Incarnation | Craig T. Owens

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No Plan B

March 9, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

In my family, what starts off as Plan A at the beginning of the day is highly likely to end up as Plan K-13 by the end of the day! We just try to be flexible and roll with the changes.

But we must be careful about giving the characteristic of “flexibility” to God—He doesn’t need to be flexible and modify His plans. He has no Plan B; everything is His Plan A.

Jesus is described as being the sacrificial Lamb from before the dawn of Creation (1 Peter 1:18-20). And in Heaven Jesus is still known as the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 13:8 and 5:5-6). Jesus coming to earth to die on an old rugged Cross was always God’s Plan A. The whole time Jesus Christ was on earth, He knew what was happening.

Here are 5 things Jesus knew. He knew…

…when His time had come, and that all things were about to be fulfilled through His crucifixion—John 13:1, 3
…the exact sequence of events leading up to His death on Calvary—Matthew 20:17-19
…the immutability of the Scriptures—Matthew 26:53-56
…the infallibility of the Scriptures—Luke 24:25-27
…that God would be glorified in fulfilling His Plan A—John 12:27-28

With this in mind, here are 5 things we should know. We should know…

…that all my days were written down before the dawn of Creation—Psalm 139:16
…God loves me more than I can fathom—Psalm 139:17
…my life was always intended to be a part of God’s Plan A—Ephesians 2:10
…no weapon formed against God’s Plan A for me will succeed—Isaiah 54:17
…that God will be glorified in fulfilling His Plan A in my life—Romans 8:28

The old rugged Cross reminds us that God’s Plan A was always for Christ’s death to make it possible for our lives to make sense!

As Andrew Murray wrote: “God fully relied on His Son to see to it that His honor was respected. And in Jesus we too may bravely enter this covenant without fear that we will not be able to fulfill it. We can rely upon Jesus to see to it that He will bring everything to completion. Jesus has not only discharged our old debt but also undertaken the responsibility for whatever else may be required.”

I’ll be continuing our series on The Old Rugged Cross this Sunday, and I hope you can join me.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Andrew Murray, Bible, Calvary, Calvary Assembly of God, Creation, crucified, crucifixion, God's glory, God's plan, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, prophesy, sacrifice, Scripture, sermon. 3 Comments »

Now What?

December 29, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Christmas Day 2014 has come and gone … now what? My Mom forwarded a picture to me that might be a pretty good place to start—or should I say to keep the Christmas spirit alive.

Here’s your post-Christmas Day “To Do” List—

What would you add to this list?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Advent, charity, Christianity, Christmas, emotionally available, Incarnation, love, peace, relationships, testimony. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

December 23, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

“I also get a quite new feeling about ‘If you forgive you will be forgiven.’ I don’t believe it is, as it sounds, a bargain. The forgiving and the being forgiven are really the very same thing. But one is safe as long as one keeps on trying.” —C.S. Lewis

“You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God. How dead we are! How callous and unfeeling to Your glory and Your story! How often have I had to repent and say, ‘God, I am sorry that the stories men have made up stir my emotions, my awe and wonder and admiration and joy, more than Your own true story.’” —John Piper

“Experiencing the presence of Jesus in a church is not so much a corporate matter as it is an individual one. It is true that a spiritually lifeless, prayer-less shepherd can spread death over the people. Yet every member is still a temple and remains personally responsible to obey God and be available as an instrument of His presence. Your church can be dead and yet you can be full of Christ’s presence.” —David Wilkerson

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Advent, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Christmas, church, David Wilkerson, forgiveness, Incarnation, John Piper, prayer, prayerlessness, quotes, revival. 2 Comments »

Links & Quotes

May 17, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading this weekend:

“It is bad to pursue something good negligently; it is worse to expend many labors on an empty thing.” —Hugh of St. Victor

A ground-breaking scientist of the 16th and 17th centuries who was (gasp!) a Christian: William Harvey.

“Could the IRS do anything to make itself more unpopular?” Yep! Read more in New IRS Revelations.

“In the worst temptations nothing can help us but faith that God’s Son has put on flesh, is bone, sits at the right hand of the Father, and prays for us. There is no mightier comfort.” —Martin Luther

“Most of us are like the disciples. We see one miracle, and we are satisfied to talk about it for the rest of our lives. Yet, if we really knew God and let Him be God to us, we would ask Him for so much more.” —David Wilkerson

Great (not!): States Face Overwhelming Reality Of Obamacare.

Gratitude is a “chosen attitude.” Read more in Dr. Tim Elmore’s post The Inverse Relationship Between Gratitude And Entitlement.

Checkmate

May 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I recently re-read C.S. Lewis’ book Miracles (you can read my full book review by clicking here). As you may have noticed, after reading and reviewing books on this blog, I also like to share some quotes that caught my attention. Doing this with Lewis is difficult, because in order to get the context of a particular quote, I think I would have to cite almost a full page or more. So over the next few weeks I plan to share some quotes from Miracles that require not as much context, or I will provide a bit of background to set the stage.

Lewis called the Incarnation of Jesus the grandest miracle of all. Here he discusses how God didn’t have to scramble to create an alternative plan because satan tempted Adam and Eve to sin, and thus need a Savior, but that God used satan’s own strong point to defeat him.

“So much for the sense in which human Death the result of sin and the triumph of satan. But it is also the means of redemption from sin, God’s medicine for Man and His weapon against satan. In a general way it is not difficult to understand how the same thing can be a masterstroke on the part of one combatant and also the very means whereby the superior combatant defeats him. Every good general, every good chess player, takes what is precisely the strong point of his opponent’s plan and makes it the pivot of his own plan. Take that castle of mine if you insist. It was not my original intention that you should—indeed, I thought you would have had more sense. But take it by all means. For now I move thus … and thus… and it is mate in three moves. Something like this must be supposed to have happened about Death. … Jesus tasted death on behalf of all others. He is the representative ‘Die-er’ of the universe: and for that very reason the Resurrection and the Life. Or conversely, because He truly lives, He truly dies, for that is the very pattern of reality. Because the higher can descend into the lower He who from all eternity has been incessantly plunging Himself in the blessed death of self-surrender to the Father can also most fully descend into the horrible and (for us) involuntary death of the body.”

For other quotes from this book see Miracle Or “Cheating”?, Miracles And Nature, Christianity And Pantheism, Correcting The Pantheist, Absolute Fact, The Central Miracle, and The Miracle of Freewill.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: C.S. Lewis, Calvary, chess, death, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, miracles, quotes, redemption, salvation. 1 Comment »

7 Quotes From “The Ministry Of God’s Word”

May 2, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

The Ministry Of God’s Word by Watchman Nee is a MUST READ for all pastors, preachers and evangelists. You can read my book review by clicking here. Over the next few Fridays, I’m going to share some powerful quotes from this book.

“In incarnation … the Word instead was dressed in Man; therefore it had human feeling, thought and opinion, though it remained God’s Word. … In this do we find a great principle of the Bible: that it is possible for the Word of God to be unimpaired by man’s feeling. The presence of human feeling does not necessarily ruin God’s Word; it does so only when such feeling is inadequate. Herein lies a tremendous problem. The great principle is that human elements must not be of such a nature as to hinder God’s Word.”

“God will work in man until his human elements do not damage God’s Word. … The Holy Spirit so operates in man, so controls and disciplines him, that the latter’s own elements can exist without impairing God’s Word; on the contrary, they fulfill it.”

“To be the one who delivers God’s Word we must be pruned and refined. God has to lay aside those whose human makeup contains many uncleannesses, fleshly things, and matters condemned by God. Others He has to bypass because they have never been broken before God, or their thoughts are not straightforward, or their lives are undisciplined, their necks stiff, their emotions untamed, or they have a controversy with God.”

“We need to be daily disciplined. Any defect in us will defile the Word and destroy its power. … The greatest difficulty we confront in preaching the Word is not whether the subject is proper or the phraseology correct, but whether the man is right.”

“God chooses men to be His ministers in order that His Word may carry a human flavor.”

“The Bible is not a collection of devotional articles; it is men performing or living out the Word of God.”

“God puts His Word in us that we may meditate on it, feel after it, be afflicted by it, or rejoice in it, before the Word is released by us. … Thus the ministry of the Word is not the mere delivery of sermons we memorize. We must allow the Word to come to us, to drill and to grind us, until it flows out with—yes, our personal elements in it—and yet not spoiled or corrupted in the least. The Lord wishes to use us as a channel of living water.”

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: Bible, discipline, evangelist, feeling, God's Word, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, pastors, preaching, purity, quotes, Watchman Nee. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—The Historicity Of The Cross

April 17, 2014 — 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 Historicity Of The Cross

It is essential to have an historic basis for our Christian faith: our faith must be centered in the Life and Death of the historic Jesus. Why is it that that Life and Death have an importance out of all proportion to every other historic fact? Because there the Redemption is brought to a focus.

Jesus Christ was not a Man who twenty centuries ago lived on this earth for thirty-three years and was crucified; He was God Incarnate, manifested at one point of history. All before look forward to that point; all since look back to it. The presentation of this fact produces what no other fact in the whole of history ever could produce, viz.: the miracle of God at work in human souls. The death of Jesus was not the death of a martyr, it was the revelation of the Eternal heart of God. That is why the Cross is God’s last word.

From Conformed To His Image

This is THE Fact of history—

For God loved the world so much that He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. (John 3:16-17)

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary, Cross, crucifixion, eternal life, forgiveness, God's love, Gospel of John, Gospel of Matthew, historicity, history, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, redemption. Leave a Comment »

The Central Miracle

April 1, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Lewis talks a great deal about the Creator entering His creation, quoting from passages in the Bible that talk about Christ’s pre-existence before Time, and His choice to descend into Nature.

“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. … Everywhere the great enters the little—its power to do so is almost a test of its greatness. In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strongman stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden.”

For other quotes from this book see Miracle Or “Cheating”?, Miracles And Nature, Christianity And Pantheism, Correcting The Pantheist, and Absolute Fact.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, book review, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Creation, eternity, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, miracles, nature, quotes, Scripture, supernature. 1 Comment »

Scared Half To Death

December 24, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Have you ever had a really good scare that turned your life around? For some people, they need to be scared half to death in order for them to make changes in their lives.

I think this is what happened to the shepherds outside Bethlehem the night Jesus was born (Luke 2:8-20). The Bible says that when the glory of the Lord shone around them they were terrified (the King James Version is very picturesque when it says they were sore afraid). The Greek word for fear is phobeo, but the phrase Luke uses here for “terrified” is megas phobeo phobos. Get the picture? They were scared half to death!!

But now, what to do what that fear? The angel gave them the first step—Go find Jesus. He didn’t tell them to get themselves cleaned up, or start going to church, or even to stop acting a certain way. Simply go find Jesus.

The shepherds obeyed and went to meet Jesus, and then something amazing happens.

Their fear is turned to praise—the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God.
Their silence is turned to testimony—they spread the word concerning what had been told them.

Jesus was born as a Man to experience all our fears and sorrows and pains. But He took these upon Himself as He became the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice. Now there are no fears that can keep us from God’s presence. Jesus conquered all that kept us from God!

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.He was despised and rejected—a Man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. (Isaiah 53:2-5; Ephesians 1:3-4)

This Christmas I pray you will…

Find Jesus for yourself!

Let your praises to Him ring out!

Tell others what Jesus has done for you!

If you have missed any of the messages in our Fear Not! series, you can find them all by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Advent, angels, atonement, Christmas, Ephesians, fear, forgiveness, Gospel of Luke, Incarnation, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, praise, sermon, shepherds, testimony. 1 Comment »

Another Christmas Message?!?

December 21, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Believe it or not, I actually heard a pastor say this: “I’m not sure I’m going to preach a Christmas message this year. It’s the same story all over again, and everyone’s already heard it.”

Are you kidding me?!?

This is the greatest story. Ever! God coming to earth—the Infinite invading our finite world—yields infinite possibilities in how to re-tell this story. One of the biggest cop-outs there could ever be is to say, “I couldn’t possibly think of another way to tell the Christmas story.”

Pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate your mind. Read the story again. Insert yourself into the story. Imagine how those first century characters felt. Re-read the story in a different translation. Slow down. Soak in the text.

There are so many ways to share this amazing story. It’s not just another Christmas message. It’s THE greatest story that can be shared in an infinite number of ways.

Pastor, may God give you a fresh view of this amazing story!