God’s strength | Craig T. Owens

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Links & Quotes

November 2, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The Cross is the supreme moment in Time and Eternity, and it is the concentrated essence of the very nature of the Divine love. … The Self-expenditure of God for His enemies in the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, becomes the great bridge over the gulf of sin whereby human love may cross over and be embraced by the Divine love, the love that never fails.” —Oswald Chambers

“Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified [2 Corinthians 12:9-10]. If we rely on Him in our calamity and He sustains our ‘rejoicing in hope,’ then He is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that He is.” —John Piper

“The true believer has also a loving spirit as the result of Jesus’ grace. He loves God, therefore he loves God’s people and God’s creatures, and having this loving spirit he has next a zealous spirit, and so he spends and is spent for God, and this begets in him a heavenly spirit and so he tries to live in heaven and to make earth a heaven to his fellow-men, believing that he shall soon have a heaven for himself and for them too on the other side of the stream.” —Charles Spurgeon

This Sunday is the International Day Of Prayer (IDOP) for persecuted Christians around the world. Please remember to pray for our brothers and sisters, or join me on Sunday morning.

Many people give in to the temptation of pornography while staying in hotels. Josh McDowell give us 10 tips for staying porn-free while traveling.

J. Warner Wallace discusses why the appearance of complex design in biology is a problem for atheists and naturalists.

“America is witnessing a ‘capitalistic Christianity.’ The goal is no longer spiritual growth, but expansion in numbers, property, finances.” Read more from David Wilkerson’s post Capitalistic Christianity.

Charles Spurgeon On Faith

October 24, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Perhaps your faith is struggling today. If it is, check out these encouraging words…

“Faith studies what the promise is—an emanation of divine grace, an overflowing of the great heart of God; and faith says, ‘My God could not have given this promise, except from love and grace; therefore it is quite certain that this promise will be fulfilled.’ Then faith thinks, ‘Who gave this promise?’ She considers not so much its greatness, as ‘Who is the author of it?’ She remembers that it is God that cannot lie, God omnipotent, God immutable; and therefore she concludes that the promise must be fulfilled; and forward she goes in this firm conviction. Then she remembers, also, why the promise was given, namely, for God’s glory, and she feels perfectly sure that God’s glory is safe, that He will never stain His own character, nor mar the luster of His own crown; and therefore she concludes that the promise must and will stand. Then faith also considers the amazing work of Christ as being a clear proof of the Father’s intention to fulfill His Word. ‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ [Romans 8:32]. Then faith looks back upon the past, for her battles have strengthened her, and her victories have given her courage.” —Charles Spurgeon

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: BibleGateway, Charles Spurgeon, confidence, faith, God's promise, God's strength, God's Word, quotes. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

October 19, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The issue is not how much a person makes. Big industry and big salaries are a fact of our times, and they are not necessarily evil. The evil is in being deceived into thinking a six-digit salary must be accompanied by a six-digit lifestyle. God has made us to be conduits of His grace. The danger is in thinking the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn’t. Copper will do. Copper can carry unbelievable riches to others.” —John Piper

“I would prefer to combat the ‘I’m special’ feeling not by the thought ‘I’m no more special than anyone else’ but by the feeling ‘Everyone is as special as me.’ In one way there is no difference, I grant, for both remove the speciality. But there is a difference in another way. The first might lead you to think, ‘I’m only one of the crowd like anyone else.’ But the second leads to the truth that there isn’t any crowd. No one is like anyone else. All are ‘members’ (organs) in the Body of Christ. All different and all necessary to the whole and to one another: each loved by God individually, as if it were the only creature in existence. Otherwise you might get the idea that God is like the government which can only deal with the people in the mass.” —C.S. Lewis

“Life will always bring challenges. But God will always give strength to face them.” Read more encouraging words from Max Lucado’s post Here’s What You Need To Know.

Seth Godin started writing about too much salt, but he took it somewhere I wasn’t expecting. Wow!

Ryan Shelton talks about the benefit of gathering together with other people at church: Godward Together On Sunday Morning. By the way, if you are looking for a “Godward together” church in West Michigan, I ♥ Calvary Assembly of God!

Glad to see my home state is trying to ban the gruesome practice of abortion by dismemberment.

[VIDEO] Ken Davis knows something cool (and unique) about Michiganders—

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, blessing, C.S. Lewis, Calvary Assembly of God, challenge, Christian, church, comedy, difficulties, God's strength, government, grace, John Piper, Ken Davis, Live Action, love, Max Lucado, Michigan, pro-life, quotes, Seth Godin, video, wealth, YouTube. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

September 28, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The warrior of God is not the man of muscle and a strong jaw, but the man of un-utterable weakness, the man who knows he has not any power; Jacob is no longer strong in himself, he is strong only in God, his life is no longer marked by striving, but by reliance on God. You cannot imitate reliance on God.” —Oswald Chambers

I normally don’t like having my picture taken, but for the Champions of Change project, Adam Bird did an amazing job with even a face like mine!

Pornography addictions act like any other addiction. Check out this video.

The Overview Bible Project always has great Bible study resources, like this one. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so.

“True believers are determined to trust God even if their prayer isn’t answered. It doesn’t matter if all their goods are taken away, or even if they face death. They desire to enter God’s rest. What is the evidence of such a life? They have ‘ceased from [their] own works’ (see Hebrews 4:10). They no longer lie awake at night trying to solve their problems in their own wisdom and skill. Instead, they turn everything over to Jesus. It doesn’t matter whether they end up in gain or loss. Their only focus is that God has a plan, and that He is working it out in their lives.” —David Wilkerson

Seth Godin reminds us that improving our attitude is a skill that can be learned.

J. Warner Wallace shares the exquisite fine-tuning of our universe that points to an Intelligent Designer/Creator.

“Is there anything more freeing, more thrilling, or more strengthening than the truth that God Almighty is your refuge—all day, every day in all the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of life? If we believed this, if we really let this truth of God’s omnipotence get hold of us, what a difference it would make in our personal lives and in our ministries! How humble and powerful we would become for the saving purposes of God!” —John Piper

“All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake, His mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave off shining, but our God will never cease to cheer His children with His love. Like a river His lovingkindness is always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as His own nature, which is its source. Like the atmosphere which always surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all His creatures.” —Charles Spurgeon

Dan Reiland has 5 questions for great communicators.

Links & Quotes

July 27, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The way to thwart the devil is to strengthen the very thing he is trying most to destroy—your faith.” —John Piper

“O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! … And now you have nothing but your God to trust to, what are you going to do? To fret? To whine? O, I pray you, do not thus dishonor your Lord and Master! Now, play the man, play the man of God. Show the world that your God is worth ten thousand worlds to you. Show rich men how rich you are in your poverty when the Lord God is your helper. Show the strong man how strong you are in your weakness when underneath you are the everlasting arms. Now man, now is your time to glorify God.” —Charles Spurgeon

“When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different [from asking God to forgive us]. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, ‘But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.’ Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.” ―C.S. Lewis, in Weight Of Glory

“Forgiveness is not foolishness. Forgiveness, at its core, is choosing to see your offender with different eyes. By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it?” —Max Lucado

“Money is the currency of human resources. So the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer. So the love of money [1 Timothy 6:10] is virtually the same as faith in money—belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy.” —John Piper

“When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where He is, there shall I be also.’” ―Martin Luther

Really proud to see how my fellowship, The Assemblies of God, is helping those with mental diseases.

What emotions pop up when someone says to you, “Can we talk about this?” Seth Godin has some helpful thoughts on this.

Links & Quotes

July 20, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“The very first words [of the Lord’s Prayer] are Our Father. Do you now see what those words mean? They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself in the place of a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending. Because, of course, the moment you realize what the words mean, you realize that you are not a son of God. You are not being like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father: you are a bundle of self-centered fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death. So that, in a way, this dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek. But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity

“Prayer is the form of faith that connects us today with the grace that will make us adequate for tomorrow’s ministry.” —John Piper

“When you fulfill your spiritual gift to serve someone tomorrow, you will be serving ‘by the strength that God supplies’ tomorrow. The word is supplies, not supplied. God goes on, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, supplying the ‘strength’ in which we minister.” —John Piper, commenting on 1 Peter 4:10-11

“Never say you will pray about a thing; pray about it. … It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer.” —Oswald Chambers

For all my fellow Detroit Tigers fans, this is an interesting post about the greatest Tiger of all-time: Cobb or Kaline. In my book, they both were phenomenal, but I would give the slight edge to Ty Cobb.

Poetry Saturday—Strength From Heaven

June 6, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Whence do our mournful thoughts arise?

And where’s our courage fled?

Has restless sin and raging hell

Struck all our comforts dead?

Have we forgot th’ almighty Name

That formed the earth and sea?

And can an all-creating Arm

Grow weary or decay?

Treasures of everlasting might

In our Jehovah dwell;

He gives the conquest to the weak

And treads their foes to hell.

Mere mortal power shall fade and die,

And youthful vigor cease;

But we that wait upon the Lord

Shall feel our strength increase.

The saints shall mount up on eagles’ wings

And taste the promis’d bliss,

Till their unwearied feet arrive

Where perfect pleasure is. —Isaac Watts (from Isaiah 40:27-30)

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, God's strength, Isaac Watts, Isaiah, poem, poetry, thought life, victory. Leave a Comment »

14 More Quotes From “Not Knowing Where”

April 16, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

When I’m reading an Oswald Chambers book, I could practically highlight every line! Even when I restrain myself, I still find so much good material. I’ve already shared some quotes from Not Knowing Where, but I wanted to share a few more with you.

“In seeking the best we soon find that our enemy is our good things, not our bad. The things that keep us back from God’s best are not sin and imperfection, but the things that are right and good and noble from the natural standpoint.”

“Fanaticism is sticking true to my interpretation of my destiny instead of waiting for God to make it clear.”

“God will never have more power than He has now; if He could have, He would cease to be God.”

“Whenever God gives a vision to a saint, he puts the saint, as it were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint’s duty is to be still and listen. Genesis 16 is an illustration of the danger of listening to good advice when it is dark instead of waiting for God to send the light (cf. Galatians 1:15-16). When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait; God will bring you into accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time.”

“All God’s commands are enablings. Therefore it is a crime to be weak in His strength.”

“God never hastens and He never tarries. He works His plans out in His own way, and we either lie like clogs on His hands or we assist Him by being as clay in the hands of the Potter.”

“Faith is not a bargain with God—I will trust You if you give me money, but not if You don’t. We have to trust in God whether He sends us money or not, whether He gives us health or not. We must have faith in God, not in His gifts.”

“The relation is to be that of a child; fling yourself clean over on to God and wash your hands of the consequences, and John 14:27―‘My peace I give unto you’―becomes true at once. The profound realization of God makes you too unspeakably peaceful to be capable of any self-interest.”

“Faith is not the means whereby we take God to ourselves for our select coterie; faith is the gift of God whereby He expresses His purposes through us.”

“Beware of insulting God by being a pious prude instead of a pure person.”

“It is the attitude of a spiritual prig to go about with a countenance that is a rebuke to others because you have the idea that they are shallower than you.”

“Friendship with God is faith in action in relation to God and to our fellow men.”

“The most amazing evidence of a man’s nature being changed is the way in which he sees God, to say ‘God led me here’; ‘God spoke to me’; is an everyday occurrence to him.”

“It is not that we prepare a palace for God, but that He comes into our mortal flesh and we do our ordinary work, in an ordinary setting, amongst ordinary people, as for Him.”

You can read my review of Not Knowing Where by clicking here.

You can read other quotes from this book by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, command, faith, faith in action, friendship, God's power, God's strength, God's timing, God's will, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, peace, quotes, saints, sin, vision. 2 Comments »

Links & Quotes

March 16, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, had some messed up values! Check out this video where she is interviewed by Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes. If you cannot watch the whole thing, fast forward to the 19:50 mark where she answers a question about sin. She says one of the greatest sins is to bring unfit children into the world(!). Disgusting.

“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” ―Harriet Tubman

“We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose He wrought all His mighty acts in days of old, and showed Himself strong for those in the early time, but does not perform wonders or lay bare His arm for the saints that are now upon the earth. … Surely, beloved, the goodness of God of old has been repeated unto us.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Not one life spent in the cause of world evangelization is spent in vain. Not one prayer or one dollar or one sermon or one letter of encouragement mailed or one little light shining in some dark place—nothing in the cause of the advancing kingdom is in vain. The triumph is sure.” —John Piper

“Perfect humility dispenses with modesty. If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself.” —C.S. Lewis

“Christ lived the life we could not live, and took the punishment we could not take, to offer the hope we cannot resist. Why? Jesus was angry enough to purge the temple, distraught enough to weep in public, winsome enough to attract kids, poor enough to sleep on dirt, responsible enough to care for His mother, tempted enough to know the smell of satan. Why? Why would heaven’s finest Son endure earth’s toughest pain? So you would know that He is able. . .able to to run to the cry of those who are being tempted, tested and tried.” —Max Lucado

Comedian Tim Hawkins shares what songs may be sung at an “atheist church”―

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: atheism, atheist, C.S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, children, church, comedy, God's Kingdom, God's strength, Harriet Tubman, humility, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Margaret Sanger, Max Lucado, Planned Parenthood, quotes, saints, satan, sin, slavery, temptation, Tim Hawkins, video. Leave a Comment »

All God’s Alls

November 20, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

“His greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3).

God’s kingdom is everlasting and endures through all generations (v. 13). Look at all of God’s “alls”—

He is good to all (v. 9)
He has compassion on all (v. 9)
He is faithful to all His promises (v. 13)
He is loving toward all (v. 13)
He upholds all who fall (v. 14)
He lifts up all who are bowed down (v. 14)
All eyes look to Him (v. 15)
He satisfies all desires (v. 16)
He is All-righteous (v. 17)
He is All-loving (v. 17)
He is near to all who call on Him (v. 18)
He watches over all who love Him (v. 20)

My only appropriate response to all God’s “alls”—I will praise Your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise You and extol Your name for ever and ever. … My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise His holy name for ever and ever (vv. 1, 2, 21).

ALL praise to God FOREVER!