Thursdays With Oswald—Unconscious Blasphemy

June 16, 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.

Unconscious Blasphemy

     For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one.

From My Utmost For His Highest

To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

God is ABLE to make you His saint.

Jesus is WILLING to make you His saint.

The Holy Spirit is WORKING to make you His saint.

Will you let Him?

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Thursdays With Oswald—The First Thing

May 26, 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.

The First Thing

     If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He will always press the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

From My Utmost For His Highest

I am so good at making my own plans, and only later calling on God when confusion erupts. How much better it would be if I would involve God first.

I’m trying to learn this.

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Experiencing The Spirit (book review)

May 19, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Years ago I read Henry Blackaby’s outstanding book Experiencing God, which helped me see God’s relationship with me in a whole new light. Now Henry and Melvin Blackaby have done the same thing with the role of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life in Experiencing The Spirit: The Power of Pentecost Every Day.

I’m a fourth-generation Pentecostal, so I’ve grown up with a solid understanding of the Holy Spirit. But Experiencing The Spirit created in me a longing for something more. I don’t want it to just be a head-only theology, but a heart-felt relationship. In fact, this question in the book hit me right between the eyes: Do you spend more time and effort honing your skills than you do seeking the Lord and deepening your relationship with Him?

I don’t want to just know about God, I want to know Him. And a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit is what allows that to happen. The Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, and I want to make that my prayer too…

I pray that out of His glorious riches the Father may strengthen me with power through His Holy Spirit in my innermost being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And I pray that as I am being rooted and established in love, I may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

For a more intimate relationship with the Spirit of God, I recommend checking out Experiencing The Spirit.

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Thursdays With Oswald—No Spiritual Experts

May 19, 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.

No Spiritual Experts

     There are no experts in spiritual matters. The spiritual expert is never so consciously because the very nature of spiritual instruction is that it is unconscious of itself; it is the life of a child…. Our Lord describes the expert in Matthew 18:4—“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

From Baffled To Fight Better

Your spiritual journey is unique to all other humans.

Your relationship and experience with God is unique to all other humans.

The Holy Spirit will make you an expert in your relationship with the Heavenly Father, if you will just listen to Him. So let God be as original with you as He is with everyone else.

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Making The Hard Easy

May 16, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Can you relate to this?

     I know the right things I’m supposed to do, and I also know the wrong things I’m not supposed to do. I try my very best to do the right and avoid the wrong, but far too many times I find myself not doing the right things, and (even worse) discover I’m doing the wrong thing.

     I say, “Enough of this!” and I vow (again!) to stop doing the wrong things, and I redouble my efforts (again!) to begin doing the right things. It seems like this is working, but only for a little while. Then I’m right back into the same old habit of doing those wrong things again.

     It shouldn’t be this hard! After all, it’s so easy to tell right from wrong. So why do I keep on doing the wrong things?! Why can’t I keep on doing the right things?!

     Is there any hope for me? (my paraphrase of Romans 8:17-24) 

If you’ve ever felt like that, you’re in good company because that’s just how the Apostle Paul said he struggled with right and wrong. But keep on reading, because he also shared how he overcame this struggle. He said, “Those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

The Holy Spirit can help you do right, and avoid wrong. But you have to yield to Him.

I love what A.J. Gordon wrote—

“It costs much to obtain the power of the Spirit: It costs self-surrender and humiliation and a yielding up of our most precious things to God; it costs the perseverance of long waiting, and the faith of strong trust. But when we are really in that power, we shall find this difference, that whereas before, it was hard for us to do the easiest things, now it is easy for us to do the hard things.”

How would you rather live: finding it hard to do the easiest things … or finding it easy to do the hardest things?

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Out Of The Box

May 13, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I know firsthand the difference the Holy Spirit has made in my life. Which is why I’m so excited to kick off a brand new series this Sunday called Out Of The Box: Unleashing The Power of the Holy Spirit.

…the Holy Spirit makes the Father’s love more real

…the Holy Spirit makes the Christ-like life more livable

…the Holy Spirit makes the Bible more readable

…the Holy Spirit makes extraordinary living more attainable!

And this Out Of The Box life is for everyone. A.W. Tozer wrote:

“For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No, He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fill and indwell His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.” (emphasis mine)

I hope you can join us at Calvary Assembly of God this Sunday at 10:30am.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Spiritual Overloading

March 17, 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.

Spiritual Overloading

       One continually finds an encroachment of beliefs and of attachment to things which is so much spiritual overloading. Every now and again the Spirit of God calls us to take a spiritual stock-taking in order to see what beliefs we can do without. The things our Lord asks us to believe are remarkably few, and John 14:1 seems to sum them up—“Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” We have to keep ourselves alertly detached from everything that would encroach on that belief; we all have intellectual and affectionate affinities that keep us detached from Jesus Christ instead of attached to Him. We have to maintain an alert spiritual fighting trim.

From Facing Reality

Probably because I’m still studying and preparing for our Overloaded series, but I’ve been especially tuned into to the idea of all sorts of overload… even (especially) spiritual overloading. I never want to fall victim to the same trap the Pharisees were in:

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.” (Matthew 23:1-4)

I don’t want to overload myself; nor do I want to overload those I teach. So I’m taking a hard look in the mirror—and listening closely to the Holy Spirit—about those spiritual overloading things that may be crushing me.

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Eat A Cookie

March 15, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

If you are going through a difficult place in your life … or if you are trying to process an event that doesn’t make much sense … or if there is a painful memory that makes you wonder, “Where was God in that?” … check out this short video clip:

Now, go eat a cookie and know that God IS working out something good.

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Don’t Fake It

February 24, 2011 — 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.

Have you ever had someone tell you, “Fake it until you make it”? In other words, you may not feel happy, but just start smiling and soon you will feel happy. Sadly, I’ve heard this type of so-called wisdom given by Christians to other Christians. Phrases like…

  • Don’t let anyone know that you feel scared, doubtful, or angry.
  • Never let ‘em see you sweat.
  • Even if you’re down, put on a happy face.

Turns out that this is not only bad advice, but harmful advice too. A study done by Michigan State University found:

     “Pretending to smile when you’re feeling bad makes you feel worse and be less productive. … [You] can’t just fake a smile and expect to feel good about it or negative feelings intensify.”

If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, you should never fake it. Take a quick glance through the Psalms and you’ll see raw, real emotions: anger … depression … anxiety … vengeance … sadness … envy … spite … and many others. 

Here’s the deal: You may wear a {fake} smile on the outside, but God knows the {real} emotions in your heart. You’re not fooling Him. And, as it’s been revealed in this study, you’re not fooling anyone else either.

So go ahead and vent those negative emotions when you’re alone with God. Tell Him how you really feel (He already knows, but it’s good for you to hear you say it). And then let the Holy Spirit show you how to deal with those emotions in a healthy way.

Don’t bottle it up—don’t fake-it-until-you-make-it—be real and let God heal you.

UPDATE: I talk a lot about dealing with our strong, negative emotions in my book When Sheep Bite.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Do You Read The Bible Or Does The Bible Read You?

January 19, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I’ve been studying the lives of the kings of Judah. The last God-fearing king before the fall of Jerusalem was a man named Josiah. He became king as an 8-year-old and really began looking for God as a teenager. Apparently, during all of this time, the book of the Law (the first five books of our current Bible) was hidden away and forgotten. As Josiah started seeking God, he gave orders that the temple in Jerusalem be repaired. During the clean-up work, the workers rediscovered the book of the Law and brought it to the palace. They began to read the Law to Josiah…

When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.

Tearing of the robes is a sign of deep mourning. The words of Scripture cut Josiah like a dagger to the heart because he knew he and his people weren’t living according to God’s standards. He started telling everyone the Scriptural standards that they needed to honor, and had the words of the Law read aloud for everyone to hear. Then in the presence of everyone, Josiah reaffirmed his commitment to be a man who lived by the words of God’s Word.

This got me thinking:

  • Do I have an emotional response when I read the Bible? Or is it just a mental exercise? Or worse yet, just a meaningless daily habit?
  • Am I truly sorry when I read in the Bible where I’ve fallen short of what God desires? Or do I make excuses?
  • Do I ask the Holy Spirit to help me live out what I’ve read in the Word? Or do I convince myself that those parts don’t pertain to me?
  • Do I share with others what’s been revealed to me? Or do I keep it to myself?
  • Am I willing to be accountable to others about the changes I need to make? Or am I trying to be a lone ranger saint?

Do I just read the Bible? Or do I allow the Bible to read me?

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