Oswald Chambers | Craig T. Owens

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

October 3, 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.

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.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: boldness, Christianity, crisis, friendship, Good News, neighbor, Oswald Chambers, perseverance, tragedy. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—The Production Of A Saint

September 12, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

The Production Of A Saint

The production of a saint is the grandest thing earth can give to Heaven. A saint is not a person with a saintly character: a saint is a saintly character….

A saint is a living epistle written by the finger of God, known and read of all men. A saint may be any man… who discovering himself at Calvary, with the nature of sin uncloaked to him, lies in despair; then discerning Jesus Christ as the Substitute for sin and rising in the glamour of amazement, he cries out—“Jesus, I should be there.” And to his astonished spirit, he receives justification from all his sinfulness by that wonderful Atonement.

Then, standing in that great light, and placing his hands, as it were, over his Savior’s crucified hands, his feet over His crucified feet, he crucifies forever his right to himself, and He baptizes him with the Holy Spirit and fire, substituting in his a new principle of live, and identity of holiness with Himself, until he bears unmistakably a family likeness to Jesus Christ.

From Christian Disciplines

YES!!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: atonement, baptism, Calvary, forgiveness, holiness, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, justification, Oswald Chambers, repentance, saints, substitution. Leave a Comment »

Point Them To God

September 6, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Pastors, here’s some good counsel from Oswald Chambers—

“Oh for that man of God who will hand over to God that hearts God has called through him! It is not you who awakened that mighty desire in the heart; it is not you who called forth that longing in that spirit; it is God in you. Are you a servant of God? Then point them to Him.”

I love that! Point them to Him!

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: Oswald Chambers, pastoring, preaching. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Are You A Saint?

September 5, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Are You A Saint?

The New Testament idea of a saint is not a cloistered sentiment gathering around the head of an individual like a halo of glory, but a holy character reacting on life in deeds of holiness.

From Christian Disciplines

Artists usually depict saints the same way they depicted Jesus: Someone with an angelic face, a heavenly glow around the top of their head, looking longingly up into heaven.

In reality, saints aren’t solitary but are constantly involved with other people. If there’s a glow on their face, it’s probably a glow of glistening sweat. There are callouses on their hands, and dirt under their fingernails from helping others. And if they are looking up to heaven, it’s in a moment of prayer trying to discern what God wants them to do next.

A saint is busy trying to live more and more like Jesus, Who came to feed the hungry, heal the sick, encourage the brokenhearted, bring hope to the hopeless, and show the love of God in touchable ways.

Are you a saint?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: hard work, holiness, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, saints, work. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Spill Your Guts

August 29, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Spill Your Guts!

Perhaps to be able to explain suffering is the clearest indication of never having suffered. Sin, suffering, and sanctification are not problems of the mind, but facts of life—mysteries that awaken other mysteries until the heart rests in God, and waiting patiently knows “He does all things well.”

Oh, the unspeakable joy of knowing that God reigns! That He is our Father, and that the clouds are but “the dust of His feet”! Religious life is based and built up and matured on primal implicit trust, transfigured by Love; the explicit statement of that life can only be made by the spectator, never by the saint.

From Christian Disciplines

C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his most profound books, The Problem Of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Suffering has a way of getting us to what matters most by filtering out the things that were clamoring for our attention before. God speaks in our pain because God stepped into our pain. Jesus was called a Man of sorrows because He experienced every pain you and I will ever experience; in fact, He experienced it with even greater intensity that you and I can ever experience!

Are you in pain? Are you suffering? No one can know what is really in your heart, except the One who knows you better than even your closest friend. Spill your guts, don’t hold back, tell Him all that’s on your mind. He already knows your thoughts, so let loose in His presence, and feel how close your Comforter is to you.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: C.S. Lewis, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, pain, prayer, sin, suffering. 2 Comments »

Thursdays With Oswald—God’s Word In Hard Places

August 22, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

God’s Word In Hard Places

To search for a word of God to suit one’s case is never Divine guidance, but guidance by human caprice and inclination. The Holy Spirit Who brings to our remembrance what Jesus has said and leads us into all truth, does so to glorify Jesus Christ. Divine guidance by the Word always makes us realize our responsibility to God….

How often have our misunderstandings of God’s Word proved to us the need for the penetrating words of our Lord, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.” In our prayings, in our desirings, in our patience, does our knowledge of God enable us to say and really mean, “Speak, Lord; for Your servant is listening”? Would we really hear God’s Word, or are we not rather in this immediate tribulation waiting for God to persuade us that our own way is right after all?

From Christian Disciplines

There is a difference between saying, “God get me out of this” and “God, what do You want to get out of this?”

There is a difference between praying, “God, please bless what I’m doing” and “God, please show me what You’re blessing so that I may do it.”

We need to be very careful that we don’t read into Scripture something that will justify what we’re feeling or doing or experiencing. Instead, we need to let the Holy Spirit speak God’s Word to us clearly and without any hidden agenda.

I know your situation may be tough, but don’t try to find a shortcut out of it. Let God accomplish what He wants to accomplish; let His Word be your guide; let the Holy Spirit make that Word come alive to you.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: blessing, discipleship, God's glory, God's Word, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, maturity, Oswald Chambers, responsibility. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Doubting

August 15, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Doubting

Lord, I praise You for this place I am in; but the wonder has begun to stir in me—is this Your place for me? Hold me steady doing Your will. It may only be restlessness; if so, calm me to strength that I sin not against You by doubting.

From Knocking At God’s Door

I love the “realness” of this prayer!

I’ve been in this same place where Oswald Chambers was. Have you? I know that I know that God has called me to a certain place, but then I begin to second-guess that call. Perhaps challenges have come against me. Perhaps things aren’t moving as easily as I thought they should. Perhaps I don’t have the passion I once had.

Is this God speaking to me, or is this just my impatience? Am I restless because I’m dissatisfied, or am I restless because God is preparing to move me?

Whatever the case, I need to ask the Holy Spirit to calm me. It’s in those calm times that I am strengthened to hear God’s unmistakable Voice. I don’t want to make a rash decision based on the emotion of the moment; I want to clearly hear what God has to say to me. He will either reenergize me to stay put, or He will clearly show me it’s time to move.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: doubt, emotions, God's will, Holy Spirit, impatience, Oswald Chambers, prayer. Leave a Comment »

Sunday Morning Prayer

July 28, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Pastor, perhaps this prayer from Oswald Chambers should be one we pray each time we prepare to deliver a message…

“O Lord, that I might be brought into Your presence, and to see things from Your standpoint. I have to speak to Your people this morning, anoint me afresh, O Lord, with Your gracious Spirit. … O Lord, as we consider the ___ chapter of _______ this morning, light it up with Your glory; soften and subdue, inspire and thrill, and raise us on to the level of such glorious service that we may catch Your likeness.”