quote | Craig T. Owens

May 2026
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God’s Good Word

April 25, 2017 — Craig T. Owens

“…it happened after this…” (2 Kings 6:24).

After what? After God thwarted Syria’s attack against Israel. Later Syria tried again, and the king of Israel forgot what God had done in the past and instead blamed the prophet Elisha for Syria’s oppression (see v. 31).

How quickly we are to forget what God has done! How quick we are to abandon His Word? How quick we are to let our eyes see the problems and instead of the Provider!

Elisha again spoke “according to the word of the Lord” and everything transpired “just as the man of God had spoken” (7:16-18).

As William Gurnall said, “If you have God’s good Word, you do not have to fear the world’s bad words.”

My prayer—O God, may I be quick to remember Your words and Your past victories; quick to look to You as my Provider and not to look to my problems.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Elisha, God's provision, quote, Scripture, trust, William Gurnall. Leave a Comment »

What My Temper Tells Me

March 27, 2017 — Craig T. Owens

“Think for a moment of a clock and of what its hands mean. The hands tell me what is within the clock, and if I see that the hands stand still, or that the hands point wrong, or that the clock is slow or fast, I say that something inside the clock is not working properly. And temper is just like the revelation that the clock gives of what is within. Temper is a proof whether the love of Christ is filling the heart, or not.” —Andrew Murray, in Absolute Surrender

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Andrew Murray, God's love, quote, temper. Leave a Comment »

Smaller & Bigger

March 21, 2017 — Craig T. Owens

“Small” is not insignificant.

“Bigger” is not necessarily better.

If God has placed me in a place, He will bless me in that place.

It’s not my job to try to advance myself, for that would remove me from the place God is blessing.

Until and unless God says “Go,” there is absolutely no reason to even dream about what another place would look like.

God’s blessing alone makes a place significant, no matter its size by earthly standards.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: God's blessing, God's direction, God's plan, quote, significance. 1 Comment »

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln

February 12, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born, and our country was blessed with an amazing leader! This is a good day to remember the powerful words that closed Lincoln’s second inaugural address―

…The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

You can read his amazingly-short inaugural address by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Abraham Lincoln, American history, prayer, quote, servant-leadership, United States of America. Leave a Comment »

Be The Sermon

January 17, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

It’s not enough to just preach a sermon, my pastor friend, we must be the sermon, too.

Heed these challenging words from Gregory The Great (ca. 540-604)—

“There are some who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they teaching the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. …

“The ruler should always be chief in action, that by his living he may point out the way to those that are put under him, and that the flock, which follows the voice and manners of the shepherd, may learn how to walk better through example than through words. For he who is required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest things is required by the same necessity to exhibit the highest things. …

Every preacher should give forth a sound more by his deeds than by his words, and rather by good living imprint footsteps for men to follow than by speaking show them the way to walk in.”

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: example, Gregory The Great, integrity, lifestyle, pastors, Pope Gregory I, preaching, quote, sermon, video. Leave a Comment »

Leaking Influence

March 22, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Jim Collins has great advice for leaders: When things are going well, look out the window (at your people); when things aren’t going well, look in the mirror (at yourself). This is as true for business CEOs as it is for pastors.

Pastor, you leak.

I leak.

We all leak.

It’s impossible to just maintain where we are. There needs to be a constant refreshing, a constant refilling. We need to keep learning, keep changing, keep renewing. If we don’t, well, this is how Oswald Chambers described it—

“If you are in a position of authority and people are not obeying you, the greatest heart-searching you can have is the realization that the blame does not lie with them, but with you; there is always leakage going on spiritually. Get right with God yourself, and every other one will get in touch with God through you.” (my emphasis)

Pastor, don’t wait: Look in the mirror today, get right with God, replenish what’s leaked out of you, and then watch to see how others in your congregation will begin to move toward God themselves.

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: influence, Jim Collins, leadership, Oswald Chambers, pastoring, pastors, quote, renew. Leave a Comment »

Enter The Pulpit Without Embarrassment

March 15, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

“I am afraid of the pastor that is another man when he enters the pulpit from what he was before. Reverend, you should never think a thought or do a deed or be caught in any situation that you couldn’t carry into the pulpit with you without embarrassment. You should never have to be a different man or get a new voice and a new sense of solemnity when you enter the pulpit. You should be able to enter the pulpit with the same spirit and the same sense of reverence that you had just before when you were talking to someone about the common affairs of life.” —A.W. Tozer

My dear fellow pastor, your congregation wants a pastor-shepherd who is authentic, not plastic. One who is real and approachable, not high-and-mighty. One who is a tour guide on the journey with them, not a travel agent that stays behind. One who is the same in the pulpit, in the restaurant, on the ball field, in the “unguarded” moments.

UPDATE: I elaborate much more on this in my book especially for pastors and church leaders called Shepherd Leadership.

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: A.W. Tozer, authenticity, character, integrity, pastors, quote, real, shepherds. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Our Father

March 14, 2013 — 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.

Our Father

Think for one minute, have you behaved today as though God were your Father or have you to hang your head in absolute shame before Him for the miserable, mean, unworthy thoughts you have had about your life?

It all springs from one thing, you have lost hold of the idea that God is your Father. Some of us are such fussy, busy people, refusing to look up and realize the tremendous revelation in Jesus Christ’s words—“Your heavenly Father knows what you need….”

From He Shall Glorify Me

What an amazing thought that when Jesus taught us to pray, He said we could address Almighty God with the affectionate title of “Our Father.” In his book Who Do You Think You Are?, Mark Driscoll points out:

“In the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, God is referred to only as Father roughly fourteen times—and each time it’s impersonally, in reference to the nation of Israel, not to individuals. Everything radically changed with Jesus. He spoke of God as Father more than sixty times in the New Testament.”

Your heavenly Father loves you more than you can possibly imagine! Let that truth sink in. Don’t give in to the thoughts that your life is not very valuable, or even that God doesn’t like you very much.

God loves you as if you were the only person on earth to love! And He sent Jesus to earth to make it possible for you to be adopted into His family, to call Him Father. Even more than that, to call Him “Daddy God” (see Romans 8:15-17).

Live in your heavenly Father’s love today.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: adoption, God's love, Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ, Lord's Prayer, Mark Driscoll, Oswald Chambers, quote, Romans, thought life. 1 Comment »

Where Are You Looking?

March 10, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

This morning I shared this quote from Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola’s book Jesus: A Theography—

“When Jesus said to satan, ‘Get behind Me,’ He was acknowledging that we all live with the devil. We cannot escape evil on this earth. But as long as we are in front and he is behind us, we are protected. The devil ought not be in our line of vision but in our shadow.”

It reminds me of the old song:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

Stop looking at that loser named satan! Stop listening to the one who’s been defeated and whose fate is already sealed! Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus! Keep your ears tuned into His voice!

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

Jesus says: I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Revelation 1:18)

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

Check out more in our series Who Is Jesus?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, death, Frank Viola, Jesus Christ, Leonard Sweet, quote, Revelation, satan, victory. 1 Comment »

O Lord, Forgive

March 6, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

A friend of mine gave me some solid counsel a number of years ago that has always stuck with me: The mark of a maturing Christian is one who is closing the gap between sin and repentance.

Sin is open treason against God. Why would I want to overlook it or excuse it?! Once I recognize it as sin, why would I want to hold on to it?!

If we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins—dismiss our lawlessness—and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness—everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action. (1 John 1:9 AMPC)

“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

May we all take the time to reflect on our words and actions to see if we have sinned, and then to quickly confess that sin and ask for our loving God’s forgiveness.

“If my soul has turned perversely to the dark;