satan | Craig T. Owens

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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 »

Links & Quotes

May 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Here are the links to some interesting reading I found today.

“It is right and inevitable that we should be much concerned about the salvation of those we love. But we must be careful not to expect or demand that their salvation should conform to some ready-made pattern of our own.” —C.S. Lewis

Well, this is interesting. Follow your tax dollars to the countries that are enemies of America.

[PHOTOS] An accurate recap of the tragedy in Benghazi, and the cover up of that terrorist attack…

…and here’s why the media is now covering up the cover up of Benghazi: [INFOGRAPHIC] The relationship between the media and the Obama administration.

“What we practice, not (save at rare intervals) what we preach, is usually our great contribution to the conversion of others.” —C.S. Lewis

“What a bondage it is when the child of God is sold under sin, held in chains by satan, deprived of his liberty, robbed of his power in prayer and his delight in the Lord! Let us watch that we come not into such bondage; but if this has already happened to us, let us by no means despair. But we cannot be held in slavery forever. The Lord Jesus has paid too high a price for our redemption to leave us in the enemy’s hand. The way to freedom is, ‘Return unto the Lord your God.’” —Charles Spurgeon

[VIDEO] A good reminder from John Maxwell: Find a friend that you can edify today.

Links & Quotes

April 30, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some great reading I found today.

Temptation is not fatal! “[We ought] to point out of what service temptations are in the training of the faithful, and what relief there is in the example of the patience of God, who has resolved to permit them even to the end.” —Augustine

“Our extremity is God’s opportunity.” —George Whitefield

Apparently the definition of “tolerance” today just means telling everyone what they want to hear. If you speak a truth that someone doesn’t like, then you are intolerant, as in the case of this guy in the U.K.

David Wilkerson says: Do Not Give satan An Inch Of Ground.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned racist Donald Sterling for life. Check out A Statement Stronger Than Silver.

I love what Make-A-Wish does for kids! Here’s a great story from Detroit.

Google is on the wrong side of this one: they have decided that women searching for “abortion” shouldn’t see listings for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, Augustine, Bible, David Wilkerson, Detroit, freedom of speech, George Whitefield, God's power, Google, Islam, kids, Make-A-Wish, opportunity, pro-life, quotes, religious freedom, salvation, satan, Savior, sin, spiritual warfare, temptation, Winston Churchill. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

April 18, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some great reading (and watching) from the past couple of days.

“This generation has yet to prove all that prayer can do for believing men and women.” —A.W. Tozer

“Come, my heart, be calm and hopeful today. Clouds together, but the Lord can blow them away. Since God will not fail me, my faith shall not fail; and as He will not forsake me, neither will I forsake Him.” —Charles Spurgeon

[VIDEO] This is priceless! Watch as a young man with Down Syndrome reads a special letter.

John Piper shares The Greatest Prayer In The World.

Tim Elmore discussing Generation Y: The Inverse Relationship Between Empathy And Narcissism.

This is why I love loving on our missionaries: Home Without A Home.

Some powerful Good Friday quotes compiled by Chilly Chilton in his post Cross Walk.

“Right now you may feel abused and unloved. The devil would have you believe that God has left you to your own devices—that you deserve to suffer, that it’s all over for you, that there is no hope. Beloved, those are lies from hell. God wants more than anything else to rid you of your perverted concept of Him.” —David Wilkerson

Just One Question

March 24, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Paul makes it quite clear in Ephesians 2 what we are apart from Jesus Christ:

Dead in our transgressions and sins (v. 1)
Following the ways of the world and selling out to satan’s dominion (v. 2a)
In obstinate opposition to God (v. 2b)
Living only for our own wicked cravings (v. 3a)
The objects of God’s righteous wrath (v. 3b)

The penalty is a death sentence. Yet God made Jesus—the perfect, sinless One—to be sin in our place so that God’s judgment would fall on Jesus Christ instead of us. That is what Paul describes as God’s great love and rich mercy (v. 4).

Mercy means not getting the punishment we should have received.

It would have been enough if God stopped there by showing mercy, but He didn’t! God brought us back to life, saved us from eternal damnation, and raised us up with Christ to a position of honor (vv. 5, 8-9). What did this? God’s amazing grace!

Grace means getting blessings that we never should have received.

God did this in order that we might be trophies of the incomparable riches of His grace and His kindness… (v. 7).

Gordon MacDonald said, “The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace.”

So just one question…

What does the world learn about God’s grace by watching you and me?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, BibleGateway, Calvary Assembly of God, Ephesians, Gordon MacDonald, grace, Jesus Christ, mercy, punishment, righteousness, satan, sermon, sin. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Knowing God’s Thoughts

March 20, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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 »

Links & Quotes

February 17, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

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

What the what? An App To Help You While Out On A Date

“God deserves to be served with all the energy of which we are capable. If the service of God is worth anything, it is worth everything.” —Charles Spurgeon

For you Detroit Tigers fans: When Willie Horton Walked Out On The Tigers

[VIDEO] A cool interaction between a garbage collector and an autistic boy

Interesting: How Millionaires Manage Their Time

Good reminder from Jeff Bonzelaar: satan Serves God

“No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.” —Isaac Newton

“Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power.” —Baron Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), German chemist

[VIDEO] My daughter asks Seth to Swirl: Will You Be My Date?

The Journey Begins

February 17, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

As Tom Kaastra introduced our study of Ephesians he said, “There is no other book in the Bible that is as exalted in its thought and yet as earthly practical.” Our series is called Sit Walk Stand (three words that Watchman Nee gave to the overview of Ephesians), and Tom shared what those mean.

Sit—(1) to be in a place of authority (Ephesians 2:4-7; Hebrews 1:3); or (2) a rest from work. We sit down to enjoy what Christ has done for us, we don’t work to try to achieve it for ourselves. “God works and then He rests. We are invited to rest and then work” (Watchman Nee). Look at the Creation story: God’s seventh day of rest after working six days was man’s first day of rest before he started working.

Walk—an act of progression modeled by Jesus (Ephesians 4:1-3). A typical rabbi built a synagogue and invited people to come to where he was. Jesus always went to where the people were, and He invites us to follow Him in this walk. We cannot have a “just Jesus and me” mindset. If Peter wanted to walk with Jesus, he had to walk with Matthew too; there are no Lone Ranger followers of Christ.

Stand—firmly in place for spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10-17). Ephesians deals with our warfare against satan more than any other book in the Bible. Sadly, George Barna reported that 60% of Christians think satan is a only a “force,” not an actual person. Paul uses this word stand as a military term to place our feet in a position ready for action.

Conclusions:

Keep your head in the clouds resting in the embrace of Jesus, while you are
Keeping your feet on the ground walking with others, and
Keeping your feet on the ground standing against satan.

Join us next Sunday as we continue our look at this amazing book.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, Calvary Assembly of God, Creation, discipleship, Ephesians, George Barna, God's Word, rabbi, rest, satan, sermon, spiritual warfare, synagogue, Tom Kaastra, Watchman Nee. 1 Comment »

Sword Drills

January 22, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

When I was a kid in Sunday School, we used to have “sword drills.” Anyone remember those? We would hold our Bibles up in the air until the teacher gave us a reference to look up. The first one to find it, and stand up and read it, won that drill. For that, we received a sticker to put inside the front cover of our Bibles. I loved sword drills, and it showed: the front cover of my Bible was filled with stickers!

Oh, that we were as quick to pull out the Sword God has given us today! I wish we were as quick to flip open our Bibles as we seem to be to turn to something else. We call friends, consult a pastor or a counselor, pray about it, talk about, plan how to overcome it; but we are slow on pulling out our Swords.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that the Word of God is sharper than a sword (Hebrews 4:12).
Paul told Timothy that the Bible was the premier place for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training (2 Timothy 3:16).
He told the Corinthians that God’s Word is what helps us capture wrong thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5).
In Revelation we see satan defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the use of the Word (Revelation 12:11).
Jesus Himself demonstrated the power to defeat satan’s temptations when He used the Word to ward off every attack (Luke 4:1-13).
And Paul said the Sword is the weapon we should arm ourselves with every single day (Ephesians 6:17).

I love the story John Knox (1514-1572) told about defeating satan’s temptations by the Sword of the Word—

“All my life I have been tested and assaulted of satan. But my present test has assailed me most fearfully. He has set to devour me, and make an end of me. Before, he often would place all my sins before my eyes. He tried to ensnare me with the allurements of this world. But the Spirit broke those attacks. Now he has attacked me another way. This cunning devil has labored to persuade me that I have earned heaven by my faithfulness to my ministry! … Blessed be God who has enabled me to beat down and quench this fiery dart by passages from the Scripture. By the grace of God, I am what I am, not I, but the grace of God in me. Through Jesus Christ I have gained the victory.” (emphasis added)

What do you think? Is it time to brush up on our Sword-handling skills? Get some Sword drills in today, and see how God’s Word will help you!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apostle Paul, Bible, Bible study, Corinthians, God's Word, Gospel of Luke, Hebrews, Jesus Christ, John Knox, Revelation, satan, Scripture, spiritual warfare, Sunday School, sword, temptation, Timothy, victory. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—Prayer Works

December 12, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Prayer Works

The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the Spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer; no spiritualistic seance can succeed in the presence of a humble praying saint. No wonder satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer. It is a vital necessity for Christians to think along the lines on which they pray. The philosophy of prayer is that prayer is the work.

From Christian Disciplines

Pray is not getting ready to work; prayer is the work.

We don’t make time to pray; but by prayer our effective time is multiplied.

Christians need to stop seeing prayer as something to do before work, or something to do instead of work, or something that is done after our work doesn’t seem to work. Prayer is the work because prayer works!