Pentecostal | Craig T. Owens

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8 Quotes About The Holy Spirit From “God’s Pursuit Of Man”

September 4, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

A.W. Tozer shows how important the Holy Spirit is in bringing us into a deeper relationship with the fullness of the Godhead in his book God’s Pursuit Of Man. Check out some quotes on this subject.

“One of the most telling blows which the enemy ever struck at the life of the Church was to create in her a fear of the Holy Spirit.”

“The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy. The holy heart alone can be the habitation of the Holy Ghost.”

“For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No, He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fill and indwell His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.”

“God will not surprise a doubting heart with an effusion of the Holy Spirit, nor will He fill anyone who has doctrinal questions about the possibility of being filled.”

“If the Spirit takes charge of your life He will expect unquestioning obedience in everything. He will not tolerate in you the self-sins even though they are permitted and excused by most Christians. By the self-sins I mean self-love, self-pity, self-seeking, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, self-defense.”

“However wonderful the crisis experience of being filled with the Spirit, we should remember that it is only a means toward something greater: that greater thing is the lifelong walk in the Spirit, indwelt, directed, taught and empowered by His mighty Person.”

“We must make our thoughts a clean sanctuary for His holy habitation. He dwells in our thoughts, and soiled thoughts are as repugnant to Him as soiled linen to a king.”

“The Spirit indwelt life is not a special deluxe edition of Christianity to be enjoyed by a certain rare and privileged few who happen to be made of finer and more sensitive stuff than the rest. Rather, it is the normal state for every redeemed man and woman the world over.”

You can read some other quotes from this book by clicking here.

You can read my review of God’s Pursuit Of Man by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: A.W. Tozer, baptism, book review, Christian, doctrine, fear, holiness, Holy Spirit, Pentecostal, personal experience, quotes, selfishness, theology. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

August 6, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading & viewing from today…

As the fellowship I grew up in celebrates its 100th anniversary, I love reading quotes like this: “Worldwide, 95% of Assemblies of God adherents lived outside the United States in 2013. In the U.S., over 41% of Assemblies of God adherents were non-white. In the U.S., the white constituency has decreased by 34,922 over the past ten years, while the number of non-white constituency has increased by 433,217.”

An excellent post for unmarried people, and the friends who care about them: 4 Lies Single People Need To Stop Believing.

[VIDEO] Millions of dollars in “humanitarian aid” for the Palestinian people has been hijacked by Hamas to build tunnels into Israel for their terrorist schemes.

“God’s sovereignty means that His design for us cannot be frustrated. Nothing, absolutely nothing, befalls those who love God and are called according to His purpose, except what is for our deepest and highest good (Romans 8:28; Psalm 84:11).” —John Piper

“Since God does in fact address man in His Word, He obviously regards him as addressable in spite of the fact that man as a sinner closes his ears and heart to Him.” —Karl Barth

“Your gift makes you a servant, not a master.” Read more in: Use Your Knowledge To Serve Others.

“In a time when everything in the world seems to be vanity, God is depending on us to proclaim that He is the great Reality, and that only He can give meaning to all other realities.” —A.W. Tozer

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: A.W. Tozer, apologetic, Assembly of God, Bible, biblical truth, church history, gifting, God's Sovereignty, God's will, Hamas, Israel, John Piper, Karl Barth, marriage, Pentecostal, quotes, servanthood, single life, statistics, video, witnessing. Leave a Comment »

Revival

August 1, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

As I consider the Pentecostal heritage in which I was raised (and our fellowship’s 100th anniversary), I’ve been thinking about revival. Here are a few quotes I have been pondering…

“As a historian, three things increasingly impress me about awakenings in church history: first, that they really do occur, and—from medieval, monastic revivals through classic evangelical awakenings to modern Pentecostal renewal—they really have brought great benefit to the church. Second, revivals tend to exaggerate, so that along with the real benefit often come increased problems like exalted opinions of one’s self in God’s general design. Third, most of the circumstances that have made a permanent difference in spreading the Gospel and deepening the church’s understanding of the Gospel have taken place in ordinary church settings rather than revivals.” —Mark Noll, historian

“Love for people doesn’t merely say, ‘Here’s the seed, take it or leave it.’ Love pleads, love persuades, and love prays. Love prays until its dying breath for that wonderful, ordinary work of the Spirit to save one here and one there, month after faithful month. And love prays for that extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit that we call revival. … Let us pray without ceasing and labor without sparing for the greatest blessing on this day’s sowing, that it would be blessed with reaping, and that it would be a part of God’s plan to bring extraordinary seasons of harvest and holiness to the church and to the nations.” —John Piper

“You often find people in the world are more desirable, easier to get on with, than people in the Kingdom. There is frequently a stubbornness, a self-opinionativeness, in Christians not exhibited by people in the world. If there is to be another Revival it will be through the readjustment of those of us on the inside who call ourselves Christians.” —Oswald Chambers

What do you think?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Christian, church, church growth, church history, discipleship, John Piper, love, Mark Noll, Oswald Chambers, pastoring, Pentecostal, revival. Leave a Comment »

Like A River

July 31, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I am proud of my Pentecostal heritage. Both my parents and grandparents grew up in the Assemblies of God, and saw firsthand powerful moves of God. This year (2014) marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the A/G fellowship. Check out this video from 1964 when the A/G was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Assembly of God, church history, heritage, Pentecostal, video. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

July 28, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading (and watching) from today…

This year will mark the centennial celebration of the Assemblies of God fellowship. I am so blessed to have this as not only my heritage, but my current affiliation as well. This video was made at the 50th anniversary … what a rich history!

“The part of wisdom is to accept our Christian brothers and sisters for what they are rather than for what they should be. … An old Italian proverb says, ‘He that will have none but a perfect brother must resign himself to remain brotherless.’ However earnestly we may desire that our Christian brother go on toward perfection, we must accept him as he is and learn to get along with him. To treat an imperfect brother impatiently is to advertise our own imperfections.” —A.W. Tozer

“The wise man does nothing but what can be done openly and without falseness, nor does he do anything whereby he may involve himself in any wrong-doing, even where he may escape notice. For he is guilty in his own eyes before being so in the eyes of others; and the publicity of his crime does not bring him more shame than his own consciousness of it.” —Ambrose

Mark Atteberry says he is hopelessly uncool. I pray I am too!

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards is so out of touch! And to think, our taxes dollars fund this sort of nonsense!

When I read this article about dinosaur extinction, all I could think of was: “If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas!”

“The Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in the United States estimates that 100,000 Christians now die every year, targeted because of their faith—that is 11 every hour. The Pew Research Center says that hostility to religion reached a new high in 2012, when Christians faced some form of discrimination in 139 countries, almost three-quarters of the world’s nations.” Read more of this eye-opening article.

Links & Quotes

July 20, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading from this weekend…

“What most Americans—and the world—hear about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas goes something like this: ‘125 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed by Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza. No Israelis have yet been killed.’ This may be true, but there is absolutely no context to it. One must look at the methodologies of the two sides.” Read more in this post: The Moral Difference Between Israel And Hamas.

If Planned Parenthood did so much work to prevent women from needing abortions, then why are they the nationwide leaders in performing abortions?! Read how Planned Parenthood responded to their certificate of death award.

“Christianity at any given time is strong or weak depending upon her concept of God. … Our religion is little because our god is little. Our religion is weak because our god is weak. Our religion is ignoble because the god we serve is ignoble. We do not see God as He is…. A local church will only be as great as its conception of God. An individual Christian will be a success or a failure depending upon what he or she thinks of God.” —A.W. Tozer

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“Give us a pure heart, that we may see Thee, a humble heart, that we may hear Thee, a heart of love, that we may serve Thee, a heart of faith, that we may live Thee, Thou, Whom I do not know, but Whose I am.” —Dag Hammarskjöld

“Whether we call ourselves classical evangelicals, traditionalists, fundamentalists, Pentecostals, or charismatics, we all have to face our lack of real power and call out for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. We need the fresh wind of God to awaken us from our lethargy. We must not hide any longer behind some theological argument. The days are too dark and dangerous.” —Jim Cymbala

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: A.W. Tozer, abortion, Christian, church, courage, Dag Hammarskjöld, Eleanor Roosevelt, fear, God's power, Hamas, Holy Spirit, Israel, Jim Cymbala, Pentecostal, perseverance, Planned Parenthood, prayer, pro-life, quotes, strength. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

July 14, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading & watching from today…

[VIDEO] Derek Jeter has been a classy baseball player (even if he does play for the Yankees!). This Nike video tribute to The Captain is also very classy and well deserved. #Re2pect

[VIDEO] This is a lot of fun: Toy Wars.

I have to agree with this: Israel’s ‘Reasonable’ Response To Hamas.

“For real business at the mercy seat give me a homemade prayer, a prayer that comes out of the depths of your heart, not because you invented it, but because the Holy Spirit put it there. Though your words are broken and your sentences disconnected, God will hear you. Perhaps you can pray better without words than with them. There are prayers that break the backs of words; they are too heavy for any human language to carry.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Generous pastors lead generous churches, and generous churches embody the true Spirit of Christ, Who gave Himself a ransom for all.” —T.M. Moore

“Dr. Horton was a giant, not because of his impressive achievements, but because he embodied what it meant to have a servant’s heart. I pray that his legacy of godliness and servanthood live on in future generations of Pentecostal scholars.” Read more about the life of Dr. Stanley Horton.

This is a hard-hitting piece, but it is definitely on-target. Too many churches are selling out on the pro-life message. Read Faith & Forceps.

“…While man and woman are equally valuable in God’s image, and while both of them have essential and satisfying roles to play in the drama of God-exalting human life, nevertheless men bear a primary (not solitary) responsibility for leadership and protection and provision in the human race. Therefore they bear a representative role when it comes to accountability (Genesis 3:9; Romans 5:12-14). This unique calling is a responsibility to bear in sacrificial love, not a right to seize in dominating power. Where it is embraced with servantlike, Christ-honoring courage, and supported by women with faith-filled, fearless, intelligent joy, the best harmony of man and woman prevails.”—John Piper

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, baseball, Charles Spurgeon, church, Derek Jeter, generosity, Hamas, Israel, Jesus Christ, John Piper, manhood, pastors, Pentecostal, Planned Parenthood, prayer, pro-life, scholar, Stanley Horton, toys, video, womanhood. Leave a Comment »

Be A Witness

July 7, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Jesus said we have some really, really, REALLY good news to share! It’s news about how much God loves us and wants us to know Him personally.

Jesus wanted us to spread the word far and wide about this really, really, REALLY good news, but He didn’t want us to try to do it in our own power. In fact, the last words He spoke to His disciples before ascending into Heaven were—

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Did you catch those words: power TO BE witnesses. The Holy Spirit provides us with the resident, miracle-working, moral, influential, and enabling power not to do witnessing, but to be witnesses.

“The Pentecostal believer is to be something, not just experience something. He or she must become a living witness of Christ on earth.” —Charles Crabtree

There are really two ways that we are witnesses for Him. Our witness is:

(1) Strategic

The New Testament believers strategically met house-to-house and in the Temple (Acts 2:46).
The church strategically picked leaders to help them be effective in their witness (Acts 6:2-3).
The Holy Spirit strategically picked missionaries to be witnesses in far-off lands (Acts 13:2-3).
Those missionaries were strategic in following up on their witnessing work (Acts 15:36).

(2) Spontaneous

The newly Spirit-baptized believers were able to spontaneously worship God (Acts 2:4) and testify of His power to others (Acts 2:14).
Peter could spontaneously respond to the crowd’s question after Peter had finished his sermon (Acts 2:37-39).
Peter and John had a spontaneous reply when the Sanhedrin called them in to testify (Acts 4:8).
This spontaneous witnessing power was available to them through the Holy Spirit just as Jesus had promised (Matthew 10:17-20).

If we try to just do witnessing, our strategy will be lacking and we’ll quite possibly be caught off-guard in a spontaneous setting. But when we allow the Holy Spirit’s power to transform us TO BE witnesses, our strategies are more effective and our spontaneous moments are too! The Holy Spirit helps us share the really, really, REALLY good news!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Acts 2, Book of Acts, Charles Crabtree, church history, empowerment, God's power, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, leadership, New Testament, Pentecostal, spontaneous, strategy, witness, witnessing, worship. 1 Comment »

4 Quotes About Witnessing Empowerment

July 6, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

These are the quotes I shared in my message this morning as we wrapped up our series on Pentecost Power. Any of the emphasis in the quotes is mine.

“The strength of the church is not the strength of its institutions but the authenticity of its witness.” —Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

“The Pentecostal believer is to be something, not just experience something. He or she must become a living witness of Christ on earth.” —Charles Crabtree

“Your very presence should bring such a witness of the Spirit that everyone with whom you come in contact would know that you are a sent one, a light in the world, a manifestation of the Christ, and last of all, a biblical Christian.” —Smith Wigglesworth

“If I may be baptized with the Holy Spirit, I must be. If I am baptized with the Holy Spirit then will souls be saved through my instrumentality who are not so saved if I am not so baptized. If then I am not willing to pay the price of this baptism, and therefore am not so baptized, I am responsible before God for all the souls that might have been saved but were not saved through me because I was not baptized with the Holy Spirit. … There is nothing more deadly than the Gospel without the Spirit’s power. ‘The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ It is awfully solemn business [witnessing] either from the pulpit or in quieter ways. It means death or life to those who hear, and whether it means death or life depends very largely on whether we do so without or with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We must be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” —R.A. Torrey

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: authenticity, baptism, Calvary Assembly of God, Christian, church, empowerment, Frank Viola, God's power, Holy Spirit, Leonard Sweet, Pentecostal, quotes, R.A. Torrey, sermon, Smith Wigglesworth, witness. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

June 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some good reading from today…

“A good mind is also a good possession. And, further, a pure inner life is a valuable possession. Hedge in, then, this possession of thine, enclose it with thought, guard it with thorns, that is, with pious care, lest the fierce passions of the flesh should rush upon it and lead it captive, lest strong emotions should assault it, and, overstepping their bounds, carry off its vintage.” —Ambrose of Milan

“Unlike in physics and chemistry, very few of the findings in the social sciences can be characterized as incontrovertible. But there’s one major exception: the impact of fatherlessness on American children. To name but a few grim examples, 63 percent of teen suicides are from fatherless homes; 90 percent of homeless children and runaways are from fatherless homes; and 71 percent of all high school dropouts are from fatherless homes.” —Eric Metaxas

Great historial article: What Can Pentecostals Learn From John Wesley?

A former abortion worker testifies, “We would find women’s weaknesses and work on them” to convince them to have an abortion.

Joel Osteen says he doesn’t like the term “prosperity preacher” applied to him, and then describes what he believes (which sounds a lot like a prosperity doctrine to me!). John Piper debunks this garbage better than I can in this video.

4 Ways Selfishness Ruins Your Life.

[VIDEO] Ted Cruz blasts the attempt by Democrat Senators to obliterate the First Amendment.

“We only know God in His works, but we are forced by science to admit and to believe with absolute confidence in a Directive Power—in an influence other than physical, or dynamical, or electrical forces.” —William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)