Oswald Chambers | Craig T. Owens

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10 People Every Christian Should Know (book review)

November 12, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

10 People Every Christian Should Know is a quick survey of notable Christian movers and shakers from the 1600s through the 1960s. Warren Wiersbe gives us a quick overview of their lives, attempting to whet our appetites to learn more about them.

By no means are these in-depth biographies, but rather short biographical sketches of their lives. Rev. Wiersbe quotes from other biographies and works written by the person being studied to give us insight into why they belong on this “Top 10” list. Each chapter contains Rev. Wiersbe’s recommendations about which books to read by or about that person to go deeper in your study of their life and beliefs.

I don’t have any arguments with the list of distinguished people who made this list, and I found the book recommendations in each chapter helpful, as well as the extensive list of reference books and biographies at the end of the book. The only thing I found slightly off-putting was Rev. Wiersbe’s commentaries into why the spiritual experiences of some of the subjects weren’t what they were portrayed to be. It would have been far better for him to simply say, “Here’s what happened, and here’s where you can read more.” Other than that, I would recommend this book as a great starting point for anyone who loves studying history as much as I do.

By the way, the Top 10 people covered in this book are:

Matthew Henry—Bible commentator
Jonathan Edwards—pastor
John Henry Cardinal Newman—pastor
J.B. Lightfoot—Bible translator
J. Hudson Taylor—missionary
Charles H. Spurgeon—pastor
Dwight L. Moody—pastor
Amy Carmichael—missionary
Oswald Chambers—professor
A.W. Tozer—pastor

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: A.W. Tozer, Amy Carmichael, biography, book review, Charles Spurgeon, church history, Dwight Moody, Hudson Taylor, J.B. Lightfoot, Jonathan Edwards, Matthew Henry, Oswald Chambers, Warren Wiersbe. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Our Broken Treasures

November 7, 2013 — 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.

Our Broken Treasures

It is a revelation of pure joyousness in which the child of God pours into the Father’s bosom the cares which give pain and anxiety that He may solve the difficulties. Too often we imagine that God lives in a place where He only repairs our broken treasures, but Jesus reveals that it is quite otherwise; He discerns all our difficulties and solves them before us.

We are not beggars on the one hand or spiritual customers on the other; we are God’s children, and we just stay before Him with our broken treasures or our pain and watch Him mend or heal in such a way that we understand Him better.

From Christian Disciplines

I think we sometimes forget the infinite capacity of our Heavenly Father. He is All-Loving: no one has ever—or can ever—love more completely and deeply than He does. He is also All-Powerful: there isn’t anything that limits His potency. What an amazing combination! If God were only loving but not powerful, we couldn’t be sure He was able to answer our prayer. If God were only powerful but not loving, we wouldn’t be comfortable about bringing our concerns to Him.

But He is Both! And as such, we should have such rock-solid confidence that He not only can answer prayer, but that He wants to answer prayer. He answers, as Oswald Chambers says, in ways that reveal more of His nature to us, so that we can understand Him better and better through each answered prayer.

“Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: assurance, confidence, God's love, God's power, Heavenly Father, Oswald Chambers, peace, prayer, treasure. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Strength For Others

October 31, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Strength For Others

The real reason for prayer is intimacy of relationship with our Father.

We kneel, how weak, we rise full of power.

Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong

For others that we are not always strong,

That we are ever overcome with care

That we should ever weak or heartless be

Anxious or troubled, when with us is Prayer

And joy and strength and courage are with Thee?

From Christian Disciplines

It’s a pretty simple principle: I cannot give to others what I do not possess.

Jesus rose early in the morning to find a place of private prayer (see Mark 1:35) so that He would be filled with His Father’s presence and able to meet the pressing needs of people that day. Why, oh why, don’t I follow my Lord’s example more?

People all around me need encouragement, light, hope, love. I cannot give what I do not possess. But I can possess these things in abundance if I will make use of prayer to tap into that intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father.

Prayer provides the strength I need for the day, so that I can provide the strength that others need for the day. Without prayer, I not only rob myself of God’s help, I rob others as well.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: anxiety, discouragement, encouragement, God's power, God's strength, help, intimacy, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, poetry, prayer, relationship. 2 Comments »

If Thou Wilt Be Perfect (book review)

October 29, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Oswald Chambers points out something very interesting in his book If Thou Wilt Be Perfect: discipleship with Jesus is optional.

Chambers writes: “Whenever our Lord speaks of discipleship He prefaces what He says with an ‘IF.’ ‘If any man come after Me….’” So this book focuses on the IFs of discipleship, reminding us that is optional for us to step into this deeper relationship with Jesus.

Each chapter was originally a lecture that Chambers gave at the Bible Training College in 1912, and they clearly reveal the mindset that drives him. Most of the chapters/lectures are entitled “The Philosophy Of …” so you will gain a deeper insight into how Oswald Chambers reads the Bible and applies the truths there to the Christian walk.

As I have said before, there are few authors who challenge me to go deeper in Christ than Oswald Chambers. All of the chapters are meaty, but well worth your time and attention.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, book review, discipleship, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—The Purpose Of Prayer

October 24, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

The Purpose Of Prayer

The purpose of prayer is the maintenance of fitness in an ideal relationship with God amid conditions which ought not to be merely ideal but really actual….

So in the better and new way of breathing spiritually in prayer, we shall be conscious of forming the habit, but it will soon pass into normal spiritual health, and it must never be worshipped as a conscious process.

From Christian Disciplines

Chambers is saying that prayer ought to be as natural to us as breathing. In order to get to this place, we must develop the habit of prayer, which mean disciplining ourselves to return to prayer when we might normally revert to another natural response.

But in forming the habit of prayer, we must not become like the Pharisees who worshipped their spiritual activities. They thought they were spiritual because of what they did, so they kept track of all they were doing, and they pointed to how many times each day and each week they had prayed. In essence, they worshipped prayer more than they worshipped the God they were supposed to be addressing in prayer.

The habit of prayer does take discipline (as the title of this Oswald Chambers book suggests), but it leads us to a life fully engaged in God’s presence. It’s a habit that is well worth the disciplined effort!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: discipline, habits, Oswald Chambers, Pharisees, prayer, relationship. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Confident Access

October 17, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Confident Access

It is not our earnestness that brings us into touch with God, nor our devotedness, nor our times of prayer, but our Lord Jesus Christ’s vitalizing death; and our times of prayer are evidences of reaction on the reality of Redemption, so we have confidence and boldness of access into the holiest.

What an unspeakable joy it is to know that we each have the right of approach to God in confidence, that the place of the Ark is our place, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness.” What an awe and what a wonder of privilege, “to enter into the holiest,” in the perfectness of the Atonement, “by the blood of Jesus.”

From Christian Disciplines

It’s not what I do that gives me access to God, but what Jesus already did! He paid the price that was beyond my reach so that I can now come directly into God’s presence in full confidence that He will receive me.

Amazing love!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: atonement, confidence, forgiveness, God's holiness, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, prayer, redemption. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—The Vocation Of A Saint

October 10, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

The Vocation Of A Saint

The vocation of a saint is to be in the thick of it “for His sake.” Whenever Jesus Christ refers to discipleship or to suffering, it is always, “for My sake.” The deep relationship of a saint is a personal one, and the reason a saint can be radiant is that he has lost interest in his own individuality and has become absolutely devoted to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

From Christian Disciplines

As the Westminster Catechism states: The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

It is in this glorifying of God and the enjoyment of Him that the saint becomes radiant. And this radiance continues even through suffering or persecution. Am I willing to step into this discipleship relationship, and stay in it? YES!!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: discipleship, God's glory, Oswald Chambers, persecution, relationship, saints, suffering, Westminster Confession. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Do I Have “Will-Issues”?

October 3, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Do I Have “Will-Issues”?

You will find the supreme crisis in your life is “will-issues” all the time. Will I relinquish? Will I abandon? It is not that God won’t make us fit, it is that He cannot. God cannot make us fit to meet Him in the air unless we are willing to let Him. He cannot make us fit as the dwellings of His Son unless we are willing….

From Christian Disciplines

Think of how Jesus approached people in the gospels: Will you follow Me? Will you sell your possessions to become My disciple? Will you let Me heal you? Will you take up your cross and deny all else?

Too many times I have a tendency to answer, “Yes, but….” Instead of simply surrendering my “will-issues” to Christ, I want to call the shots, at least some of them. But Jesus says clearly:

“If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be My disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27, NLT)
“So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33, AMP)

Holy Spirit, help me to give up my will-issues!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: disciples, discipleship, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, surrender, will. 2 Comments »

Thursdays With Oswald—Time To Get Active

September 26, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Time To Get Active

We must take heed that in the present calamities, when war and devastation and heart-break are abroad in the world, we do not shut ourselves up in a world of our own and ignore the demand made on us by our Lord and our fellow-man for the service of intercessory prayer and hospitality and care.

From Christian Disciplines

Instead when times are tough, Christians ought to be at their best! Open your eyes and you will see opportunities all around you to pray, to open your home, and to open your arms.

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

It’s time to open your eyes and get active!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Christianity, faith in action, good deeds, hard times, heartache, hospitality, intercession, Jesus Christ, love, Oswald Chambers, prayer, war. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Speak Out Now

September 19, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Speak Out Now

How many of us in times of peace and civilization bother one iota about the state of men’s hearts towards God? Yet these are the things that produce pain in the heart of God, not the wars and the devastation that so upsets us. The human soul is so mysterious that in the moment of a great tragedy men get face to face with think they never gave heed to before, and in the moment of death it is extraordinary what takes place in the human heart towards God.

From Christian Disciplines

Many people will question their beliefs during times of crisis and change. It’s fine for the church and Christians to be there during those times of upheaval, but it’s far better for us to be there before the upheaval.

I developed a friendship with my next door neighbor for seven years and never had a chance to share very much about my faith in Christ. But when a tragedy hit his life, his first phone call was to me and then I had an opportunity to really share with him. Why did he reach out to me? Because I already had a relationship with him.

Let’s not wait until a tragedy strikes to begin to share the Good New of Jesus, but let’s speak out now. Be a great neighbor, coworker, study partner, friend, citizen now so that there is an open door for those folks to come to you when their life is in crisis.