Accountability To Saints

September 1, 2025 — 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. 

Sanctification (saint-ification) is an ongoing process that brings out fruitfulness, joy-fullness, and enhances our testimony to others. And an essential part of this process involves other saints. Notice that this word “saints” it plural. That’s because it is a plural word every place it appears in the Bible. 

Saints have gotten themselves into trouble when they tried to go solo. Like David’s sin with Bathsheba, Elijah’s slide into depression, or Peter’s denial of Jesus. But we also see saints thriving through difficult situations when they have a fellow saint alongside. Like how Barnabas gave Saul his start, Paul and Silas could sing together in prison, Silas and Timothy helped Paul minister, and how Jesus sent out His ambassadors by twos (Luke 10:1).  

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.) 

I love the names of traveling companions John Bunyan uses in Pilgrim’s Progress: Christian travels with Faithful and Hopeful; Christiana travels with Mercy and Mr. Great-heart. And we get to travel along with some really great people as well (Proverbs 27:17; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). 

How does accountability to other saints work? Since we see togetherness so much in the early Church (look for the phrases like “each other” or “one another”), think A.C.T.S.—

(1) Admit my need for accountability. James tells us that we all stumble and that even my so-called little slip-ups are major in God’s eyes (James 3:2, 2:10). So I need help. 

John Maxwell said, “Every person is undisciplined in some area of their life; in the area that I am undisciplined, that is the area where I need greatest accountability. I will not do well in my areas of weakness unless I am held accountable for better results.” We all have blind spots, we all have weak areas, and we must be humble enough to admit to those things. 

(2) Choose my accountability partners prayerfully and carefully (Proverbs 12:26; 2 Corinthians 6:14). These should be trustworthy people who have the emotional and spiritual capacity to be able to come alongside me (Proverbs 17:9; Galatians 6:2). 

(3) Trust my friend. Trust their counsel even when it stings a bit (Proverbs 27:6), and trust the effectiveness of their prayers for me (James 5:16). 

(4) Stick with them through thick and thin. Be your brother’s keeper and let them be your keeper (Hebrews 3:12-14). We need to keep at it especially in difficult times. Notice the phrase “let us” that appears five times in Hebrews 10:19-25.  

If we are living with a biblical worldview, we realize that the saints here on earth are those we will also be with for eternity. Our biblical worldview should form our understanding of both being accountable to another saint and holding other saints accountable as well. 

As Jack Hayford so wisely noted, “The believer’s best defense against self-deception is through mutual accountability to one another.” 

If you would like to check out the other messages in our series B.A.S.I.C. Christianity, you can click here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Comforting The Distressed

August 26, 2025 — 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. 

Comfort is an important word in the apostle Paul’s letter to the saints at Corinth. In just five verses in the opening of his second letter to the Corinthians, he uses the word “comfort” nine times! 

   Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7) 

The Greek word conveys the sense of someone who comes near to help us. They come physically near, their heart draws near to us in empathy, and even their words are right on target to provide the help we need. 

If that description sounds familiar, it may be because it comes from the same Greek word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit—

   And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever. (John 14:16 AMPC) 

As Paul says, God is “the God of all comfort,” which we would expect. But notice that Paul also says that the Comforter comforts us for a specific purpose: “so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 

We cannot give to others what we do not have. 

How do we get comfort? The Holy Spirit—the Comforter—comforts us. 

When does He comfort us? When we are in distress. 

What happens with this comfort we receive? Three things:

  1. We have something to give to others who are in distress
  2. It builds patient endurance in us
  3. It makes our hope in God more firm

Perhaps you’re in a time of distress right now and you’re wondering why you are going through this difficulty. Can I challenge you to reframe this thought: You are going through this so that you may increase your capacity to be a comforter to others. Your comforted distress is allowing you to come alongside another struggling saint with greater empathy and patience and understanding and strength than you would have had before your time of distress. 

This is why Paul says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is trying to help us see the blessings that can come from this time of distress that could have come in no other way. Don’t allow self-pity to rob you of the comfort the Comforter wants to give to you so that you are able to be a comforter to others who are in distress. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Ephesians 4:29 Don’ts And Dos

August 19, 2025 — Craig T. Owens

Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace to those who hear it. (Ephesians 4:29 AMPC)

Don’t use…
❌ foul words
❌ polluted words
❌ evil words
❌ unwholesome words
❌ worthless words

Do use…
✅ good words
✅ beneficial words
✅ encouraging words
✅ helpful words
✅ graceful words

Let’s put Ephesians 4:29 in practice with every conversation—both in-person and online.

Check out this related post: Choice four-letter words. 

And this related video: Good words are a blessing.

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What Godly Leaders Do

June 18, 2025 — 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. 

As Paul is coming to the close of his letter to the believers in Rome, he writes these beautiful words, “I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another” (Romans 15:14). 

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

I love the high esteem Paul has for the Christians in Rome. He’s not looking for what’s wrong with them, but for what’s praiseworthy in them. 

A mark of a godly leader is one who is always looking for the best in the people around him. 

Leaders see the best in people—even if the people don’t see it in themselves yet. (Check out this short video.) 

Leaders point out the specific qualities they see in their people—virtues like goodness, knowledge, and competence. 

Leaders continue to sharpen their people, challenging them to excel even more. “Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again” (v. 15). 

Leaders enjoy spending time with their people and are refreshed by them. 

   But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. … So that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed (vv. 23-24, 32). 

Leaders pray for their people and ask their people to pray for them. “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there” (vv. 30-31; see Paul’s prayer for them in 16:25-27). 

Leaders publicly compliment their people (16:1-15). 

And leaders protect and empower their people. “I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. … The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (16:17, 20). 

I want to be this kind of leader. In order to do that, I need the help of the Holy Spirit. I must listen to His voice in order to make the changes I need to make so that I may lead in the most Christ-glorifying way possible, and help those around me live even more in their God-given gift zone.

This is part 85 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

May 24, 2025 — Craig T. Owens

The apostle Paul demonstrates how a confident leader empowers his teammates to soar—he believed the best in them! Check out the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig and Greg Show about leaders as gardeners.

I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

In the spirit of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, in this post Grimgod talks to his nephew Globdrop about the battle over the definition of masculinity. “If total amnesia of man and woman was not our aim, what was? Stripping those definitions of unwanted details. Man reclaimed that he is, not what he is. They reclaimed the temple, yes, but what remains? The gold, carried away. The glory, departed. They raise their flag above ruins. Is this their triumph—that a man is what his body tells him? Is this all? What is a man? A male adult human. What is the difference? Chromosomes. Bone density. Muscle mass. Voice depth. This is the meager strip of land they repossessed, and we smile at it.”

A recent discovery of a mosasaur fossil in Mississippi has evolutionists buzzing about macro evolution. But the facts say otherwise: “The fossil record shows mosasaurs have always been mosasaurs. These and other terrestrial and marine creatures were buried in a series of violent events one could easily attribute to a massive flood. Proteins, pigment, and other biomolecules uncovered in mosasaur bone provide compelling evidence that these reptiles existed recently—as in thousands of years ago.”

A missionary who thought his years of ministry had accomplished nothing and his daughter who had been estranged from her father both discovered just how much God had done through their ministry.

I love this perspective from Detroit Tigers player Brewer Hicklen, “Almost 1100 days… This journey has molded me and I’ve smiled through most of it, but boy have there been some days where I never thought I’d get there. To anyone that feels defeated—don’t ever give up. God has you in that journey for a reason. Failure is a beautiful thing.”

“Four considerations seem to hold especially in the case of friendship: love, affection, security, and delight. Friendship involves love when there is a show of favor that proceeds from benevolence. It involves affection when a certain inner pleasure comes from friendship. It involves security when it leads to a revelation of all one’s secrets and purposes without fear or suspicion. It involves delight when there is a certain meeting of the minds—an agreement that is pleasant and benevolent—concerning all matters….” —Aelred of Rievaulx 

“Psychologist Henry H. Goddard studied tired children and found that they had a burst of energy when he said something encouraging to them. But when he said something negative, they became even more tired.” With that in mind, here’s a 30-second rule to help you better engage others in conversation. 

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Links & Quotes

May 17, 2025 — Craig T. Owens

If someone is gossiping to you about others, you can be sure that they are gossiping to others about you—shut it down! Check out this full message about gossips.

I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

I hope you celebrated your Mom on Mother’s Day weekend. This is a great perspective from the Axis newsletter: “Some in our culture say motherhood is a prison, or a trap set by the patriarchy. Pop singer Chappell Roan, for example, recently said she didn’t know any people who have kids and are happy. Others say it’s a paradise—with ‘momfluencers’ online making it look like having kids is a nonstop joyride where the lighting is always perfect and nobody ever cries. When ‘prison’ and ‘perfection’ are presented as the only two options, it’s no wonder U.S. birth rates are declining. One way to honor mothers this year is to admit that motherhood is work—albeit spirit-forming, richly rewarding work—and that we can’t expect to see all the fruit of that labor within our lifetime. Hales writes, ‘Christian parenting is about continually pointing to Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of our faith, clinging to the reminder that He who began a good work in us and our children will complete it.’”

In his study Bible, Dr. Henry Halley offered this comment on 1 Corinthians 6:11. “The greatest proof of the new birth is a changed life. Children of God now suddenly love the following:

  1. They love Jesus. Before conversion the sinner might hold Christ in high esteem, but after conversion they love the Savior (1 John 5:1-2). 
  2. They love the Bible. We should love God’s Word as the psalmist did in Psalm 119. There he expresses his great love for God’s Word 17 times. 
  3. They love other Christians. ‘We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death’ (1 John 3:14). 
  4. They love their enemies (Matthew 5:43-45). 
  5. They love the souls of all people. Like Paul, they too can cry out for the conversion of loved ones. ‘Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved’ (Romans 10:1). 
  6. They love the pure life. John says that if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them (1 John 2:15-17). 
  7. They love to talk to God. ‘Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord’ (Ephesians 5:19).”

T.M. Moore and I share the same passion for pastors to operate as shepherds. Moore wrote, “Shepherds equip the saints who take up the works of the ministry that build the church. The work of shepherding is hard. It’s not a program that you run from time to time, hoping to enlist new folks in the training. It is the ongoing, body-building means whereby the Lord’s flocks are nourished and become equipped to use their Spirit-given gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) and power (Acts 1:8) to grow their church in unity and maturity in the Lord.” Moore also wrote an endorsement for my book Shepherd Leadership. 

John Piper has a thoughtful and biblical response to a question about Christians losing their rewards in Heaven. In part, he says, “All the good deeds that God approves and rewards are works of faith and the fruit of the Spirit. So, let’s get the idea of merit for these good deeds totally out of our minds.” He goes on to show the Scriptures that secure our promised rewards from God. 

Paleontologists have discovered an amazing dinosaur graveyard off the coast of southern Chile. The fossilized remains here gave ample evidence to the global Flood described in the Bible.

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Links & Quotes

April 12, 2025 — Craig T. Owens

Hey, leaders, let me ask you a simple question: Is your workplace a safe place for people to make mistakes? It should be or else we will be limiting the potential of both our teammates and our whole organization. Greg and I unpack this in greater detail in this episode.

I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

“You yearn for a simplified lifestyle, so that your communication with Me can be uninterrupted. But I challenge you to relinquish the fantasy of an uncluttered world. Accept each day just as it comes, and find Me in the midst of it all. … Remember that your ultimate goal is not to control or fix everything around you; it is to keep communing with Me. A successful day is one in which you have stayed in touch with Me, even if many things remain undone at the end of the day. Do not let your to-do list (written or mental) become an idol directing your life. Instead, ask My Spirit to guide you moment by moment.” —Sarah Young, Jesus Calling [1 Thessalonians 5:17; Proverbs 3:6]

“God is God, and since He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere else but in His will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.” —Elizabeth Elliot 

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” —Booker T. Washington 

As I have mentioned previously, T.M. Moore and I share the conviction that pastors are called by God to shepherd the sheep God has placed under their care. Moore writes, “Jesus indicated six disciplines that shepherds must master in leading His churches.” Check out this post where he outlines these six disciplines.

Pornography adversely effects the viewer’s brain, leading to a growing list of physical and emotional problems. Check out this post from Fight The New Drug, in which they report, “No matter what you believe about porn, ‘what is undeniable is that we’re consuming far more of it than at any point in human history, and the effects of this are yet to fully register.’”

I have always loved the fact of God’s laughter—the perfect joy He has must be expressed in perfect laughter! David Mathis writes about the encouragement in God’s laugh: “One way to enjoy the smile of our fiercely happy Father is to tune your ears to the wonders of His laughter.”

Scientists took a cubic millimeter of a mouse’s brain and mapped out the neurons and connections. The result is astounding! In Nature, they wrote, “A cubic millimetre might not sound like much—roughly the size of a grain of sand—but to neuroscientists, it is enormous. One cubic millimetre of a mammalian brain contains tens of thousands of neurons with hundreds of millions of connections, or synapses, between them.” Can you imagine what the human brain is like?! How amazing is our Creator! 

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” —G.K. Chesterton 

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Encouraging Others In The Storm

March 19, 2025 — 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. 

Have you ever been going through a storm in your life and wondered, “God, why are You allowing me to go through this?” 

The Scriptures I reference in this episode are Acts 27; Jonah 1; Acts 23:11.

I talk more about encouragement in the storms of life in my posts Hope in the Storms and Hard Times. And I talk more about Jonah’s storm in the post Not the Answer I was Expecting. 

My book When Sheep Bite is available here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Leaders Lift Up Or Push Down

February 25, 2025 — 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. 

As both a consultant and in one-on-one conversations with colleagues, I have lost count of how many times I’ve heard leaders tell me how incompetent their teammates are. When I have gently asked how they could help their teammates improve, the response is usually something like, “I think they are giving me all they have right now.” 

There is an age-old leadership principle that goes something like this—

A poor leader doesn’t believe his people can achieve more than they already are, so he stops training them and stops expecting great things from them. His people soon discover the level of performance their leader will settle for, and then gravitate to that level. 

The leader then assumes that’s all that his people are capable of achieving, so he accepts it as fact and quits challenging his people to get better. 

So both reinforce what the other believes, and the vicious downward cycle continues. 

How sad! 

But I have found that exemplary leaders believe the best is still to come. They challenge their teammates to strive for greatness. They take time to train, resource, and encourage them to strive for the next level. They don’t beat them up or give up on them when they stumble, but they treat stumbles as learning opportunities. They always believe their teammates can achieve more. 

If you were on a team with a leader like that, wouldn’t you want to live up to those expectations? Of course you would! So instead of the vicious downward cycle I just outlined, an environment like this creates a virtuous cycle that keeps pulling people upward. 

The apostle Paul talked in virtuous terms about his teammates. He wrote publicly about Timothy (I have no one else like him—Philippians 2:20), Epaphroditus (my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier—Philippians 2:25), Mark (he is helpful to me in my ministry—2 Timothy 4:11), and Luke (the beloved physician and faithful comrade—Colossians 4:14), to name just a few.

Even when he had to speak a challenging, correcting word to the saints in Corinth, he still believed the best for them—

I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. … I am very happy now because I have complete confidence in you. (2 Corinthians 7:8-9, 16 NLT) 

I love that phrase: I have complete confidence in you! 

A mark of a godly leader is his supreme confidence in his people to grow and improve. 

If you feel like your teammates just aren’t measuring up, can I suggest that you take a look in the mirror? It may be that your expectations of them are too low, that your attitude toward them has been squelched, and that your words and actions are perpetuating a downward cycle.

By changing your attitude toward your teammates, you can put the brakes on that downward pull, and begin a brand new virtuous cycle that pulls your entire team—and your whole organization—up to heights where they have never gone before! 

This is part 82 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Delighted To Go To Church

December 18, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

And from there the brothers and sisters, when they heard about us, came as far as the Market of Appius and the Three Inns to meet us; and when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. (Acts 28:15) 

We have to be careful of thinking of Paul as some sort of super-evangelist. Yes, he was sustained by his faith in God, but look what happens to him when he is in the assembly of fellow saints—it prompted him to thank God and brought courage to his heart. 

Do you have to go to church to be a Christian? Of course not. But you will be encouraged and you will be the source of encouragement to others when you gather together regularly. 

As the writer of Hebrews tells us—

Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25) 

You may also be interested in these related posts:

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