Institute for Creation Research | Craig T. Owens

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Links & Quotes

November 18, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

On Veterans Day, Greg and I wanted to encourage you to ask a veteran to tell you their stories. Their stories are a vital link to our stories too! Watch this full conversation on The Craig and Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“When we are foolish and young, we need more rules. As we mature, we can be trusted with extended boundaries. The wiser we are, the more we appreciate those boundaries and the less they offend us. Offense at law, accountability, hedges, and boundaries is an indicator of immaturity. The wiser we are, the more unafraid and appreciative we are of those who hold us to account.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied

“When public policy begins to encroach on the Christian’s freedom and duty to proclaim the Good News, or to bring the benefits of the Gospel to the community, believers must continue our mission nonetheless and be ready to bear whatever punishments those in authority may choose to inflict. Christians do not seek suffering, but we must not shun it, particularly when by our suffering we can work for public policies more in line with the centrality of the Gospel for the wellbeing of all people.” —T.M. Moore

The Golden Rule—treat others as you would want to be treated—applies to the way you treat yourself too. Stop beating yourself up when you make a mistake. You probably don’t beat up others when they stumble, so extend the same grace to yourself. Practice healthy, affirming self-talk. Check out this full conversation from episode 68 of The Craig And Greg Show.

“A thought, a sword, and a spade should never be allowed to rust.” —Irish Proverb

Dr. C. John “Jack” Collins uses some thoughts from C.S. Lewis to help us learn a little better how to read Genesis 1-11. He writes, “We should approach any biblical passage with the conviction that God inspired the Bible to be the right tool for its job. If we can get a good idea of what kind of tool our passage is, we can discern what job God intended it to perform. And that means we need to be willing to adjust what we’re looking for and be willing to find other ways of addressing some questions.”

Sunflowers have an amazing biomechanism called heliotropism that allows them to “see” the sun. They can literally turn their face throughout the day (even a cloudy day) to follow the sun and maximize their photosynthesis potential. What an amazing Creator our God is!

“Failure to pray is simple unbelief. We must repent of our unbelief and take up the work of prayer with greater devotion and dedication. We shall not be able to realize progress in Christ’s Kingdom, or in returning our nation to a greater experience of justice and goodness, apart from prayer. Prayer is the starting point for public policy. Prayer must be the sustaining power of public policy. And prayer in the form of worship will be the outcome of public policies, forged in prayer, which lead to a peaceful, godly, dignified, true, and Gospel-friendly society.” —T.M. Moore

Links & Quotes

September 23, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Questions engage people more than statements do. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

How should Christians engage with artificial intelligence (AI)? This is a very thoughtful and biblically-centric post.

The Bible records the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC and to the Romans in AD 70. For the first time, archeologists have discovered evidence of both armies in close proximity to each other. Yet again, archeology confirms the historicity of the Bible.

“In America, we have a tendency to worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.” —Lenny Esposito

“Young people are told, ‘You’ve got plenty of time, live a little, first,’ as if life ends after the wedding. The truth about marriage, however, is that it is, statistically, the single best predictor of long-term happiness. Making this even more important to understand is that for at least the last 20 years now, Americans have been steadily getting less happy.” Here’s how John Stonestreet shares this report from the University of Chicago.

T.M. Moore shared an interesting component of early-colonial American lawmaking: “Peruse the civil codes of the American colonies and you will discover a curious phenomenon. Frequently, colonial legislators drafted their civil codes by looking to the Old Testament Law of God.”

Dr. Tim Clarey said, “The global Flood also answers why dinosaurs were still alive and flourishing until the end of the Cretaceous. At that moment in the Flood, they were likely trying to stay on the highest ground available as waters encroached closer, week by week. As the dry land rapidly disappeared, many species herded together. This explains why varied types of dinosaurs were buried together at the end of the Cretaceous. The Flood’s tsunami-like waves eventually crashed over the remaining dinosaurs and entombed them in what’s called Upper Cretaceous strata.” Check out more evidence for the Flood that is recorded in the Book of Genesis.

Links & Quotes

September 2, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

The Holy Spirit who inspired the words of the Bible is the same Holy Spirit in you. He can illuminate the biblical promises for your prayer time, and He can help you apply the biblical principles to your everyday circumstances. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“Carl M. ‘Daddy” Hanson (1865-1954), a spiritual father to many early Pentecostals on the northern Great Plains, earned his Pentecostal stripes on both sides of Azusa Street. He experienced the Pentecostal distinctive of speaking in tongues in the 19th century, and he became an early leader in the Assemblies of God in the first half of the 20th century.” Check out this mini-biography of this Pentecostal pioneer.

I love studying the historicity of the Bible! Isaiah is such an important work both prophetically and historically. “Jesus in John 12:37-40, as well as Paul in Romans 10:16, 20-21 both quote from the beginning and ending of the book attributing it to Isaiah the prophet.” Check out these archeological discoveries relating to the Book of Isaiah.

Absolutely astounding! The silk of spider webs has unique properties that medical science is beginning to use in humans. What an amazing Creator we serve!

In my sermon about parenting, I quoted from Proverbs 22:6. Commenting on this verse, Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied, wrote, “The principle regarding our children is that the things they are taught early on will give them every opportunity for stability later in life. This reality does not guarantee that they will make right choices (including whether or not to follow Jesus); it does guarantee that they have the resource of wisdom to draw on should they choose. … Whatever their choice, we can rest in the peace that we laid up for them every resource for good. Our peace (regarding our children) comes from what we have done with our heart and resources, not what they have done with theirs.”

Links & Quotes

August 19, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Salvation doesn’t arrive on Air Force One. This simple but profound reminder from Chuck Colson should send Christians to prayer instead of seeking a merely political solution. Check out my full message about trusting God vs. trusting the government here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science, says, “Sleep is the universal health care provider: whatever the physical or mental ailment, sleep has a prescription it can dispense.” It’s not just medical science, but the Bible also talks about the value of sleep, as Scott Hubbard explains in this post. I’ve also shared some posts about sleep here, here, and here.

Don’t you love the beautiful melody of songbirds? Being a percussionist, I’m attracted to the woodpeckers. Scientists have found that woodpeckers are the only non-songbird that share an identical genetic marker in their brains with songbirds. That means that the drumming of woodpeckers is actually a song! Check out some additional fascinating insights about our drumming friends in this post.

I love this story from the early 1900s! Small prayer meetings began to converge to become a Pentecostal revival in the Pacific Northwest.

“What is the best thing in the world? To please its Creator. What is His will? To fulfill what He commanded, that is, to live rightly and dutifully to seek the Eternal; for duty and justice are the will of Him Who is dutiful and right. How do we seek this goal? By application. Then we must apply ourselves in duty and justice. What helps to maintain this practice? Understanding, which, while it winnows the remainder and finds nothing solid to rest in amongst those things which the world possesses, turns in wisdom to the one thing which is eternal.” —Columbanus

“Jesus taught us to pray that the Kingdom would come on earth in the same way that it exists in heaven. … Jesus made praying for the Kingdom the highest priority in our prayers after praising and honoring God. The Kingdom is more important than our daily needs. The Kingdom is more to be desired than that our sins should be forgiven or that we should be rescued through temptation [Matthew 6:9-13].” —T. M. Moore

Stephen O. Presley wrote, “If our modern world resembles the ancient one, perhaps we could glean some wisdom from the ways the early church navigated these murky waters. As Polycarp testifies, the Scriptures were essential to the early Christian apologetic. Passages such as Romans 13:1 and Matthew 22:21, alongside the examples of Old Testament figures such as Joseph and Daniel, guided the church’s vision for engaging the unbelieving world.” His post especially caught my eye after I shared a very similar message to my flock this past Sunday.

Sean McDowell sits down with an Old Testament professor to discuss 10 of the most bizarre OT passages (as selected by Sean’s X followers).

Links & Quotes

August 12, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

We can look back to learn or we can look back to relive. Looking back to learn is healthy, but looking back in regret to try to relive our past is unhealthy and unproductive. Learning vs. reliving makes all the difference. See my full message on this mental health thought here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“I’ve learned one thing: You only really get to know a person after a fight. Only then can you judge their true character.” —Anne Frank

Lenny Esposito is an outstanding Christian apologist. Check out this podcast where Lenny discusses the historical facts about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties.” —C.S. Lewis

“I believe it will only be known on the Last Day how much has been accomplished in missionary work by the prayers of earnest believers at home.” —James Fraser

John Piper expounds on why God would make mankind in His image, and why He would create such a vast and beautiful universe in which to place mankind.

Speaking of our amazing Creator. I’ve always been fascinated by honeybees! Professor Andrew Barron, in describing the results of an amazing study on bees’ decision-making process, said, “A honeybee has a brain smaller than a sesame seed. And yet she can make decisions faster and more accurately than we can. A robot programmed to do a bee’s job would need the back up of a supercomputer.”

This is a good reminder from Axis for parents with students returning to school. The heading of this section of Axis’ weekly Cultural Teanslator is “Back to Backpacking.”

“What it is: As a new school year begins, teens might have mixed feelings of excitement, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed.

How to approach this season: As Hannah King writes in Christianity Today, all seasons of transition bring with them an element of loss. Starting a new school year might mean making new friends, meeting new teachers, or starting a new curriculum. It can also mean the loss of free time, increased stress levels, and more difficulty creating intentional moments as a family. For parents, the beginning of a new school year might also feel like a reminder that time with their teens living at home is dwindling down, a feeling which can bring its own set of griefs, pressures, and regret. King recommends allowing space for teens and adults to name the things they’re disappointed about or not looking forward to, noting that repressed sadness can keep us from ‘entering freely into [the] joy’ of a new thing.

“Start the conversation: What will you miss the most about this summer?”

“Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.” —Alex Haley

Links & Quotes

July 29, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

God’s grace is so amazing. It keeps coming in like waves on a shore. God’s grace is unearned by our efforts, undeserved despite our sins, and unending for all of eternity! Check out this full message here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“The humble servant of God is grateful for God’s past blessings, unashamed of his daily dependence on God, and confidant of God’s loving reply to every new request.” —Craig T. Owens

“There’s no shame in failing. The only shame is not giving things your best shot.” —Robin Williams

I’ve often said that praying, “God, here are my plans; please bless them” is an arrogant prayer. Instead, humility prays, “God, what would You have me do.” Proverbs 19:21 makes this point clearly. In his commentary on The Book of Proverbs, Dick Brogden noted on this verse, “God always gets His way over man’s ideas. In our hubris we think we know better than God, so we either make plans and then ask for His endorsement or we stand in judgment of what He is doing as if He should have asked us to endorse His plans. Folly judges only by results in Machiavellian crudity, but things going right doesn’t necessarily mean they were right, and things going wrong doesn’t necessarily mean we were wrong. Let us remember we are prophets, priests, and proclaimers, not pragmatists.”

“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things—to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.” —Sir Edmund Hillary

Speaking of an exemplary work ethic, David Mathis writes, “However firsthand your experience as a soldier, athlete, or farmer, Scripture stands ready to fill in, supplement, recast, or override our personal experiences (or lack thereof) and teach us a Christian work ethic—for our own joy, the good of others, and the glory of Christ.” The biblical text Mathis uses to help us learn this Christian work ethic is 2 Timothy 2:1-7.

Marvin Olasky has a sobering and insightful post entitled “United States of Abortion.” He wrote, “For nearly four centuries, the frequency of abortion in America has depended on how citizens and residents answered five questions.” The five questions—and his five answers—are a mini history lesson on which all Christians should reflect.

Wave Nunnally has a fascinating look at the ritual purity that was required in order to enter various parts of the Temple in Jerusalem.

“If you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at once, wherever you are. Perhaps he may be in great peril at that moment.” —Amy Carmichael

From the vastly large solar system to the microscopic level, the beauty and genius of our Creator is seen. A new report published in the journal Nature delves into the complexity of our tiny cilia. Only an all-wise Creator could fashion something so precise!

If you are looking for an easily accessible online library (especially for researching older books), check out the Internet Archive.

Though a professing atheist, Richard Feynman poetically mused that “you might say the ‘hand of God’ wrote that number, and ‘we don’t know how He pushed His pencil.’” What number is that? Physicists call it alpha (α): “That number is 0.00729735256—approximately 1/137. This is the fine-structure constant. It appears everywhere in the equations of quantum physics.” Another remarkable signpost to a magnificent Creator!

Links & Quotes

July 22, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

There are two invaluable resources for Christians to process difficult situations the right way: the prayers in the Psalms and journaling. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“…[T]here is an enabling grace from God to endure in the strength he supplies and to do what ought to be done. Call it leadership for the long haul. And since great leadership serves the people, great leadership is servanthood, so we could also call it servanthood for the long haul. Meanwhile, merely enduring falls short. There’s something better. Great servants don’t endure merely. They endure by ‘being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy’ (Colossians 1:11).” —Sam Crabtree

I love the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26. This post dives deep into this blessing, and as an added bonus also tells of an archeological discovery that marks these verses as “the earliest biblical verses” for which we have archeological evidence.

…and here is even more archeological evidence of the Bible’s historicity. Once again, it can be stated that no archeological discovery has ever contradicted a biblical claim.

It’s not just archeology, but astronomy as well that points to a perfect Creator. “Life requires many parameters in order to survive and thrive. The more data that are uncovered, the more evidence there is that Earth and its environs were specifically designed with the exact conditions needed for life.” This ICR article goes on to describe the perfection with which the sun’s radiation is used by Earth’s plants.

…and an extensive study of a species of octopi also demonstrates the genius of our Creator. “For an animal to adapt to its environment, evolution requires that animal’s DNA to mutate, giving the animal some new ability that helps them survive better. Mutations are permanent. According to evolutionary theory, over long periods of time and after several DNA mutations, a new animal arises that’s better adapted to its environment. But that is not how the octopus adapts to its environment. The changes in the created proteins are made by RNA, not DNA. These changes are not permanent and the DNA remains the same….” Check out the rest of this post.

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Links & Quotes

July 15, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

One of the things that contributes to “quiet quitting” is a lack of passion. But when the leader has conveyed a compelling vision for all that the organization is doing, that vision fuels the passion to work excellently. Vision can change a “have to” attitude into a “get to” attitude. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had about quiet quitting on the Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” —Arthur Ashe

“Strange as it may seem, the first rule of gracious speech is sincere listening: ‘So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath’ (James 1:19). Being an attentive and sincere listener is like cutting a swath through the jungle. It creates a path along which conversations can develop and people can journey together.” —T.M. Moore

J. Warner Wallace discusses how scientists who were Christians used their biblical worldview to drive their scientific pursuits. As a result, Christian scientists have been awarded more Nobel Prizes than any other group of scientific contributors!

“The devil will not stand by quietly and watch his realm decline and erode. He counterattacks with rage; his onslaught is fierce. One of the tricks he uses is to preoccupy Christian workers with issues that are detrimental to a healthy relationship with Christ. The scenario is all too familiar: a Christian worker gets busy in the ministry and work takes priority over relationship with God. He no longer has the time to sit at Jesus’ feet in quiet solitude and listen to God’s Word. Spiritual emptiness comes unnoticed and with it vulnerability to satan’s sifting (Luke 22:31-34); dishonest handling of monies or power or an illicit relationship is justified, and whoa! immorality has lured and sent such a Christian worker tumbling. He commits what he has preached against. Sin is dangerous. Sin is destructive. Its price is very costly—separation from God, irreversible stigma, damage to family relations, loss of ministry, loss of reputation, a black mark on God’s work, and the list goes on.” —Sobhi Malek

Our Creator gave us an amazing gift of the human brain! I love the fascinating new discoveries that scientists are continuing to make. Like this one: “To be spatially capable creatures, humans need their brains to tell them 1) where things are in relation to themselves and 2) where everything is in relation to everything else—the so-called allocentric map of space. To navigate an environment, the brain seems to generate a mental representation of its surroundings. This is often called a cognitive map.” Read more about our cognitive map here.

I hope you have had a chance to see the movie “Sound of Freedom.” Thankfully, this has gotten a lot of people talking about how to eliminate sex trafficking. Fight The New Drug has an excellent post on how you can spot and report human trafficking, and you should also check out Operation Underground Railroad, which was founded by Tim Ballard (whom Jim Caviezel portrays in the movie).

“It will be a comfort to me all my life to know that the scientist and the materialist have not the last word, that Darwin and Spencer, undermining ancestral beliefs, stand themselves on a foundation of sand.” —C.S. Lewis