Signing A Blank Check

January 17, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

In our current series on prayer, we’re using the prayer that Jesus taught as our pattern. Yesterday we looked at this part of the pattern:

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is all about trust. It’s about acknowledging to God that He is in control and He knows what’s best. It’s not about me coming into His presence and telling Him how things should work. I love the quote from C.S. Lewis:

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “All right then, have it your way.”

When we come into God’s presence in prayer, we say, “Before I ask You for what I need, I want You to know that I trust You. No matter what.” In essence, we sign a blank check and trust God to fill in the amount.

And, by the way, the verb for “Your kingdom come” in this model prayer is an imperfect verb. That means that we have to keep on signing those blank checks, as we keep on submitting to His will and His kingdom.

Are you willing to sign a blank check to God?

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Thursdays With Oswald—A Passion For Christ, Not Souls

January 6, 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.

A Passion For Christ, Not Souls

       The reason some of us have no power in our preaching, no sense of awe, is that we have no passion for God, but only a passion for Humanity….

       It is not a passion for men that saves men; a passion for men breaks human hearts. The passion for Christ inwrought by the Holy Spirit goes deeper down than the deepest agony the world, the flesh and the devil can produce. It goes straight down to where Our Lord went, and the Holy Spirit works out, not in thinking, but in living, this passion for Christ.

From Approved Unto God

Wow, tough word. But it’s true: If I love Christ more than my loved ones, I will love my loved ones even better. A passion for Christ will win others to Christ; a passion for souls will only lead to building my ministry.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Whose Approval?

December 30, 2010 — 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.

Whose Approval?

     The Gospel of Jesus Christ awakens an intense craving and an equally intense resentment. Base on personal love for the Lord, not on personal love for men. Personal love for men will make you call immorality a weakness, and holiness a mere aspiration; personal love for the Lord will make you call immorality devilish, and holiness the only thing that can stand in the light of God. The only safety for the preacher is to face his soul not with his people, or even with his message, but to face his soul with his Savior all the time.

From Approved Unto God

As a pastor, if I endeavor to please men, I cannot call sin “sin,” nor can I call people to holiness before God. If I love the approval of people more than I love the approval of God, I must naturally water things down.

I must live for the applause of nail-scarred Hands alone.

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The Case For Christmas (book review)

December 20, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Virgin birth? The accuracy of the biblical account? God in flesh? These are all intriguing questions that crop up especially around the Christmas season, which is why The Case For Christmas by Lee Strobel is a timely read.

Lee Strobel investigates the fantastic claims that Christians make about the birth of Jesus Christ with all of the cool-headed dispassion of a newspaper journalist. Beginning with his own skepticism about the miracle of the virgin birth of Christ, Mr. Strobel seeks out the sharpest minds who have thoroughly researched the key areas surrounding this subject. In a book that reads a little like a detective story, we get to sit in on some of the fascinating interviews Mr. Strobel conducted for this book.

Whether you are an atheist, a doubter, or a wholehearted believer, there is much to ponder in The Case For Christmas. At only 96-pages long, you can read this book prior to Christmas Day, and gain a better appreciation for the true meaning behind CHRISTmas.

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What Do You Know About Leadership…

December 10, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

…and what are you doing with it?

I read an interesting verse about King David:

And David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been highly exalted for the sake of His people Israel.

“David knew” reminds me of a line from Jesus’ life: Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power (John 13:3).

David and Jesus both knew that their positions of leadership were God-granted. And with that knowledge, they both wanted to further expand God’s Kingdom.

They didn’t keep the power for themselves; they didn’t lord it over others; they didn’t hoard the blessings; they didn’t use their leadership for personal gain; they used their God-granted authority to serve others.

They were confidently humble leaders.

If you are in a position of leadership, it’s not for you nor is it because of you. Leadership is from God, through you, to benefit others and to expand His Kingdom.

What do you know about leadership … and what are you doing with it?

UPDATE: This is one of the seed thoughts that went into my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter.

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Thursdays With Oswald—The Master’s Standard

November 18, 2010 — 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 Master’s Standard

     Jesus Christ’s standard for the worker is Himself. Am I allowing His standard to obsess me? Am I measuring my life by His all the time? The one standard put before us is Our Lord Himself; we have to be saturated in this ideal in thinking and in praying, and allow nothing to blur the standard. We must lift up Jesus Christ not only in the preaching of the Gospel but to our own souls. If my mind and heart and spirit is getting fixed with one Figure only, the Lord Jesus Christ, and other people and other ideas are fading, then I am growing in grace. The one dominant characteristic in the life of the worker is that Jesus Christ is coming more into the ascendant. The motive is not a sentiment but a passion, the blazing passion of the Holy Ghost in the soul of the worker; not—“because Jesus has done so much for me,” that is a sickening, unscriptural statement. The one attitude of the life is Jesus Christ first, second, and third, and nothing apart from Him. The thing that hinders God’s work is not sin, but other claims which are right, but which at a certain point of their rightness conflict with the claims of Jesus Christ. If the conflict should come, remember it is to be Jesus first.

From Approved Unto God

Am I measuring my life by His all the time? Great question!

Am I?

Are you?

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Thursdays With Oswald—Work-In-Progress

November 11, 2010 — 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.

Work-In-Progress

     If you are a worker whom God has sent, and have learned to live under His shadow, you will find that scarcely a day goes by without your Father revealing the need of further chastening. If any child of God is free from the goads of God, he is not in the line of the succession of Jesus Christ.

From Approved Unto God

The writer of Hebrews said the same thing…

And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as His children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when He corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child.”

It’s true: No pain, no gain. God will continue to work on you and me as His child.

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Private Good Deeds

November 8, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Betsy and I went to school conferences and discovered that our youngest son has been staying after school—by his own choice—to help his teacher tidy up the classroom. Are you kidding me?! This is the first I had heard of this. Wow, am I one proud Dad!

I’m not sure if he knows this verse or not, but Brandon is living out what Jesus said:

Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

He’s serving just because he wants to serve. I didn’t know about it, but his Heavenly Father did. Thank you, Brandon, for giving me this wonderful example of servant leadership!

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Attractional Or Missional?

November 5, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Yesterday was a full day at The And Conference. I’m so glad I came to this! All day long I had so many thoughts swirling through my head and emotions tugging at my heart.

The idea behind And comes from the conundrum of The Tyranny of Either-Or versus The Genius of Both-And. Is there a way for two seemingly opposing ideas to coexist, or even to enhance each other? In the case of this conference, the both-and/either-or tug is between attractional churches and missional churches.

Yesterday I listened to profound thinkers like Alan Hirsch, Rob Wegner, Hugh Halter, Matt Carter, and Dave Ferguson. Many of them shared their personal tension with the attractional/missional models. There were so many other terms that were thrown around too.

But sitting in my hotel room last night debriefing, I began to think about Jesus. He is the only One to ever balance both-and perfectly.

  • He both attracted and repelled people.
  • He both called and sent.
  • He was both in the church and in the community.
  • He was both religious and irreligious.
  • He spent time with both crowds and individuals.
  • He was both attractional and missional.

Of course, the Bible doesn’t use any of these terms—they’re all man-made—but Jesus embodied them all.

He embodied them.

He was Himself.

He is “I AM.”

That’s what I want: To be myself … be who God created me to be … be more and more conformed to the image of Jesus … be listening more attentively to the counsel of the Holy Spirit.

If I am myself, terms like missional and attractional will take care of themselves.

(By the way, I’ll be tweeting throughout the conference again today. Follow me on Twitter here, and search for the hashtag #and10.)

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Creativity

November 2, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Even being “Boring” can make the message memorable!

God is Creator, which means His creativity knows no limits. One of the ways I love seeing His creativity on display is in the ways His love story is communicated to humanity. The prophets used some highly creative and sometimes startling ways to get God’s message across. But I especially like how Jesus communicated the message of the Kingdom of God to His audience.

He used…

  • Seeds and sheep
  • Farmers and friends who needed a late-night snack
  • Lost coins and lost sons
  • Grapes and goats
  • Pearls and prodigals
  • Stuffy judges and smart bride’s maids
  • Bridegrooms and buildings
  • Banquets and bread
  • Servants and silver coins

He told people who had gotten locked into an inaccurate interpretation of Scripture, “You have heard it said…but I tell you” just to get their attention.

These simple, everyday, common items reminded people of the eternal message. The objects didn’t become the message, but just a way to remind and reinforce the biblical truth Jesus was sharing.

That’s why I use poker chips … Lego pieces … plastic eggs … bookmarkers … flip-flop key chains … aluminum tabs from pop cans … glow sticks … and even name tags to creatively tell the Creator’s love story in a memorable way.

How are you using God’s creativity to tell His story?

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