The Story Isn’t Over Yet

July 26, 2021 — 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. 

One of the things I enjoy about my Apple Watch is the connection I have with others who also use an Apple Watch. For instance, I get notified when my wife has finished a workout, and one of the pre-set replies I could choose is, “I’ve got questions!” That’s a funny way of me saying, “How did you complete that workout?!” 

In Psalm 75 and Psalm 76, Asaph tells us how God will deal with the wicked. But then Psalm 77 begins with Asaph using words like, “My soul refused to be comforted, my spirit is overwhelmed,” and then he launches into the tough questions like: “How long is this going to last? Has God forgotten me? Have I fallen out of favor with God? Has His mercy dried up? Can God keep what He has promised? Is God angry with me?” When I read all this, I feel like saying, “Asaph, I’ve got questions!” 

Yet, these complaints of Asaph ring true to real life. Like when a friend called me last week and started our conversation by asking, “Why can’t things just go easy for me?”

Here’s the simple answer: The Story isn’t over yet. We are in a battle, and the enemy of our soul is still trying to take us out, or at least shut us up. 

In Psalm 77, Asaph tells his story to Jeduthun (a Levite worship leader whose name means praising) in four chapters, with a Selah for each of the breaks between the chapters. 

Chapter 1—Distress (vv. 1-3)

The word distress means confronted by an adversary. Ever been there? Every follower of God has been, so Asaph invites us to Selah: pause to contemplate things like (a) Is this distress causing me to reevaluate the foundation on which I stand? (b) What is it God is shaking in my life? When God shakes things up, it is to cause us to remember and muse about the ONLY sure foundation that can withstand any storm (see Matthew 7:24-27). 

Chapter 2—Questioning (vv. 4-9) 

Notice the words Asaph uses: thought, remembered, mused, inquired. He is asking those tough questions, but he is asking them in a way that he can carefully consider the answers. That means he is really taking a Selah pause with each question. I think he has come to this conclusion: “Aren’t all these really just rhetorical questions? And isn’t the answer to all of them a resounding ‘NO!’?” If you aren’t sure the answer to all of these questions is no, please read Romans 8:31-39.

Chapter 3—Recalling (vv. 10-15) 

Notice the continuation of the words: thought, remember, meditate, consider. He also asks another question in v. 13 which he then answers in the next two verses. His call to Selah here is another pause to reflect: “Has God lost His power? Has He changed His mind?” And once again the answer is a loud and clear, “NO!” (see Isaiah 59:1; Hebrews 13:8) 

One of the important takeaways from this stanza of Psalm 77 is this: Looking back in gratitude at what God has done allows me to look forward in hope to what He is still going to do. My remembering what God has done in the past leads to: 

  1. Release from the darkness 
  2. Renewed praise 
  3. Recovered strength 
  4. Refocused outlook 

Chapter 4—Hope (vv. 16-20) 

Asaph says, “Look what God did! And since He is the same today as He was yesterday, guess what He’s still able to do!” We know this because the Bible says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20). 

Remember I said earlier that God isn’t done telling His story yet? God isn’t done yet, He knows His Story, and His Story is still being told. But He’s also already told us how His story will end (see Revelation 21:4-6). And the end of His story is really just the beginning of the Real Story! 

C.S. Lewis said it this way in the closing words of The Last Battle:

“And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter 1 of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.” 

When you find yourself saying, “I’ve got questions: How long is this going to last,” Selah to remember that the Story isn’t over yet. The Storyteller knows how it ends, and He promises us: But what of that? For I consider that the sufferings of this present time—this present life—are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us! (Romans 8:18 AMP)

If you have missed any of the messages in our Selah series, you can find the complete list by clicking here.

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Poetry Saturday—The Church A Garden

July 24, 2021 — 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.

Christ hath a garden walled around,
A Paradise of fruitful ground,
Chosen by love and fenced by grace
From out the world’s wide wilderness.


Like trees of spice His servants stand,


There planted by His mighty hand;


By Eden’s gracious streams, that flow


To feed their beauty where they grow.




Awake, O wind of heav’n and bear


Their sweetest perfume through the air:


Stir up, O south, the boughs that bloom,


Till the beloved Master come:




That He may come, and linger yet


Among the trees that He hath set;


That He may evermore be seen


To walk amid the springing green. —Isaac Watts




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Poetry Saturday—Tis Not For Man To Trifle

May 1, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple or Spotify.





‘Tis not for man to trifle! Life is brief,


And sin is here.


Our age is but the falling of a leaf,


A dropping tear.


We have no time to sport away the hours,


All must be earnest in a world like ours.




Not many lives, but only one have we,


One, only one;


How sacred should that one life ever be,


That narrow span!


Day after day filled up with blessed toil,


Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.




Our being is no shadow of thin air,


No vacant dream;


No fable of the things that never were,


But only seem.


‘Tis full of meanings as of mystery,


Tho’ strange and solemn may that meaning be.




Our sorrows are no phantom of the night,


No idle tale;


No cloud that floats along a sky of light,


On summer gale.


They are the true realities of earth,


Friends and companions even from our birth.




O life below, how brief, and poor, and sad!


One heavy sigh.


O life above, how long, how fair, and glad!


An endless joy.


Oh, to be done with daily dying here!


Now to begin the living in yon sphere!




O day of time, how dark! O sky and earth,


How dull your hue!


O day of Christ, how bright! O sky and earth,


Made fair and new!


Come, better Eden, with thy fresher green;


Come, brighter Salem, gladden all the scene. —Horatius Bonar






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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Never Give Up On Grace And Mercy

April 22, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.


Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.





Never Give Up On Grace And Mercy


Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25) 


     My friends, it is one thing to go to church or chapel. It is quite another thing to go to God. …


Coming to God is not what some of you suppose, that is, now and then sincerely performing an act of devotion but giving to the world the greater part of your life. You think that if sometimes you are sincere, if now and then you put up an earnest cry to heaven, God will accept you. And though your life may be still worldly and your desires still carnal, you suppose that for the sake of this occasional devotion God will be pleased, in His infinite mercy, to blot out your sins. I tell you, sinners, there is no such thing as bringing half of yourselves to God and leaving the other half away. …  


     If I should see a sinner staggering on his progress to hell, I would not give him up, even when he had advanced to the last stage of iniquity. Though his foot hung trembling over the very edge of perdition, I would not cease to pray for him. And though he should in his poor drunken wickedness go staggering on till one foot was over hell and he was ready to perish, I would not despair of him. Till the pit had shut its mouth upon him I would believe it is possible that divine grace might save him. See there! He is just upon the edge of the pit, ready to fall. But before he falls, free grace bids, ‘Stop that man!’ Down mercy comes, catches him on her broad wings, and he is saved—a trophy of redeeming love. 


From Salvation To The Uttermost 


My friend, if you don’t have a personal relationship with God through the forgiving work that Jesus accomplished on the Cross, I implore you to come to Him before another minute passes. When Jesus said from this Cross, “It is finished,” He told you that He paid in full your debt that would have kept you separated from God forever. 


Now you just need to come to Him in faith. Simply pray something like this: “God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner separated from You. But I believe that Jesus paid the penalty for all of my sins when He died on the Cross. Because of that payment, I am asking You to forgive me and bring me into a full relationship with You. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.” 


And let me speak to you, my Christian brother or sister who has been praying earnestly for the salvation of someone dear to you. Let me encourage you to not give up! God’s mercy and God’s grace are so swift that even with the last breath they can swoop in to save. Never cease to pray for them and know that Jesus is interceding for them before God’s throne too!


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“My God, My God”

April 2, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple or Spotify.



Jesus has been hanging on the Cross silently for three hours. And now He gathers His strength for four final statements that all come in pretty close proximity. His first three dying declarations have been declarations of love:



But now comes a word of sheer, unparalleled agony. A word from a heart that is experiencing the depths of betrayal and pain that has never been known—or even approached—in all of human history: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani! (Matthew 27:45-46; Mark 15:33-34)


Does this sound like a good Friday message: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? 


This is the only one of the seven dying declarations of Jesus that Matthew and Mark record, and they do it nearly identically: 


    

  • It’s spoken in the everyday language of the people: Aramaic 
    • 

  • It’s translated into the worldwide language of business and literature: Greek 
    • 

  • It’s a direct quotation of Hebrew Scripture 
    • 



This is a word for everyone: Jews and Greek, nobles and commoners, religious people and pagans. 


This dying declaration comes from words taken directly from Psalm 22. David wrote this psalm 1000 years before the crucifixion of Jesus, but note the amazing accuracy in the despicable treatment of Jesus, gambling for Christ’s clothes, even the crucifixion itself (which was unknown in David’s time), and then there’s the heart-wrenching cry My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?  


Matthew and Mark say Jesus “cried out.” This can mean a cry of joy or a cry of pain. They also record that He cried out with “a loud voice.” The Greek words here will sound very familiar even to English ears—“loud” is the word megas, and “voice” is the word phoné. Literally: Jesus raised a megaphone voice to make sure everyone heard His cry! 


Remember that cried out can either be a cry of joy or of pain? Which one was it? You could make the case that it is both of these meanings. But there is a third way of using this word: a cry for help. 


Jesus is about to take a plunge. He is about to descend deeper than anyone else ever has. He is about to voluntarily go into Hell itself. This megaphone cry is His battlecry before storming the gates of Hell! 


Christ’s megaphone battlecry was heard in Hell and in Heaven as Jesus descended to decisively defeat hell, death, and the grave! Make no mistake, Jesus undoubtedly won that battle! That same descriptive word megas is also used for… 


    

  • …the stone in front of His grave is a megas stone 
    • 

  • …the earthquake that rolled away that stone on Resurrection morning was a megas earthquake 
    • 

  • …the joy of Christ’s friends at seeing the tomb empty was a megas joy 
    • 

  • …the trumpet sound at Christ’s Second Coming when He returns to earth as the Conquering King will be a megas blast, and His shout a megaphone cry (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16)! 
    • 



Jesus went to the deepest depths to take us to the highest heights! 


His megaphone declaration from the Cross on Good Friday was a cry of pain over our sin, a battlecry as He stormed the gates of Hell, and a cry of joy over His coming victory! 


So now we can say, “Where, O Death, is your victory? Oh yeah, you don’t have one because my Savior has totally defeated you!” 




If you’ve missed any of the other dying declarations of Jesus from the Cross, you may access the full list by clicking here.


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Poetry Saturday—Selections From “The Pilgrim’s Progress”

January 30, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.



The hill, though high, I covet to ascend,


The difficulty will not me offend;


For I perceive the way to life lies here.


Come, pluck up heart, let’s neither faint nor fear;


Better, though difficult, the right way to go,


Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe. —John Bunyan’s Christian, in The Pilgrim’s Progress








He that is down needs fear no fall;


   He that is low, no pride:


He that is humble ever shall


   Have God to be his Guide.


I am content with what I have,


   Little be it or much:


And, Lord, contentment still I crave,


   Because Thou savest such.


Fullness to such a burden is


   That go on pilgrimage:


Here little, and hereafter bliss,


   Is best from age to age. —John Bunyan’s Mr. Great-heart, in The Pilgrim’s Progress








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10 Quotes From “The Screwtape Letters”

December 16, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




C.S. Lewis gives us fantastic insight into the temptations the devil tries to use against Christians. You can read my full book review here. Just as a reminder: When Screwtape talks about “the Enemy” he is referring to God and when he says “our Father” he is talking about satan. 


“Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him.” 


“Music and silence—how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell—though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express—no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise—Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile—Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end.” 


“Let his inner resolve be to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it ‘for a reasonable period’—and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter…. The fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.”


“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” 


“Our Enemy is a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the seashore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are ‘pleasures forevermore.’ Ugh! … He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least—sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us.” 


“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” 


“Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By Jove! I’m being humble,’ and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt. … You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character.” 


“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One it to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” 


“Even of his sins the Enemy does not want him to think too much: once they are repented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better the Enemy is pleased.” 


“Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment.” 






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Jesus Says

October 6, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




Jesus says, “I will… 


…make you fishers of men” (Matthew 7:23; Mark 1:17) 


…acknowledge in Heaven those who acknowledge Me on earth” (Matthew 10:32-33) 


…give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) 


…build My church” (Matthew 16:18) 


…give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 16:19) 


…show you whom you should fear” (Luke 12:5) 


…drive out demons and heal people” (Luke 13:32) 


…never drive away those who come to Me” (John 6:37) 


…give My life for your life” (John 6:51) 


…rise again from the dead” (Matthew 27:63; Mark 14:28; John 2:19) 


…raise up believers to eternal life” (John 6:40, 44, 54) 


…come back to take you to be with Me forever” (John 14:3) 


…do whatever you ask in My name” (John 14:13, 14; 16:28) 


…not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18) 


…ask the Father to give you an Advocate” (John 14:18) 


…give you words and wisdom that are irresistible” (Luke 21:15) 


…see you again and give you eternal joy” (John 16:22)


Oh, what a Savior!






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Poetry Saturday—Epitaphium Meum

August 29, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




From my years young in days of youth,


God did make known to me His truth,


And call’d me from my native place


For to enjoy the means of grace


In wilderness He did me guide,


And in strange lands for me provide.


In fears and wants, through weal and woe,


As pilgrim passed I to and fro:


Oft left of them whom I did trust;


How vain it is to rest on dust!


A man of sorrows I have been,


And many changes I have seen.


Wars, wants, peace, plenty have I known;


And some advanc’d, others thrown down.


The humble, poor, cheerful and glad;


Rich, discontent, sower and sad:


When fears with sorrows have been mixed,


Consolations came betwixt.


Faint not, poor soul, in God still trust,


Fear not the things thou suffer must;


For, whom He loves He doth chastise,


And then all tears wipes from their eyes.


Farewell, dear children, whom I love,


Your better Father is above:


When I am gone, He can supply;


To Him I leave you when I die.


Fear Him in truth, walk in His ways,


And He will bless you all your days.


My days are spent, old age is come,


My strength it fails, my glass near run:


Now I will wait when work is done,


Until my happy change shall come,


When from my labors I shall rest


With Christ above for to be blest. —William Bradford








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Now And Not Yet

August 24, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




Psalm 68 is a Christological Psalm. That means it points to Jesus and it is fulfilled through Christ’s First and Second Advents. These types of psalms don’t make sense if they are restricted strictly to the Old Testament. 


As I have explained previously, Hebrew literature often puts the key point in the middle—in the case of this psalm, that’s verses 18-20. The opening verse sets the stage, or the scene of battle, and then right in the middle of this psalm of David is the description of God’s victory won through Jesus. 


There are three Selahs in this psalm, and I want you to notice what’s happening at each one: 


    

  • When You marched through the wasteland (v. 7) 
    • 

  • Who daily bears our burdens (v. 18) 
    • 

  • Sing praise to the Lord (v. 32) 
    • 



Do you remember the three definitions of Selah? A pause to consider; a breath before the crescendo; a time to weigh what’s valuable. In this case, I believe we should lean more to the second definition. Why? Because all three of these Selahs shows us what God has done, what He is still doing, and what He will ultimately do in the eternity of Heaven. I believe we are living in the breath/Selah after Christ’s First Advent and leading up to the crescendo of His Second Advent. 


Jesus is BOTH the Immanuel that came to earth at His First Advent AND the returning King at His Second Advent. We are living in an era of BOTH “now” AND “not yet.” 


The apostle Paul looks back to this psalm (especially those middle verses of 18-20) even as he looks forward to the Second Advent. He captures the essence of “now” and “not yet” in all these passages:  



Jesus paid the price for our sin.


He broke the bonds of hell and death.


He prepared the way to Heaven.


He showed the way to Heaven.


He built our mansions in Heaven.


He WILL return to take us to be with Him in Heaven!


 


So how shall we now live in this time of “now” and “not yet”? In a word: AWARE… 


    

  • …of His ultimate victory (Psalm 68:1) 
    • 

  • …of the desperation of the enemy. Death, sin, and the devil have been defeated! We now deal with a broken army, a scattered foe in the final death throes, a wounded, dying warrior desperately lashing out. The prince of this earth is quickly failing, while God is liberally pouring out rewards that were purchased by Christ our King! 
    • 

  • …of the brevity of this life (v. 2)
    • 

  • …of the joy of living in God’s presence (v. 3) 
    • 

  • …of the power of worship (v. 4) 
    • 

  • …of our confidence in being heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (vv. 5-6) 
    • 



Now is not the time for fainting, but fighting the good fight. Our Immanuel has won the battle, He will continue to strengthen us every day that we walk this Earth, and He will keep us by His side as He reigns for all eternity as King of kings and Lord of lords! 




If you’ve missed any of the previous posts in this series, you can check out the full list by clicking here. 






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