salvation | Craig T. Owens

March 2026
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Links & Quotes

April 21, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some great reading I found today.

“God has sought us out: let us have good hope for those who are laid upon our hearts in prayer, for He will find them out also. … It is a point of honor with Jesus to seek and to save all the flock, without a single exception. What a promise to plead!” —Charles Spurgeon

Where is the outrage?! Christian Girls Abducted & Raped In Egypt.

[INFOGRAPHI] Right on the heels of Easter, Bible Overview has a great infographic of everyone in the Bible who was raised from the dead.

“The apostles had this instinct: When in trouble, pray. When intimidated, pray. When challenged, pray. When persecuted, pray!” —Jim Cymbala. Read more from Pastor Cymbala’s great post on prayer.

“Throughout our history Americans have put their faith in God and no one can doubt that we have been blessed for it. The earliest settlers of this land came in search of religious freedom. Landing on a desolate shoreline, they established a spiritual foundation that has served us ever since.” —Ronald Reagan

“Nobody ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it. Having fallen, man deserves only punishment and death. So if God answers prayer it’s because God is good.” —A.W. Tozer

“Sacrifice is not giving up things, but giving to God with joy the best we have.” —Oswald Chambers

Links & Quotes

April 12, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some great reading from this weekend.

A fragment of a manuscript was found a couple of years ago on which mention is made of Jesus’ wife. This manuscript scrap is hardly credible, and here’s a great post explaining why.

“My brethren, let me say, be ye like Christ at all times. Imitate Him in public. Most of us live in some sort of publicity; many of us are called to work before our fellow men every day. We are watched; our words are caught; our lives are examined—taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argus-eyed world observes everything we do; and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life of Christ in public. Let us take care that we exhibit our Master, and not ourselves—so that we can say, ‘It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.’” —Charles Spurgeon

More ObamaCare nonsense: The Charts Obama Doesn’t Want You To See.

Planned Parenthood is taking your tax dollars to take innocent lives. Check out these numbers.

[VIDEO] Here is why Lois Lerner should be held in contempt of Congress.

“Every story of conversion is the story of a blessed defeat.” —C.S. Lewis

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, apologetic, archeology, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Christian, Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, pro-life, quotes, salvation, testimony, video. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Knowing God’s Thoughts

March 20, 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.

Knowing God’s Thoughts

As soon as we begin to examine the foundations of our salvation we are up against the thoughts of God, and as Christians we ought to be busy thinking God’s thoughts after Him. That is where we fall short…. It is because of the refusal to think on Christian lines that satan has come in as an angel of light and switched off numbers of God’s children in their head, with the result that there is a divorce between heart and head.

From Conformed To His Image

I read a report recently that said in the United Kingdom, Facebook is read more each day than the Bible. My guess is that the same thing could be said for the United States of America. So if we’re not reading God’s Word, how in the world can we think God’s thoughts? If we don’t know what God is saying, we can’t know what He is thinking?!

So what are we left with? “I feel that God would want…” or “I don’t think God would…” and the like. WE, the biblically-illiterate, have become the final authority on what God thinks. No wonder satan has switched off so many people’s heads!

Don’t simply repeat what someone else says that God says. Read it for yourself! Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11).

If you want help getting started reading the Bible, check out some reading plans from BibleGateway.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Bible study, BibleGateway, Christian, Facebook, God's thoughts, God's Word, Oswald Chambers, salvation, satan, Scripture, social media, thought life, United Kingdom, United States of America. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Too Focused On Numbers?

March 13, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Too Focused On Numbers?

We don’t go in for making disciples today, it takes too long; we are all for passionate evangelism—taken up with adding to the statistics of saved souls, adding to denominational membership, taken up with the things which show splendid success. Jesus Christ took the long, long trail—“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself”—take time to make up your mind. Men were not to be swept into the Kingdom on tidal waves of evangelism, not to have their wits paralyzed by supernatural means; they were to come deliberately, knowing what they were doing. One life straight through to God on the ground of discipleship is more satisfactory in His sight than numbers who are saved but go no further.

From Conformed To His Image

When Jesus first called His disciples He simply said, “Follow Me.” They followed Him for nearly four years, learning from Him exactly what it meant to be disciples. There was not one “Aha!” moment of complete surrender to Jesus, but a long, gradual, sometimes stumbling and painful process to discipleship.

Jesus was focused on true disciples, not multitudes of fickle fans.

Why have we gotten this backwards in our churches? When someone asks, “How’s your church doing,” they are really asking, “How many people show up on Sundays?” Perhaps a better gauge of God-honoring success would be: How many disciples?

What do you think?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: church, church growth, discipleship, evangelism, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, salvation. Leave a Comment »

Adopted By God

March 3, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

We have been working through our series on the Book of Ephesians, and I am so excited to share the speaking responsibilities with Tom Kaastra. Tom pastored a church in the Detroit area for nearly 40 years, and he is bringing such a richness of knowledge to this series!

“If you had one son in whom you found unspeakable delight, would it not be normal as a father to want many more? It is exactly so with the Eternal Father, Who by nature and choice, has desired and purposed to have a vast family of human-divine sons who are just like His Only Begotten Son.” —DeVern Fromke

The opening section of Ephesians 1 is just loaded with words of God’s delight:

…it gave Him great pleasure… (v. 5)
…the glorious grace He has poured out on us… (v. 6)
…He is so rich in kindness and grace… (v. 7)
…He has showered His kindness on us… (v. 8)
…His own good pleasure… (v. 9)

Not only is God’s delight so ample in this section, but so is be the praise toward God which should be bursting out from us:

…all praise to God… (v. 3)
…so we praise God… (v. 6)
…we bring praise and glory to God… (v. 12)
…we would praise and glorify Him… (v. 14)

What is this thing in which God is so delighted, and for which we should be so filled with praise?

It is quite simply this: God has revealed Himself to us as a loving Father, His Son has made it possible for us to come into God’s family, and the Holy Spirit has given us the assurance that we have been adopted by our Heavenly Father.

That’s right … God’s plan was to adopt you into His family. When did He come up with this idea?

…before He made the world… (v. 4)
…God decided in advance to adopt us… (v. 5)
…a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure… (v. 9)
…He choose us in advance and He makes everything work out according to His plan… (v. 11)
…He promised long ago… (v. 13)

God loves YOU so much that He had a plan from before the beginning of time to adopt YOU into His family. That’s what Jesus made possible through His death on the Cross, and what the Holy Spirit is constantly trying to reveal to YOU!! WOW!!

Please join us next Sunday as we continue our study on this amazing book in the Bible.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: adoption, Bible, Calvary Assembly of God, Cross, delight, DeVern Fromke, Ephesians, God's glory, God's joy, God's pleasure, God's purpose, grace, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, kindness, praise, salvation, Scripture, sermon. 1 Comment »

Listen, O My Soul

February 19, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

David wraps up the 35th Psalm with a thought that is familiar to him—

My tongue will speak of Your righteousness and of Your praises all day long. (Psalm 35:28)

Praise is good for the soul! But in the midst of enemies gloating over David, hating him without reason, devising false accusations against him, and making plans to do him in (see verses 19-21), where could David get the strength to sing about God’s goodness?

As I said, it’s the last verse where David declares his unending praise. This verse is the result of seeing God move. But much earlier in this psalm David says, “Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation’” (v. 3).

Before David could speak it, he had to hear it! He had to quiet himself in the midst of all the assaults on him to hear God say, “I AM your salvation!”

Not “my ears,” but “my soul”: the very center of my being, my mind, my emotions. I need the I AM to reassure the soul He created that He is still there. Unless I hear that assurance at the core of my being, I can only go through the motions. True worship comes from a real, personal encounter with the I AM.

O, listen my soul! Hear your Savior speak the assurance of His salvation. Only then can I open my lips in endless praises all day long.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: assurance, Bible study, David, meditation, photography, praise, Psalm, quiet, salvation, Scripture, soul, worship. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

February 16, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

These are links to articles and quotes I found interesting today.

“The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. … [God] ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe… the great essential principle of morality, and consequently all civilization.” —John Adams, in a letter to Judge F. A. Van der Kemp, February 16, 1809

I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man. (Hosea 11:9)

The Lord thus makes known His sparing mercies. It may be that the reader is now under heavy displeasure, and everything threatens his speedy doom. Let the text hold him up from despair. The Lord now invites you to consider your ways and confess your sins. If He had been man, He would long ago have cut you off. If He were now to act after the manner of men, it would be a word and a blow and then there would be an end of you: but it is not so, for “as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His ways above your ways.”

You rightly judge that He is angry, but He keepeth not His anger forever: if you turn from sin to Jesus, God will turn from wrath. Because God is God, and not man, there is still forgiveness for you, even though you may be steeped up to your throat in iniquity. You have a God to deal with and not a hard man, or even a merely just man. No human being could have patience with you. You would have wearied out an angel, as you have wearied your sorrowing Father; but God is longsuffering. Come and try Him at once. Confess, believe, and turn from your evil way, and you shall be saved. —Charles Spurgeon, Faith′s Checkbook (February 16)

Stomach-churning: Former Planned Parenthood Nurse Speaks Out

“It was not an easy task which the Church faced when she came down from that upper room…. Left to herself the Church must have perished as a thousand abortive sects had done before her, and have left nothing for a future generation to remember. That the Church did not so perish was due entirely to the miraculous element within her. That element was supplied by the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost to empower her for her task. For the Church was not an organization merely, not a movement, but a walking incarnation of spiritual energy. And she accomplished within a few brief years such prodigies of moral conquest as to leave us wholly without an explanation—apart from God.” —A.W. Tozer

Thursdays With Oswald—Anarchy!

February 6, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Anarchy!

Every other view of sin, saving the Bible view, looks on sin as a disease, a weakness, a blunder, an infirmity; the Bible revelation shows sin to be an anarchy, not a missing of the mark merely, but a refusal to aim at the mark.

From Christian Disciplines

Pulling no punches, Oswald Chambers calls sin exactly what it is: anarchy against God.

Sin is not something we can cure or tame; it’s not something we can inoculate ourselves against. Sin must be put to death! We cannot do this. Only Christ can put sin to death, so we must surrender to Him.

The Bible uses the word Atonement. I like to think of it this way: at one-ment with Jesus. I can only be forgiven and free of sin if I am at one-ment with the only One who can kill sin: my Savior Jesus Christ.

Have you completely surrendered to Jesus? You cannot fight off sin on your own. Until you surrender to Christ, you will remain in open rebellion—anarchy!—against God. Don’t wait another day, surrender to Christ now.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: anarchy, atonement, Bible, death, forgiveness, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, rebellion, repentance, salvation, sin. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

February 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

These are links to articles and quotes I found interesting today.

Christians need to learn church history: 10 Reasons To Know A Little Bit Of Church History

“If I am not so much at ease as I ought to be, because my faith is dim, yet I am equally safe because the Lord’s eye is not dim, and He sees the blood of the great Sacrifice with steady gaze. What a joy is this!” —Charles Spurgeon

“Labels, labels, labels. I’m glad Jesus referred to people as people. He never mentioned His friend being a coward; He simply called him Peter. He never referred to the woman who loved Him deeply as a prostitute; He just called her Mary Magdalene.” —Joni Eareckson Tada

David Wilkerson wrote, “A person’s countenance is the outward expression of what is in his heart.”: More And More Like Jesus

Amazing! Anonymous Customer Leaves Waitresses $15,000 Tip

Planned Parenthood is embarrassed about abortions: Read about their donation appeal letter

[VIDEO] Benedict Cumberbatch On Sesame Street

Danger! How Obamacare Will Drive People Out Of The Workforce

Great news! Missing Children Rescued From Super Bowl Sex Trade In FBI Sting

Joy! Joy! Joy!

December 15, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

This is an article that I wrote for this week’s Cedar Springs Post newspaper.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.

Joy is not something that melts away, it is unaffected by circumstances, remaining rock-solid. Joy is what the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem brings us.

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

On the day Jesus was born, the angels sang about peace on earth. Jesus Himself said that He didn’t come to condemn us, but to save us. Jesus came to be our Savior which is another reason for great joy!

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

Jesus Christ’s Advent among us was the fulfillment of a promise given all the way back in the first book of the Bible. God the Father said Jesus would come to wipe out sin, and sorrow, and reverse the curse, turning it back into a blessing for all who would put their faith in Jesus. What joy to have all of the negatives turned into positives!

I hope you will discover—or rediscover—the joy that the birth of Jesus brings. At Calvary Assembly of God, where I have the privilege of pastoring, we are talking about the joy and the light that came with Jesus Christ’s birth. If you don’t have a home church, I would love to have you join us over the next couple of Sundays at 10:30am.

Joy! Joy! Joy! Let it reign!