Savior | Craig T. Owens

September 2026
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Poetry Saturday—The Bag

April 2, 2022 — 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.

Away despair! my gracious Lord doth heare.

Though windes and waves assault my keel,

He doth preserve it: He doth steer,

Ev’n when the boat seems most to reel.

Storms are the triumph of His art:

Well may He close His eyes, but not His heart.

Hast thou not heard, that my Lord Jesus di’d?

Then let me tell thee a strange storie.

The God of power, as He did ride

In His majestic robes of glorie,

Reserv’d to light; and so one day

He did descend, undressing all the way.

The starres His tire of light and rings obtain’d,

The cloud His bow, the fire His spear,

The sky His azure mantle gain’d.

And when they ask’d, what He would wear;

He smil’d and said as He did go,

He had new clothes a making here below.

When He was come, as travellers are wont,

He did repair unto an inne.

Both then, and after, many a brunt

He did endure to cancell sinne:

And having giv’n the rest before,

Here He gave up His life to pay our score.

But as He was returning, there came one

That ran upon Him with a spear.

He, who came hither all alone,

Bringing nor man, nor arms, nor fear,

Receiv’d the blow upon His side,

And straight He turn’d, and to His brethren cry’d,

If ye have any thing to send or write,

I have no bag, but here is room:

Unto my Father’s hands and sight,

Beleeve Me, it shall safely come.

That I shall minde, what you impart;

Look, you may put it very neare My heart.

Or if hereafter any of My friends

Will use Me in this kinde, the doore

Shall still be open; what he sends

I will present, and somewhat more,

Not to his hurt. Sighs will convey

Any thing to Me. Harke, Despair away. —George Herbert (**spelling is 1663 English**)

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary, crucifixion, George Herbert, pain, poem, poetry, resurrection, salvation, Savior. Leave a Comment »

Poetry Saturday—Before The Throne Of God Above

November 27, 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.

Before the throne of God above

I have a strong and perfect plea,

A great High Priest whose name is Love,

Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on His hands,

My name is written on His heart;

I know that while in heav’n He stands

No tongue can bid me thence depart,

No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end of all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,

My sinful soul is counted free;

For God the Just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me,

To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there! The risen Lamb,

My perfect, spotless righteousness;

The great unchangeable “I AM,”

The King of glory and of grace!

One with Himself I cannot die,

My soul is purchased by His blood;

My life is hid with Christ on high,

With Christ, my Savior and my God,

With Christ, my Savior and my God. —Charitie Lees Bancroft

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Charitie Lees Bancroft, guilt, Heaven, High Priest, hymn, Jesus Christ, justification, pardon, poem, poetry, righteousness, satan, Savior, spiritual warfare. Leave a Comment »

Poetry Saturday—Mental Depression

November 20, 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.

Depressed and weary sank the mind in gloom,

Gloom deep as night in which there is no moon;

Times rushing down its darkening cloisters past

Conflicting thoughts, unhindered, blast on blast,

Until the very brain did shriek and rave in turn,

Reason’s control in madness by it spurned.

Sudden it ceased, one mighty wrench, then fled

And stillness o’er the whole its silence spread;

Whilst from the fullness of the immortal soul

Deep tender music did its charm unroll.

Lifting the burden from the anguished heart

Sent forth its floods and healed the inward smart;

So! in the midst is heard the Saviour’s voice,

Soulfully sweet, inviting to rejoice;

And there resounds divinely full and free,

“Sad, weary heart, be still and come to Me.”

Soon in the soul the sound of quiet rest

Breathes real and low and draws us to His breast,

Where Jesus, looking in our faces smiled,

Soothes us to sleep because He loves His child. —Oswald Chambers

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: anxiety, depression, Jesus Christ, mental health, Oswald Chambers, poem, poetry, Savior, thought life. Leave a Comment »

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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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: God's help, God's provision, hope, Jesus Christ, John Newton, poem, poetry, Savior, spiritual warfare. Leave a Comment »

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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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bethlehem, Calvary, Charles Spurgeon, Cross, crucifixion, Gethsemane, God's love, Gospel of Mark, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, Passion Week, Psalm, Savior. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Spurgeon—The Assurance Of God’s Love

August 12, 2021 — Craig T. Owens

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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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 John, 2 Timothy, assurance, Charles Spurgeon, Christian, confidence, God's love, Jesus Christ, job, Savior, Song of Solomon, Song of Songs. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Spurgeon—The Basis Of Our Hope

June 10, 2021 — Craig T. Owens

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.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, apologetic, apostle Paul, assurance, Bible, Charles Spurgeon, conviction, God's Word, Jesus Christ, martyrs, personal experience, resurrection, Savior, Scripture, testimony, witness, world history. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Spurgeon—Stop Arguing

June 3, 2021 — Craig T. Owens

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!