Naked Before God

January 7, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Imagine: You and your wife are the only people on the face of the earth. No bills, no employer, no economic downturn, no kids, no school, no traffic. Just you and God. That was Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Bible gives this commentary, “Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.”

Nothing to hide from God. Nothing to hide from each other. A perfect relationship with God. A perfect relationship with each other.

Then the temptation, and the bite of the forbidden fruit. Sin enters. Now, something changes when God comes to talk with His favorite couple: “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from God among the trees.”

“Why are you hiding from Me?” God asks.

“Uh,” Adam stammers, “because we’re naked.”

Sin made mankind uncomfortable in God’s presence. Sin made them want to hide from God. They knew He was there, but they tried to pretend He wasn’t. This is why I think many of us don’t come into God’s presence in prayer: we’re uncomfortable because of our sin.

We should not run away from God, instead, we should run to Him. “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

What happens when we’re forgiven? We’re re-clothed. God Himself clothes us. He made clothes for Adam and Eve, and He clothes us, too, in the righteous robes of Jesus. “And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes” (Galatians 3:27).

And when we’re clothed in Christ, we no longer have to hide from God, nor feel uncomfortable in His presence. Instead, we can “come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (see Ephesians 3:12 and Hebrews 4:16).

Perhaps the reason we don’t spend enough time in prayer is that we feel self-conscious, sinful, uncomfortable… naked.

You don’t have to be naked. You can be clothed in Christ. You can enter into God’s presence without shame and find the mercy and grace and help that you need.

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Nothing Left But Ashes

December 14, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

In the “Your Gift To God” series at Calvary Assembly of God, we have been following the pattern of the gifts that the Magi gave to Jesus as a pattern for the gifts that we, too, should give to God.

First, the Magi gave gold. The king of metals for the King of kings. They acknowledged that this was the Eternal King. Gold is a gift for a king.

The second gift is a bit of a head-scratcher gift: frankincense. This type of incense was used in the Old Testament in worship and sacrifices in the Tent Of Meeting. Incense is a gift for a priest. But would the Magi give a priestly gift to a king?

Jesus came as both King, Priest, and Sacrifice. The frankincense was used as the high priest went from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place to offer the sacrifice of atonement. But look what the Bible says about Jesus:

…Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

And because of what Jesus did for us:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.

When we offer a sacrifice of frankincense to Jesus our High Priest, we’re saying, “I trust You with this. I don’t want to carry this any longer. I give it to You completely.” That means what we offer to Him is completely consumed.

Yesterday our congregation wrote down their burdens and concerns and challenges on a slip of paper. Then we brought those concerns to Jesus and burned them up like frankincense in His presence. As I smelled the aroma, I could only imagine the incredible scent that Jesus detected.

All of the concerns people wrote down were reduced to ash yesterday morning!

I believe people were set free! The concerns were burned up like a sacrifice before our High Priest! No longer do they have to carry these heavy loads:

Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.

Your greatest gift to God could be all of the things that have burdened you for way too long. Give them to Him because He cares for you. Let them be consumed completely, and never pick them up again.

Live free!

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Thanksgiving Challenge

November 23, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

 

Yesterday I began a two-part series at Calvary Assembly of God sandwiched around Thanksgiving Day. The series is simply called Thanks and is based on the premise that thankfulness is the soil for healthy growth.

Have you ever grown a garden? If you have, you know that even though you plant the best seeds in the best soil, if you simply leave it unattended, weeds will find their way into your well-manicured garden. If you leave your garden unattended for long enough, the weeds will eventually take over.

It’s just as true for our minds. We can cultivate the best soil in our minds and plant only the finest seeds. But if we do nothing more, the weeds will take over and eventually choke out anything good that was growing there.

A spirit of continual thankfulness will keep the soil free from the choking weeds. But pulling out weeds by our thankfulness must be a continual process. So I gave our church the 365/730/1095 challenge.

Start a thanksgiving journal. If you just write down one unique thing every day for which you are thankful, you will have recorded 365 things in a year. More challenging: write down two things every day, or even—are you brave enough to attempt this?—three things every day. If you find two things each day, you will have 730 weed busters by the end of the year, or three items will give you 1095 weed busters.

Are you ready for the challenge?

I’m going to attempt to find three unique things each day for the next year. I hope this is encouraging to you, and I hope you will accept the 365/730/1095 challenge too.

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Satisfied Service

November 9, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

I started a conversation last week about being a servant (you can catch up here).

Serving should be a two-way street. Contrary to the way that some people look at servanthood, being a servant is not the same thing as being a doormat. Consider two key verses:

  • Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:4)
  • Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21)

We should look equally to others’ needs as well as our own needs. Zig Ziglar says it this way, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

This can be manipulation if you’re simply looking to someone else’s interests as a form of flattery or as a quid pro quo. But if you are truly serving—if you truly have the other person’s best interests in mind—if you are willing to submit to them out of reverence for Christ, serving can be liberating.

Last week Rick Warren tweeted, “The more self-centered I am, the more unsatisfied I’ll be.” I retweeted with this addition, “So the more I serve, the more satisfied I’ll be.” I believe that.

Try it for yourself—it works!

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Love & Respect (book review)

October 29, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

Love & Respect

My Grandma used to say this poem, “Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.” I thought of this again while reading Emerson Eggerichs’ book Love & Respect. If your marriage is bad, this book can help it get good; if your marriage is already good, this book can help it getter even better; if your marriage is already better, you can use this book to “best it.”

Many of the principles in this book generated an initial push-back from me. I found myself thinking, “I’m not so sure that would work.” But as I read on, I found almost all of those initial hesitancies dissolving.

The book is divided into three overarching sections that cover the three cycles in which your marriage could be: the Crazy Cycle (a bad marriage), the Energizing Cycle (a good marriage), and the Rewarded Cycle (the best marriage). Throughout all of the sections, there is sound, biblically-based counsel for husbands and wives. The title of the book—and most of the underlying principles—come from Ephesians 5:33 where the Apostle Paul tells women to respect their husbands, while husbands are to love their wives.

Be forewarned: the first part of this book felt a little like a commercial for Dr. Eggerichs’ Love & Respect seminar. And oftentimes I felt he was “plugging” his seminar throughout the book. But if you don’t mind the occasional sales-pitch feel, you will uncover some great truths to help your marriage go from bad to better to best.

I am a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers.

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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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Stuff

September 9, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

We’re almost done unpacking. Just 10 days after moving into our new home in Cedar Springs, we’ve just about got the unpacking done. Notice I said, “almost done.”

We’re trying to find a place for everything that we brought with us. But the closets are a bit smaller, there aren’t quite as many cupboards in the kitchen, and there’s one less bedroom and one less bathroom than our previous home. That means we still have quite a few boxes that have been moved to the garage. These are the we’ll-hang-on-to-this-for-awhile-to-see-if-we-need-it things.

After 19 years of marriage and three kids, we’ve accumulated quite a bit of stuff. And do you know what I’ve found? I don’t need or use much of the stuff I so carefully packed up and moved with me.

So I have been thinking,

  • How much stuff do I have packed away in my heart and mind that I don’t really need?
  • How many unkind words do I continue to keep packed away in case I need to pull them out?
  • How many painful memories do I keep packaged up just in case I need to feel sorry for myself?
  • How many mistakes from my past do I keep pulling out and packing up again?”

Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception (Ephesians 4:22).

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1).

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back (Philippians 3:12-14).

It feels really good to get rid of the old stuff. I’m enjoying not having so much cluttering up my life, so I think I’m going to make it a regular practice to clean out the unused stuff.

Do you have any stuff you need to clear out today? I promise you: It will feel so wonderful when you do!

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Objective Beauty

August 17, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

Do you ever doubt Scripture? I don’t mean doubting its inerrancy, but its application to real life. You know what I mean: “Okay, that sounds interesting, but I’m not sure that’s for now or for me. C’mon, that can’t mean me!”

Here’s the verse that got me thinking: “He has made everything beautiful in its time….”

Everything?! Really? Everything?!

My viewpoint is subjective. That’s a fancy way of saying, “Things should be the way I want them to be.” I see some things as beautiful, but about other things I say, “This is a pain, or this is ugly.” But if I believe God’s Word, in God’s timing everything is beautiful.

I think the second part of the verse illuminates the problem of my subjectivity. “…He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Eternity—my soul’s longing for God—is in me, yet I cannot grasp it. Not naturally, at least. God knows how everything will end beautifully because He made everything beautifully.

Even me.

My life might seem like a mess at times: ugly, scared, scarred, even worthless. But God sees beauty. And we know that in all things [even the ugly stuff] God works for the good [the beautiful] of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28). God gives His beauty to replace my ashes.

With subjective thinking, this doesn’t seem very likely. It’s hard to subjectively see how God could turn my ugliness and my pain into anything beautiful.

That’s why Scripture also contains this prayer: A prayer that will change my subjectivity (seeing only my ugliness) to objectivity (now seeing God’s beauty). If you struggle to see everything as beautiful, pray this prayer right now:

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Amen!

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Good And Angry

July 29, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

When was the last time you got good and angry? Be careful how you answer because I want you to notice that important conjunction AND. So maybe I should ask the question this way: when was the last time you got angry and were still good?

Aristotle correctly pointed out, “Anybody can become angry—that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

Over the past week, I’ve been studying the life and leadership of Nehemiah, an incredible leader who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. But when I got to the final chapter of his account, I noticed quite a bit of anger coming from Nehemiah. As a kid, I used to have to really battle against my temper, so this aspect of Nehemiah’s life intrigued me. Can someone be good AND angry?

I think that the deeper I love someone or something, the greater my anger will be towards anyone or anything that violates what I love.

Nehemiah loved God and he was passionate to see God’s holiness magnified. All of his anger is directed at those people or things that violated or detracted from God’s holiness. Look how he got good AND angry—

  • Towards Tobiah, who moved his personal belongings into God’s temple, a place reserved exclusively for the worship of God. “I was angry, really angry, and threw everything in the room out into the street, all of Tobiah’s stuff” (v. 8).
  • Towards the people who stopped financially supporting the priests, forcing the priests to leave the temple and work as farmers. “I immediately confronted the leaders and demanded, ‘Why has the Temple of God been neglected?’” (v. 11).
  • Towards those who violated the regulations of the Sabbath Day. “I got angry and said to the leaders of Judah, ‘This evil you are doing is an insult to the Sabbath!’” (v. 17).
  • Towards those tried to get around Nehemiah’s new Sabbath Day regulations. “I spoke sharply to them and said, ‘What are you doing out here, camping around the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you!’” (v. 21).
  • Towards those who had intermarried with false-god-worshipping people. “I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair” (v. 25).
  • Towards Joiada, a priest who married a non-God-fearing woman. “I banished him from my presence” (v. 28).

After each of these incidents, you might expect Nehemiah to regret what he had done and think to himself, “Perhaps I overdid it. Maybe I was too zealous, or maybe I went a little overboard.” But instead, each time Nehemiah was righteously angry he prayed this to God, “Remember me for this, O my God. Remember me with favor because of what I have done” (vv. 14, 22, 29, 31). He was unashamed that he got good AND angry.

The Bible says, “Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry.”

Can you be good AND angry? Yes! In fact, I think being good helps us be angry with the right person or thing, in the right way, for the right purpose, and for the right length of time. 

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Beat Up

July 2, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

Some snippets from a few conversations I have had the past week—

  • “What’s the point?”
  • “My life doesn’t make sense.”
  • “I probably deserve this.”
  • “I don’t know how I got here … I don’t know how to get out of here.”
  • “Why me?”
  • “I feel beat up.”

C.S. Lewis got it exactly right when he wrote, “If satan’s arsenal of weapons were restricted to a single one, it would be discouragement.”

Have you ever worked with someone whose attitude changed after giving his 2-week notice? His job performance slips … his attitude stinks … he does things against company policy … and he justifies it all by saying, “What are they going to do, fire me?” He’s got nothing to lose by acting like a complete jerk!

satan has already been “fired”—he knows he’s got a terrible end coming. And all he wants to do is make other people feel rotten … beat up … discouraged … defeated. He wants to take you down. He’s a jerk!

Did you know that the word devil means slanderer? By his very nature, he only tells lies. Everything he says is intended to harm you. He slings mud at your character, tries to get you thinking you’re no good, turns your attention to anything that’s dark, picks on your faults, jumps on your weaknesses. Like a jerk, he beats you up and beats you down until you start believing his lies.

He is a LIAR!

You are invaluable.

You are a masterpiece.

You are desperately loved by God.

You are integral to God’s plan.

I know you may want to ignore satan’s slandering, to tune out his lies, but can I suggest something else? Listen to them. Listen very carefully. If you are listening closely, you will be able to identify the lies and then demolish them. satan is hoping you will simply accept what he’s saying without analyzing it.

Here’s the next step. After you’ve identified the lies, you have to speak the truth OUT LOUD that contradicts those lies. The Bible says that we defeat satan’s slander by the power of Jesus AND the true words from our mouth. If you’re not sure what biblical truth counteracts the lies that are discouraging you, email me and I’d be happy to help you.

You are so very valuable! There’s a bully who wants to intimidate you, but your Big Brother Jesus is ready to take care of him!

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