Tried And Tested

May 9, 2025 — Craig T. Owens

Moreover, [God] called for a famine upon the land of Egypt; He cut off every source of bread [Genesis 41:54]. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant [Genesis 45:5; 50:20, 21]. His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron, until his word to his cruel brothers came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him. The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the peoples, and let him go free. He made Joseph Lord of his house and ruler of all his substance [Genesis 41:40]. To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom. (Psalm 105:16-22 AMPC) 

“The word of the Lord tried and tested him.” When we cling to God’s promises despite the seemingly impossible circumstances we are in, that faithful clinging matures us. It both softens our heart and strengthens our trust in God. 

Before going through the difficulties, Joseph wasn’t ready to operate effectively in such a lofty leadership position. God uses all things to mold us and shape us for His purpose (Romans 8:28). We certainly see a more mature Joseph standing before Pharaoh than we saw interacting with his brothers earlier in his life. 

God called Joseph and he prepared Joseph. All that was lacking was Joseph’s faithful clinging to God and yielding to God’s maturing process. The end result was one of the most impactful leaders that history has ever known! 

I blogged more about Joseph:

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No Such Thing As Karma

December 20, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” However, Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. (Acts 28:4-5) 

The residents of Malta thought the apostle Paul was experiencing karma. 

The idea of “karma”—blessings or penalties for our good or bad deeds—has been a human mindset since the beginning of time. 

This is really the mindset among Job’s three friends: Good things always happen to good people and bad things always happen to bad people. Except Job’s friends were wrong. We know this because we see behind the scenes in Heaven at the beginning of the story, and we hear God reprimand these men at the end of the story.

“Karma” isn’t how God operates. God fulfills His plan, regardless of what people do or don’t do. 

In this story in Acts 28, God had promised Paul, “You must testify about Me in Rome,” so Paul was invincible until that promise from God was fulfilled.

To chalk things up to “karma” is to deny God’s sovereign plan. We have to guard our minds against this kind of thinking because it slips in so naturally. A part of renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2) is not jumping to our conclusion, but trusting that God is sovereignly at work. 

You may also want to check out these related blog posts:

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Links & Quotes

November 9, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Let’s not let the candidate for whom we vote be something that separates us from others in the Body of Christ. As the apostle Paul says, “Let’s agree together in the Lord.” Check out my full sermon How Christians Can Live Biblically in an Election Season.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“It was from Joppa (Acts 10:5) that God sent Jewish Peter to Gentile Cornelius. In this same Joppa, 800 years before, God had to use a little extra persuasion on Jewish Jonah to get him to go to Nineveh, a city of Gentiles (Jonah 1:3).” —Henry Halley, Halley’s Study Bible 

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” —George Bernard Shaw 

“No big challenge has ever been solved, and no lasting improvement has ever been achieved, unless people dare to try something different.” —Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

Jesus went to the Cross to fulfill His Father’s “predetermined plan.” This brought glory to God and joy to Jesus. God has a plan for your life, too. He sees you, He planned for you, He equipped you. As you live for Him, your life is also bringing glory to your Heavenly Father and joy to your heart. Unlike Jesus, you may not see how your part fits into God’s plan, but you will know it completely when you hear your Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

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What’s In A Name?

August 20, 2024 — 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.

And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” (Exodus 33:17)

When we use someone’s name properly, our message gets through all of the other noise. That’s why misusing someone’s name or using their name in a hurtful way is so painful. 

Names convey character traits, honoring of the past, and hopes for the future. God knows all of our days and how our name will be remembered at each pivotal moment of our lives (Psalm 139:16). Our names are lovingly tattooed on His hands so He always sees them (Isaiah 49:16).  

God not only knows and uses the name our parents have given us, but He has a name for each of us that only He knows. When we get to Heaven, He will reveal to each of us the unique name He has for us (Revelation 2:17). 

You don’t have to try to make a name for yourself—let God do that for you!

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Knowing What Jesus Knew

July 10, 2024 — 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.

The phrase “Jesus knew” specifically appears twice in John chapter 13 (vv. 1, 3), but the idea appears in multiple places. Jesus was continually and intimately aware of His Father’s plan and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to help Him live out that plan.

Check out some of the things Jesus knew: 

  • He knew His mission—I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness (John 12:46)
  • He knew His role in fulfilling that mission—For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world (12:47)
  • He knew His Father’s voice directing Him in His mission—For I did not speak on My own, but the Father who sent Me commanded Me to say all that I have spoken. I know that His command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told Me to say (12:49–50)
  • He knew His Father’s timing for His mission—Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father (13:1)
  • He knew His Father’s empowerment to complete the mission—Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power (13:3)
  • He knew what He must do to bring glory to His Father as He fulfilled His mission—Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. … So He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him (13:1, 4-5)

Jesus said that He was in His believer’s lives, just as He was in the Father (John 14:20). That means He takes us into His Father, and He also told us that He would impart His Holy Spirit to us. 

That means you and I have all that we need to know all that Jesus knew and to live like Jesus lived.

My question is: Why don’t I live this way?

Why am I not living up to this potential every day?

The simple conclusion must be that I am not operating in the full resources that are mine as a child of God.

I must make sure that I am abiding more and more intimately with my Savior, that I am tuning into the prompting of the Holy Spirit more and more consistently, and that I am increasingly aware of my Father’s will for my life. 

If we strive for this, we can know what Jesus knew and we can live like Jesus lived. This is how we bring glory to God, just as Jesus did! 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Recruiting To Releasing

June 25, 2024 — 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. 

Before you recruit someone to fill that next opening in your organization, I’ve got a resource that you should definitely check out. The resource I am referring to comes from the book Recruiting to Releasing by Jim Wiegand. I had a chance to sit down with Jim to talk about this eye-opening book.

Purchase your copy of Recruiting to Releasing on Amazon here, or on Apple Books here.

If you would like to check out when Jim interviewed me about my book When Sheep Bite, check out that video here.

Here are some quotes from Jim’s book.

Here are a bunch of ways to get in touch with me and follow along with other projects on which I am involved.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Probably Not A Straight Path

September 27, 2023 — 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.

Sometimes, as I look back on my life, I wonder how I ended up where I ended up. It certainly hasn’t been a journey that I could have mapped out. 

Nor would I have wanted to try. 

God has so perfectly and lovingly led me to positions and experiences that have taught me invaluable lessons. These are lessons I would have missed out on had I been the one in charge of my path. 

As I was meeting with a group of pastors online, I shared a brief story about one of the unexpected paths God brought me to.

There are two places in the Bible that have really helped me. First is the wise words of King Solomon: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

I don’t think “straight“ means a clear path. But it does mean that God is leading me straight to His destination for me. 

The other verse is this, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). This promise assures me that not one experience in my life—pleasant or unpleasant—has been wasted. God is using all these things for my good and for His glory.

So, the next time you find yourself wondering how you ended up where you ended up, be assured that God has a plan and a purpose for your life and that He is overseeing every step of your journey. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry?  My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials, like a 10-minute video I just shared on study tips for the poetic books of the Bible. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

August 26, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

If God seems distant, get your eyes off other things and put them back on Him. Check out the full sermon here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

T.M. Moore is in a series of posts about the Kingdom of God being revealed on earth. He wrote, “Jesus’ vision of the proximity of the Kingdom, therefore, was a threefold vision: The Kingdom is yet to come in all its fullness (there and then); nevertheless, at the same time, the Kingdom is unfolding in our midst (here and now); and thus every follower of Jesus Christ must make it their primary concern to seek and attain to more and more of the Kingdom of God every day of their lives. Then and there, here and now, more and more: This is how we must think about the Kingdom of God and our involvement in it.”

For many years, the theory of evolution has been unraveling. As more and more discoveries are being made, Darwin’s theory is becoming less tenable. John Stonestreet and Shane Morris wrote a recent blog post on this. Their article opens with this: “In 1973, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that “nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.” Almost 50 years later, an increasing number of scientists are asking whether evolution makes any sense in light of what we now know from biology.”

The most effective leaders consistently see the world through their teammates’ eyes. Check out this full conversation on The Craig And Greg Show.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.“ —C.S. Lewis

“No prophet or priest, king or great leader has ever told us to dare to address God as our Father, except Jesus! He is the only One who has taught us to call God, our Maker and Creator, Father. In the Old Testament, that relationship is mentioned only a few times (for example, Exodus 4:22-23; 2 Samuel 7:14). But in the gospels, it is mentioned 165 times. Jesus wanted to instill in us how important God’s fatherhood is. It is not a mere creed. It is a relationship that is central to our new life in Christ and essential in our worship to Him.” —Sobhi Malek

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Don’t Dwell On The “What Ifs”

February 1, 2023 — 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. 

Romans 8:28 has a small but extremely powerful word in it: ALL. 

“And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” 

The verb tense here would probably be more accurate to say “are working.” God never wastes an experience, but He is using ALL those things to prepare you for the next assignment He has for you. 

Check out this brief clip from a training time I was able to share with some young ministry interns. 

Don’t dwell on the “what ifs” but let’s remind ourselves that God is sovereignly in control. Let’s learn to take God at His word—He IS WORKING ALL OF THOSE EXPERIENCES together for your good and for His glory.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

December 17, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Every Monday I share a 1-minute thought to get your week started. It’s my weekly Monday Motivation series of videos. Check out this week’s video and subscribe on YouTube.

“The Lord Jesus Christ is always ready to take the most imperfect prayer and perfect it for us. If our prayers had to go up to heaven as they are, they would never succeed; but they find a Friend on the way, and therefore they prosper.” —Charles Spurgeon

I love this thought from T.M. Moore: “We sometimes use the word reflect to express what we want to see happen in our lives as Christians. We say we want to reflect Jesus to the world, like a mirror reflects an image. As agents of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, believers are not so much like mirrors as they are like prisms. Mirrors reflect light. The light strikes them and bounces off, without bringing anything of the mirror with it. Prisms refract light.” Please take a couple of minutes to read Moore’s post Prisms of the Light.

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