God’s love | Craig T. Owens

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Links & Quotes

June 9, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“Such is the Christ with Whom we have to do, full of grace and truth. Let us draw near; let us keep near; let us allow Him to pour out His love on us; let us bring others to Him to be partakers of the same overflowing love.” —Horatius Bonar

“O soul, if you trust Christ, the blood is on your brow today; before the eye of God there is no condemnation. Why, then, do you need to fear? You are safe, for the blood secures every soul that once is sheltered thereby. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, but if you believe not, trust where you may, you shall be damned.” —Charles Spurgeon

“I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence.” —Walt Disney

“You have a body. But it is not yours. ‘You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body’ [1 Corinthians 6:20]. You are always in a temple. Always worship [1 Corinthians 10:31].” —John Piper

Speaking of our bodies, more young men are having heart attacks. Check this out to protect your health.

Have you ever thought about God being reasonable? T.M. Moore has an insightful post on this—God Who Reasons.

Brett Kunkle shares a great apologetic piece on an early and reliable account of Christ’s resurrection.

Taking a Sabbath rest is a reward, not a restriction.

[VIDEO] God wrote a book—

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Horatius Bonar On Healing

June 4, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The Lord ends speaking and begins working; He comes down from the pulpit and enters the hospital [Matthew 8:1-3]. Such is His whole life: words and deeds intermingled; words of health and deeds of health.

“[The leper] wants to be made clean, and he casts himself on Christ for this. He is the Hyssop, the Water, the Blood, the Ashes, the Priest, the Physician, all in one. Thus we still come, doubting neither the willingness nor the power, yet casting ourselves on the will of the Lord; not presuming to dictate, yet appealing to His sovereign grace. As the needy, the sick, the unclean, we come; for the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

“… Jesus speaks, ‘I will, be thou clean.’ … It is the voice of authority. It reminds us of Genesis 1:2-3. He speaks as One Who knew that He could cure. Not hesitatingly. Nor are the words a prayer, but a command. He speaks, and it is done. … Thus love, authority, and power are all conjoined. It is the voice of Omnipotence.

“He is the same Christ still; with the same love, and authority, and power. He is still the Healer, and the worst of diseases fly from His touch and voice. Let us go to Him with all that afflicts us. … Be persuaded to present thyself to Him, just as thou art. Give this divine Healer thy simple confidence. Take Him for what He is, and He will take thee for what thou art. Thus shalt thou meet in love; thou to be healed, and He to heal; thou to have the joy of being healed, and He to have the joy of healing thee, and to announce to heaven, in the presence of the angels of God, that another leper has been healed!” —Horatius Bonar (emphasis added)

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, command, God's love, healing, Horatius Bonar, Jesus Christ, omnipotence, prayer, Sola Deo gloria. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

June 3, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“How is it that the Father can embrace the prodigal? He is fresh from the swine-trough: look at him; look at his rags; how foul they are! We would not touch them with a pair of tongs! Take him to the fire and burn the filth! Take him to the bath and wash him! That lip is not fit to kiss; those filthy lips cannot be permitted to touch that holy cheek of the glorious Father. But it is not so. While he was yet a great way off, his father saw him—rags, and poverty, and sin, and filth, and all—and he did not wait till he was clean, but ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him, just as he was. How could he do that? Why, the parable does not tell us; for it did not run on with the subject to introduce the atonement; but this explains it: when God accepts a sinner, He is in fact only accepting Christ. He looks into the sinner’s eyes, and Se sees His own dear Son’s image there, and He takes him in.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Wide as the reach of satan’s rage

Doth Thy salvation flow;

’Tis not confin’d to sex or age,

The lofty or the low.” —Isaac Watts

“Today’s complacency is tomorrow’s captivity. There is no such thing as comfortable Christianity.” —Samuel Rodriguez

David Wilkerson explains how God wants us to grow in grace.

Father Frank Pavone says, “The pro-life movement has been talking about abortion since before Roe v. Wade, all the time inviting the American public to talk about it with us.” Please read this: Let’s Talk About Abortion.

Fascinating! Scientists are working on a way to treat people suffering from paralysis by using light to get cells to respond.

[VIDEO] John Maxwell explains the difference between bad pride and good pride—

The Counselor Brings Reproof

June 1, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

No one likes being rebuked, but it is necessary. In fact, it is vital for healthy growth. As a Dad, I didn’t look forward to the times I had to rebuke my children. But what’s the alternative? What happens if I just let misbehavior slide? We must rebuke those we love if we want them to mature.

The Counselor—the Holy Spirit—not only teaches us, but He reproves us as well because of His love for us. And we all need it!

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9)
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing… (Romans 7:18)

This knowledge of my wickedness becomes even more painful when I think that Jesus calls us to perfection (Matthew 5:48). I can’t “do” perfect on my own. But thankfully Jesus didn’t tell us to “do” perfect things, but to BE perfect.

The Holy Spirit reproves us—that is, He shows us where we are deviating from the mark—so that we can BE perfectly at one with Jesus, with our lives demonstrating Christ’s perfect nature.

Warning: the enemy wants to pervert The Counselor’s reproof. He wants to whisper to you that God is mad at you, that you’ve blown it too many times, that you’ll never be good enough.

Just like Jesus countered all of satan’s temptations with the Spirit-breathed Scripture, you need to do the same thing. You tell him, “My Father loves me so much that He sent His One and Only Son to die on a Cross for me! He wants me to display the glory of Jesus in my life because that’s what brings Him pleasure. He only reproves me because He loves me. If He didn’t care about me, He would leave me alone!”

Because He loves you and wants the very best for you, here’s what you can boldly pray:

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I will be continuing my series on the Holy Spirit as our Counselor this Sunday. If you are in the Cedar Springs area, please come join us!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Calvary Assembly of God, conviction, counselor, God's love, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, Jeremiah, Jesus Christ, lies, maturity, parenting, perfection, prayer, reproof, Romans, satan, sermon, spiritual warfare. 1 Comment »

Links & Quotes

May 22, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The job isn’t to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.” —Seth Godin

Check this out: just 2 verses of Scripture, but 22 verified historical confirmations!

J. Warner Wallace explains why we should trust a courtroom over a laboratory when evaluating the truthfulness of historical events.

Seth Godin tells us how to win an argument with a scientist.

I know you read this from me (a lot!), but I love what the folks at The Overview Bible Project do. Check out this overview of the Gospel of John.

[VIDEO] John Maxwell on the power of implementation—

[VIDEO] Dr. Bobby Conway answers a tough question: what is habitual sin?

Thursdays With Oswald—God Can’t Stop

May 21, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

This is a periodic 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.

God Can’t Stop

Men are apt to cry to God to stop—‘If only God would leave me alone!’ God never will. His passionate, inexorable love never allows Him to leave men alone, and with His children He will shake everything that can be shaken till there is nothing that can be shaken anymore; then will abide the consuming fire of God until the life is changed into the same image from glory to glory, and men see that strong family likeness to Jesus that can never be mistaken.

From Our Brilliant Heritage

God loves you too much to leave you where you are. He will keep pursuing you until He has all of you.

He created you on purpose. He created you for a specific purpose. He created you to accomplish a purpose only you can accomplish. So His love for you won’t let Him stop until You are fulfilling your divine purpose.

Chambers also wrote, “Some of us have never allowed God to make us understand how hopeless we are without Jesus Christ.”

We cannot fulfill our God-ordained purpose on our own. Let His loving hands mold you and fill you with His life today!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: discipline, God's love, God's purpose, Oswald Chambers, purpose. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

May 10, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us: it is the very sign of His presence.” —C.S. Lewis

“Loving God will include obeying all His commands; it will include believing all His Word; it will include thanking Him for all His gifts; but the essence of loving God is enjoying all He is.” —John Piper

[VIDEO] This is a fascinating TedTalk from Susan Cain on the power of introverts…

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: C.S. Lewis, education, faith, God's love, John Piper, perseverance, quotes, Susan Cain, TEDTalk, video. Leave a Comment »

An End To Tears

April 27, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

I was asked the age-old question: Why is there suffering and pain? This is usually accompanied by the other often-pondered question: Why do bad things happen to good people?

I’m not sure that I can answer that one, because I’m not a “good” person. I’m a sinner. I’ve messed up more time than I can count, and it is only by God’s mercy that His righteous judgment hasn’t consumed me.

Here’s what I do know:

God loves me so much that He sent His Son to rescue me—John 3:16-17
I am of immeasurable value to my Heavenly Father—Luke 12:6-7
Suffering on earth is temporal; rewards in Heaven are eternal—Romans 8:18
God develops something in my through suffering that I could learn in no other way—Romans 5:3-4
God can be glorified through my suffering if I will let Him—John 9:1-3; 11:3-6

I also know that Jesus is Perfection. If anyone ever deserved to not have anything bad happen to them, it was Him. And yet He was rejected by His family (Mark 3:21), betrayed by one of His companions (John 13:21), abandoned by all His followers (Mark 14:50), and even felt the sting of God forsaking Him (Mark 15:34).

What makes this even more startling to me is that He knew all of this was coming (Isaiah 53:3; Luke 9:22; Matthew 26:54-56). But He went through all of that pain because His suffering meant He could become the prefect Intercessor and Mediator for our suffering (see Hebrews 5:7-9; 4:14-16).

Jesus us told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

And the last book in the Bible promises that eventually God’s children will have every tear wiped away! There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, and no more pain! (Revelation 21:4)

In the midst of your pain, hold tightly to the One Who loves you so much and is interceding for you!

If you are near Cedar Springs this coming weekend, and you don’t have a home church, I would love for you to join us as we continue to learn about the greatest words ever spoken.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abandon, betrayal, Bible, Bible study, Calvary Assembly of God, crying, God's love, Heaven, High Priest, intercession, Jesus Christ, pain, rejection, Revelation, rewards, Scripture, sermon, suffering, tribulation. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

March 30, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“We may ignore but can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.” —C.S. Lewis

“It has been the Cross which has revealed to good men that their goodness has not been good enough.” ―Johann Hieronymus Schroeder

“God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him. The value of each human soul considered simply in itself, out of relation to God, is zero. As St. Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would have been not divine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love.” ―C.S. Lewis

“Your tribulations will yet yield you music.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Imagine the scene at the Cross. Soldiers huddled in a circle, dice-throwing—casting lots for the possessions of Christ. Common soldiers witnessing the world’s most uncommon event. To them He is just another criminal; the Cross is forgotten. It makes me think of us. The religious. Those who claim heritage at the Cross. All of us. The strict…the loose…the simple…Spirit-filled…evangelical. All of us! We’re not so unlike these soldiers. We too, play games at the foot of the Cross. We compete for members. We scramble for status. Competition. Selfishness. Personal gain. It’s all there. We major in the trivial, we split into little huddles. Another name. Another doctrine. So close to the Cross but so far from the Christ. ‘May they all be one,’ Jesus prayed. One. Not one in groups of two thousand. One church. One faith. One Lord. No hierarchies. No traditions. Just Christ.” —Max Lucado

“If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus’ fist, but by his nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.” —A.W. Tozer

[VIDEO] What are atheists stealing from God? …