Philippians | Craig T. Owens

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Thursdays With Spurgeon—The Christian Lifestyle

February 10, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

The Christian Lifestyle

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27 KJV).

The text says we are to ‘let our conversation be such as becomes the gospel.’ What sort of conversation, then, will we have? In the first place, the gospel is very simple. It is unadorned. No meretricious ornaments to clog the pile. It is simple and ‘not with persuasive words of human wisdom’ (1 Corinthians 2:4). … The Christian man ought always to be simple in all respects. I think wherever you find him, you ought not to need a key to him. He should not be like certain books that you cannot make out without having somebody tell you the hard words. He should be a transparent man like Nathaniel, who was ‘an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit’ (John 1:47). …

The Christian’s lips should speak truth when falsehood drops from the lips of all other men. A Christian man should never need to take an oath, because his word is as good as an oath. His yes should be yes, and his no, no. …

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a very fearless gospel. … As the gospel is very fearless in what it has to say, so let the Christian always be. It strikes me that a living that becomes the gospel of Christ is always a bold and fearless kind of living! …

But again, the gospel of Christ is very gentle. Hear it speak: ‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). Here is its spirit in its Founder: ‘A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench’ (Matthew 12:20). Moreover, bad temper, snapping off of people’s heads, making men offenders for a word—all this is quite contrary to the gospel. … If you have a lion’s heart, have a lady’s hand. Let there be such a gentleness about your carriage that the little children may not be afraid to come to you and the publican and harlot may not be driven away by your hostility, but invited to goodness by the gentleness of your words and acts. …

The world ought to point to us and say, ‘See, how these Christians love one another? Not in word only, but in deed and truth!’ …

The gospel of Christ is mercy, generosity, and liberality. It receives the beggar and hears his cry! It picks up even the vile and undeserving and scatters lavish blessings upon him, and it fills the bosom of the naked and of the hungry with good things. Let your conversation be such as becomes the gospel of Christ!

From The Gospel’s Power In A Christian’s Life

We’ve had a tagline at our church for years: Come and see why so many people around here say, “I ♥ my church!” I believe Christians can—and should—live in such a way that everyone in their communities would sit up and take notice of the positive changes.

Let’s all examine our lifestyle. Is it simple, truthful, bold, gentle, loving, merciful, generous, and hospitable? If not, what changes do we need to make? But if it is all these things, God’s blessing is sure to follow this lifestyle that so clearly portrays the gospel of Jesus Christ!

I’ve shared some other posts about a church’s reputation here, here, and here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, Charles Spurgeon, Christian, Christianity, church, Gospel of John, Gospel of Matthew, Philippians, reputation, testimony, witness. Leave a Comment »

The Divine Jesus

February 7, 2022 — 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.

I was teaching a class for my team members, and at one of the breaks a new employee came up to me to say how much he was enjoying the day, and to tell me that he would like to do what I was doing. I asked him, “But do you want to do what I did in order to do what I’m doing?” When I explained that I read about 10-12 books for this training time, and that it took me about 40 hours to prepare for our 4-hour class, he didn’t seem as interested.

Most people don’t want to put in the work, but they just want the results. As Christians we need to remember these words from William Penn: “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”

The human Jesus understands and empathizes with our painful struggles, and the divine Jesus helps us endure through these painful struggles to get the rewards on the other side.

What do we mean by divine? The dictionary simply defines it as things relating to God or gods, so we need to use some context to help us understand who this divine Jesus is. After all, the New Testament refers to both Jesus and Artemis as divine (Romans 1:20; Hebrews 1:1-3; Acts 19:27).

One way we can distinguish is by doing what the writer of Hebrews advised: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). We see that the so-called worshippers of Artemis were more interested in their own financial gain than they were her divinity (Acts 19:23-27). In contrast, the apostle Paul demonstrated a totally Jesus-focused lifestyle: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).

Paul was following Jesus, and called all Christians to do the same. He noted that Jesus gave up all of His divine privileges to become our human Jesus, but because of this obedience, God made the divinity of Jesus shine more gloriously than anything else in creation! Then Paul transitioned to a word specifically for Christians:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

In essence this is like Jesus saying, “I want you to have what I have, but you will have to do what I did to get it: That is, go through the painful struggles of life. But I will be right here with you every single step of the way!”

The writer of Hebrews echoes this idea by reminding us that Jesus was made perfect through suffering, and so are we. So he calls us to “not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” He also reminds us that although the times of suffering are not pleasant, there is an unimaginable reward on the other side (Hebrews 2:9-11; 10:35-39; 12:1-11).

I especially like this conclusion: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

The divine Jesus has made it possible for us to be rewarded as He was rewarded! His divine power leads to our divine nature. And His divine power helps us defeat the world’s weapons (2 Peter 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 10:4)

Jesus asks, “Do you want to do what I did in order to do what I’m doing?” The power of the divine Jesus can help us be perfected, but we only get to this perfected place by suffering as He suffered. That’s why we need to know our human Jesus understands, empathizes, and helps.

Most people don’t want to put in the work, but they just want the rewards. Our divine Savior helps us work out what God has worked in us. He helps us get the rewards!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series on prayer called Awesome: Learning to pray in the awesome name of Jesus, you can find all of the messages by clicking here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 2 Corinthians, 2 Peter, Book of Acts, Calvary Assembly of God, divinity, Hebrews, Jesus Christ, maturity, pain, Philippians, quote, rewards, Romans, sermon, struggles, trials, video, William Penn, YouTube. 2 Comments »

Thursdays With Spurgeon—The Best Of Neighbors

February 3, 2022 — 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.

The Best Of Neighbors

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27 KJV).

The word ‘conversation’ does not merely mean our talk with one another, but the whole course of our life and behavior in the world. The Greek word signifies the actions and the privileges of citizenship, and we are to let our whole citizenship, our actions as citizens of the New Jerusalem, be such as becomes the gospel of Christ. …

We are delighted to preach good high doctrine and to insist that salvation is of grace alone! But we are equally delighted to preach good high practice and to insist that a grace that does not make a man better than his neighbors is a grace that will never take him to heaven nor render him acceptable before God!

From The Gospel’s Power In A Christian’s Life

Some other translations of the text from Rev. Spurgeon’s sermon bring out the meaning:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (NIV)
Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ (NLT)
Live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ (Message)

I believe that Christians are not citizens of Planet Earth. Our citizenship is in a place called Heaven, and yet we are traveling on Earth during our present lifetime. While we are here, we need to conduct ourselves in such a way that we make our Homeland desirable for other Earthlings too.

Let’s live in a such a way that Earthlings will say, “I ❤️ those Christians!”

I shared a whole series of messages on living as “aliens and strangers” (as the apostle Peter calls Christians), which you may check out by clicking here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Peter, Charles Spurgeon, Christian, Christianity, Philippians, testimony, witness. 2 Comments »

Leading Prudently

February 1, 2022 — 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.

Isaiah 52–53 contain a description of Jesus as a servant leader. One phrase describes Him like this: “See, My Servant will act wisely” (Isaiah 52:13).

That phrase “act wisely” is translated in some other translations of the Bible as “deal prudently.” I like that word prudently. It’s not a word that we use very often today, but it’s one that sets God’s servant leaders apart from worldly leaders.

Prudent can be described as…

circumspect
intelligently speaking and acting
teaching skillfully
having increasing understanding and insight
helping others grow in understanding
behaving appropriately
living wisely
guiding oneself and others willingly

What happens to the leader who lives and leads this way? Listen to the entire verse that I only quoted a portion of earlier—

See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

Notice that this exalted person is described as a servant—not just anyone’s servant, but Jehovah’s servant. As a servant of God, Jesus becomes a servant of all. And as a servant of God, He is exalted and honored above all.

Jesus is every leader’s Ultimate Example of this. Jesus set aside every prerogative He had that would give Him the right to do things His way, in order to make Himself a servant of God and a servant of mankind (Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 10:45). Jesus gave all of His followers this example to emulate (John 13:15-17), so Paul tells us our “mindset should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

I need to ask myself a question—and I would invite you to ask yourself this too: As a leader, am I growing in Christlike prudence?

A mark of a godly leader is one who can see his growth in prudence.

Jesus, may You be pleased as I follow Your example of living and leading prudently. Holy Spirit, help me see the areas in my life where I need to submit to You. Father, may You be pleased to bless my leadership as it aligns with Your heart. I want to act wisely, lead prudently, and help others to follow this example of Jesus for themselves.

This is part 61 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Gospel of John, Gospel of Mark, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, leadership, Philippians, prudence, servant-leadership, shepherd leadership. Leave a Comment »

Graceful Christians

December 27, 2021 — 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.

Our Advent series this year has been called “People Will Talk,” but we have one more person to learn from who says nothing. We have none of her words inside quotation marks, and yet Luke was inspired by the Holy Spirit to share her story with us. Her wordless message speaks volumes, if we’re willing to listen.

Anna, like Simeon, was one of the “Quiet in the Land.” Luke describes her as “very old.” The Greek phrase can either mean that she was a widow for 84 years after seven years of marriage, or simply that she was 84 years old. In either case, we don’t see her sitting withdrawn and inactive because of her old age, but we see her taking the initiative. She is the one who comes up to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.

Luke also calls her a “prophetess.” Not someone bitter about her widowhood, but someone who truthfully and lovingly spoke God’s Words. Throughout the Bible, we see that a prophet or prophetess is less foretelling the future than they are forth-telling the promises of God. Of course the “-ess” at then end of “prophet” reminds us that Anna is a woman. As a woman she was excluded from certain parts of the temple, but instead of picketing or making a scene Luke says she spends her time worshipping, fasting, praying, and waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promised Messiah.

I imagine that her mere presence must have changed the atmosphere wherever she went!

I’m not sure if Charles Dickens had Anna in mind when he wrote A Christmas Carol, but the way the Ghost of Christmas Present added his blessing to busy people is what I imagine Anna’s role being in the temple—

“But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers’ shops. The sight of these poor revelers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker’s doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humor was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love it, so it was!”

Both Anna in the New Testament and Hannah in the Old Testament mean graceful. Or as I like to remember that word: someone full of grace. When she approaches Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, Luke says she “gave thanks.” This comes from a unique Greek word in the New Testament. The root word is usually translated confession, which means saying the same words as others. But the prefix Luke adds means “in place of.” This means that Anna was speaking thankful words in place of the other words being spoken around her.

Anna spoke counter-culturally. Instead of being a cultural thermometer, she was serving as a thermostat to change the culture around her. This is the same kind of lifestyle that Jesus calls us to live. And it’s a lifestyle that Paul sums up in one succinct verse: “Let your gentleness [or we could say ‘grace-fullness’] be evident to all. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5).

After Ebenezer Scrooge’s encounter with the three spirits, his life was transformed—

“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more.… He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.

“Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

“…And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”

As Christians, may both our actions and our reactions be so grace-filled, and may our gentleness be so evident to everyone all year long, and may we live so counter-culturally that people cannot help but see that we are grace-filled by the Spirit of Jesus Christ!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in this Advent series, you can find the full list of messages by clicking here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Advent, Anna, Calvary Assembly of God, Charles Dickens, Christmas, counter-cultural, Ebenezer Scrooge, Gospel of Luke, grace, Jesus Christ, Philippians, prophet, prophetess, sermon, Simeon, video, YouTube. 1 Comment »

Honk Your Thanks

November 25, 2021 — 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.

If anxiety kills joy, what kills anxiety? Anxiety—the joy-killer—is itself killed when joy is expressed.

Being grateful for what you have kills the anxiety of what you don’t have.

Being thankful for what you have kills the fear of what you may be missing.

Being grateful for what you have kills the anxiety of the bad stuff that may never even happen.

If joy kills anxiety, how can we develop more of it? Most people would say, “If you’re happy, give thanks” or “If you’re happy, honk.” But really it’s the other way around: “If you want to be happy, honk!”

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Honking your thanks is not only good for you, but it’s good for everyone around you who hears your “honk! honk!” of gratitude. David experienced this in Psalm 34:1-3. Even when he was at a low point, when he started praising God other anxious people began to experience joy as well.

This is a snippet from a longer message, which you can find by clicking here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: gratitude, joy, Philippians, Psalm, thankfulness, video, YouTube. Leave a Comment »

It’s A Big Deal

November 1, 2021 — 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.

I get a little leery when people are advocating for a government that is friendly to Christianity. In biblical history and world history, Christians tend to backslide when things are going smoothly for them.

Difficulties and even persecution cause us to evaluate if what we’re standing on is really a sure foundation (2 Corinthians 1:9; Philippians 4:10-13).

As the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon, things were going fairly easily for them. And as they had done so many times before, they began to backslide. The Archeological Study Bible noted, “This generation was not guilty of the gross idolatry of its forefathers. Rather, these Israelites embraced a kind of dead orthodoxy, in which they tried to get by with the minimum that their faith required.”

Onto this scene comes a prophet named Malachi. Malachi means “My messenger,” and we don’t know if this was actually the prophet’s name or not, but he took it on as his nature, delivering the heavy words of God. In fact, he held the words of God with such respect that when he says this is “an oracle,” he literally is saying, “This is a heavy burden to bear!”

Malachi uses the phrase “LORD Almighty” (or LORD of Hosts in the KJV, and Lord of Heaven’s Armies in the NLT) twenty-four times. By contrast with the other minor prophets…

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah use this phrase zero times
Micah and Habakkuk each use it once
Nahum and Zephaniah each use it twice
Haggai uses it 12 times (or 32 percent of the total verses in his book)
Zechariah uses the phrase 46 times (which 22 percent of his total verses)

But Malachi’s 24 times is 44 percent of his total verses! In other words, he wanted his audience to be crystal clear that it wasn’t him who was speaking, but the King of kings was speaking to us through Malachi!

God is still speaking through Malachi to us today! Just like Israel in Malachi’s day, I think Christians today run the very real risk of backsliding. Just like Israel, when we forget the weightiness of the glory of the LORD ALMIGHTY we can begin to slip into an it’s-no-big-deal attitude.

By contrast, when we’re honoring the LORD of Hosts, and reverencing Him, and desirous of His glory being seen, it’s a very big deal that we listen to His voice and closely follow His commands.

So Malachi’s six warnings to the Israelites of his day should still be heeded by Christians today. We should examine ourselves very closely to see if we have the same it’s-no-big-deal attitude. We should ask ourselves, “Are we…

(1) …offering less-than-our-best sacrifices? Are we just giving God the leftovers?”

(2) …listening to church leaders that don’t reverence God’s name?”

(3) …honoring the sanctity of marriage?”

(4) …self-seeking instead of neighbor-loving?”

(5) …withholding the full tithe from our local church?”

(6) …following God only for personal gain?”

(Check out all of the verses for these questions by clicking here.)

If this study of the minor prophets—especially these last three—has told us anything, it’s that God keeps His word. When He says He is coming back as the righteous Judge, that will happen. In fact, it could happen at any moment!

We must be ready! We must guard our hearts against the it’s-no-big-deal attitude. We must reverence our awesome God. The things of God are a very big deal indeed (see Hebrews 10:37-39; Revelation 22:12-16).

To guard ourselves against this backsliding attitude, we must live every day reverencing the awesome, weighty, majestic name of Jesus!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series exploring the powerful lessons in the the twelve minor prophets, please click here to get the list of all of those messages.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 2 Corinthians, attitude, Calvary Assembly of God, Hebrews, Malachi, minor prophets, obedience, Philippians, Revelation, sermon, YouTube. 1 Comment »

Confident, Bold, and Joyful

October 25, 2021 — 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.

Zechariah pronounces more messianic prophecies than any other biblical writer, with the exception of Isaiah (and he wrote 66 chapters!). These prophecies are fulfilled in Christ’s First Advent, and promised for His Second Advent. Check these out for yourself…

(All of the biblical references for the above chart can be viewed by clicking here.)

Why is it so vital that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies?

(1) The historicity of these fulfilled prophecies gives us a confidence for the future.

These fulfilled prophecies assure us that God is sovereign over all history. There are no accidents, and God needs no help from anyone else in fulfilling what He has promised. As a result, no world event—no matter how big it may seem—should be able to rattle us!

(2) The authenticity of what God has done gives us boldness for today.

When God does the miraculous, He authenticates His Word. This authenticity has always made God’s people stand out (see Genesis 41:39). It’s also why people recognized Jesus as the divine Son of God (John 3:2; 9:30-33). So we can live with the boldness to know that what God says He will do, He will do!

(3) The exclusivity of God’s promises and fulfillment of those promises gives us joy for our testimony.

Only Jesus could have done all of this (Luke 24:26-27, 44), so only Jesus can fulfill what is still remaining to be fulfilled! We can have supreme joy in knowing that only Jesus is our hope of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

It’s vital that we know this is true so that we can live confident, bold, and joyful! Our confident boldness and our bold joy both glorify God and attract seekers to Him.

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our series looking at the major lessons from the minor prophets, you can access all of those messages by clicking here.

You may download a PDF version of the above charts by clicking here → Zechariah prophecies for the First Advent or here → Zechariah prophecies for the Second Advent

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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Keep Moving Forward

October 21, 2021 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.

Keep Moving Forward

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

God does not say to us, ‘This is the way,’ and then stop. He says, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’ We are always to be making advances. We are to be going from faith in its beginnings to faith in its perfections, from faith to assurance, from assurance to full assurance. And from there, we are to go to the full assurance of hope to the full assurance of understanding, always forward, waxing stronger and stronger. …

The Christian’s motto is ‘Upward and onward.’ Not as though he has already obtained, either is already perfect, he presses forward to the mark for the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus. …

Can you perform the common activities of the household and the daily duties that fall to your lot in the spirit of faith? This is what the apostle means. He does not speak about running or jumping or fighting, but about walking—and he means to tell you that the ordinary life of a Christian is different from the life of another man—that he has learned to introduce faith into everything he does.

From Faith Versus Sight

I have a t-shirt that says on the front, “Keep moving forward.” But the back of the t-shirt has the real-life challenge: “Crawling is acceptable. Falling is acceptable. Puking is acceptable. Crying is acceptable. Pain is acceptable. Quitting is not!”

How true!

I think the problem for many Christians is that they have an unrealistic expectation of growth. Somehow we’ve come to believe that our Christian growth is a constant upward trajectory to maturity, and that if there are ever any stumbles along the way, that means we’ve blown it. (By the way, Oswald Chambers has some helpful thoughts on our stair-step growth.)

But Paul tells us, “We walk”: We keep moving forward. That doesn’t mean there aren’t times of stumbling, or a plateau, or even a pause to catch our breath. Paul tells us that an important aspect of our walk is that we forget what’s behind us and we keep moving forward—keep walking—keep going.

Every single day, let us say along with Paul, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 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 3:12-14 NLT).

My friend, keep moving forward in faith, believing that the Holy Spirit is with you—maturing you, strengthening you—on every single step on your Christian walk.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 2 Corinthians, Charles Spurgeon, Christian, Christianity, infographic, Jesus Christ, lifestyle, maturity, personal growth, Philippians, spiritual growth, video. 3 Comments »

Heart Rate Recovery

June 28, 2021 — 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.

A few years ago Mark Schultz wrote a song about someone living a go-go-go, overly-busy life and he entitled the song “Running just to catch myself.” Ever been there?

There’s a Hebrew word that shows up 70 times in the Bible (mostly in the Psalms) that, sadly, many English translations of the Bible have relegated to a footnote. That’s too bad because Selah is such a powerful word. Unless we want to live our lives “running just to catch myself,” we all need a take time to Selah. Look how some have translated this word:

“Stop there and consider a little” (Matthew Henry)
“the sacred pause” (Charles Spurgeon)
“pause and calmly think of that” (AMP)

Whether it’s a planned exercise time or just something that frightens or excites us, our heart rate is designed by God to increase—this is how we prepare for fight-or-flight. Doctors say that one of the most vital statistics they now look at to gauge overall cardio health is heart rate recovery (HRR). Doctors want to see a significant increase in HRR after exercise, fright, or excitement.

A few of the factors that boost HRR:

Regular, planned exercise
Getting the proper amount of quality sleep
Reducing stress

Respond-and-recover is part of a health-building cycle. But if we’re “running just to catch myself” all the time, this time of recovery isn’t happening. Not only are we not recovering well, but we are not properly prepared for the next time our heart needs to start beating faster.

This HRR is just as vital for us emotionally and spiritually as it is physically: We cannot always be stressed or always be “on.” We need a Selah—a time to stop and consider, a time to take a sacred pause to calmly think.

This is what David teaches us in Psalm 68. Check out the “bookend verses” where he reminds us that when God arises His enemies are scattered, and that God is awesome and He gives power and strength to His people (vv. 1, 35). And look a the middle verse where David says that when God ascends in victory He gives gifts (v. 18).

This tells me two things: (1) God is sovereignly in charge (not me or anyone else), and (2) In His love, God delights to use His sovereign power to bless His children.

The question is not IF I’m going to be confronted by difficult things or difficult people, but HOW will I recover from these confrontations?

May I suggest a 3-step process to increase your spiritual HRR?

Acknowledge your situation—don’t try to cover it up or justify it
Selah—pause to take a deep breath
During that breath, redirect your thoughts from the difficulty to your awesome God (see 2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 4:4-8)

Look at David’s example in this psalm:

Reflect	Worship
God defeats enemies (vv. 1-2)	Be glad, rejoice, sing (vv. 3-4)
God is a Father and Deliverer (vv. 5-7)	Selah (v. 7)
God is sovereignly in control (vv. 8-18)	Praise and Selah (v. 19)
God defeated Death (vv. 20-23)	Join the procession of worshippers (vv. 24-27)
God uses His strength to care for His people (vv. 28-31)	Sing praises and Selah (vv. 32-35)

As you breathe deeply in this worship of recovery, think on this: “Your sigh can move the heart of Jehovah; your whisper can incline His ear to you; your prayer can stay His hand; your faith can move His arm.” —Charles Spurgeon

Our Selah pause leads to proper perspective, which allows us to recover more quickly. That, in turn, helps us to be better prepared for the next time we’re confronted by difficulties.