More Than A Carpenter (book review)

November 29, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

more-than-a-carpenterHolidays are usually really good times for Christians to start up a conversation about their faith. Especially Christmas. C’mon, Christ’s name is the main part of CHRISTmas, right?! But I realize as well that some folks are reluctant to begin such a conversation because they think they might be at a loss as to what to say. This is where More Than A Carpenter by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell will be an excellent ally.

Christians and atheists alike found More Than A Carpenter compelling reading when it was first published nearly 40 years ago. Now the book has been given a makeover, incorporating new discoveries that have further validated the book’s content, and adding a new chapter by Sean McDowell specifically addressing the “new atheists.”

Jesus is an historical character. He actually lived and walked and died and was resurrected in places that are verified by historical records. And yet Jesus was so much more than merely a person in history. His life impacted history in ways that are still being discovered today. His life is still changing the trajectory of people’s lives today.

Clearly Jesus was much more than merely a first century carpenter! 

In easily-readable language, Josh and Sean arm you with all of the evidence you will need to have compelling conversations about Jesus.

  • You will learn about the historical accuracy of the authors who recorded the details of Jesus Christ’s life.
  • You will learn what science, philosophy and archeology verify about His life.
  • You will get insight into the arguments that some atheists use to deny Christ’s deity, and how you can offer alternative facts to counteract those arguments.
  • And you will hear about Josh’s personal life-changing encounter with this Carpenter from first-century Israel.

This is a phenomenal book for you to read as we head into this CHRISTmas season. This is also a great resource for you to put into the hands of someone who is skeptical or even antagonistic toward the claims of Christians. In short: you will be better prepared to have meaningful conversations with others after you have read More Than A Carpenter!

I am a Tyndale book reviewer.

If you would like to access a ton of great resources associated with More Than A Carpenter, I highly recommend you check out the Josh McDowell Ministry’s store by clicking here.

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8 Quotes From “Jesus Always”

November 23, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

jesus-alwaysSarah Young does a masterful job in speaking the words of the Bible to us through the first-person voice of Jesus Christ in her book Jesus Always. Be sure to check out my review by clicking here. Below are a few quotes from this keepsake book.

“Train your mind to think great thoughts of Me! Many Christians are defeated by focusing mainly on less important things—the news, the weather, the economy, loved ones’ problems, their own problems, and so on. Granted, in this world you will have trouble, but don’t let troubles become your primary focus. Remind yourself that I am with you and I have overcome the world.”

“Be careful not to attach your sense of worth to your performance. When you’re dissatisfied with something you have done, talk with Me about it. … Your imperfect performance reminds you that you are human. It humbles you and helps you identify with flawed humanity. Since pride is such a deadly sin—the one that ultimately led to satan’s expulsion from heaven—being humbled is really a blessing. So thank Me for the circumstances that have diminished your pride, and draw near to Me.” 

“Praying not only blesses you but provides an avenue for serving Me. Rejoice that you can collaborate with Me through prayer as I establish My kingdom on earth.”

“When the task before you looks daunting, refuse to be intimidated. Discipline your thinking to view the challenge as a privilege rather than a burdensome duty. Make the effort to replace your ‘I have to’ mentality with an ‘I get to’ approach. … Remember that My Spirit who lives in you is the Helper; ask Him to help you when you’re perplexed.”

“Do not despise suffering. It reminds you that you are on a pilgrimage to a far better place. … While you continue your journey through this world, be thankful for the comforts and pleasures I bless you with. And reach out to others who are suffering. I comfort you in all your troubles so that you can comfort others. Offering help to hurting people gives meaning to your suffering—and Glory to Me!”

“Your natural tendency when you’re feeling anxious is to focus on yourself and your problems. The more you do this, the more you forget about Me and all the help I can supply. This worldly focus only increases your anxiety! Let the discomfort you feel at such times alert you to your neglect of Me. Whisper My Name, and invite Me into your difficulties.”

“Today is the time to delight in the blessings I have provided. Since you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, make the most of what you have today: family, friends, talents, possessions. And look for opportunities to be a blessing to others.”

“Thank Me frequently; be on the lookout for My blessings, searching for them as for hidden treasure. Praise Me not only in prayer and song but in your words to other people. Tell them about My marvelous deeds; declare how great I am!”

I will be sharing more quotes from Jesus Always in the near future. If you want to be notified as soon as these quotes are posted, please subscribe by entering your email address in the right column.

I’ve also been sharing quotes from this book (and lots of other high-quality authors) on both Twitter and Tumblr. If you’re not following me there, please do so.

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Jesus Always (book review)

November 22, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

jesus-alwaysDo you ever feel like you need to hear a personal word from Jesus? If you do, Jesus Always by Sarah Young can give you a daily dose of personal messages.

The whole Bible is God lovingly speaking to us, but sometimes we miss that it is His personal word to us. Sarah Young has done a beautiful job in weaving together Scriptural promises, and then having them speak to us in the first-person voice of Jesus. Somehow hearing the words of The Word spoken in a format that sounds so personal made it much easier for me to apply to my life.

Each day’s message contains the encouraging or challenging word in Christ’s voice, with direct quotations from the Bible italicized. Then at the bottom of the page are listed the references in the Bible, so you can read the entire biblical passage.

I have found so many days that Christ’s word to me was just what I needed to hear, or just what I needed to pass along to a friend who was struggling. I think Jesus Always will be an excellent addition to anyone’s library.

I am a Thomas Nelson book reviewer.

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Faith, Feelings & Facts

November 21, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

We walk by faith, not by appearance (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Lettie Cowman“By faith, not appearance; God never wants us to look at our feelings. Self may want us to; and satan may want us to. But God wants us to face facts, not feelings; the facts of Christ and of His finished and perfect work for us.

“When we face these precious facts, and believe them because God says they are facts, God will take care of our feelings.

“God never gives feeling to enable us to trust Him; God never gives feeling to encourage us to trust Him; God never gives feeling to show that we have already and utterly trusted Him. God gives feeling only when He sees that we trust Him apart from all feeling, resting on His own Word, and on His own faithfulness to His promise. Never until then can the feeling (which is from God) possibly come; and God will give the feeling in such a measure and at such a time as His love sees best for the individual case.

“We must choose between facing toward our feelings and facing toward God’s facts. Our feelings may be as uncertain as the sea or the shifting sands. God’s facts are as certain as the Rock of Ages, even Christ Himself, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.” —Lettie Cowman

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Thursdays With Oswald—Happiness Or Holiness?

November 17, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Oswald ChambersThis 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.

Happiness Or Holiness?

     “Beauty” means the perfectly ordered completeness of man’s whole nature. When once a man’s mind is upset, that beauty begins to go, the equilibrium is upset. This accounts for the characteristic tendency abroad today: ignore sin, deny it ever was; if you make mistakes, forget them, live the healthy minded, open-hearted, sunshiny life, don’t allow yourself to be convicted of sin. … 

     Happiness means we select only those things out of our circumstances that will keep us happy. It is the great basis of false Christianity. The Bible nowhere speaks about a “happy” Christian; it talks plentifully of joy. … Happiness would be alright if things were reasonable; it would be ideal if there were no self-interest, but everyone of us is cunning enough to take advantage somewhere, and after a while my inclination is to get my happiness at your cost. … 

     What kind of peace had Jesus Christ? A peace that kept Him for thirty years at home with brothers and sisters who did not believe in Him; a peace that kept Him through three years of popularity, hatred, and scandal; and He says, “My peace I give unto you”; “let not your heart be troubled,” i.e., “see that your heart does not get disturbed out of its relationship to Me.”

     But remember Jesus Christ has to upset the old equilibrium first. When a man is probed into by the Spirit of God, the waters of his conscious life get troubled and other ideas emerge. If I am going to follow the dictates of the Spirit of God and take up the attitude of Jesus Christ to things, it will produce an earthquake in my outlook. … “If you would be My disciple, says Jesus that is the cost.” …

     Take up any attitude of Jesus Christ’s and let it work, and the first thing that happens is that the old order and the old peace go. You cannot get back peace on the same level. If once you have allowed Jesus Christ to upset the equilibrium, holiness is the inevitable result, or no peace forever (Matthew 10:34). 

From The Shadow Of An Agony

Quite simply: I can live for my own happiness, or I can allow my “happiness” to be momentarily upset by allowing the holiness of God to reign in my heart.

Happiness eventually comes to an end, but holiness ultimately leads to the enjoyment of God forever!

The choice is yours: “IF you would be My disciple….”

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Horatius Bonar On The Last Days

November 10, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Horatius Bonar“Evil has not diminished; the human heart has not improved; sin has not been dried up; evil men and seducers wax worse and worse; and the last days are the worst. Errors multiply; infidelity is leavening society, and working its way into the Church of God. The Bible is assailed; the gospel is denied; the Cross is ridiculed; the blood is repudiated; the authority of Christ—Prophet, Priest, and King—is disowned. satan, too, still works death still triumphs; pain and disease are still at large, working woe and havoc in God’s creation. Does not this look like weakness? Does it seem as if evil had got the upper hand entirely? Yet, in spite of all these strange phenomena in Christ’s own history and that of His Church, the apostle declares, ‘He is not weak;’ He is not weak in Himself; He is not weak to us. Whatever may be the cause of these anomalies, it is not weakness, and never has been so. The weakness is only in appearance; and even that appearance is but temporary.

“Yes, says the apostle, He is mighty. Whatever appearances may say; whatever we might be tempted to infer from the power of the world and the weakness of the church; from the prevalence of evil and the scantiness of good; from the depression of His friends, and the elevation of His enemies—He is mighty—mighty in Himself, and in all things pertaining to Him. His Word is mighty; His gospel is mighty; His purposes are mighty; the arm with which He wields the world’s scepter, and holds satan’s bridle, is mighty. He is mighty over the world, and in the world; mighty over the church and in the church, and in behalf of the church; so mighty, that no weapon forged against her, or against one saint, shall prosper; so mighty, that she is entirely safe—secure in the midst of danger, and wiles, and power. All His strength is ours; it belongs to the Church; it belongs also to each member of His body. We are strong in the Lord.” —Horatius Bonar, in Light And Truth: Revelation

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Thursdays With Oswald—Is Your Christianity Actual Or Only Ideal?

November 10, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Oswald ChambersThis 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.

Is Your Christianity Actual Or Only Ideal? 

     Christianity is not adherence to a set of principles—righteousness, goodness, uprightness—all these things are secondary. The first great fundamental thing about Christianity is a personal relationship to Jesus Christ which enables a man to work out the ideal and actual as one in his own personal life. … 

     We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities; they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. “But what about the devil-possessed world?” “Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.” … It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, and the mountains are meant for inspiration and meditation; but a man is taken there only in order that he may go down afterwards among the devil-possessed and lift them up. … 

     God won’t clear up our social conditions; Jesus Christ is not a social Reformer, He came to alter us first, and if there is any social reform done on earth, we will have to do it. … 

     If we cannot live in the demon-possessed valley, with the hold of God on us, lifting up those who are down by the power of the thing that is in us, our Christianity is only an abstraction.

From The Shadow Of An Agony

Jesus Christ did not stay on the mountaintops with His Father, aloof from the needs of people. He went away for times of refreshing, but always came back to the messiness of people’s lives.

Can the same be said of our Christianity? Are we content with merely knowing we are going to Heaven? Or are we daily going into the valleys to rescue those oppressed and held captive by the devil?

Ideal Christianity wants to be alone with Jesus on the mountain. Actual Christianity—that Jesus modeled for us—meets with Christ on the mountain only to be strengthened for the work in the valley. 

Is your Christianity actual, or only ideal?

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T.M. Moore On Prayer

November 9, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

T.M. Moore“God has provided us with inspired scripts to guide us in our prayers. When words fail us in prayer—and they will fail us often—we have God’s own Word to guide us…. The Psalms offer us words to guide our praise and thanks, words to express our fears and failures, words to enlarge the scope of our prayers, enrich the power of them, and rest the hope of them in the mighty and saving works of God. …

“God has given us three great helps to assist us in our prayers. His Spirit groans for us; His Word guides us; and His Son governs and intercedes for us. …

“If we’re not praying, if prayer is not the defining discipline of believers and their churches, then what are we doing in the Name of the Lord? All those programs. All that frenzied activity. Those buildings and staff, budgets and grounds—what’s all this for, if not to promote and practice prayer without ceasing?

“Prayer, in the last analysis, is not about the things of men, but the things of God. It’s not about seeing things or making requests as we see or want them to be, but as God does, according to His agenda in Christ Jesus. If we keep trying to make prayer be about the things of men, we’ll never get to the things God really wants us to realize through prayer. A precondition for effective prayer, therefore, is that we make up our minds going in, that what we want in prayer is God’s will, not ours—the world and our lives as God intends them, not as we might wish they could be. …

“You cannot pray in Jesus’ Name if all you’re really seeking is to add a little comfort, convenience, or pleasure to your life. …

“The grace gained in prayer will flow through us like rivers of living water to touch others with life.” —T.M. Moore

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Is The Bible Outdated?

November 7, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

A.W. Tozer“Today’s world was entirely unimaginable to the people of those times [those living in Christ’s day]. Have these changes forced God to modify His plans for His church and for mankind? Here is where we have fallen by the wayside. Here is where we need a reformation, a purgation, a removal of the faults, and the restoration again of the faith of Christians to believe in the truth. … ‘Do you think God has been forced to change His mind?’ I do not think anybody would quite have the courage to say yes. Nevertheless, they do say it little by little until they have brainwashed their people. In effect, they say that the Bible must be interpreted in the light of new developments. A Book that was written in the day when people rode donkeys must be reinterpreted to mesh with contemporary society. They say that the prophets and apostles mistook what God intended to do. The Bible is outdated and largely irrelevant. … I challenge the idea that we are any further advanced than they were in the days of Jesus. If we are so advanced, then I want to ask some questions. Why do we kill thousands of human beings each year with automobiles? Because we ride automobiles instead of donkeys, we are advanced? If we are so advanced in our day, why are the penitentiaries packed full and the mental hospitals crowded? If we are so advanced, why is the whole world a powder keg? If we are so advanced, how is it that we have weapons that can annihilate the world? If we are so advanced, why is it that people cannot walk alone in the parks anymore? Why is it that workers who get out at midnight never walk home alone anymore? Why is it in this advanced age that drugs, violence, abortion, and divorce are soaring?

“We have been brainwashed to believe that we cannot read the Bible as we used to. We must now read it through glasses colored by change. We have been hypnotized by the serpent, the devil, into believing that we no longer have a trustworthy Bible.

“Has God changed? Are we going to accept it? Is there a change in the purpose of God? Have the changes in human society startled or shocked God? … We believe that God Almighty has not changed and that Jesus Christ is the same. He is victorious, and we do not have to apologize for Him. We do not have to modify, adjust, edit, or ame

nd. He stands as the glorious Lord, and nobody needs to apologize for Him.” —A.W. Tozer

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Thursdays With Oswald—Out Of The Soup And Into God

November 3, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Oswald ChambersThis 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.

Out Of The Soup And Into God

     As long as we have our morality well with in our own grasp, to talk about Jesus Christ and His Redemption is “much ado about nothing”; but when a man’s thick hide is pierced, or he comes to his wits’ end and enters the confines of an agony, he is apt to find that there is a great deal from which he has been shut away, and in his condition of suffering he discovers there is more in the Cross of Christ than intellectually he had thought possible.

     Beware of believing that the human soul is simple; look at yourself, or read the 139th Psalm, and you will soon find the human soul is much too complex to touch. When an intellectualist says that life is simple, you may be sure he is sufficiently removed from facts to have no attention paid to him. Things look simple as he writes about them, but let him get “into the soup,” and he will find they are complicated. The only simple thing in human life is our relationship to God in Christ.

     Circumstances are the things that twist a man’s thinking into contortions. … 

     The problem I am up against is the muddle inside. Can I see a way out there? Is the God I have only an abstraction? If so, don’t let me treat Him as anything else. Or is He One with Whom I can get into a personal relationship, One Who will enable me to solve my problems? 

From The Shadow Of An Agony

Problems tend to make crystal-clear the difference between how we thought things worked and how they actually work.

This is equally true of those who think they have God all figured out. Then along comes a trial, a pain, a tragedy and they realize they don’t have all the answers. What then?

Then it’s time, as Chambers suggests, to return to something like Psalm 139 to see how intimately God knows you, and to see that your dark time did not take Him by surprise. Getting “into the soup” may be just the thing to help you get into God. It’s so true: “The only simple thing in human life is our relationship to God in Christ.”

May all your problems draw you deeper into Jesus Christ!

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