Links & Quotes

link quote

“No man can murder his brother who has not first murdered God in himself.” —Oswald Chambers

“We love our neighbors when, like Jesus, we seek them out to love them (cf. Luke 19:1-10). Jesus did not wait for lost or hurting people to find their way to Him. He went looking for them. He learned the names of many of them, and used their names freely. He took the initiative in making certain contacts, some of which He repeated many times during His earthly sojourn. Jesus started conversations with people and was doubtless a good listener. And He prayed often for others, seeking their wellbeing before the Father. We can know that we love our neighbors when, like Jesus, we go seeking them, in order to touch them with His love.” —T.M. Moore

“The Word of God is our only hope. The good news of God’s promises and the warnings of His judgment are sharp enough and living enough and active enough to penetrate to the bottom of my heart and show me that the lies of sin are indeed lies. Abortion will not create a wonderful future for me. Neither will cheating, or dressing provocatively, or throwing away my sexual purity, or keeping quiet about dishonesty at work, or divorce, or vengeance. And what rescues me from this deception is the Word of God.” —John Piper

“If you spend too much time looking for your next big break, you’ll be stealing your opportunity to do your best work. Which is the the most important break of all.” —Seth Godin

“God’s definition of promotion isn’t a move up the ladder, it is a move toward your call. Don’t let someone ‘promote’ you out of your call!” —Max Lucado

“In the parable of Matthew 18:23-27 did the king overlook his servant’s sin? Did he wink at his debt and merely excuse it? No, not at all. The fact is, by forgiving him, the king placed upon this man a weighty responsibility, a responsibility even greater than the burden of his debt. Indeed, this servant now owed his master more than ever. How? He was responsible to forgive and love others, just as the king had done for him.” —David Wilkerson

If you don’t think Planned Parenthood’s business of abortion is a huge money-maker for them, why are they spending $20 million in 2016 to elect pro-abortion candidates?

For Detroit Red Wings fan, here is a nice mini-biography of Mr. Hockey: Gordie Howe.

[VIDEO] Barbabas Piper and Bobby Conway on the difference between knowing and believing

4 Powerful Truths About Peacefulness

PeacefulnessHave you ever noticed the importance the Apostle Paul gives to “peace”? Not just any kind of peace, but the peace that is linked with God’s grace.

Paul always puts grace and peace together. Every one of his letters opens with “grace and peace. The only exceptions are his two personal letters to Timothy where he says “grace, mercy and peace.

In his letter to the Colossians we get a clue to why this is, when he writes, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

Let me start at the end of the verse. The word “thankful” is the Greek word euchristos. It’s where we get our word Eucharist (or Communion). The root word (charizomai) means to (a) live gracefully, (b) forgive gracefully, (c) rescue gracefully, (d) restore gracefully. That’s just how Jesus—the Prince of Peace—lived on earth, and that’s what His broken body and spilled blood purchased for us: peace with God.

So a thankful Christian is a peaceful Christian. Or another way of saying this: a Christian’s peace-fullness comes from thank-fullness.

When we “let the peace of Christ rule” in our heats, it’s because we understand what His grace has purchased for us. And we want others to know this grace and peace as well!

  1. Peacefulness is contagious—a peace-full person has plenty of peace to share.
  2. Peacefulness is unifying—fear makes people run away, but peace brings them close to God and close to each other (Luke 2:14; John 14:27).
  3. Peacefulness promotes worship—we don’t worship what we fear, but we worship what we are drawn to (Luke 19:38; Hebrews 10:22).
  4. Peacefulness signals victory—the absence of conflict is peace (Romans 16:20).

If you don’t have peace in your life, can I suggest that you might want to start by looking at your thank-fulness level. When you are thankful for what the Prince of Peace did on the Cross for you, it’s so much easier to become thankful for all the other blessings that He gives as well. This thank-fullness will raise your level of peace-fullness!

On Sunday we are going to continue to look at the power and beauty of grace-filled gratitude. Please join us!

Thursdays With Oswald—Passionate, Devoted, Absorbed

Oswald ChambersThis 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.

Passionate, Devoted, Absorbed

     Christian experience does not mean we have thought through the way God works in human lives by His grace, or that we are able to state theologically that God gives the Holy Ghost to them that ask Him—that may be Christian thinking, but it is not Christian experience. Christian experience is living through all this by the marvelous power of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost working in me does not produce wonderful experiences that make people say “What a wonderful life that man lives”; the Holy Ghost working in me makes me a passionate, devoted, absorbed lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

From Our Place Of Help

Too many people are trying to “figure out” Christianity. But let me ask this: can you figure out why you fell in love? You probably can’t give the hows and whys of your love for someone else, but you know you are in love nonetheless. 

The Holy Spirit isn’t given to a Christian so that he can come up with good theology, or even so he can have an experience. The Holy Spirit is given to make Jesus realGod has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

This is why Jesus wants us to receive His Spirit, because the Spirit would make Jesus known to us (John 14:16-17) … make Him real to us (John 14:25-26) … make us into a passionate, devoted, absorbed lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Have you received the Holy Spirit? If not, you can—How much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13).

It’s Your Choice

ChoicesIn just seven verses, Jesus tells us how to experience God’s blessing or be prepared to say, “Woe is me!” What a contrast! Check out Luke 6:20-26.

The four blessed promises are in verses 20-22, and the four woe warnings are in verses 24-26. Connecting them (v. 23) is Jesus essentially saying, “You can have blessing, or you can have woe. Your choice.”

There is a secure reward and eternal blessing for those who—

  • are Earth-poor and Heaven-rich
  • are dissatisfied with anything but the things of God
  • weep over the present sinful state of humanity
  • are persecuted, excluded, insulted or rejected by the world because they identify with Christ

But woe to those who—

  • want riches and comfort now
  • are satisfied with what the world can give
  • laugh at the smutty things of Earth
  • desire worldly popularity above hearing God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”

Choices must be made every day. These choices lead to either blessing or woe

Choose the blessings!

Preach Like John

John the BaptistThis is a post for my fellow preachers (but the rest of you are free to listen in as well).

When Jesus says someone is the greatest preacher in history, it gets my full attention. Think about what John didn’t have…

  • No church building
  • No platform or pulpit
  • No worship team
  • No sound system
  • No Logos software
  • No library or study
  • No commentaries
  • No PowerPoint or handouts

He only had the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

His sermons were thoroughly grounded in Scripture (Luke 3:4-6).

His sermons were anointed by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:66).

His message was simple: “Repent from your sins, and produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:3, 8).

His messages prompted people to ask, “What should we do?” and he gave them Spirit-anointed answers (Luke 3:10-14).

His messages “exhorted the people” and brought “the good news to them” (Luke 3:18).

His sermons unashamedly called out sin (Luke 3:19).

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:17)

Fellow preachers, may we be of the same spirit in our preaching!

Making Hearts Burn

Living WordThere is an interesting line the angels speak to the ladies who came to anoint Christ’s dead body in the tomb: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5).

That phrase sums up much of our culture. People are looking for life, but they are looking for it among dead things. Wise King Solomon wrote that God has placed a God-shaped void in the heart of every human being (Ecclesiastes 3:11). But Solomon went on to say that anything “under the sun” that we try to use to fill that God-void will be utterly meaningless.

Peter wrote to aliens and strangers about living such good lives that will point people to God. This means Christians need to help people who are looking for the living among the dead see that real life is in Christ. To do this, we need to be immersed in the Living Word of God.

In the conversations after Christ’s resurrection, look at the references to God’s Living Word:

  • Remember how He told you … Then they remembered His words (Luke 24:6-8)
  • what was said in all the Scripture concerning Himself… (Luke 24:27)
  • …written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms … so they could understand the Scriptures ( Luke 24:44-45)

There is life in God’s Word! When the two disciples of Jesus remembered His Living Word, they said their hearts burned inside them (Luke 24:32).

If you want to help those searching for life to find it, let them hear God’s Living Word coming from your lips. This will make their hearts burn, and lead them to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you’ve missed any messages in this series, you may find the complete list by clicking here.

Irresistible Light

Halo“Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28)

There are a lot of things we want to call “blessed.” Sometimes we almost use that word as a lucky charm: “I was blessed by…” or “Isn’t a blessing that….”

As Jesus is speaking, someone interrupts Him to say His mother is blessed. Jesus didn’t disagree, but He went back to why Mary was blessed—she heard God speak and she obeyed Him.

All the blessings I could ever need are listed in God’s Word. All I have to do to receive those blessings is obey.

As Jesus goes on, He makes clear that reading and obeying what the Word says will ensure “that the light within you is not darkness” (v. 35). This, then, will make me a better witness for Christ, as the result of this inner light appears outside too: “as when the light of a lamp shines on you” (v. 36).

Does this “lamp that shines on you” look like a halo? Perhaps. But a life that shines with the blessings of God—which come from obedience to His Word—is unmistakable and irresistible! That sounds like a halo to me!

Importunity

Importunity is not a word that pops up in everyday conversation, but the concept permeates Scripture. Check out these words from Jesus—

I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is a friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Luke 11:8 NIV)

Boldness here in the NIV is translated IMPORTUNITY in the King James Version. It’s the only time this Greek word is used in the New Testament, and it is used in context to prayer (see vv. 1-4). The English and Greek dictionaries both agree on the definition of importunity…

…urgent, shameless asking, sometimes to the point of being annoying!

This is how Jesus tells us to pray.

Notice Jesus said the friend responded not out of friendship, but because of the importunate attitude.

God responds to our importunity as well (vv. 9-10). He responds not as an annoyed friend and not even as a loving earthly father (vv. 11-12). Friends and fathers have moods and they have limits—Our God has no limit on His love nor on His supply!

He will give him as much as he needs … Ask and it will be given to you… How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (vv. 8, 9, 13).

“Our giving depends much on the state of our minds at the moment. When depressed, we have no pleasure in giving; we either refuse, or we give merely to get quit of the applicant. Darkness of mind shrivels us up, makes us selfish, neglectful of others. When full of joy, giving seems our element—our joy overflows in this way; we cannot help giving; we delight in applications; we seek opportunities of giving. So with the blessed God. Being altogether happy, His delight is to give; His perfect blessedness flows out in giving. We can never come wrongly to such an infinitely happy Being.” —Horatius Bonar (emphasis added)

May the Holy Spirit help us to be importunate in our prayer today, for you can never come wrongly—nor too often—to such a happy, loving, generous Father!

My Going Is Your Calling

BibleThis morning I shared some cool thoughts on Luke 10:1-3

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”

Are you following me on Periscope? My username is @craigtowens. If you subscribe, you can see these types of broadcasts live. But, not to worry, I have uploaded it here as well…

C.S. Lewis On Agape

C.S. Lewis“Of course taking in the poor illegitimate child is ‘charity.’ Charity means love. It is called Agape in the New Testament to distinguish it from Eros (sexual love), Storgë (family affection) and Philia (friendship). So there are 4 kinds of ‘love,’ all good in their proper place, but Agape is the best because it is the kind God has for us and is good in all circumstances. There are people I mustn’t feel Eros towards, and people I can’t feel Storgë or Philia for; but I can practice Agape to God, Angels, Man and Beast, to the good and the bad, the old and the young, the far and the near. You see Agape is all giving, not getting. Read what St. Paul says about it in First Corinthians Chap. 13. Then look at a picture of Charity (or Agape) in action in St. Luke, chap 10 v. 30-35. And then, better still, look at Matthew chap 25 v. 31-46: from which you see that Christ counts all that you do for this baby exactly as if you had done it for Him when He was a baby in the manger at Bethlehem: you are in a sense sharing in the things His mother did for Him. Giving money is only one way of showing charity: to give time and toil is far better and (for most of us) harder. And notice, though it is all giving—you needn’t expect any reward—how you do gets rewarded almost at once.” ―C.S. Lewis