Counting Down 2012: #5 Pet (Pastoral) Peeve

December 28, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I am counting down the top 5 posts that I wrote in 2012, as determined by the number of views during this year. The 5th most read post is: Pet (Pastoral) Peeve.

One of my biggest pet peeves: hearing pastors say, “Ministry would be great if it weren’t for the people.”

Pastor: People ARE your ministry!

After Christ’s resurrection, He wanted to help restore Peter. Jesus asked Peter a simple question, “Do you love Me?” When Peter acknowledged that he did, Jesus gave Peter a way to show it: “Feed My sheep.” I believe this exchange is what Peter had in mind when he penned the words,

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:2,3)

Is it hard to be a shepherd? Yes.

Are some sheep difficult to shepherd? Yes.

Is it worth it to shepherd them? Yes, yes, YES!!

I love Oswald Chambers’ insight on this —

Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions—I have to feed His sheep.

Jesus, increase my capacity to love Your sheep. All of Your sheep—the ones that bite; the ones that are nice; the ones that are untidy; the ones that are clean; the ones that are thankful; the ones that are ungrateful; the ones that “get it”; the ones that don’t. All of YOUR sheep. Thank You, Lord, for the supreme honor and heavy responsibility of serving as Your under-shepherd.

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Thursdays With Oswald—God’s Honor Is At Stake

December 20, 2012 — 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. 

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.

God’s Honor Is At Stake

      As long as a Christian complies with the standards of this world, the world recognizes him; but when he works from the real standard, which is God, the world cannot understand him, and consequently it either ignores or ridicules him….

      God’s honor is at stake in my eyes, in my hands and feet; His honor is at stake wherever I take my body. My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, therefore I have to see that it is the obedient slave of the disposition Jesus Christ has put in to stand for Him.

From Biblical Psychology

God’s honor is at stake in how I live, so I must constantly allow the Holy Spirit to help me answer the questions, “How am I living?” and “How am I representing God?”

Here’s a passage of Scripture I try to keep in mind to help me answer those questions:

   But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:15-17)

In light of that passage from Peter and the wise words from Oswald Chambers, these are some good questions to ask ourselves:

Remember, “God’s honor is at stake in my eyes, in my hands and feet; His honor is at stake wherever I take my body.”

May God always be honored in the way that we all live!

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What Does It Mean To Fear God?

December 17, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Fear GodWhat does it mean to fear God? Does it mean we cower before Him? That He is utterly unapproachable? Or maybe it means we’re always looking over our shoulder wondering if God is coming after us in anger?

Let me ask the question another way:

  • Are you afraid that you won’t buy the right Christmas gift for someone?
  • Are you afraid that you’ll forget someone?
  • Are you afraid that your response won’t be right when you open a gift?
  • Are you afraid you’ll offend a family member by something you say or do?
  • Do other people’s opinion of you factor into your decisions?

If you answered “Yes” to the above questions, you have a fear problem. That is: you fear letting other people down.

I think this was the issue for Joseph in the Bible (Matthew 1:18-25). When he found out that Mary was pregnant before their marriage, Joseph carefully deliberated his response. Based on the meaning of the words had in mind and considered, and examining the way the angel told Joseph to “Fear not,” it appears that Joseph, too, lived in this same fear of letting others down.

But here’s the issue: Joseph placed greater value on people’s opinions than he did on God’s opinion. And what makes it even worse is that Joseph simply assumed what people would say about him, as he never actually asked anyone.

The angel challenged Joseph to re-evaluate his value system. To give greater weight to God’s opinion than to man’s opinion. In short, to change his fear of man to fear of God.

That’s really what it means to fear God: To give greater weight to His Word and His opinion than to anyone or anything else.

The wise king Solomon explored everything he could to find the meaning of life. He tried money, education, art, travel, women, food, power, and the like. At the end of his exploration, he came to this conclusion—

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

We should be living for the approval of an Audience of One. 

We should be longing to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” from our Creator. 

We should be listening only for the applause from nail-scarred Hands. 

“The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” —Oswald Chambers

If you have missed any of the messages in our Fear Not! series, you can find them all by clicking here.

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Thursdays With Oswald—The Etceteras

December 13, 2012 — 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 Etceteras 

     Do you regard yourself as a highly respectable, dignified Christian? Are you religiously self-important, placing yourself where you fancy you ought to be placed, in stately surroundings? If so, you are not following Jesus Christ’s example. 

     If you cannot do ordinary things and live as nobody anywhere, you are not a saint. Jesus left Heaven and lived nowhere of any importance all His earthly life. There is a religiosity that is inspired by the devil, that gathers its skirts around it and says, “No, I cannot be in ordinary places, or in ordinary avocations; I am a servant of God.” Then you will be found nowhere but in the very commonest of common places.

     You say you are called to be a missionary, a minister, a Christian worker: you are called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, other things are etceteras. 

From God’s Workmanship 

I can think of only one reasonable response to this: I need to go look in the mirror and ask the Holy Spirit to show me where I’ve been more focused on the etceteras than I have on being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

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Showers Of Blessings

December 7, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

My Word will not return emptyAs the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Pastor, please carefully read these words from Oswald Chambers, written nearly a century ago, but still so relevant for us today—

“God’s Word is a seed. The ‘seed-thought’ idea is one that preachers and evangelists need to remember. We imagine we have to plough the field, sow the seed, reap the grain, bind it into sheaves, put it through the threshing machine, make the bread—all in one discourse. … 

“The truth is we don’t believe God can do His work without us. We are so anxious about the word, so anxious about the people who have accepted the word; we need not be, if we have preached what is a word of God it is not our business to apply it, the Holy Spirit will apply it. Our duty is to sow the word, see that it is the word of God we preach, and not ‘huckster’ it with other things, and God says it will prosper in the thing whereto He sends it. …

“He says, ‘My word…will not return to Me empty.’ Every temptation to exalt the human, human experience, human interests and blessings, will fall short; the only thing that prospers in God’s hands is His own word.”

From God’s Workmanship, emphasis added

I need to be reminded of that again. Perhaps, my fellow pastor, you needed it to. This Sunday just preach the word God has given you, and then let the Holy Spirit take it from there. God WILL bring the harvest in His time.

UPDATE: In the final chapter of my book Shepherd Leadership (a chapter entitled “Applause”) I wrote this:

      Did you catch that? Twice Paul reminds us that it is God who makes things grow [1 Corinthians 3:4-8]. God, not man. So is the only successful ministry the one that harvests? How did they harvest without someone watering the seed? What exactly were they watering if no one had planted any seeds? And even with everyone doing the work, it is still God who makes things grow. 

      According to Paul, what does God reward? It’s not numeric growth, but shepherds “will be rewarded for their own hard work … the work the Lord gave us.”

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Thursdays With Oswald—Not A Happy Life, But A New Life

December 6, 2012 — 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.

Not A Happy Life, But A New Life 

     This attitude is spreading amongst us today amazingly, people are enchanted with the truth, sympathetic with the truth of God, but remaining in sin. “Repentance” is not in their vocabulary, only regret; there is no confession of sin, only admitting. Religion is turned into education, and the Christian life is made to mean a happy life instead of a new life. 

     Has God been convicting us of spiritual pose before Him? Have we taken the great passion of the Atonement and made it simply mean that we must have a right attitude to God? We have to have much more than a right attitude; we have to get into an active, living relation to God, the inspiration of which is a great deep true penitence. Have we forgotten all about penitence these days? Has penitence ever rung down to our very soul, or have we only known regret? Have we ever known what it is to confess our sin, to unfold our life before God until there is nothing folded up, and God’s penetrating truth has its way? If not, we shall find as [Ezekiel 33:31] reveals, that it is perilously easy to have amazing sympathy with God’s truth and still remain in sin. 

From God’s Workmanship

Sometimes my new life in Christ won’t be a happy life in Christ. Why? Because if I’m truly letting God’s Word penetrate my heart, I’m going to be unhappy with the sin His penetrating look reveals.

What will I do then? Will I just feel sorry for my sin? Or will I confess it, be penitent because of it, turn from it, and leave that sin behind?

That’s the new life God is calling me to.

A new life will become a happy life. But a happy life won’t become a new life.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Don’t Try To Be Humble

November 29, 2012 — 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.

Don’t Try To Be Humble

     Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 18:4)

     If humility were put up as an ideal it would serve only to increase pride. Humility is not an ideal, it is the unconscious result of the life being rightly related to God and centered in Him. … 

     If we are born again and obeying the Holy Spirit, we shall unconsciously manifest humility all along the line. We shall easily be the servant of all men, not because it is our ideal, but because we cannot help it. Our eye is not consciously on our service, but on our Savior. 

From Biblical Psychology

Humility is so very fragile. If you look at your humility, you cannot help feeling pride at how humble you are. And—poof!—your humility disappears.

Oswald Chambers says in essence, “Don’t try to be humble. Don’t look at your humility. Just keep your eyes on Jesus, and serve only Him.” By doing so, you cannot help but live humbly.

“If we are born again and obeying the Holy Spirit, we shall unconsciously manifest humility all along the line. We shall easily be the servant of all men, not because it is our ideal, but because we cannot help it.”

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Thursdays With Oswald—A Hard Word

November 15, 2012 — 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 Hard Word 

     Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word?—if you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear. … Our Lord has a perfect understanding that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible heartbreak is that some of us prevent its bearing fruit in actual life. … 

     Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus. It is a terrible thing to see how we keep Jesus Christ waiting. … We twist His words and debate about their meaning, we discuss His teachings and expound His Gospel, and all the time we leave Him absolutely alone because at the center of our heart there is the gnawing grip of one of His hard sayings that keeps us sorrowful, and He waits until we come and lay it all down. 

     All the time in between has been utterly wasted as far as Jesus Christ is concerned, no matter how active we have been, or how much we have been a blessing to others, because none of it has sprung from devotion to Him but from devotion to an idea….

     Not a question of saying, “Lord, I will do it,” but of doing it. There must be the reckless committal of everything to Him with no regard for the consequences. 

From God’s Workmanship (emphasis added) 

Jesus, when you speak a word to my heart—no matter how hard it seems—may I quickly obey what You have spoken. May I never waste time trying to figure it out, water it down, or soften a hard word, but may I be recklessly obedient to You.

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I’m Not In Control

November 13, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I am reminded again that my stressful feelings come because things are not going according to my plans. This can only mean one thing: Somehow I have let myself believe that I am in control of all my circumstances!

But I am not in control.

God alone is in control. He tells me not to be anxious, not to worry about tomorrow, but to come to Him to find rest.

Why, oh why, don’t I do this?!?

Enough! It’s time to once and for all give my concerns to the only One who can handle them.

“‘Come unto Me,’ says Jesus, ‘and I will give you rest.’ Do Jesus Christ’s words apply to me? Does He really know my circumstances? Fretting is sinful if you are a child of God. Get back to God and tell Him with shame that you have been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for Him. Ask Him to forgive you and say, ‘Lord, I take Thee into my calculation as the biggest factor now!’” —Oswald Chambers

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Thursdays With Oswald—The Bible

November 8, 2012 — 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 Bible

      The revelation of God’s will has been brought down to us in words. The Bible is not a book containing communications from God, it is God’s revelation of Himself, in the interests of grace; God’s giving of Himself in the limitation of words.

      The Bible is not a faery romance to beguile us for awhile from the sordid realties of life, it is the Divine complement of the laws of Nature, of Conscience and of Humanity, it introduces us to a new universe of revelation facts not known to unregenerate commonsense. The only Exegete of these facts is the Holy Spirit, and in the degree of our reception, recognition, and reliance on the Holy Spirit will be our understanding. …

      The Bible does not simply explain to us the greatest number of facts, it is the only ground of understanding of all the facts, that is, it puts into the hand of the Spirit-born the key to the explanation of all mysteries. …

      The Bible tests all experience, all truth, all authority, by our Lord Himself and our relationship to Him personally….

From God’s Workmanship

Quite simply: The only authoritative Source we need to understand all the facts of life is the Bible.

Are you reading it? Every day? If not, make it a habit to live on and live through. It is God’s Word to you!

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