Thursdays With Oswald—Instantly Detecting Compromise

December 1, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly 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.

Instantly Detecting Compromise

     We must be continually renewed in the spirit of our mind so that the slightest beginning of compromise with the spirit of the world is detected. “Well, what’s the harm; there’s nothing wrong in it,” when you hear that you know you have the spirit of the world, because the Spirit that comes from Jesus says, “Does this glorify God?”

From Biblical Ethics

There’s a HUGE difference between a Christian being in the world and of the world. A Christian who is compromising, is slowly becoming of the world. They say, “This isn’t wrong.”

A Christian who is uncompromising, is slowly becoming in the world but of Heaven. They judge everything by whether or not it brings glory to God.

Compromise is the slow erosion. Seldom does one go from a passionate follower of God to a worldly person suddenly. It is the small compromises day after day that are the most dangerous.

So one of my frequent prayers must be—

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out ANYTHING in me that offends You. (Psalm 139:23-24, NLT)

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Thursdays With Oswald—Not To Tell Us, But To Make Us

October 27, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly 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.

Not To Tell Us, But To Make Us

     Our righteousness has to be in excess of the righteousness of the man whose external conduct is blameless according to the law—what does that produce? despair straightaway. When we hear Jesus say “Blessed are the pure in heart,” our answer, if we are awake is, “My God, how am I going to be pure in heart? If ever I am to be blameless down to the deepest recesses of my intentions, You must do something mighty in me.” That is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do. He did not come to tell us to be holy, but to make us holy.

From Biblical Ethics

Does it ever bother you that Jesus tells us, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”? It bothers me, because it sounds too hard, even unrealistic. Okay, let’s be honest: It sounds impossible!

It is impossible if I try to be perfectly righteous on my own. But the death and resurrection of Jesus paid for my atonement—my “at one-ment” with God. And Jesus has also asked the Father to send me the Holy Spirit. He is sanctifying me — making me into a holy, perfectly righteous saint in the eyes of my Heavenly Father.

I can’t do it.

But I can surrender and let Him do it.

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Why Not Here…

October 11, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

…why not now?

Sometimes I get tired of the excuses:

  • “I would have loved to live when Jesus lived.”
  • “I remember when church used to be good.”
  • “I long for the good old days.”

Those are just excuses for why God isn’t moving right here right now. Surely we’re not saying God is somehow limited by a time or place! Charles Spurgeon said it this way,

“God’s power is independent of place. Think ye that there was any sanctity in the upper room at Jerusalem? Behold this room is quite as sacred as that filled by the Spirit in years gone by. Dream not that the city of Jerusalem of old, in the days of the Savior was a more proper theater for divine working than this is; He can make [your city] rejoice even as He did Jerusalem of old. Equally is the divine power independent of time. Do not dream that the ages have changed, so that in this day God cannot do His mighty works.”

I believe God wants to move in Cedar Springs today just as He moved in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. No!! Even more… I believe God wants to do MORE in Cedar Springs!!

Now all glory to God, Who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

I’m living in this expectation: God’s power right here, right now!

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Preaching At God’s Command

September 22, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This post is specifically for my pastor friends. As you are finishing up your sermon prep for this week, here are some good words from Charles Spurgeon for us to keep in mind:

“We preach, at God’s command, the way of salvation by mercy, not by merit; by faith, not by works; by grace, not by the efforts of men. May God help us so to set forth that principle, that many may accept it. I do not care one snap of my finger about preaching so that the style shall please the ear, but I long to reach your hearts. I want you to receive the only sure method of salvation, and I pray the Holy Spirit to baptize my words in His own mighty fire, and make them to burn their way into your hearts, and subdue you to the obedience of faith.”

Pastor, I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will baptize your words. God said, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it,” and I am believing that for you this week!

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Thursdays With Oswald—Stop Doing That!

September 15, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly 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.

Stop Doing That!

     Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. … We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory.

From My Utmost For His Highest

I’m usually pretty good at making To-Do lists. But how am I at making Don’t-Do lists?

I need find those things that are holding me back, and deliberately destroy them—totally neglect them, and let them die from starvation. Doing has a certain power in my spiritual growth, but not doing can have an equal power as well.

“The average human being in any line of work could double his productive [or spiritual] capacity overnight if he began right now to do all the things he knows he should do, and to stop doing all the things he knows he should not do.” —Elmer G. Letterman

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What Are These?

September 14, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

What happens when you read the Bible? Do you just read it, or do you ask questions of it? Some people seem hesitant to ask any questions, but the Bible itself is full of questions.

Zechariah was a prophet in the Old testament. If anyone would have been familiar with God’s Law, it would have been this guy. He grew up as a P.K. (priest’s kid), with several generations of religious leaders in his family tree. Yet as he was being shown the word of the Lord, he realizes how special it is, and wants to make sure he fully grasps it. So he fires away with the questions:

  • What are these?
  • What are these coming to do?
  • Where are you going? 
  • What is it? 
  • Where are they taking it?

The Word of God is living, active, and powerful. I should inquiry of it: what does this mean?

The same Holy Spirit that inspired the biblical writers is the same Holy Spirit Who will illuminate your mind to understand it.

All you have to do is ask!

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Thursdays With Oswald—Beautiful Grapes

September 8, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly 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.

Beautiful Grapes

     If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us—and we cannot measure that at all.

From My Utmost For His Highest

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Holy Spirit wants to bring to maturity ALL of these fruit in my life. Not so that I can pat myself on my back and say, “Look at how fruitful I am!” But so that God may squeeze me out where He needs me.

So I’m pondering…

  • Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to develop this fruit in me?
  • When I am fruitful, am I allowing God to squeeze me? Or do I run from it?
  • What good is to be a Christian without bearing fruit?
  • What good is it to have the fruit but not let God squeeze it?

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No Toleration

August 23, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

We need to elevate our vocabulary when it comes to God and the things about His nature and His Kingdom.

I was convicted of this a few years ago. I came home from church and was watching an NFL game on a Sunday afternoon, when a receiver made an amazingly acrobatic catch for a touchdown. I jumped off the couch and shouted, “That. Was. Awesome!!

Immediately the Holy Spirit brought something to my mind. “When you were worshiping at church this morning,” He gently reminded me, “didn’t you say how awesome God was? Is He as awesome as that catch?”

Right then and there I decided that I needed to be more careful of my vocabulary. I want to reserve words for God that I used nowhere else. Theologians do it all the time: creating new words to try to capture the majesty, omnipotence, and mind-blowing-vocabulary-defying greatness of Almighty God.

I’m certainly not perfect at this, but I’m working on it.

I was reminded of this again when I read these words from Charles Spurgeon:

“My Master has riches

beyond the count of arithmetic,

the measurement of reason,

the dream of imagination,

or the eloquence of words.

They are unsearchable!

You may look,

and study,

and weigh,

but Jesus is a greater Savior

than you think Him to be

when your thoughts are at the greatest.

My Lord is more ready to pardon

than you to sin,

more able to forgive

than you to transgress.

My Master is more willing to supply your wants

than you are to confess them.

Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus.”

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Thursdays With Oswald—Learning From My Experiences

July 28, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly 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.

Learning From My Experiences

     It is all very well to have experiences, but there must be a standard  for measuring them, and a standard more worthy than my own on the line on which  I know I am worthy. The standard for Christian experience is not the experience of another Christian, but God Himself.

     On the ground of the Redemption I am saved and God puts His Holy Spirit in me, then He expects me to react on the basis of that relationship. …The only way to understand the Scriptures is not to accept them blindly, but to read them in the light of a personal relationship to Jesus Christ.

From Baffled To Fight Better

Some people have said that experience is the best teacher.

That’s incorrect.

My experience is just that… MY experience. I have to have a standard other than myself to judge that experience. As a Christian I have this: God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit to help me apply that Word to my experience. If I will use this as my standard for all of my experiences, only then will I learn something eternally useful from my experiences.

As C.S. Lewis so right stated, “All that is not eternal is eternally useless.”

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Smith Wigglesworth On Faith (book review)

July 8, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

He may have a funny-sounding name, but—wow—can this man ever preach!

Smith Wigglesworth didn’t sit down to write a book, he just preached this book. In fact, Smith didn’t even read other books; he only read the Bible. So to read a Smith Wigglesworth book is really to “listen” to his power-packed sermons.

From 1900 to 1940, Smith traveled around the United States, speaking at various locations. His sermons are a heavy dose of Scripture, accented with frequent interpretations of a message in tongues from the Holy Spirit. So Smith Wigglesworth On Faith is a collection of faith-building sermons preached over a four decade time span.

If you want to have your faith (re)ignited, you can’t go wrong by listening (I mean: reading) these sermons. Highly, highly recommended!

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