questions | Craig T. Owens

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Charles Spurgeon On Self-Examination

July 10, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

It is so important to have conversations with ourselves. The most honest conversations are the ones where we are alone with the Holy Spirit.

“Examine yourselves, dear friends, then, by this. I do not ask you whether your hearts are perfect—they are not; I do not ask you whether your hearts never go astray, for they are prone to wander; but I do ask you: Is your heart resting upon Jesus Christ? Is it a believing heart? Does your heart meditate upon divine things? Does it find its best solace there? Is your heart a humble heart? Are you constrained to ascribe all to sovereign grace? Is your heart a holy heart? Do you desire holiness? Do you find your pleasure in it? Is your heart bold for God? Does your heart ascribe praises to God? Is it a grateful heart? And is it a heart that is wholly fixed upon God, desiring never to go astray?” —Charles Spurgeon

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. —Psalm 139:23-24

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Charles Spurgeon, Holy Spirit, introspection, prayer, Psalm, questions, quotes, self-examination. 2 Comments »

Read The Red Letters

April 13, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Let’s see if you can guess what famous person said the following (the answers are below … but no cheating!):

“The phonograph is of no commercial value.”
“I think there is a world market for about five computers.”
“I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle the matter by lunch time.”
“There will never be a bigger plane built.”
“The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.”

People get it wrong lots of times. Even really smart, successful people. King Solomon, who was called the wisest of all, wrote a book called Ecclesiastes in which he shared some bad advice he tried to follow. In the closing verses he gave this warning, “My son, be warned. Of making many books there is no end so do not believe everything you read, and much study is the weariness of the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

In the Hebrew world there were three departments of knowledge:

Law―words from God to man
Prophesy―judgment from God on how man is doing in observing God’s law
Wisdom―man’s attempt to live out God’s law based on observation, experience, and reflection (for a great example of all three departments at work, see Luke 10:25-37)

What we need is someone who (1) knows God’s way, (2) lives God’s way, and (3) can teach us how to live out God’s way for ourselves. Someone who is perfect, flawless in every phase. We need the One Who said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35). That One is Jesus.

Can I make a suggestion that will bring you amazing results? Spend some time reading the red letters. That is, go to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and focus on the words of Jesus (which many Bible translations print in a red font). There I am certain you will discover the greatest words ever spoken!

If you can, please join me over the next few Sundays as we will be attempting to discover the greatest words ever spoken on a variety of subjects. Folks have turned in the questions that they would like answered, and we are going to look to the red letters to see what Jesus has to say.

Answers to the quiz:

Thomas Edison, remarking on his own invention
Thomas Watson, Sr., chairman of IBM
Napoleon Bonaparte, at a breakfast with his generals preceding the Battle of Waterloo
A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that held ten people
IBM board of directors, to the eventual founders of Xerox

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Boeing, Calvary Assembly of God, Ecclesiastes, Gospels, history, IBM, Jesus Christ, law, Napoleon Bonaparte, prophesy, questions, sermon, Solomon, Thomas Edison, Thomas Watson, Waterloo, wisdom, Xerox. 1 Comment »

Links & Quotes

March 26, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

“Who can tell, dear friends, how much peace you may give by only telling the story of our Savior.” ―Charles Spurgeon

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” ―C.S. Lewis

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) reports that you and I have funded the abortions committed by Planned Parenthood to the tune of $1.5 billion! Our tax dollars are going to murder our fellow citizens … this is unacceptable!

In their excellent investigatory work, Live Action has uncovered how Planned Parenthood allows sex traffickers, pornographers, and pimps to continue to earn a profit of the enslavement of women.

Kudos to Pastor John Lindell for boldly declaring the biblical stance Christians should take against immoral laws. Predictably, people are labeling him as a hater and out-of-touch, but he is absolutely right on the mark.

Seth Godin says, “If it’s worth listening to, it’s worth questioning until you understand it.” Read more of his post Active Listening.

Science shows that encouragement truly does help people get through tough circumstances better.

Links & Quotes

January 4, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

[VIDEO] I loved watching Stuart Scott on ESPN SportsCenter. This video is a great tribute to his life.

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.” —Stuart Scott

“Hang this text up in your house; read it every day; take it before God in prayer every time you bend the knee, and you shall find it to be like the widow’s cruse, which failed not, and like her handful of meal, which wasted not: it shall be unto you till the last of December what now it is when we begin to feed upon it in January.” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Hebrews 2:18

“This verse is full of encouragement for imperfect sinners like us, and full of motivation for holiness. It means that you can have assurance that you stand perfected and completed in the eyes of your heavenly Father not because you are perfect now, but precisely because you are not perfect now but are ‘being sanctified,’ ‘being made holy’—that, by faith in God’s promises, you are moving away from your lingering imperfection toward more and more holiness.” —John Piper, commenting on Hebrews 10:14

Seth Godin has a great way to help anyone gain a huge advantage over his/her peers in his post Doing Calculus With Roman Numerals.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Charles Spurgeon, ESPN, God's blessing, God's holiness, God's provision, Hebrews, Jesus Christ, John Piper, lifelong learner, obituary, questions, quotes, sanctification, Seth Godin, Stuart Scott, video. Leave a Comment »

Tactics (book review)

July 1, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I am a big fan of Christian apologetics: defending what I believe as a Christian. But until reading Tactics by Greg Koukl, I have found very few books which discuss how to present what I believe.

Tactics isn’t about parlor tricks, or playing games with words. It is truly a mindset to keep a conversation going with someone who wants to know (or challenge) what you believe. When we make a statement, the conversation comes to a screeching halt or explodes into an intense argument. But if we continue to ask questions, a dialogue can continue.

Greg Koukl uses some insights from TV detective Columbo to give Christians some strategies for productive conversations. Peter Falk’s character was an intuitive detective who got his information by asking people to clarify what they were saying, and getting them to open up and talk more. In similar fashion, Greg gives us some ideas of how to find out not only what the other person believes, but why they believe it, by asking some strategic questions.

From the moment I began reading this book, I have been able to immediately use the tactics Greg outlines. I have recommended this book to a couple of other people, and they are also reporting back to me that they are experiencing similar results. So I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any Christian who wants to have more meaningful conversations with others about their faith.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apologetic, book review, Christian, Greg Koukl, questions, strategy. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

June 15, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some interesting reading from this weekend…

Assemblies of God missionaries were addressing the issue of sex slaves and sex trafficking as far back as 1917.

Chilly Chilton challenges us to view worship as serving: Serving Up Some Worship!

This infuriates me … a Planned Parenthood staffer recommends abusive sex to a 15-year-old! And guess what? Our tax dollars are paying for this garbage.

More medical evidence that stress is bad for your heart.

“It will take an infinite number of ages for God to be done glorifying the wealth of His grace to us—which is to say He will never be done. And our joy will increase forever and ever. Boredom is absolutely excluded in the presence of an infinitely glorious God.” —John Piper

Don’t just study; study well. Here are some important questions to ask yourself.

The Overview Bible Project has a cool look at the Psalms.

“How can we ever hope that our kids will become moral, ethical, committed people when we can’t keep our word, can’t keep our pants on, and can’t seem to hold our tongue or liquor? To all three groups of leaders, I simply say: We don’t expect you to be perfect, but we do expect you to embody integrity.” Read more from Tim Elmore’s post The Only Way To Turn Students Into Ethical Leaders.

“As Christians we are called upon to exhibit the character of God, and this means the simultaneous exhibition of His holiness and His love.” —Francis Schaeffer

Thursdays With Oswald—Thoughtful Questions

May 8, 2014 — 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.

Thoughtful Questions

Oswald Chambers usually sprinkles questions into his lectures, but in this passage, the questions came one right after another—

Are we lazy spiritually because we are so active in God’s work?
When the problems of the body face us, do we stop going with Jesus?
Do we listen to the tempter’s voice to put our bodily needs first—‘Eat bread, be well, first look after what you were going to wear, and then attend to God?’
Have we given God as much ‘elbow room’ in our lives as Our Lord gave Him in His?
Have we the one set purpose… not to do our own will but the will of God?
Are we going with Jesus in the life we are living now?
When we are tempted as He was, do we continue to go with Him?
What are we like where nobody sees?
Have we a place in our heart and mind and life where there is always open communion between ourselves and God so that we can detect the voice of the devil when he comes as ‘an angel of light’?
Are we compromising in the tiniest degree in mental conception with forces that do not continue to go with Jesus, or are we maintaining the attitude of Jesus Christ all through?
Are we departing from Jesus in the slightest way in connection with the world to which we belong?
Have we this past week choked the Son of God in our life by imperceptible degrees?

From The Love Of God

Yeah, I’m going to have to ponder these for awhile…

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: discipleship, God questions, God's will, Jesus Christ, maturity, obedience, Oswald Chambers, prayer, questions, satan, submission, temptation. Leave a Comment »

Best Shift Ever

April 11, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I love this! But I’ve got some questions too. Watch this amazing video and then read below…

So why can’t we make people’s day every day?

We don’t have to buy them a car, but we can ask about their day … cheer them up … leave a good tip …

What can you do today to make it a special day for someone else?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: helping hand, questions, video. Leave a Comment »

Monologue Or Dialogue

January 27, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

True prayer, according to the Bible, is a dialogue. If we ever think of it as a monologue, it ceases to be true prayer.

Look at the contrasting statements in the opening verses of Psalms 13 and 14—

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? (13:1)

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” (14:1)

We can have a dialogue with God—even asking questions of the Almighty—or we can monologue to ourselves.

The dialoguer asks a lot of questions (five of them in the first two verses of chapter 13) and anticipates that God will answer. In fact, David wrote in an earlier psalm, “In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation” (Psalm 5:3).

God’s answers are expected, as the dialoguer stops asking questions of God and begins to express his trust in God’s love, as he rejoices in God’s salvation, and sings about God’s goodness (13:5-6). Clearly, this trust, rejoicing, and singing come from assurances received in his dialogue with God.

The monologuer asks no questions of God, but makes definitive conclusions that he himself concocted. He talks to himself, making himself the final authority! The result is inevitable: “There they are, overwhelmed with dread” (14:5).

Jesus told a similar account of a man whom Jesus said, “prayed about himself” (see Luke 18:9-14). That word “about” is probably better translated “to.” That’s right: this man was so sure of himself that he now monologued to himself and thought he was praying. But Jesus said this about the monologuer: He went home without God taking notice of his prayer.

May we always be dialoguers in prayer, and never monologuers.

God wants to talk with you, even hearing and answering your many questions. Be sure you allow Him time to speak with you, as you anticipate His loving reply.

I will be continuing our series on prayer next Sunday, and I would love to have you join me!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: dialogue, Gospel of Luke, monologue, prayer, psalms, questions. 3 Comments »

Wrapping Up “The Q Series”

September 19, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

I love our annual Q Series where the subject matter for those Sundays is driven by the questions people have submitted to me. It’s a bit scary too! Over the last couple of Sundays I’ve fielded questions on topics like freewill versus predestination, divorce and remarriage, the Trinity, backsliding, and more.

As is usually the case, there were more questions than I had time for, so I’ve attempted to answer a couple of remaining questions via video—

Just because The Q Series is done for this year doesn’t mean I’m done answering questions. I love having these sorts of conversations! So feel free to keep sending the questions my way and let’s search the Bible together.

“Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.” —C.S. Lewis