Poetry Saturday—The Lord Will Provide

November 6, 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.

Though troubles assail
And dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail
And foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide,
The Scripture assures us,
The Lord will provide.


The birds without barn


Or storehouse are fed,


From them let us learn


To trust for our bread:


His saints, what is fitting,


Shall ne’er be denied,


So long as ‘tis written,


The Lord will provide.




We may, like the ships,


By tempest be tossed


On perilous deeps,


But cannot be lost.


Though satan enrages


The wind and the tide,


The promise engages,


The Lord will provide.




His call we obey


Like Abram of old,


Not knowing our way,


But faith makes us bold;


For though we are strangers


We have a good Guide,


And trust in all dangers,


The Lord will provide.




When satan appears


To stop up our path,


And fill us with fears,


We triumph by faith;


He cannot take from us,


Though oft he has tried,


This heart-cheering promise,


The Lord will provide.




He tells us we’re weak,


Our hope is in vain,


The good that we seek


We ne’er shall obtain,


But when such suggestions


Our spirits have plied,


This answers all questions,


The Lord will provide.




No strength of our own,


Or goodness we claim,


Yet since we have known


The Savior’s great name;


In this our strong tower


For safety we hide,


The Lord is our power,


The Lord will provide.




When life sinks apace


And death is in view,


This word of His grace


Shall comfort us through:


No fearing or doubting


With Christ on our side,


We hope to die shouting,


The Lord will provide. —John Newton









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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Such Love!

August 19, 2021 — 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 iTunes or Spotify.





Such Love!


     Our Savior so loved us that He stripped Himself of His robes of radiance. Listen, you children of God, it is the old story over again, but it is always new to you. He stripped Himself of His bright array. He laid aside His scepter and His crown and became an infant in Bethlehem’s manger among the horned oxen. Thirty years of poverty and shame the King of heaven spent among the sons of men, and all out of love to us. Jesus the heavenly lover, panting to redeem His people, was content to abide here without a place to rest His head that He might rescue us!


     Do you see Him yonder in the garden in His agony? His soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death! His forehead, no, His head, His hair, and His garments are red with bloody sweat. Do you see Him giving His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them who pluck off His hair? See Him, as He hides not His face from shame and spitting, dumb like a sheep before her shearers and like a lamb that is brought to the slaughter! He opened not His mouth but patiently bore it all on our behalf. See Him with the Cross upon His mangled shoulders, staggering through Jerusalem’s streets, unwept for and unpitied, except by poor feeble women! 


     See Him, you who love Him, and love Him more as He stretches out His hands to the nails and gives His feet to the iron. See Him, as with power to deliver Himself He is made captive. Behold Him as they lift up the Cross with Him upon it and dash it down into its place and dislocate His bones. Hear that cry, ‘I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint’ (Psalm 22:14). Stand, if you can, and view that face so full of grief. Look till a sword will go through your own heart as it went through His mother’s very soul. Oh, see Him as He thirsts and has that thirst mocked with vinegar! 


     Hear Him as He prays and has that prayer parodied, ‘Look, He is calling for Elijah! … Let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down’ (Mark 15:35-36). See Him as they who love Him come and kiss His feet and bathe them with their tears. Will you not love Him who did all that friend could do for a friend? He who gave His life for us?


From The Church’s Love To Her Loving Lord


My friend, if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, I ask that you would consider this amazing act of love all for you. Jesus went through all of this for you! Won’t you accept His love and invite Him into your heart today? 


If you do have a personal relationship with Jesus, look again at your Beloved Savior. Let this love rekindle your heart to share Christ’s love with everyone around you.


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Thursdays With Spurgeon—The Assurance Of God’s Love

August 12, 2021 — 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 iTunes or Spotify.





The Assurance Of God’s Love


Tell me, O you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions? (Song of Solomon 1:7)


     It is well to be able to call the Lord Jesus Christ by this name without an ‘if’ or a ‘but.’ A very large proportion of Christian people can only say of Christ that they hope they love Him. They trust they love Him, but this is a very poor and shallow experience to be content to stay here. It seems to me that no one ought to give any rest to his spirit till he feels quite sure about a matter of such a vital importance. We are not content to have a hope of the love of our parents, or of our spouse, or of our children! We feel we must be certain there. And we are not to be satisfied with a hope that Christ loves us and with a bare trust that we love Him. … 


     ‘I know whom I have believed,’ says Paul (2 Timothy 1:12). ‘I know that my Redeemer lives,’ says Job (Job 19:25). ‘You whom I love,’ says Solomon in the Song as we have it here. Learn, dear friends, to get that positive knowledge of your love to Jesus, and be not satisfied till you can talk about your interest in Him as a reality that you have made infallibly sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit and His seal upon your soul by faith that you are born of God and belong to Christ. …  


     Why do we love Jesus? We have the best of answers: because He first loved us! … Why do we love Him? Because before this round earth was fashioned between the palms of the great Creator, before He had painted the rainbow or hung out the lights of the sun and moon, Christ’s delights were with us. He foresaw us through the glass of His prescience. He knew what we should be….


From The Church’s Love To Her Loving Lord


God wants you to know how much He loves you. He went first because we didn’t have any way to approach Him. But Jesus made it possible for us to come close to God through His substitutionary death on the Cross for our sins. And now the Holy Spirit is speaking clearly to your heart to trust that this is absolutely, irrevocably true: GOD LOVES YOU! 


As Spurgeon said, don’t be content with merely thinking this is true, but ask the Holy Spirit to help you know this is true! 


Listen to these words—This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. … This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. … We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:9, 13-14, 19)


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Thursdays With Spurgeon—The Basis Of Our Hope

June 10, 2021 — 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 iTunes or Spotify.






The Basis Of Our Hope


     If there is no resurrection, apostolic preaching fails. ‘If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty’ [1 Corinthians 15:12-22]. … If Christ was not raised, the apostles were false witnesses. When a man bears false witness, he usually has a motive for doing so. What motive had these men? What did they gain by bearing false witness to Christ’s resurrection? It was all loss and no profit to them if He had not risen. They declared in Jerusalem that He had risen from the dead, and straightway men began to haul them to prison and to put them to death! Those of them who survived bore the same testimony. They were so full of the conviction of it that they went into distant countries to tell the story of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead. … They were brought before Roman emperors again and again, and before the proconsuls, and threatened with the most painful of deaths, but not one of them ever withdrew his testimony concerning Christ’s resurrection! …  


     If Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain. If it is in vain, give it up! Do not hold on to a thing that is not true! I would sooner plunge into the water and swim or wade through the river than I would trust myself to a rotten bridge that would break down in the middle. If Christ did not rise, do not trust Him, for such faith is in vain! But if you believe that He did die for you and did rise again for you, then believe in Him, joyfully confident that such a fact as this affords a solid basis for your belief! …  


     If [Jesus] died for you and rose again for you, that is the groundwork of your confidence, and I pray you keep to it. … Go your way and sing, ‘The Lord is risen indeed,’ and be happy as all the birds in the air, till you are, by and by, as happy as the angels in heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


From If There Is No Resurrection 


I shared a series of messages that said, “I know Jesus is A.L.I.V.E. because of…” and each of the letters of ALIVE reminded us of a convincing proof of His resurrection. I would especially direct your attention to two of those letters. 


The “L” stands for lives changed. When someone has a complete about-face life change because of their interaction with Jesus, that is pretty strong proof that their encounter was with a living Savior. 


And the “E” stands for the engagement of Christ’s followers. It’s astounding to see how much of our world’s history has been positively impacted because of the influence of Christians. Their lives had become so radically different because of the life of Jesus in them that they could not help but change the culture around them. 


As I said last in the last Thursdays with Spurgeon installment, always remember that the one with a personal experience is never at the mercy of the one with an argument. If your life has been changed by personal and ongoing interactions with Jesus Christ, don’t keep that good news to yourself. Let that assurance you have be a bright and winsome witness to all who are around you.








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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Stop Arguing

June 3, 2021 — 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 iTunes or Spotify.






Stop Arguing


     Our religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, ‘Those are your views, and these are ours.’ Whatever your views may be is a small matter; what are the facts of the case? We must, after all, if we want a firm foundation, come down to matters of fact. … 


     Beloved friends, let us never tamper with the truth of God. I find it is as much as I can do to enjoy the comfort of the truth and to learn the spiritual lessons of God’s Word without setting up to be a critic upon it. And I find it immeasurably more profitable to my own soul to believingly adore than unbelievingly to invent objections, or even industriously to try to meet them. The meeting of objections is an endless work. When you have killed one regiment of them, there is another regiment coming on, and when you have put to the sword whole legions of doubts, doubters still swarm upon you like the frogs of Egypt! It is a poor business. It answers no practical end. It is far better to firmly believe what you profess to believe and to follow out to all the blessed consequences all of the truths of God that, in your own heart and soul, you have received of the Lord. 


From If There Is No Resurrection 


I have presented evidence numerous times that makes it reasonable to believe that the Bible is God’s inspired Word (check out my posts here, here, here, and here). And yet there are still people who stubbornly want to argue that the Bible is made-up stories, or that there was no such person as Jesus, or that if there were a Jesus, He was just a good man but not God Himself who was raised from the dead. These arguments are nothing new. Paul had to address them just a few years after Jesus had ascended back to heaven, so what would make us think that we would escape those doubters? 


As Spurgeon says, there is so much more joy when we simply “believingly adore” the God who is revealed to us on the pages of Scripture than it is to address such flimsy arguments. So that is what I typically do. Trying to debate with someone who won’t even accept basic facts is typically an unprofitable use of my efforts because they usually aren’t open to listening to what I have to say. 


Instead, I simply remember this: The one with a personal experience of a life-changing encounter with a risen Savior is never at the mercy of the critic with only a handful of arguments! So you can simply say to that argumentative critic, “I know how different my life is because Jesus is in me and I am in Him.” 


Stop arguing with close-minded critics and start adoring the God who loves you!










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Poetry Saturday—By Night When Others Soundly Slept

May 29, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




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




By night when others soundly slept


And hath at once both ease and Rest,


My waking eyes were open kept


And so to lie I found it best.




I sought Him whom my Soul did Love,


With tears I sought Him earnestly.


He bow’d His ear down from Above.


In vain I did not seek or cry.




My hungry Soul He fill’d with Good;


He in His Bottle put my tears,


My smarting wounds washt in His blood,


And banisht thence my Doubts and fears.




What to my Saviour shall I give


Who freely hath done this for me?


I’ll serve Him here whilst I shall live


And Love Him to Eternity. —Anne Bradstreet









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Poetry Saturday—Depth Of Mercy

April 3, 2021 — Craig T. Owens 




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




Depth of mercy! can there be


Mercy still reserved for me?


Can my God His wrath forbear,


Me, the chief of sinners, spare?




I have long withstood His grace,


Long provoked Him to His face,


Would not hearken to His calls,


Grieved Him by a thousand falls.




Kindled His relentings are:


Me He now delights to spare;


Cries, “How shall I give thee up?”


Lets the lifted thunder drop.




There for me the Savior stands,


Shows His wounds and spreads His hands.


God is Love; I know, I feel;


Jesus weeps, but loves me still. ―Charles Wesley




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Shadows And Light

December 25, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




Have you ever been afraid? Even scared half to death? Once there was the biggest, lumpiest, scariest monster hunched in my room just waiting to pounce on me! My mouth was so dry that I couldn’t even call out for help. Finally, I got enough moisture in my mouth to be able to yell out, “DAD!!” When my Dad came into my room and turned on the light, the monster disappeared. But right where he had been waiting to pounce on me was my desk chair with a hoodie hanging on the back. 


Sometimes we’re scared because of what we don’t see clearly or can’t fully understand because there’s not enough light for us to make out the details. 


On the night Jesus was born, an angel announced the news of His birth to some nearby shepherds. The angel was coming with good news, but Luke writes that the shepherds were terrified! I like the picturesque language of the King James Version that says they were “sore afraid,” as if they shook so much it made them sore!  


Why were they so terrified? I think it’s because they knew that when angels show up that means God Himself is close by! In fact, Luke emphasized that it was an angel of the Lord who shone with the glory of the Lord. 


For their entire lives, these shepherds had been trying to live by the law. They had been told that this is what would make them acceptable to God. The law told them how to live, and how to make things right with God if they broke a law. If they didn’t make things right, God would punish them. So perhaps they were sore afraid because they weren’t ready to meet God. 


But the angel told them something unexpected: Today your Savior has been born! A Savior, not a Judge! 


This is what God promised through one of His prophets: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel. I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  


The writer of Hebrews said all of the laws were just a “shadow of what is in heaven” (Hebrews 8:5). This shadow was the source of fear, but now Jesus had come as the Light of the world and as our Savior. Jesus came to take away the penalty of sin: Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant (Hebrews 9:15). 


In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Faithful told how a man came and beat him because he had broken the law. Even when Faithful begged for mercy the man said, “I don’t know how to show mercy to anyone.” This man was Moses the Lawgiver. 


Faithful explained what finally gave him relief: “He would have finished me off, but then one came by, and told him to stop. I did not know Him at first, but as He went by, I saw the holes in His hands and in His side and I concluded that He was Jesus.” 


The Advent of Jesus was to let the punishment for breaking the law fall on Him instead of us! 


The Law says, “Clean yourself up first and then you can come to God. But if you miss anything, God will bring down the hammer of His judgment!” Jesus says, “Come to Me just as you are. If you ask Me, I will forgive your sins. I’ll clothe you in My robe of righteousness so you can stand faultless and unafraid before God” (see Romans 8:1; Galatians 3:26-27).  


This is very Good News indeed! It means we can join in the song of the angels: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests. 






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Poetry Saturday—Of The Father’s Love Begotten

December 19, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 




Of the Father’s love begotten


ere the worlds began to be,


He is Alpha and Omega,


He the Source, the Ending He,


of the things that are, that have been,


and that future years shall see,


evermore and evermore!




O that birth forever blessed,


when the Virgin, full of grace,


by the Holy Ghost conceiving,


bore the Savior of our race;


and the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,


first revealed His sacred face,


evermore and evermore!




This is He whom heav’n-taught singers


sang of old with one accord,


whom the Scriptures of the prophets


promised in their faithful word;


now He shines, the long expected;


let creation praise its Lord,


evermore and evermore!




O ye heights of heav’n, adore Him;


angel hosts, His praises sing:


all dominions, bow before Him


and extol our God and King;


let no tongue on earth be silent,


ev’ry voice in concert ring,


evermore and evermore!




Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,


and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,


hymn and chant and high thanksgiving


and unwearied praises be,


honor, glory, and dominion


and eternal victory,


evermore and evermore! —Aurelius Clemens Prudentius








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Poetry Saturday—Growing Old

October 10, 2020 — Craig T. Owens 











They call it “going down the hill” when we are growing old,


And speak with mournful accents when our tale is nearly told;


They sigh when talking of the past, the days that used to be,


As if the future were not bright with immortality.




 




But it is not going down; ‘tis climbing high and higher,


Until we almost see the mountain that our souls desire;


For if the natural eye grows dim it is but dim to earth,


While the eye of faith grows keener to discern the Savior’s worth.




 




Who would exchange for shooting blade the waving golden grain?


Or, when the corn is fully ripe, would wish it green again?


And who would wish the hoary head, found in the way of truth


To be again encircled in the sunny locks of youth?


 


 








For though, in truth, the outward man must perish and decay,


The inward man shall be renewed by grace from day to day;


Those who are planted by the Lord, unshaken in their root,


Shall in their old age flourish and bring forth their choicest fruit.






 






It is not years that make men old; the spirit may be young,


Though fully threescore years and ten the wheels of life have run.


God has Himself recorded, in His blessed Word of truth,


That they who wait upon the Lord shall even renew their youth.






 






And when the eye, now dim, shall open to behold the King,


And ears now dull with age shall hear the harps of Heaven ring,


And on the head now hoary shall be placed the crown of gold,


Then shall be known the lasting joy of never growing old. —Anonymous














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