Poetry Saturday—Upon A Life I Have Not Lived

June 12, 2021 — 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.

Upon a Life I have not lived,
Upon a Death I did not die,
Another’s Life; Another’s Death,
I stake my whole eternity.


Not on the tears which I have shed,


Not on the sorrows I have known,


Another’s tears; Another’s griefs,


On these I rest, on these alone.




O Jesus, Son of God,


I build on what Thy Cross has done for me;


There both my death and life I read,


My guilt, and pardon there I see.




Lord, I believe; O deal with me,


As one who has Thy Word believed!


I take the gift, Lord, look on me,


As one who has Thy gift received. —Horatius Bonar




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Thursdays With Spurgeon—An Assured Eternity

May 27, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.


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





An Assured Eternity 


     The life of God in the soul is not transient but abiding. Not temporary but eternal. Some think that the life of God in the believer’s soul may die out. But how then could it be eternal? If it dies, it is not eternal life. If it is eternal life, it cannot die. … We are said to have been made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4). Surely this means, among other things, that we receive an undying life. …  


     If our life is Christ’s life, we will not die until Christ dies. … 


     This is John’s desire for you: that you would believe with all your heart and soul and strength. He would have you believe more constantly, so that you may say, ‘My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise’ (Psalm 57:7). It is not always so with us. We are at times chicken-hearted. We play the man today and the mouse tomorrow. Lord, have mercy upon us. We are an inconsistent people, fickle as the wind. The Lord would have us abide always in Him with strong and mighty confidence, being rooted and built up in Him. He would have us trust courageously.


From The Blessing Of Full Assurance 


John the Beloved wrapped up his Gospel with this statement: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). The word John uses for “life” is the Greek word zoe. This is how zoe is defined—


Life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions…and to last for ever. (Strong’s Greek dictionary) 


Do you believe Jesus died and rose again? Based on that faith, have you asked the Father to forgive you of your sins? If so, then listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit in your heart that is giving you full assurance of promises like these: 


    

  • Everyone who believes may have eternal life in [Jesus] (John 3:15) 
    • 

  • Whoever believes in [Jesus] shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16) 
    • 

  • Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (John 17:3) 
    • 

  • Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life (John 3:36) 
    • 

  • Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14) 
    • 

  • Because I live, you also will live (John 14:9) 
    • 

  • Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life (John 5:24) 
    • 

  • My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day (John 6:40) 
    • 

  • When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4) 
    • 

  • Resting in the hope of eternal life, life which the ever truthful God Who cannot deceive promised before the world or the ages of time began (Titus 1:2) 
    • 

  • I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13) 
    • 



[Check out all of these verses by clicking here.]


Friend, this is why it’s so important for us to regularly read the Bible. We need to have our faith bolstered by hearing these rock-solid, unchanging, eternal words of God so that we can live each day in full assurance of our salvation and eternal life.


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Poetry Saturday—Tis Not For Man To Trifle

May 1, 2021 — 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.





‘Tis not for man to trifle! Life is brief,


And sin is here.


Our age is but the falling of a leaf,


A dropping tear.


We have no time to sport away the hours,


All must be earnest in a world like ours.




Not many lives, but only one have we,


One, only one;


How sacred should that one life ever be,


That narrow span!


Day after day filled up with blessed toil,


Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.




Our being is no shadow of thin air,


No vacant dream;


No fable of the things that never were,


But only seem.


‘Tis full of meanings as of mystery,


Tho’ strange and solemn may that meaning be.




Our sorrows are no phantom of the night,


No idle tale;


No cloud that floats along a sky of light,


On summer gale.


They are the true realities of earth,


Friends and companions even from our birth.




O life below, how brief, and poor, and sad!


One heavy sigh.


O life above, how long, how fair, and glad!


An endless joy.


Oh, to be done with daily dying here!


Now to begin the living in yon sphere!




O day of time, how dark! O sky and earth,


How dull your hue!


O day of Christ, how bright! O sky and earth,


Made fair and new!


Come, better Eden, with thy fresher green;


Come, brighter Salem, gladden all the scene. —Horatius Bonar






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“Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”

April 26, 2021 — 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.



I have some sobering news for you: You are going to die. 


Death is the great equalizer. It comes for the rich and poor, the scholar and the illiterate, all races, all ages, the healthy as well as the sick. Unless you’re still alive when Jesus comes back again, your odds of dying are 1-in-1. 


What happens “on the other side”? What happens after this life is over? Since it seems dark and mysterious to most people, they tend to ignore it until it’s thrust upon them. That’s why I find the dying words of people interesting. Like P.T. Barnum asking, “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?” or W.C. Fields reading a Bible on his deathbed and telling a friend, “I’m looking for a loophole.” 


Or the very last words of Jesus: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” 


Jesus is steeped in Scripture, so nearly everything He says in His final four declarations come directly from the Psalms, including His final phrase which comes from Psalm 31:5. 


When Jesus broke a three-hour silence with His cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me,” both Matthew and Mark use the Greek words megas phoné to describe how loudly Jesus spoke. And now with His final words, Luke uses the same megas phoné description. 


Notice in the first megaphone cry Jesus calls on God the All-Powerful Creator. And with His last megaphone declaration, He calls on His Father who is All-Loving. How comforting it is to know that God is both All-Powerful and All-Loving! Not only can He answer our cries, but He delights to answer them! 


The word Jesus uses for “commit” is in the future tense and it means “to entrust as a deposit.” Jesus believed that God was going to do more than just give Him life again, but that He would give life to all who would believe in Him. 


Unlike atheist Bertrand Russell who said, “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong,” Jesus DID die for His beliefs, and by rising from the dead proved He was right in trusting God. 


Job saw an inescapable death for all mankind, but he also foresaw the forgiveness of God (Job 14:5, 16-17). Jesus died once for all mankind and was then resurrected, bringing about the death of death by making forgiveness accessible to anyone (Hebrews 9:27-28; 1 Corinthians 15:19-22). 


We can now have the peace that comes from trusting the only One to Whom we can safely entrust our souls. Because Jesus brought death to death, we can have the same peace when we die that Jesus had when He died. 


With faith in Jesus, you can…


…live today knowing you’re invincible until God calls you home 


…live today full of joy because your home in heaven is secure


…live your very last day in peace because you know to Whom your soul is entrusted 


Because Jesus died at peace with God, we can face death triumphantly! 




If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series on the dying declarations of Jesus, you can access the full list by clicking here.


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How To Bring Men To Christ (book review)

March 16, 2021 — 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.



Among the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples was His commission that after they were empowered by the baptism in the Holy Spirit they should go into all the world, preaching the gospel, and making more disciples of Jesus. R.A. Torrey spent his life fulfilling this commission, and he shares the lessons he learned in his book How To Bring Men To Christ. 


This book is a highly practical guide that is set up almost like an encyclopedia. After a brief introduction, the second chapter is simply entitled “How to begin,” and it outlines the broad, big-picture strokes. Then the next nine chapters are all entitled “Dealing with….” Torrey gives us a detailed listing of passages of Scripture, including how and when to use them, for various types of people, such as: the indifferent, those anxious about their eternal fate, those with false hopes, those who lack assurance of salvation, skeptics, complainers, and the hardheaded. Torrey gives the Christian soul-winner all of the biblical help they will need, plus some personal examples of how he employed these scriptures himself. 


The final two chapters of this book focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in helping Christians progress in their own sanctification and grow in their maturity as soul winners. 


How To Bring Men To Christ can probably be read through quite quickly, but it is a book that many Christians will want to put in a place of reference where they can return to it again and again. All Christians who want to live out the Great Commission that was given to us by Jesus Himself will want to read this highly practical book.


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Poetry Saturday—Growing Old

October 10, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 











They call it “going down the hill” when we are growing old,


And speak with mournful accents when our tale is nearly told;


They sigh when talking of the past, the days that used to be,


As if the future were not bright with immortality.




 




But it is not going down; ‘tis climbing high and higher,


Until we almost see the mountain that our souls desire;


For if the natural eye grows dim it is but dim to earth,


While the eye of faith grows keener to discern the Savior’s worth.




 




Who would exchange for shooting blade the waving golden grain?


Or, when the corn is fully ripe, would wish it green again?


And who would wish the hoary head, found in the way of truth


To be again encircled in the sunny locks of youth?


 


 








For though, in truth, the outward man must perish and decay,


The inward man shall be renewed by grace from day to day;


Those who are planted by the Lord, unshaken in their root,


Shall in their old age flourish and bring forth their choicest fruit.






 






It is not years that make men old; the spirit may be young,


Though fully threescore years and ten the wheels of life have run.


God has Himself recorded, in His blessed Word of truth,


That they who wait upon the Lord shall even renew their youth.






 






And when the eye, now dim, shall open to behold the King,


And ears now dull with age shall hear the harps of Heaven ring,


And on the head now hoary shall be placed the crown of gold,


Then shall be known the lasting joy of never growing old. —Anonymous














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Jesus Says

October 6, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




Jesus says, “I will… 


…make you fishers of men” (Matthew 7:23; Mark 1:17) 


…acknowledge in Heaven those who acknowledge Me on earth” (Matthew 10:32-33) 


…give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) 


…build My church” (Matthew 16:18) 


…give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 16:19) 


…show you whom you should fear” (Luke 12:5) 


…drive out demons and heal people” (Luke 13:32) 


…never drive away those who come to Me” (John 6:37) 


…give My life for your life” (John 6:51) 


…rise again from the dead” (Matthew 27:63; Mark 14:28; John 2:19) 


…raise up believers to eternal life” (John 6:40, 44, 54) 


…come back to take you to be with Me forever” (John 14:3) 


…do whatever you ask in My name” (John 14:13, 14; 16:28) 


…not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18) 


…ask the Father to give you an Advocate” (John 14:18) 


…give you words and wisdom that are irresistible” (Luke 21:15) 


…see you again and give you eternal joy” (John 16:22)


Oh, what a Savior!






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Poetry Saturday—Epitaphium Meum

August 29, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




From my years young in days of youth,


God did make known to me His truth,


And call’d me from my native place


For to enjoy the means of grace


In wilderness He did me guide,


And in strange lands for me provide.


In fears and wants, through weal and woe,


As pilgrim passed I to and fro:


Oft left of them whom I did trust;


How vain it is to rest on dust!


A man of sorrows I have been,


And many changes I have seen.


Wars, wants, peace, plenty have I known;


And some advanc’d, others thrown down.


The humble, poor, cheerful and glad;


Rich, discontent, sower and sad:


When fears with sorrows have been mixed,


Consolations came betwixt.


Faint not, poor soul, in God still trust,


Fear not the things thou suffer must;


For, whom He loves He doth chastise,


And then all tears wipes from their eyes.


Farewell, dear children, whom I love,


Your better Father is above:


When I am gone, He can supply;


To Him I leave you when I die.


Fear Him in truth, walk in His ways,


And He will bless you all your days.


My days are spent, old age is come,


My strength it fails, my glass near run:


Now I will wait when work is done,


Until my happy change shall come,


When from my labors I shall rest


With Christ above for to be blest. —William Bradford








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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Christ’s Momentary Pain, Your Eternal Gain

July 30, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.


Christ’s Momentary Pain, Your Eternal Gain


After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. (John 17:1) 


     The Son of God was glorified while He was dying, and it was one part of His glory that He should be able to bear the enormous load of human guilt. As a race we lay crushed beneath it.


     A thousand Samsons could not relieve us! Angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim could never lift the stupendous mass! But this one Man alone, with no help, in weakness of body and in death pains, bore away the enormous load of human guilt! The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all! What a load it was! And that He could bear it was, indeed, a display of His glory. The lost in hell cannot bear the wrath of God! An eternity of suffering will not have discharged the dreadful penalty, and yet He bore that burden in an hour! Oh, marvelous strength of the incarnate God! Glorious are You indeed, O Christ, upon Your Cross! …  


     I say He was glorified in His passion and His prayer was heard! The Father did glorify His Son even on the Tree! It was an hour of glory that might dazzle angels’ eyes; that hour when He said, ‘It is finished!’ (John 19:30) and gave up the ghost. What had He finished? He had finished that which saved His people! He had peopled heaven with immortal spirits who will delight in Him forever and had shaken the gates of hell! God indeed glorified His Son in enabling Him to bear, and bear so well, all the weight of sin and the penalty that was due to it. …  


     When He died, He did not render the redemption of His people possible, but He ransomed them completely. By His agonies and death He did not merely give a bare hope of the pardon of sin, but He hurled the sin of all His elect into the depths of the sea in that same moment! He did not merely make the salvation of men a possibility if they would, but He saved His people then and there! He finished the work that He came to do, and proof of it is written that ‘this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God’ (Hebrews 10:12).


From The Son Glorified By The Father And The Father Glorified By The Son 


The enemy of your soul would love for you to believe his lies that you have to do something to secure your salvation, or that your most recent sin somehow made your salvation iffy, or that God is angry with you. 


THOSE ARE ALL LIES! 


Jesus didn’t make your salvation possible; He made it yours. This is what glorifies God: when you believe that the death of Jesus is all that is needed for your complete and eternal salvation! 


Jesus paid it all


All to Him I owe


Sin had left a crimson stain


He washed it white as snow








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Poetry Saturday—Sacred Bond

May 16, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




‘Twixt Jesus and the chosen race, 


Subsists a bond of sovereign grace. 


That hell, with its infernal train. 


Shall ne’er dissolve, or rend in twain. 




This sacred bond shall never break, 


Though earth should to her centre shake ; 


Rest, doubting saint, assured of this, 


For God has pledged His holiness. 




He swore but once, the deed was done; 


‘Twas settled by the great Three One; 


Christ was appointed to r’deem 


All that the Father loved in Him. 




Hail sacred union, firm and strong! 


How great the grace, how sweet the song! 


That worms of earth should ever be 


One with incarnate Deity! 




One in the tomb, one when He rose, 


One when He triumph’d o’er His foes. 


One when in heaven He took His seat. 


While seraph’s sung all hell’s defeat. 




This sacred tie forbids their fears, 


For all He is, or has, is theirs; 


With Him their head, they stand or fall, 


Their life, their surety, and their all. —Anonymous








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