Thursdays With Oswald—The Agonizing Grip Of God’s Hand

June 30, 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.

The Agonizing Grip Of God’s Hand

     Never choose to be a worker; but when once God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. We are not here to work for God because we have chosen to do so, but because God has apprehended us. There is never any thought of, ‘Oh, well, I am not fitted for this.’ What you are to preach is determined by God, not by your own natural inclinations. Keep your soul steadfastly related to God, and remember that you are called not to bear testimony only, but to preach the gospel. Every Christian must testify, but when it comes to the call to preach, there must be the agonizing grip of God’s hand on you, your life is in the grip of God for that one thing.

From My Utmost For His Highest

The agonizing grip of God’s hand: so empowering and at the same moment so humbling.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Your Theology May Be Wrong

June 23, 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.

Your Theology May Be Wrong

     Never be afraid if your circumstances dispute what you have been taught about God; be willing to examine what you have been taught, and never take the conception of a theologian as infallible; it is simply an attempt to state things. … Theology is the science of religion, an intellectual attempt to systematize the consciousness of God.

From Baffled To Fight Better

Far too many times I catch myself believing something just because someone else told me that was the right way to do things. I’m sure my teachers and pastors were well intentioned, but that doesn’t make them infallible.

Only the Word of God is infallible.

When someone asks you, “Why do you do that?” or “Why do you believe that?” the unacceptable response is, “Someone told me this was the way.” Get into God’s Word and find out for yourself. A theologian may start you off on a path, but allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate God’s infallible truth to you personally.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Unconscious Blasphemy

June 16, 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.

Unconscious Blasphemy

     For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one.

From My Utmost For His Highest

To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

God is ABLE to make you His saint.

Jesus is WILLING to make you His saint.

The Holy Spirit is WORKING to make you His saint.

Will you let Him?

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Thursdays With Oswald—Are You Obstinate?

June 9, 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.

Are You Obstinate?

     The difference between an obstinate man and a strong-minded man lies just here: an obstinate man refuses to use his intelligence when a matter is in dispute, while a strong-minded man makes his decision after having deliberately looked at it from all standpoints, and when opposed, he is willing to give reasons for his decision.

From Baffled To Fight Better

So are you obstinate or strong-minded?

Consider what Henry Ward Beecher wrote:

“The difference between perseverance [strong-mindedness] and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.”

So are you obstinate or strong-minded?

The Apostle Paul knew something about being strong-minded:

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:13-14, NLT)

So are you obstinate or strong-minded?

It’s a good question to both ask and answer. I would hope that I’m strong-minded, never obstinate.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Stay Away From Controversies

June 2, 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.

Stay Away From Controversies

     That is the danger of putting theology first; it leads a man to tell a lie in order to be consistent with his point of view. …In a theological dispute the theologian is apt to put his point of view in the place of God. … Only one man in a thousand can maintain his spiritual life and controvert; he may increase his intellectual vim, but he does not increase his spiritual grasp of things. Dr. Alexander Whyte put this better than any other when he said:

     “…Eschew controversy, my brethren, as you would eschew the entrance to hell itself. Let them have it their way; let them talk; let them write; let them correct you; let them traduce you; let them judge and condemn you; let them slay you. Rather let the truth of God suffer itself, than that love suffer. You do not have enough of the divine nature in you to be a controversialist.”

From Baffled To Fight Better

Augustine prayed: “Heal me of this lust of mine of always vindicating myself.”

When David was attacked he prayed: “I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me” (Psalm 57:2).

Who cares what others say? Who cares if you “lose” the argument? What does God say? Let Him—and Him alone—vindicate you.

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Thursdays With Oswald—The First Thing

May 26, 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.

The First Thing

     If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He will always press the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

From My Utmost For His Highest

I am so good at making my own plans, and only later calling on God when confusion erupts. How much better it would be if I would involve God first.

I’m trying to learn this.

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Thursdays With Oswald—No Spiritual Experts

May 19, 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.

No Spiritual Experts

     There are no experts in spiritual matters. The spiritual expert is never so consciously because the very nature of spiritual instruction is that it is unconscious of itself; it is the life of a child…. Our Lord describes the expert in Matthew 18:4—“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

From Baffled To Fight Better

Your spiritual journey is unique to all other humans.

Your relationship and experience with God is unique to all other humans.

The Holy Spirit will make you an expert in your relationship with the Heavenly Father, if you will just listen to Him. So let God be as original with you as He is with everyone else.

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Thursdays With Oswald—A Strong Weakness

May 12, 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 Strong Weakness

Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. (Job 10:20-21)

     “I see no way out,” says Job. He lies down, not in weakness, but in absolute exhaustion. Job is not talking in a petted mood, but saying that unless God will be a Refuge for him, there is no way out, death is the only thing. In every crisis of life, as represented in the Old Testament as well as in the teaching of Our Lord, this aspect of God is emphasized—“God is our Refuge”; yet until we are hit by sorrow, it is the last thing we seek for God to be. There is a difference between the weakness of refusing to think and the weakness that comes from facing facts as they really are. Job is seeing for the first time that God is the only Refuge, the only way out for him; yet he cannot get at Him through his creed, it is all confusion; the only thing to do is to fling himself on God.

From Baffled To Fight Better

“The only thing to do is to fling [myself] on God.”

Alas, how many times does this become my last resort! Why don’t I learn to fling myself on God my Refuge as my first resort? I must remember this: For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

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Thursdays With Oswald—Revised Views Of God

May 5, 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.

Revised Views Of God

     The sign of dishonesty in a man’s creed is that he finds out defects in everyone save himself. … Trouble always arises when men will not revise their views of God. … It is a most painful thing for a man to find that his stated views of God are not adequate….

     The man who rests in a creed is apt to be a coward and refuse to come into a personal relationship with God. The whole point of vital Christianity is not the refusal to face things, but a matter of personal relationship.

From Baffled To Fight Better

Every time I read God’s Word I should be confronted with the reality that I don’t know it all. I don’t have it figured out. That’s because the Word is perfect, and I’m not. So the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to point out flaws in my creeds and theology that need to change.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

I also need to remember that a creed is a cold, impersonal thing. But my relationship with Jesus Christ is vibrant and personal. Just as I continue to learn new things about my wife (even after 21 years of marriage), I continue to learn new things about my Savior (even after 40+ years of walking with Him).

Changing and revising my creeds is a sign of a mature, healthy relationship.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Don’t Explain; Pray

April 28, 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.

Don’t Explain; Pray

     Eliphaz claimed to know exactly where Job was, and Bildad claims the same thing. Job was hurt, and these men tried to heal him with platitudes. The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God…. Job’s friends never once prayed for him; all they did was to try and make coin for the enrichment of their own creed out of his sufferings.

From Baffled To Fight Better

Great reminder: The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is…get into contact with God on their behalf. 

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