Links & Quotes

June 25, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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Some good reading (and watching) from today…

GREAT NEWS! The FBI rescued 168 child victims of sex trafficking.

John Maxwell talks about the value of concentration.

“Don’t fornicate with your body. Worship with your body. The Apostle Paul even says that the body is a temple, that is, a place of worship. The body is a place for meeting God, not prostitutes. This doesn’t mean sex is bad. It means that sex is precious. Too precious to be treated cheaply. God means that we put it in a very secure and sacred place—marriage. There it becomes the expression of the love between Christ and the church. It shows the glory of the intensity of God’s love for His people. It becomes worship. ‘Glorify God in your body.’ And not doing sex outside marriage also shows the preciousness of what it stands for. So chastity is worship.” —John Piper, commenting on 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

“Here’s a piece of advice: admit it when you mess up. Don’t lie or plead ignorance. Don’t try to make yourself out to be a victim. And above all, don’t throw your wife (or anyone else) under the bus. If you did it, own it. Any other choice will lead you into deeper problems than you already have, both in the here and now and the hereafter.” Read more from Mark Atteberry in his post The IRS Scandal: Eden Revisited.

[VIDEO] …speaking of the IRS scandal, Rep. Trey Gowdy grills IRS commissioner John Koskinen.

Some fascinating statistics that show a stable marriage leads to better performance in school for kids, and more stable employment options after school: How Churches Can Bridge The Marriage Divide.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Temptations Mature Us

June 19, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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

Temptations Mature Us

     When we are born again we get our first introduction into what God calls temptation. When we are sanctified we are not delivered from temptation, we are loosened into it; we are not free enough before either morally or spiritually to be tempted. Immediately we become His “brethren” we are free, and all these subtleties are at work. God does not shield any man or woman from any requirements of a full-grown man or woman [Luke 22:28]. … 

     When temptation comes, stand absolutely true to God no matter what it costs you, and you will find the onslaught leaves you with affinities higher and purer than ever before. Temptation overcome is the transfiguration of the natural into the spiritual and the establishment of conscious affinity with the purest and best.

From Conformed To His Image (emphasis added) 

Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean temptations stop. Just the opposite. Before becoming one of Christ’s “brethren” we weren’t exposed to the full onslaught of satan’s temptations, because satan wanted to keep us comfortably in his kingdom.

Jesus says to His followers, “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials” (Luke 22:28). It’s good to stand by Jesus and overcome all the trials and temptations that come our way.

  • Temptation overcome matures us.
  • Temptation overcome helps us see more acutely our need for a Savior and His abiding Spirit in us.
  • Temptation overcome makes us more empathetic to others who are going through the same temptation.
  • Temptation overcome glorifies God! 

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Worship Where You Are

June 17, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Worship everywhereO God, we meditate on Your unfailing love as we worship in Your Temple. (Psalm 48:9)

“We can go to church and worship. But if we go to church and worship one day, it is not true worship unless it is followed by continuing worship in the days that follow.” (A.W. Tozer)

It’s easy to say, “O God, I worship You in church on Sunday,” but can I also say…

…I worship You in my office on Monday.

…I worship You in my basketball game on Tuesday.

…I worship You in my commute on Wednesday.

…I worship You in my dinner preparations on Thursday.

…I worship You in my house cleaning on Friday.

…I worship You in my golf game on Saturday.

Worship means making sure what I’m doing is pleasing to God, and glorifying God. It means I am doing my utmost for His highest. It means I am doing what I’m doing so that others see God in it, and are prompted to worship Him too.

Worship wherever you are today, and not just in your church building on Sunday. Let TRUE worship be seen all day, everyday, in everything.

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Links & Quotes

June 15, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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Some interesting reading from this weekend…

Assemblies of God missionaries were addressing the issue of sex slaves and sex trafficking as far back as 1917.

Chilly Chilton challenges us to view worship as serving: Serving Up Some Worship!

This infuriates me … a Planned Parenthood staffer recommends abusive sex to a 15-year-old! And guess what? Our tax dollars are paying for this garbage.

More medical evidence that stress is bad for your heart.

“It will take an infinite number of ages for God to be done glorifying the wealth of His grace to us—which is to say He will never be done. And our joy will increase forever and ever. Boredom is absolutely excluded in the presence of an infinitely glorious God.” —John Piper

Don’t just study; study well. Here are some important questions to ask yourself.

The Overview Bible Project has a cool look at the Psalms.

“How can we ever hope that our kids will become moral, ethical, committed people when we can’t keep our word, can’t keep our pants on, and can’t seem to hold our tongue or liquor? To all three groups of leaders, I simply say: We don’t expect you to be perfect, but we do expect you to embody integrity.” Read more from Tim Elmore’s post The Only Way To Turn Students Into Ethical Leaders.

“As Christians we are called upon to exhibit the character of God, and this means the simultaneous exhibition of His holiness and His love.” —Francis Schaeffer

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Doctors Don’t Heal

June 10, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

C.S. LewisI recently re-read C.S. Lewis’ book Miracles (you can read my full book review by clicking here). As you may have noticed, after reading and reviewing books on this blog, I also like to share some quotes that caught my attention. Doing this with Lewis is difficult, because in order to get the context of a particular quote, I think I would have to cite almost a full page or more. So I have been slowly sharing some quotes from Miracles that require not as much context, or I will provide a bit of background to set the stage.

For other quotes from this book see Miracle Or “Cheating”?, Miracles And Nature, Christianity And Pantheism, Correcting The Pantheist, Absolute Fact, The Central Miracle, The Miracle of Freewill, and Checkmate.

“There is a sense in which no doctor ever heals. The doctors themselves would be the first to admit this. The magic is not in the medicine but in the patient’s body—in the vis medicatrix naturæ, the recuperative or self-corrective energy of Nature. What the treatment does is to stimulate Natural functions or to remove what hinders them. We speak for convenience of the doctor, or the dressing, healing a cut. But in another sense every cut heals itself: no cut can be healed in a corpse.” —C.S. Lewis

God says He will not share His glory with anyone or anything.

So it is not medicine that heals, but God Who heals by giving scientists the insight to make medicines. It is not doctors who heal, but God Who gives doctors wisdom to create the environment in which healing can occur.

All healing of the body is a miracle, but all healing comes from God.

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God’s Blessings Aren’t Primarily For You

June 4, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

God's blessingsGod’s blessings are wonderful, and we should pray for them, but they are showered upon us for a specific purpose.

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us…” is the prayer of the psalmist. Why does he pray this?

“…SO THAT Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among the nations.” (Psalm 67:1-2)

God’s blessings are sent to His people SO THAT the whole earth will know Him and praise Him, and turn to Him for their salvation.

God’s blessings aren’t primarily for my benefit, but for His!

“And God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us, SO THAT all the ends of the earth will fear Him.” (verses 6-7)

Sola Deo gloria—it’s all for His glory!

So, yes, Lord, pour out Your blessings on me again and again SO THAT all people may know You and Your salvation. May all who see Your blessing on me turn to You as their God too!

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Links & Quotes

May 31, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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[VIDEO] Brilliant! The Bible’s place in our worldview.

“The most common remedy for most behavioral and mental disorders today is some form of self-worth enhancement. It pervades our educational institutions, the psychotherapeutic and counseling system, the personnel and motivational industry, advertising, and even the church. I think the remedy is flawed. … What is the root of mental health? My answer is, God. Or seeing God as God and enjoying Him as God, which involves being forgiven by God and welcomed with utterly free grace. I personally believe that these truths are hijacked when they are used to make self-esteem the root of mental health.” —John Piper

[COMIC] What the parishioners think the clergy think the parishioners think the clergy do.

15 great G.K. Chesterton quotes.

Why America doesn’t need Planned Parenthood.

Live Action releases a scathing 6-year investigation of Planned Parenthood.

How we glorify God by sleeping.

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Links & Quotes

May 27, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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Some interesting reading from today…

“Good performance is the road by which one travels toward life. He who travels this road is in quest of life. ‘Take courage and do manfully.’ This road has its reward. As often as we become fatigued by the journey’s labor, we are enlightened by the grace of a solicitude from on high, and we ‘taste and see that the Lord is sweet.’ And thus comes to pass what was said above—what prayer asks, contemplation finds.” —Hugh of St. Victor (1096-1141 AD)

Help bring home USMC Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi.

[VIDEO] First century synagogue unearthed in Magdala may have been one in which Jesus taught.

A touching reminder from Ken Davis on how he honors his father on Memorial Day.

“We were created to glorify God (Isaiah 43:7), and because Paul said, ‘Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). So it is sin to pursue any good deed, or any act of worship, without the intent to glorify God. But God is not glorified where we find Him less pleasing than other things. He is belittled. Knowing this, we cannot be indifferent to whether we find God pleasing in the actions we pursue. In all those actions, if we would glorify God, we must aim to find Him more pleasing than anything else.” —John Piper

“The One who made and counted all the stars—who monitored every action of the Roman Empire and who keeps all the galaxies in the orbits—has His eye fixed on you. And, Jesus asks, ‘Are you not worth much more to Him?’” —David Wilkerson

“If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory.” —Henry Blackaby

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Steppin’ Up

May 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Hard workHere’s a really simple true-false quiz for you. Anyone who has ever been in church should be able to handle this one simple question. Are you ready? Your one question is—True or False: The Bible contains the Word of God?

The answer is FALSE! The Bible doesn’t contain the Word of God, the Bible IS the Word of God.

  • It is inerrant = without error.
  • It is infallible = without mistake.
  • It is universally applicable regardless of age or culture.

The worldview which dominates today is usually one of pragmatism. That means people do what feels right to them in the moment, and then they determine the rightness or wrongness of their decision based on the outcome. In other words, if they like how things turned out they must have done something right, and if they don’t like the results then they must have done something wrong.

Christians, however, need to see the short-sightedness of this. The Apostle Peter shows the contrast between how accurate God’s Word is and how false teachers want to “exploit you with stories they have made up” (see 2 Peter 1:20-2:3), and how destruction is the end result for those with a pragmatic worldview.

It is by no means an easy thing for Christians to discipline themselves to have a consistent biblical worldview. It’s easy to simply reject something because it doesn’t appear to be “churchy” or receive something because it’s been done in the church for years. The hard work comes in this:

This week I’d like to give you the same challenge I gave my congregation: How can you STEP UP your involvement in the Word this week?

  • Do you need to read the Bible more?
  • Do you need to read the Bible better?
  • Do you need to meditate more on what you’ve read in the Bible?
  • Do you need to re-look at some things you’ve automatically rejected or received?
  • Do you need the Holy Spirit to overhaul your worldview?

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No Exceptions

April 2, 2014 — 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. 

King David wrote a coronation psalm for his son Solomon as he ascended the throne in Jerusalem. The opening words say, “Endow the king with Your justice, O God, the royal son with Your righteousness. He will judge Your people in righteousness, Your afflicted ones with justice” (Psalm 72:1-2).

David was calling on God’s blessing on his son, but He was also reminding Solomon that he couldn’t rule without God’s help. David’s singular focus was for God to receive all the glory. He closes the coronation psalm like this: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, Who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen” (vv. 18-19).

Solomon started out well. “Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great” (2 Chronicles 1:1). Even when God gave Solomon the option to ask for anything, he choose wisdom “to govern this great people of Yours” (1 Kings 3:7-9).

David strongly impressed on Solomon that obedience to God was the key to God’s blessing on Solomon and on the nation of Israel. “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to Him, and keep His decrees and commands, His laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go” (1 Kings 2:2-3).

But there is an ominous word that creeps in very early on in Solomon’s reign. Just one word that foreshadows the downfall that is to come—

Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, EXCEPT… (1 Kings 3:3).

As you’ve probably heard, Solomon’s many foreign wives began to lead him astray from “observing what the Lord your God requires” and eventually became his downfall. But it began right here with the EXCEPT.

It’s all or nothing.

I cannot pick and choose which words from God I’m going to follow and which I’m going to “except.” If God says I must do it, then I must do it!

The EXCEPT will lead to my downfall just as surely as it did for Solomon.

Heavenly Father, may I be so sensitive to the prompting of Your Holy Spirit if I’ve let any EXCEPTs creep into my life. Reveal them to me so that I may repent, show myself a man, and follow You wholeheartedly.

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