy CEO Scott Flanders said, “The political and sexual climate of 1953, the year Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy to the world, bears almost no resemblance to today. We are more free to express ourselves politically, sexually and culturally today…” (emphasis added). In another interview, Mr. Flanders said that nudity is “just passé at this juncture.” Nothing to see here!

So we now need to “express ourselves” more graphically in order to get the same sexual high than the generation before us.

3. Making Playboy a “PG-13” magazine helps legitimize the product.

The magazine will still feature pin-up centerfolds, but that doesn’t do anything to help with the objectification of women. In fact, it makes it worse. Making Playboy “safe for work” makes ogling scantily-clad women “acceptable” and “normal” for anyone who wants to lust.

Make no mistake about it, this is a plain-and-simple business move for Playboy. This does nothing to protect our society from the ravages of lust and pornography.

Speaking of which: if you struggle with lust or porn, here is a great resource to help you break free.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: addiction, culture, internet, lust, New York Times, Playboy, pornography, sex trafficking, slavery. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

October 6, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“What life have you if you have not life together? There is no life that is not in community.” —T.S. Eliot

“Dr. Karl Menninger once observed that sin dropped out of the national vocabulary in the middle of the twentieth century. The word no longer has a place in public discourse because it conveys images that the majority of the people will not accept. … Perhaps holiness dropped out of our vocabulary because we are accustomed to a Christian civilization where our Christianity seldom demanded that we stand apart from our society. Worldliness, the opposite of holiness, has also dropped from our vocabulary. Where we have made peace with our culture, the words ‘holiness’ and ‘worldliness’ lose their meaning, for we cannot imagine how Christianity would demand that we separate from the dominant standards of our time.” —James W. Thompson

“A real Christian allows his mind to run up the sunbeam to the sun.” —C.S. Lewis

“Here’s the secret of the lilies [Luke 12:27]: they bask. … Waiting for the Lord has the connotation of waiting for Him to show up, or do something or grant a provision. It’s like focusing on the sunbeam. Waiting upon the Lord is running up the sunbeam to the Lord Himself, beyond what He does, and basking under the influence of who He is.” —Curt Dalaba

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: C.S. Lewis, Christian, church, community, culture, Curt Dalaba, holiness, James W. Thompson, peace, quotes, T.S. Eliot, worldliness, worship. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

September 29, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“True servants of God demand to see for all church ordinances and doctrines the express authority of the church’s only Teacher and Lord. They remember that the Lord Jesus bade the apostles to teach believers to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them. The Holy Spirit revealed much of precious truth and holy precept by the apostles, and to His teaching we would give earnest heed; but when men cite the authority of fathers, and councils, and bishops, we give place for subjection, no, not for an hour. They may quote Irenaeus or Cyprian, Augustine or Chrysostom; they may remind us of the dogmas of Luther or Calvin; they may find authority in Simeon, or Wesley, or Gill. We will listen to the opinions of these great men with the respect they deserve as men, but having so done, we deny that we have anything to do with these men as authorities in the church of God, for there nothing has authority, but ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts.’” —Charles Spurgeon

“Beyond simply confronting cultural abuse and misuse, Christians must make a conscientious effort to restore culture so that it serves as a means and end to the glory of God by demonstrating the love He intends all people to know. … Principally, as we’ve seen, God intends to bring His glory to light through those He has redeemed and come to indwell by His Spirit. Thus, in every aspect of our lives, and in all our cultural activities, we must be diligent to allow the glory of God to show through in us, so that the love God has for humankind and the world can be plainly seen by all.” —T.M. Moore

Fight The New Drug lists 3 types of pornography viewers, and how pornography affects them. If you are affected by pornography, here is some help.

[VIDEO] J. Warner Wallace talks about the best explanation for moral laws—

“It is true that we must be personally bold and afraid of no man but courageous as we contend for the truth. If we are simply nice, concerned, genuinely curious, attentive, supportive, and affirming, we may win a hearing with suffering people, but we will never lead them to life. Grace means courage and clarity. But it is just as true that our boldness must be brokenhearted boldness, that our courage must be a contrite and lowly courage, and that we must be tender contenders for the truth. If we are brash and harsh and cocky and clever, we may win a hearing with angry and pugnacious people, but we will drive away those who suffer. Paul makes it so clear that we are laid low and given comfort ‘so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God’ (2 Corinthians 1:4). Those we counsel must feel that we are utterly dependent in our lives on the merciful comfort of God to make it through our days.” —John Piper

[VIDEO] The danger of radical Islamism—