God Made You You

September 20, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

God doesn’t make mistakes.

Ever!

That means you are not a mistake. You might make a mistake (or, if you’re like me, maybe lots of mistakes), but you are not a mistake.

God had you in mind before He created this universe. He knew the perfect time to send you to Earth. And He knew just what you needed to be.

You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

STOP comparing yourself to others.

STOP beating yourself up.

STOP doubting how special you are.

Even the fun and entertaining Dr. Seuss got it:

Today you are you! That is truer than true!
There is no one alive who you-er than you!

“You are most attractive when you are yourself, simply because real is attractive.” —Howard Hendricks

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More Amateurs Needed

September 7, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Did you know that the origin of the word clergy comes from the Latin meaning “learned men”? These are the men and women who are supposed to lead our churches, because they have the education that others don’t. They are professionals.

Now compare that with the definition of laity: “the people outside of a particular profession, as distinguished from those belonging to it.”

Did you catch that? The laity are outside and uneducated. They are amateurs.

The origins of clergy is traced back to the 12th century, and laity first appears in the 16th century. But long before this, the Apostle Paul had a different idea —

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? (1 Corinthians 1:26-28 from The Message, emphasis added)

There is a HUGE PROBLEM when we think that only the professional clergy is equipped to do the ministry of the church! What makes a healthy church (like the first century church we read about in the book of Acts) is when EVERYONE is actively involved in ministry.

These words from Howard Hendricks are tough to hear, but right on target:

“I believe a great problem in evangelicalism today—whether in the local church, missions, seminary education, or what have you—is we have too many big-time operators! And too few servants. … 

“The typical church hires a clergyman to rob them of the privilege of exercising Christ’s gifts. … The greatest curse on the Church today is that we are expecting a small group of professionals to get God’s work done.”

I hope I haven’t stepped on too many toes with this one. My intent is not to offend, but to get the church thinking. I want to see EVERYONE that calls themselves a Christian actively involved in ministry.

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Say It With Love (book review)

August 23, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

There is a verse in the Bible that tells us to speak the truth in love. And that’s exactly what Howard Hendricks lives by in Say It With Love: The art and joy of telling the Good News.

For Professor Hendricks, the good news about Jesus Christ is not something that is just shared by a pastor on Sundays, but it’s something all Christians should be sharing all the time. And not just with words either, but with our very lives.

Dr. Hendricks challenges us to know why we are sharing the message of God’s love; to put ourselves in a position to share that message effectively; and then to live that message out in all of the roles of our life. This third section was the most impactful for me. Dr. Hendricks talks persuasively about living the message…

  • …with God
  • …with your mate
  • …with your children
  • …in your church
  • …in your neighborhood
  • …in your daily contacts

This is both a hopeful book and a convicting book. It’s an easy read with lots of Dr. Hendricks’ personal stories sprinkled in as examples. If you want to do a better job communicating the message of the gospel, you should check out this book.

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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.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? ◀︎◀︎

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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.

20110620-063303.jpgOn 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.

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I Didn’t Choose This

June 8, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Hello, my name is Craig Owens and I’m a pastor. I wasn’t a PK (pastor’s kid). This isn’t the profession I chose for myself. I envisioned myself doing other things, but God had different plans for me.

He called, and I said “yes.” He called me to be a pastor and so He equipped me for the pastorate. I can relate to what the Apostle Paul wrote—

By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving Him by spreading this Good News. (Ephesians 3:7)

Paul, too, didn’t choose be a minister telling people about Jesus Christ. But God had different plans for him.

And so, since God has called me to do this, I must do it to the best of my ability. I don’t have the natural ability for it, I simply have God’s grace and mighty power. And to that grace and power I must add my best effort—

Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth. (2 Timothy 2:15, AMP)

I like the counsel of Charles Spurgeon:

“Again, the theme of a minister should be Christ Jesus in opposition to mere doctrine. Some of my good brothers are always preaching doctrine. Well, they are right in so doing, but I would not care myself to have as the characteristic of my preaching doctrine only. I would rather have it said, ‘He dwelled much upon the person of Christ and seemed best pleased when he began to tell about the atonement and sacrifice. He was not ashamed of the doctrines; he was not afraid of threatening. But he seemed as if he preached the threatening with tears in his eyes, and the doctrine solemnly as God’s own Word. But when he preached of Jesus, his tongue was loosened, and his heart was at liberty.’”

I didn’t choose this, but God chose me. And for that I am extremely humbled and grateful.

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Wider Longer Higher Deeper

June 6, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

When was the last time you experienced a dimension of God’s love for the first time?

The Apostle Paul suggested that God’s love went beyond our 3-dimensional world—

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

God’s love is WIDER than we can cross in a lifetime…

…LONGER than we can see with natural eyes…

…HIGHER than we can scale on our own…

…DEEPER than we can comprehend.

I love the last verse of Frederick M. Lehman’s hymn The Love Of God—

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

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Experiencing The Spirit (book review)

May 19, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Years ago I read Henry Blackaby’s outstanding book Experiencing God, which helped me see God’s relationship with me in a whole new light. Now Henry and Melvin Blackaby have done the same thing with the role of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life in Experiencing The Spirit: The Power of Pentecost Every Day.

I’m a fourth-generation Pentecostal, so I’ve grown up with a solid understanding of the Holy Spirit. But Experiencing The Spirit created in me a longing for something more. I don’t want it to just be a head-only theology, but a heart-felt relationship. In fact, this question in the book hit me right between the eyes: Do you spend more time and effort honing your skills than you do seeking the Lord and deepening your relationship with Him?

I don’t want to just know about God, I want to know Him. And a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit is what allows that to happen. The Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, and I want to make that my prayer too…

I pray that out of His glorious riches the Father may strengthen me with power through His Holy Spirit in my innermost being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And I pray that as I am being rooted and established in love, I may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

For a more intimate relationship with the Spirit of God, I recommend checking out Experiencing The Spirit.

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Everywhere And Everywhen

May 17, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Wise words from G. Morgan Campbell:

“The Christian is to seek the upper things, setting his mind upon them, and everywhere and everywhen he is to be hoping for, and endeavoring after, the ultimate. That is the simple meaning of prayer: reaching forward, wishing forward, desiring forward, seeking the upper, the higher, the nobler.”

The Bible is clear, too, about us praying everywhere and everywhen for the very best:

  • We ought always to pray and not to turn coward, faint, lose heart, and give up (Luke 18:1)
  • God has seen how I never stop praying for you (Romans 1:9)
  • For I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17)
  • In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy (Philippians 1:4)
  • Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! (Colossians 1:3)
  • Epaphras always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God (Colossians 4:12)
  • We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly (1 Thessalonians 1:2)
  • We ought always to thank God for you, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more (2 Thessalonians 1:3)
  • I give thanks to my God for you always when I mention you in my prayers (Philemon 1:4)
  • Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we’re doing or why, but it’s hard going and we need your prayers (Hebrews 13:18)

Someone needs your prayers today.

Will you keep on praying for a friend that he or she will be able to

…reach forward

…wish forward

…desire forward

…seek the upper, the higher, the nobler!

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Smile Away

May 9, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Sometimes the shortest distance between two people is a simple smile.

I love a scene in The Bourne Identity where Jason and Marie are hatching this highly-detailed plan to get an invoice from a hotel. Marie walks into the hotel lobby to execute their well-designed scheme, and before spy/assassin Jason Bourne has time to walk her through it, Marie is back outside. “What happened? What went wrong?” Jason asks. Marie simply replies, “The man at the desk was smiling at me, so I thought I would simply ask him for the invoice.”

When I was a kid we used to sing a little ditty in Sunday School that went like this —

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it then your face will surely show it,
If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.

Here’s what the Bible says about smiling faces:

Smiling faces make you happy. (Proverbs 15:30)

What a relief to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the face of God! (Genesis 33:10)

When I smiled at them, they could hardly believe it; their faces lit up, their troubles took wing! (Job 29:24)

Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face. (Ephesians 6:6)

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God—soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God. (Psalm 42:5)

George Eliot said, “Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.”

So if people feel miles away from you, perhaps they’re just a SMILE AWAY.

Try it. Smile! You’ll feel better and others will feel better about you too.

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