Isaiah | Craig T. Owens

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What If I Sin?

May 7, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

I have been trumpeting this truth: God is for you! He’s not looking for opportunities to blast you, but to bless you. God wants you to know that you have found His favor.

But what happens if we sin? Do we lose God’s favor? In a word—NO!

Here’s what happens instead: God becomes our Prodigal Father.

Let me show you from both the Old Testament and the New Testament what I mean, but first, let’s define prodigal: it means recklessly extravagant or lavishly abundant. This is always how God treats His children.

In Isaiah 59, the prophet reminds us that nothing about God’s strength or ability to respond to our pleas has been diminished. Instead: your sins have separated you from your God—we can leave God, but He never leaves us!

Isaiah catalogs all our sins that have become a quicksand trap for us. God looks to see who can help us, and finding no one, here’s what He does: so His own arm worked salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him.

God did what was underserved. God did what no one else could do: HE HIMSELF BECAME OUR SALVATION!

If ever there was a definition of recklessly extravagant, lavishly abundant love… this is it!!

In Luke 15, Jesus tells a story that people often call the story of the prodigal son, but it’s really the father who is prodigal. The son squanders all his father’s blessings on wild living and finds himself bankrupt, starving, and completely disgraced. But the moment the son came to his senses and began to move toward his father by confessing his sin, his prodigal father ran to him!

Jesus tells us this father was overflowing with compassion. There wasn’t anything his son could have done to diminish the father’s love, nor was there anything the son could have done to make his father love him more. The father was all-loving all the time. He was recklessly extravagant and lavishly abundant in his love.

The father RAN to his son and covered his son’s disheveled, stinking rags with his royal robe.

This is exactly what Isaiah said God would do for us…

instead of ashes, we get a crown
instead of rags of mourning, we get an anointing of gladness
instead of a spirit of despair, we get a garment of praise
instead of shame, we get a double portion of God’s riches
instead of disgrace, we get God’s inheritance

How does all this happen? Our Prodigal Father abundantly, lavishly “clothes me with garments of salvation and arrays me in a robe of righteousness”!!

Don’t ever buy into satan’s lies that God loves you less, or that you’ve used up your changes, or that your sins are too many or too big. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from ALL unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Join me this coming Sunday either in person or on Facebook Live as we learn more about God’s favor toward us.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, Billy Graham, Calvary Assembly of God, confession, disgrace, forgiveness, God's favor, God's love, Gospel of Luke, grace, Isaiah, Jerry Bridges, prodigal, repentance, sermon, sin, video, YouTube. 8 Comments »

Thursdays With Oswald—Isaiah 42

May 3, 2018 — 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.

Isaiah 42

[These are notes on Oswald Chambers’ lecture on Isaiah 42.]

If you want to know what a servant of God is to be like, read what Isaiah says in this chapter and the following ones about the great Servant, Jesus Christ. The characteristics of the great Servant must be the characteristics of every servant; it is the identification of the servant of God with the immortal characteristics of God Himself.

In service for God we have to be abandoned to Him, let Him put us where He will, whether He blesses us or crushes us with burdens, we have nothing to do with what it costs. … May God make us understand that if we are in His service He will do exactly what He likes with us. We are not saved and sanctified for ourselves, but for God to crush us with burdens if He chooses. … A servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to go to martyrdom for the reality of the Gospel of God. …

The servant is absorbed in Jesus as He was in God. The mark of false service is the self-conscious pride of striving after of God’s favor. …

The whole conception of the work of a servant of God is to lift up the despairing and the hopeless. Immediately you start work on God’s line He will bring the weak and infirm round you, the surest sign that God is at work is that that is the class who come—the very class we don’t want, with the pain and the distress and limitation. We want the strong and robust, and God gathers round us the feeble-minded, the afflicted and weak. Pain in God’s service always leads to glory. We want success, God wants glory.

From Notes On Isaiah

God calls His followers to be servus servorum Dei: a servant of the servants of God. We don’t seek glory for ourselves, but we seek glory solely for God. We live our lives just as Jesus demonstrated: “Not My will, but Yours be done.”

Are you living as a true servant of God?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, encourager, God's glory, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, martyrs, Oswald Chambers, servant, servanthood. Leave a Comment »

Realizing God’s Favor

April 30, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

“It was because of His grace that God the Father sent His only Son to die in our place. To say it another way, Christ’s death was the result of God’s grace; grace is not the result of Christ’s death.” —Jerry Bridges

God had been showing us His love throughout the Old Testament period, but the Advent of Jesus made it abundantly and unmistakably clear that God is for us!

Check out how Luke focuses on God’s favor in a way that no other Gospel writer does:

John (the one who would announce the arrival of Jesus) means Jehovah is a gracious Giver.
Elizabeth (John’s mother) said that God had not only shown His favor to her by making her pregnant, but she also said God had removed her disgrace.
Mary (the mother of Jesus) was greeted by the angel with the phrases “You are highly favored” and “You have found favor with God.”
On the night of Christ’s birth, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
Jesus, in His first public sermon, quoted Isaiah’s words, saying He had come to proclaim God’s favor.

But please notice this truth—We don’t try to find or earn God’s favor. It’s already there; we just need to realize it’s there!

You see, we don’t grow in God’s favor, nor do we get more favor, but we progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with God’s favor that is already there. Check out what Moses said:

If I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with You, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and clearly and that I may find favor in Your sight (Exodus 33:13)

The angel said to Mary, “You are HIGHLY FAVORED” (Luke 1:28). God uses the same word when He says to us: God made us ACCEPTED in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).

How can this be?? Because on the Cross, Jesus switched places with us. He took all our sin and DISgrace, and gave us all of His righteousness. Now when God the Father looks at us, all He sees is the righteousness of His Son. Now all praise to God for His wonderful kindness to us and His favor that He has poured out upon us because we belong to His dearly loved Son (TLB).

God’s grace is undiminished. It is as full today as it ever has been. God could never love you more than He already does. God could never love you less because of anything you do. Keep your eyes on Him and you will find just how much favor He has for you!

Join me this Sunday either in person or on Facebook Live as we continue to learn more about God’s favor.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, Calvary Assembly of God, Cross, disgrace, Elizabeth, Ephesians, Exodus, favor, God's favor, Gospel of John, Gospel of Luke, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, Mary, Moses, righteousness, sermon, video, YouTube. 9 Comments »

Thursdays With Oswald—Isaiah 30

April 26, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

Isaiah 30

[These are the notes on Oswald Chambers’ lecture on Isaiah 30.]

The test of true religion is the knowledge of the character of God. As long as you think of God in the quietness of a religious meeting you will never know God—what kind of God have you got when you are in touch with the wrong, bad, evil things? God’s Book reveals that it is right in the midst of the very opposite of God that His blessings occur. The very things which seem to be making for destruction become the revealers of God. It is an easy business to preach peace when you are in health and have everything you want, but the Bible preaches peace when things are in a howling tumult of passion and sin and iniquity; it is in the midst of anguish and terror that we realize Who God is and the marvel of what He can do. …

God makes His people sing where in the eyes of the world it seems ironical to sing—in a besieged city where things are going to ruin, in the suburbs of hell, in the valley of the shadow of death. When you see lives in the midst of turmoil and anguish full of amazing brightness and uncrushable elasticity of faith in God, if you do not know God you will say, “However can they go through it? how is it that they remain undiscouraged and undismayed?” The explanation is the presence of God made real in His promises.”

From Notes On Isaiah

When you go through a “howling tumult” there are some things to remember:

God is with you
God is in control
God will help you sing through the storm
Others are watching you
God can be glorified in your undismayed faith in His presence through the tumult

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Bible study, character, faith, God's blessing, God's presence, God's promise, God's Sovereignty, Isaiah, Oswald Chambers, testimony. Leave a Comment »

15 Reasons Not To Fear

April 24, 2018 — 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.

In the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, there is a lot of doom-and-gloom prophecy about coming judgment. But as the fortieth chapter opens, there is a decidedly more upbeat outlook as prophecies about the Messiah and the coming of God’s Kingdom unfold before us.

Fittingly, there is a recurring phrase that wasn’t heard in the first 39 chapters of Isaiah—FEAR NOT.

Why does Isaiah tell us so many times to banish fear? Here are 15 reasons that God gives:

God says, “I am with you.”
God says, “I will strengthen you.”
God says, “I will uphold you.”
God says, “Those who contended with you shall be as a nonexistent thing.”
God says, “I will hold your hand.”
God says, “I am in control.”
God says, “I will make you into something irresistible.”
God says, “Everyone will see the amazing things I will do for you.”
God says, “Anything apart from Me is worthless.”
God says, “I have redeemed you.”
God says, “You are Mine.”
God says, “I know you by name.”
God says, “I will go through floods and flames with you and you will not be drowned or burned.”
God says, “Nothing ever takes Me by surprise.”
God says, “I alone am God and everyone else is a mere man.”

Bottom line: God’s Word gives us ample reasons to root out fear from our heart.

Read these promises for yourself in Isaiah 41:10, 13, 14; 43:1-2; 44:8; 51:12.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, God's presence, God's promise, God's strength, God's Word, Isaiah, no fear, video. Leave a Comment »

God Is For You!

April 23, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

I’m going to make a statement that might shock some people.

Some of you who have been around Christianity might have heard this before, and you may even mentally agree with it. But even people who mentally agree with it want to add a “Yeah, but…” to it. Or they mentally agree with it but don’t live like it’s true.

Ready? Here it is …

God is for you.

Far too many people mistakenly think God is looking for an opportunity to punish them; He’s trying to catch them doing something wrong; He’s perched on the edge of heaven with lightning bolts of judgment in His hand. God doesn’t want to blast you; He wants to bless you!

Although the word favor appears quite frequently in Scripture, God’s favor is also implied in the word grace, which means God’s unmerited favor.

It’s unmerited because none of us is worthy of God’s favor; it’s not something anyone can earn. We have all sinned, and therefore we’re all worthy of the death penalty. Every single one of us!

I have worshipped idols, I have blasphemed God’s name, I have broken the Sabbath, I have dishonored my parents, I have coveted, I have lied, I have committed adultery, and I have murdered. And so have you (see James 2:10).

Do you understand what Jesus did for us on the Cross? HE SWITCHED PLACES WITH US!

Jesus became my sin, and He made it possible for me to become His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Check this out:

For God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God’s goodness into us!

Don’t allow the devil’s lies of your unworthiness keep you from missing out on this truth. All of us are unworthy of God’s favor. But God demonstrated that He was for us when Jesus died on the Cross in our place. Now there is no more guilt, no more condemnation, absolutely nothing standing in the way of all of God’s unmerited favor because

GOD IS FOR YOU!

Join me next Sunday as we continue with our series called God’s Favor. You can either join me in person or on Facebook Live.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Bible study, Book of James, Calvary Assembly of God, Communion, Cross, Eucharist, God's favor, grace, Isaiah, Jerry Bridges, Jesus Christ, Romans, sermon. 11 Comments »

Thursdays With Oswald—Isaiah 24-29

April 19, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

Isaiah 24-29

[These are notes on Oswald Chambers’ lecture on Isaiah 24-29.]

The Bible reveals that the material world has been blighted by reason of man’s sin. … Man was intended by God to govern Nature (see Genesis 1:26); instead, he has infected it with his sin and it has become a partaker of the curse with him, so that “the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”

Men say “We are going to build a holy city on this earth”—you cannot; the earth is infected, it is a diseased chamber, and the holy city will never be on it until God has purged it with fire and taken the epidemic out of it. … God cannot bring in the Millennium by moral renovation, but only by cremation….

The great note of the Bible revelation is not immortality but Resurrection. The doctrine of the Resurrection is that something comes from God Himself direct into the dust of death. … He has swallowed up death forever, the sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation’ (Isaiah 25:8-9). …

The judgments of God are for another purpose than the vindictive spirit of man would like to make out. … You never find that spirit in the prophets; if there is destruction and death it is for one purpose only—deliverance. God is on the line of salvation, not of damnation; He only damns the damnable things. …

In our own day we seem to have come to the conclusion that God has made a number of blunders and we have to put them right; we have private notions of our own which if put down in black and white would prove that we do not believe God is intelligent in allowing the history of the world to go on as it has, in allowing sin and war. … We won’t see that behind the whole thing is the wisdom of God, that neither bad men nor the devil himself can do one thing without the direct permission of God. …

The devil likes to make us believe that we are in a losing battle. Nothing of the sort! We have to overcome all the things that try to obscure God. The rugged truths of Isaiah point out not only the appalling state of the world as it is, but that we have to live a holy life in it by the power of God, not a sequestered life in particular temples or rituals, but real genuine magnificent men and women of God, no matter what the devil or the world or the flesh may do.

From Notes On Isaiah

Are you letting God be God? Are you letting God resurrect you and make you holy? Are you giving in to the lie of the devil that you are losing the battle, or are you letting God speak to your mind that you are one of the real genuine magnificent men and women of God who are shining His light and love in a diseased world?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Bible study, Christianity, devil, Genesis, God's Sovereignty, Isaiah, judgment, lies, millennial reign, Oswald Chambers, prophet, resurrection, sin. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Isaiah 13-23

April 12, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

Isaiah 13-23

[These are the notes on Oswald Chambers’ lecture on Isaiah 13-23.]

Isaiah’s message needs to come home to us today—that God is behind the devil, not the devil behind God; all the great world forces are in front of God, and they cannot do a thing without His permission. Today we are so emphasizing the freedom of the human will that we are forgetting the sovereignty of God, consequently when we come up against the forces at work in the world we are paralyzed by fear and get into despair, which we need never have done if we had been built up in faith in God. … Stand strong in faith in God—“I don’t understand this, but I know God is behind it.” …

There is no cowardice about Isaiah or about his message. He never lost his faith in God or got discouraged, and when the things he foretold happened, he did not desert the people. …

Behind everything stands God; behind the tumult and the confusion God is bringing out everything according to His will. The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. … All the forces outside you are futile because they are less powerful than the indwelling of God (see 1 John 4:4). … Discouragement comes when we say what God will do—that God will always keep me healthy, that He will always be bringing me into the land of Canaan where I will eat honey; well, He won’t. God is concerned about only one thing—getting me into a personal relationship with Himself. There is no possibility of discouragement if we will only remember that this is the relationship, not God’s blessings, but Himself.

From Notes On Isaiah

When the news of the day, or events in the world, or even what’s happening in your personal life starts to rattle you, consider how Isaiah handled himself. Isaiah knew enemies were closing in, and that the day of God’s judgment was fast approaching too, but he never got fretful. Why? He kept his eyes on God.

God is sovereign. He is in control. Nothing ever takes Him by surprise. Keep your eyes on Him. And remember: “All the forces outside you are futile because they are less powerful than the indwelling of God.”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 John, Bible study, devil, discouragement, God's blessing, God's Sovereignty, Isaiah, no fear, Oswald Chambers, relationship. Leave a Comment »

Both Immovable And Flexible

April 11, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

The vision of Isaiah…in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah (Isaiah 1:1).

Israel (the 10 northern tribes) was in the final stages of collapse, with kings only serving short spans, idolatry running rampant, and enemies closing in on every side. Isaiah boldly proclaimed that Judah was on the same path unless she repented and turned wholly to God.

Isaiah had the same message for four kings:

Uzziah—who started off well, but fell away from God
Jotham—who faithfully served God
Ahaz—who never wanted to serve God
Hezekiah—who led a powerful revival in the return to worshiping God alone

Isaiah’s message never waivers. Through 66 chapters, 4 monarchs, and 60 years of ministry, Isaiah never compromises, waters down, nor alters the message God has given him.

But he does use different methods to deliver God’s consistent message—sometimes he thunders, sometimes he weeps, sometimes he uses illustrated messages, sometimes he speaks plainly, and sometimes he uses word pictures.

A mark of a godly leader is one who is both immovable and flexible.

Immovable on God’s principles; flexible on his delivery.

Can that be said of you and me?

This is part 21 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts on this topic by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: consistency, flexibility, Isaiah, Israel, Judah, leadership, principles. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Isaiah 8-11

April 5, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

Isaiah 8-11

[These are notes from Oswald Chambers’ lecture on Isaiah 8-11.]

God did not give a progressive revelation of Himself through the Old Testament: the people progressively grasped the revelation, which is very different. …

The remarkable thing is that when Jesus Christ comes, every one of the things the prophets have been saying fit in with one Personality, the Being whom we know as the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah never saw Jesus Christ, he could not have imagined Him, then what inspired him? The very Mind of God (see 2 Peter 1:20). …

Fear is apt to make us atheistic and in our outlook we enthrone the devil, not God. God is behind it all, not a thing happens but He knows all about it. …

If we try to draw our breath from any other source we instantly get diseased. By prayer and communion with God we live out in God’s moral open air, consequently we can live in the cities and amongst the places of men and maintain the life which is in accordance with the Messiah’s life…. The enemy of our souls goes for all he is worth against our praying, against our solitudes with God, he tries to prevent us drawing our breath in the fear of the Lord. The great need is to bring every thought and imagination into captivity to the obedience of Christ until every bit of our nature is reconstructed.

From Notes On Isaiah

In these four chapters of Isaiah, the kings of Judah are facing enemies closing in from all sides and fear is mounting. Isaiah keeps speaking a word from the Lord that amounts to God saying this: Stop focusing on your troubles and focus on Me instead!

It’s a good reminder for us still today. God is in control. Let me say that again: God is in control! Let His perfect love and His perfect power drive out fear from your heart. Keep your eyes on Him, not on the problems coming against you. Let your thoughts be captivated by Jesus, and you will be reconstructed from the inside out with the nature of Christ.