You Must Care About Your Vote

November 6, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I’ve been encouraging people to join me in praying during the 40 days leading up to today’s Election Day. Now that the day is here, you need to do more than pray: You must vote!

Listen to these wise words spoken nearly a century ago—

All the opportunity for self-government through the rule of the people depends upon one single factor. That is the ballot box. . . . The people of our country are sovereign. If they do not vote they abdicate that sovereignty, and they may be entirely sure that if they relinquish it other forces will seize it, and if they fail to govern themselves some other power will rise up to govern them. The choice is always before them, whether they will be slaves or whether they will be free. The only way to be free is to exercise actively and energetically the privileges, and discharge faithfully the duties which make freedom. It is not to be secured by passive resistance. It is the result of energy and action….

Persons who have the right to vote are trustees for the benefit of their country and their countrymen. They have no right to say they do not care. They must care! They have no right to say that whatever the result of the election they can get along. They must remember that their country and their countrymen cannot get along, cannot remain sound, cannot preserve its institutions, cannot protect its citizens, cannot maintain its place in the world, unless those who have the right to vote do sustain and do guide the course of public affairs by the thoughtful exercise of that right on election day. —President Calvin Coolidge (November 3, 1924)

Please vote today for those candidates who most closely align with biblical values. And then don’t stop praying for our elected officials today, but pray every day that those officials would exercise God-glorifying, biblically-sound wisdom in discharging their duties.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , . 1 Comment »

My Part

October 24, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy—

…God our Savior, Who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).

And we all say, “Yes!!” Then I quickly ask, “So what’s my part in this?”

The quick and easy answer springs to my mind, “I have to tell others about Jesus!” This is true—and it is needed—but this is NOT what Paul says here.

Did you notice the ellipsis (the …) at the beginning of the verse I quoted above? Here’s the part that comes before—

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, Who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (verses 1-4)

My part in all men coming to a knowledge of the truth is PRAYER. Specifically, prayer for those in authority over us. These prayers translate into an environment where we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

It’s in this peaceful environment that we are better able to be “a teacher of the true faith” (verse 7).

My part is not to add to the noise.

My part is not to argue my position.

My part is not to protest.

My part is to pray.

I hope you will join me in prayer not only for the upcoming election but all year round for those in authority so that all…may come to a knowledge of the truth.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Democracy, Immoral Laws, And A Christian’s Responsibility

October 17, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

We know the law is good if one uses it properly. (1 Timothy 1:8)

Whether laws are labeled spiritual or civil, the IF in that verse is very important. Law is intended to restrain unbecoming or immoral activities. Laws are aimed at lawbreakers. But in order for any law to carry weight, it has to be backed up by something more solid than a man’s opinion of what is “right” or “wrong.”

According to Scripture, a law must…

  • …be supported by sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:10). What defines “sound doctrine” is the word of God, not man-made opinion. Jesus said about the Pharisees, “They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Matthew 15:9). The New Living Translation renders this verse: “Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as the commands of God.”
  • …conform to the gospel (1 Timothy 1:11). Literally this means filtered through Scripture. Any law that does not have its foundation set on a biblical principle is, by definition, an immoral, man-made law.

So what is the Christian’s role in the legislative process? I see four responsibilities for Christians:

1. Pray for our elected officials that they would have a God-fearing, biblically-sound perspective in their legislative activities (see 1 Timothy 2:1-2).

2. Stay informed on the law-making activities on both the local, state, and national levels (see Acts 17:11; 1 Chronicles 12:32).

3. Speak out against unbiblical, immoral laws (see Esther 4; 1 Peter 2:17).

4. Disobey immoral laws. The Bible commands us to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Luke 20:25). We must never give to Caesar what is God’s (see Acts 5:29)!

I love Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter From Birmingham Jail where he addresses Christian pastors about the rightness of peacefully disobeying immoral laws. If you haven’t read this masterpiece, please take time to do so. In this letter, Dr. King wrote:

Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

Christian, you have a responsibility. Pray, be informed, respectfully speak out against immoral laws, and then peacefully disobey when it is necessary.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

40 Days Of Prayer For The USA

September 26, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

There has always been something special in the Bible about:

  • 40 days of prayer
  • The hunger of God’s people for Him to move
  • God’s miraculous, powerful response

Elections in the United States are always a pivotal time. The Bible makes it clear that God sets people in positions of authority in our governments, but His Word also makes it clear that it is the responsibility of Christians to pray for their leaders.

The presidential election takes place on November 6, 2012. That means that September 28 marks the 40-day point. Will you please join me in prayer beginning September 28 and continuing for the next 40 days?

We need to humble ourselves to ask for God’s help (we can’t make productive change happen on our own) and to ask God to give His wisdom to those who will be elected on that day (they can’t make productive change happen on their own).

You can find some prayer resources from Max Lucado by clicking here.

God answers the prayer of humble, hungry people. Let’s be that praying people!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Respecting Elected Officials

September 5, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

During our prayer time yesterday, I was contemplating the Apostle Peter’s instruction to, “Fear God, and respect the king” (1 Peter 2:17).

  • How do I respect the king (or the other elected officials in my city, state, and country)?
  • Does respect mean saying “yes” to every law that’s passed?
  • Can I be respectful and still disagree with those in elected office? How?

During our hour of prayer at the church last night, I was really wrestling with how I as a Christian should show respect to those in authority in our governments. Here are the nine things the Holy Spirit showed me.

I can show respect to those in authority by:

  1. Not forgetting that God placed them in their office (Daniel 4:25).
  2. Praying for them regularly (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
  3. Obeying all laws that aren’t immoral (Luke 20:25; Acts 5:29).
  4. Disobeying laws that are immoral (Esther 4:16; Acts 4:19).
  5. Holding them to biblical standards (Proverbs 8:15).
  6. Insisting they uphold the United States Constitution (Ecclesiastes 8:2).
  7. Reminding them that God’s wisdom is the ultimate standard (Proverbs 8:22-23).
  8. Requiring them to honor their promises, unless those promises conflict with God’s Word or the Constitution (Esther 1:13; 8:8).
  9. Speak to and about them without complaining or arguing (Philippians 2:14-15).

(Check out all of the above passages by clicking here.)

I’m working on living these out. What do you think?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

Prayer Focus: Elections

September 4, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

As this week marks the beginning of a “new year,” (as students are heading back to school and we’re all settling in to our fall routines), we are taking time to focus our prayers.

Today’s pray focus is on our governmental elections. 

Election day in the United States is just two months away. As Christians we have a responsibility to pray for those who are in authority over us. We have a responsibility to know where political candidates stand on the issues. And we have a responsibility to vote. We can also pray that God will raise up leaders who call on His help and honor His Word in their decisions.

I love praying Scriptures. Here is an important passage related to today’s prayer focus—

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. (1 Peters 2:13-17)

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior. (1 Timothy 2:1-3)

Mark Driscoll has an excellent post called Pray For Our Leaders. He says,

We should be informed citizens who take our privilege of voting seriously. Our involvement with the political process is what makes the form of government in the United States work. But God has something much more in mind for us when it comes to our political involvement.

When it comes to politics, there is one thing in particular that pleases God. What pleases God is that we pray for our leaders, regardless of who they are and what political party they represent.

I encourage you to read the rest of Pastor Mark’s post by clicking here.

UPDATE: Here are the things we prayed for today…

Week of prayer – government

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

9 Quotes On Political Activity From “The Book Of Man”

July 21, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I really enjoyed reading The Book Of Man by William J. Bennett (you can read my book review here). The topics were very broad, so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite quotes on the different sections in this book over the next few days.

Here are nine quotes about political activity…

“Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.” —John D. Rockefeller

Not gold but only men can make

A people great and strong;

Men who for truth and honor’s sake

Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,

Who dare while others fly . . .

They build a nation’s pillars deep

And lift them to the sky. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“This nation—where the people rule—is governed by the people, for the people, and so long as it is, then the office-holder is but the servant of the people, and the Bible says the servant cannot be greater than the master. The Bible says, ‘He that is sent cannot be greater than Him who sent Him.’ … Greatness consists not in the holding of some future office, but in doing great deeds with little means and the accomplishment of vast purposes from the private ranks of life. To be great at all one must be great here, now….” —Russell Conwell

“Nothing worth gaining is ever gained without effort. You can no more have freedom without striving and suffering for it than you can win success as a banker or a lawyer without labor and effort, without self-denial in youth and the display of a ready and alert intelligence in middle age. The people who say that they have not time to attend to politics are simply saying that they are unfit to live in a free community. …In facing the future and in striving, each according to the measure of his individual capacity, to work out the salvation of our land, we should be neither timid pessimists nor foolish optimists. We should recognize the dangers that exist and that threaten us: we should neither overestimate them nor shrink from them, but steadily fronting them should set to work to overcome and beat them down.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“There can be no government, or nothing worthy of the name, where there is no religion. …What is the value of a well-worded law if there be not virtue enough in the community to enforce it? It is not worth the paper upon which it is written. …Then let us not be afraid, my brethren, to mix a little more religion with politics. …Let us earnestly exhort and entreat them to respect the law of God; and let us try their actions by that law, as revealed in His holy word. And, as in the presence of Jehovah, let us solemnly ‘protest’ against all their wrong doings. …We are profoundly interested in the prosperity and permanency of this government, and all her virtuous institutions; but we know that any government, and especially a Republic, must stand on virtue, if it stands at all.” —Rev. J.S. Smart

“Our government was made by patriotic, unselfish, sober-minded men for the control or protection of a patriotic, unselfish and sober-minded people. It is suited to such a people; but for those who are selfish, corrupt and unpatriotic it is the worst government on earth. It is so constructed that it needs for its successful operation the constant care and guiding hand of the people’s abiding faith and love, and not only is this unremitting guidance necessary to keep our national mechanism true to its work, but the faith and love which prompt it are the best safeguards against selfish citizenship.” —Grover Cleveland

“What then are the qualities in men which can make them able and willing to achieve greatness by way of citizenship? I name first, without the slightest hesitancy, imagination, the power to see beyond, or even through, wickedness into righteousness. No great cause ever moved far until it had taken possession of the imagination of men.” —William Jewett Tucker

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, ‘just men who will rule in the fear of God.’ The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” —Noah Webster

“And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.” —John F. Kennedy

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

5 Quotes On Work From “The Book Of Man”

July 19, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I really enjoyed reading The Book Of Man by William J. Bennett (you can read my book review here). The topics were very broad, so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite quotes on the different sections in this book over the next few days.

Here are 5 quotes about work…

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” —Aristotle

“Every calling is great when greatly pursued.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes

“No man is happy if he does not work. Of all miserable creatures the idler, in whatever rank of society, is in the long run the most miserable. If a man does not work, if he has not in him not merely the capacity for work but the desire for work, then nothing can be done with him. He is out of place in our community. We have in our scheme of government no room for the man who does not wish to pay his way through life by what he does for himself and for the community.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“In America no one is degraded because he works, for every one about him works also; nor is any one humiliated by the notion of receiving pay, for the President of the United States also works for pay. He is paid for commanding, other men for obeying orders. In the United States professions are more or less laborious, more or less profitable; but they are never either high or low: every honest calling is honorable.” —Alexis de Tocqueville

“Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death. …Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair.” —Blaise Pascal

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Do You Know Your Community?

April 20, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Jesus called His followers to be salt and light. It’s pretty easy to figure out that the salt cannot season the food if it stays in the saltshaker, and the light cannot illuminate the darkness if it stays covered up. In order to season and shine in your community, you have to know your community.

And, pastor, that starts with you.

What you do is a much more effective sermon that what you say. Pastor, you need to know your community, so that you can be involved in your community, so that you and your church can season and shine in your community together.

So let me ask a couple of questions:

  • Do you know your Mayor / City Manager / Township Supervisor? If you don’t know them, how can you affirm their leadership (Romans 13:1-7)?
  • Do you attend City / Township Council meetings? If you don’t, how will you know what issues they’re wrestling with? If you don’t know those issues, how can you pray effectively for them (1 Timothy 2:1-2)?
  • Are you involved in your community? Don’t just assume people in your community will come to your church to sit among stranger to hear a stranger speak; instead, be so involved in your community that they will come to church to fellowship with friends and hear a friend speak (John 2:1-2).

I opened with the question, “Do you know your community?” But maybe a better way to ask this is, “Does your community know you?”

Does the community come to you to ask for help? This may be the best barometer of your involvement in your community: how often they seek your help or assistance in addressing issues within your community.

If you’re not as involved as you should be, the good news is that it’s never too late to start! Go get involved—go season and shine!

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Be The People (book review)

June 30, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

If Carol M. Swain’s book, Be The People, sounds like the opening words of the Constitution of the United States of America, it was fully intended that way.

Be The People is a clarion call for American citizens to return to our roots. And Dr. Swain makes no attempt to hide the fact that our country’s roots are firmly grounded in biblical truth. The first section of the book is three chapters long and is called “Broken Vows: Forsaking What We Once Knew.” In language that is sometimes scholarly, sometimes biblical, but always straightforward, Dr. Swain systematically lays out where we’ve come from, and how we’ve abandoned God’s ways to get to this point in our country’s history.

The second section — which makes up the remainder of the chapters — lays out what we can do to reclaim our Judeo-Christian heritage. Leaving nothing to the imagination, Dr. Swain lists several action points at the end of each chapter. She also includes the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution at the back of the book. There are no excuses for her readers not to be fully informed of the stark divide between our Founding Fathers’ original intent, and the beliefs and practices of those currently in political power.

Parts of this book surprised me; parts disgusted me; still other parts gave me a greater appreciation for our heritage. But the entirety of this book called me to action. After reading Be The People I feel more prepared to defend what I believe about our great country, and more motivated to get involved.

If you are upset with the current highly-politicized, Scripture-eschewing, heritage-denying atmosphere among the current office-holders in the USA, Be The People is just the book for you.

I am a Thomas Nelson book reviewer.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , . 1 Comment »
Newer posts »