“Grieve the Holy Spirit, and you will lose all Christian joy; the light shall be taken from you, and you shall stumble in darkness; those very means of grace which once were such a delight, shall have no music in your ear. Your soul shall be no longer as a watered garden, but as a howling wilderness. Grieve the Spirit of God, and you will lose all power; if you pray, it will be a very weak prayer—you will not prevail with God. When you read the Scriptures, you shall not be able to lift the latch and force your way into the inner mysteries of truth. When you go up to the house of God, there shall be none of that devout exhilaration, that running without weariness, that walking without fainting. You shall feel yourself like Samson when his hair was lost, weak, captive, and blinded. Let the Holy Spirit depart, and assurance is gone, doubts follow, questionings and suspicions are aroused. Grieve the Spirit of God, and usefulness will cease: the ministry shall yield no fruit….” —Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon On Grieving The Holy Spirit
March 9, 2015 — Craig T. OwensNo Plan B
March 9, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
In my family, what starts off as Plan A at the beginning of the day is highly likely to end up as Plan K-13 by the end of the day! We just try to be flexible and roll with the changes.
But we must be careful about giving the characteristic of “flexibility” to God—He doesn’t need to be flexible and modify His plans. He has no Plan B; everything is His Plan A.
Jesus is described as being the sacrificial Lamb from before the dawn of Creation (1 Peter 1:18-20). And in Heaven Jesus is still known as the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 13:8 and 5:5-6). Jesus coming to earth to die on an old rugged Cross was always God’s Plan A. The whole time Jesus Christ was on earth, He knew what was happening.
Here are 5 things Jesus knew. He knew…
- …when His time had come, and that all things were about to be fulfilled through His crucifixion—John 13:1, 3
- …the exact sequence of events leading up to His death on Calvary—Matthew 20:17-19
- …the immutability of the Scriptures—Matthew 26:53-56
- …the infallibility of the Scriptures—Luke 24:25-27
- …that God would be glorified in fulfilling His Plan A—John 12:27-28
With this in mind, here are 5 things we should know. We should know…
- …that all my days were written down before the dawn of Creation—Psalm 139:16
- …God loves me more than I can fathom—Psalm 139:17
- …my life was always intended to be a part of God’s Plan A—Ephesians 2:10
- …no weapon formed against God’s Plan A for me will succeed—Isaiah 54:17
- …that God will be glorified in fulfilling His Plan A in my life—Romans 8:28
The old rugged Cross reminds us that God’s Plan A was always for Christ’s death to make it possible for our lives to make sense!
As Andrew Murray wrote: “God fully relied on His Son to see to it that His honor was respected. And in Jesus we too may bravely enter this covenant without fear that we will not be able to fulfill it. We can rely upon Jesus to see to it that He will bring everything to completion. Jesus has not only discharged our old debt but also undertaken the responsibility for whatever else may be required.”
I’ll be continuing our series on The Old Rugged Cross this Sunday, and I hope you can join me.
Links & Quotes
February 19, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
“We can gather that their state [ISIS] rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world.” Read more of this fascinating piece in The Atlantic: What ISIS Really Wants.
Frank Viola wrote, “Mark it down: As you go on with the Lord, your faith will be sorely tested. You will be tempted to ‘shrink back’ into unbelief. But you—dear child of God do not belong to those who shrink back.” Read more from his post The Crisis Of Faith.
Rob Bell is fast becoming irrelevant himself, by choosing which parts of the Bible he wants to follow, when he states “the Church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense” for traditional marriage.
[VIDEO] Epigenomes in the human body are like a symphony. How amazing is our Creator! Check out this artistic depiction of how this works—
Links & Quotes
February 18, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
For my pastor friends: “A growing church is a work of God. We, His servants, matter only to the extent that we are faithful in our callings.” —T.M. Moore
“Maintaining doctrinal purity is good but it is not the whole picture for a New Testament church. The apostles wanted to do much more than simply ‘hold the fort,’ as the old gospel song says. They asked God to empower them to move out and impact an entire culture.” Read more from Jim Cymbala’s post His Hand Of Love.
“Read whatever chapter of Scripture you will, and be ever so delighted with it—yet it will leave you as poor, as empty and unchanged as it found you unless it has turned you wholly and solely to the Spirit of God, and brought you into full union with and dependence upon Him.” —William Law
Pastor Chilly Chilton has an important reminder: Being Mean Is MEAN.
If you are fasting during Lent, or if you simply fast on a regular basis, this post is helpful: Kingdom Fast: Caffeine.
Very helpful: Want To Get Your Dream Job? Do These 4 Things.
Ever been here? How To Pray When You Don’t Feel Like It.
Thoughtful words from Seth Godin: Kicking And Screaming (vs. singing and dancing).
Funny, but true, from Truth Facts―
Links & Quotes
February 6, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
Are you subscribed to The Overview Bible Project’s summary of each book of the Bible? Check out this summary of Genesis and then subscribe.
“On this planet, there are about 7,000 living languages. 1,860 of them do not have a single word of Scripture. 4,500 languages do not have a full Bible. That’s more than 1 billion Bibleless people.” Read more in There Is No Good Bible For Over A Billion People.
My friend Jeff Bonzelaar has a thoughtful post called To Drink Or Not To Drink.
“Worry is anti-trust. If you’re worried, you don’t trust something: your kids, their friends, strangers, the church, even God. Can He take care of your children? Certainly. Jesus says, ‘I tell you, stop being anxious and worried about your life.’ Pretty blunt. Stop it! Easier said than done, huh? Worry tests your trust, so hand your children to God and let Him babysit your babies when you’re not around. He’s pretty good at it!” —Max Lucado
Planned Parenthood continues to disgust me. Read 5 Little Known Facts About Planned Parenthood and tell me why we taxpayers are helping subsidize their operations.
DON’T SEE THIS MOVIE! Why Fifty Shades Of Grey sends the wrong message.
“Hell is at stake here, not just the loss of a few extra rewards. … So we warn each other: Don’t drift away. Don’t love the world. Don’t start thinking nothing huge is at stake. Fear the terrible prospect of not cherishing the promises of God above the promises of sin. But mainly we must focus on the preciousness of the promises and help each other value above all things how great the reward is that Christ has purchased for us.” —John Piper
[VIDEO] President Obama is finally making Pastor Saeed Abedini’s captivity in Iran more of a public issue. Check out this video, and go here to sign this petition.
Links & Quotes
February 1, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
Do you suffer from any of these? Things that hold us back from serving others.
Dave Barringer shares 10 subtle actions that you should pay attention to in your marriage.
“Let me warn you of second-hand spirituality; it is a rotten soul-deceiving deception. Beware of all esteeming yourself according to the thoughts of others, or you will be ruined. … O I do pray you, do not be satisfied with being persuaded into something like an assurance that you are in Christ, but do know Him—know Him for yourself.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Sinning is believing a false promise from the world above a true promise from God.” Read more in Jared Mulvihill’s post We Should Be Weeping.
Eurasia Northwest has a really cool infographic on the use of healing words in the Bible.
Seth Godin says, “The chances that everyone is going to applaud you, never mind even become aware you exist, are virtually nil. Most brands and organizations and individuals that fail fall into the chasm of trying to be all things in order to please everyone, and end up reaching no one. That’s the wrong thing to focus on. Better to focus on and delight almost no one.” Check out the rest of his post Almost No One.
[VIDEO] This year’s NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers is doing some cool stuff for kids―
Links & Quotes
January 29, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
How do you define “healing”? Check out this comprehensive list of Scriptures posted by Eurasia Northwest that may expand your definition.
Parents, beware of the book-turned-movie Fifty Shades Of Grey! Dr. Miriam Grossman has four blog posts about the dangers of seeing this movie or letting your kids see it. Check out the posts here.
“Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way. Do this. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. As you stand in line to register your car, think, ‘Thank you, Lord, for being here.’ In the grocery store as you shop, think, ‘Your presence, my King, I welcome.’ As you wash the dishes, worship your Maker.” ―Max Lucado
Tim Elmore reminds us that the next time a young leader approaches you with a “zany idea,” you might do well to listen to him/her. After all, he lists some really smart people who totally missed the future!
“If there be any deed of kindness or love that we can do for the very meanest and most obscure of God’s people, we ought to be willing to do it—to be servants to God’s servants.” —Charles Spurgeon
John Piper and the Desiring God crew have a list of 24 free ebooks. Good stuff!
[VIDEO]
A beautiful stories about a sister’s love for her brother―
Links & Quotes
January 9, 2015 — Craig T. Owens
I get really tired of the arguments from people questioning the validity of the Bible. Most of the arguments have been debunked a long time ago, and are simply repeated ad nauseum. Here is a great post from a New Testament scholar taking apart these arguments.
Almost as bad as the arguments against the validity of Scripture are the arguments for socialized medicine. Here are 5 reasons why Obamacare should be completely repealed.
Parents, you should be aware of some security issues for your kids on Instagram.
“You will do more in one year if you are really filled with the Holy Ghost than you could do in 50 years apart from Him.” ―Smith Wigglesworth
“Do not even such things as are most bitter to the flesh, tend to awaken Christians to faith and prayer, to a sight of the emptiness of this world, and the fadingness of the best it yield? … How then can we be offended at things by which we reap so much good?” ―John Bunyan
“Pride, on the other hand, is the mother of all sins, and the original sin of lucifer … an instrument strung but preferring to play itself because it thinks it knows the tune better than the Musician.” ―C.S. Lewis
“The assurance that prayer is heard is the earnest that prayer will be answered. The petition is accepted, though no answer has yet been received. Well, we can leave it there. … God never is before His time; nor is He ever too late; He comes just when He is needed.” —Charles Spurgeon
Links & Quotes
December 26, 2014 — Craig T. Owens
“When we meet with our kinsfolk and acquaintances, let it be our prayer to God that our communion may be not only pleasant, but profitable; that we may not merely pass away time and spend a pleasant hour, but may advance a day’s march nearer heaven, and acquire greater fitness for our eternal rest.” —Charles Spurgeon
“When Scripture says that Christ died ‘for’ us, I think the word is usually υπερ (on behalf of), not αντι (instead of). I think the ideas of sacrifice, ransom, championship (over death), substitution et cetera are all images to suggest the reality (not otherwise comprehensible to us) of the atonement. To fix on any one of them as if it contained and limited the truth like a scientific definition would in my opinion be a mistake.” —C.S. Lewis
“Christ will really help us in our fight. He really will help you. He is on your side. He didn’t come to destroy sin because sin is fun. He came to destroy sin because it is fatal. It is a deceptive work of the devil and will destroy us if we don’t fight it. He came to help us, not hurt us.” —John Piper
A really cool timeline of the events surrounding Christ’s birth.
“You will not experience the real presence of Jesus until you have within you a growing hatred for sin—a piercing conviction for your failures and a deepening sense of your exceeding sinfulness. Those without Christ’s presence become less and less convicted by sin. The further they withdraw from His presence, the bolder, more arrogant and more comfortable in compromise they grow.” —David Wilkerson
Have you seen Unbroken or read the book? This post—Unbroken Uncut—is very interesting.
This is a disgusting twist of Scripture that perverts God’s Word to make it sound like those who are pro-abortion are the evildoers.
“You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.” —Max Lucado
[VIDEO] A sweet video of a 10-year-old boy who finds out he is going to be a big brother—
The Illustrated Guide To The Authors Of The Bible (book review)
December 22, 2014 — Craig T. Owens
I have been a big fan of The Overview Bible Project ever since I discovered Jeffrey Kranz’s amazing Bible-based infographics and study tools. In The Illustrated Guide To The Authors Of The Bible Jeffrey and his wife Laura give us a helpful and beautiful way of learning more about the men whom God used to write His Word.
I recently had a chance to ask Jeffrey & Laura a few questions about this ebook.
Jeffrey, why do you think that it’s important for students of the Bible to learn about the biblical authors?
One of the most important things to know about any message is where it comes from. We know this from life. If you get a “happy anniversary” card from your spouse, it’s a loving gesture. If you get the same card from an ex … well, you get the picture. The whole message hinges on who sends it!
It’s that way with the Bible, too. If we’re going to understand what the authors of the Bible were trying to get across, we should spend a little time getting to know them: who they are, where they’re from, what they’ve been through, and even what time period they’re writing from.
So what was one of the most surprising discoveries you made while researching this book?
As I went into this project, I hadn’t expected so many of the authors to be from the tribe of Levi. But they are! About 42% of our Bible was written by Levites—45% if you count Matthew. No other tribe comes close.
I had expected a little more of a mix, but then I remembered a certain prophecy. Right before Israel enters the promised land, Moses blesses the nation tribe by tribe. When he gets to Levi, Moses says, “They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, And Your law to Israel. They shall put incense before You, And whole burnt offerings on Your altar.” (Dt 33:10)
And indeed they did.
Laura, what was your inspiration for giving a “face” to the biblical authors? How do you think this will help someone learn about these authors?
Actually, the initial idea was Jeffrey’s. He was working on pulling together the information on the authors, and asked me if I’d be willing to do an art series to go with it. I thought it would be a great way to help people connect the facts to actual people. There’s a lot of information to digest, and I hope that having images to go with it allows more of the personhood of each author to sink in. I also thought it would be a nice way to help visual learners simply find the facts about who wrote the Bible to be more interesting. Obviously, the pictures are hypothetical—we don’t know much at all about how these guys looked—but using the stats and stories Jeffrey compiled to try to draw out personalities and faces was a really fun challenge.
Can the two of you give us any hints on what you next book and/or art project might be?
We have a few in the works:
- For the new year, we’re launching a special email course that sends people a 3–minute summary of a book of the Bible every week. This will help new students of the Word to get an idea of what each book is about, and it should be a nice refresher for the seasoned Bible geeks out there.
- Thus far our readers have really enjoyed these character surveys, so we’re thinking of launching an illustrated guide to the 40 most important characters of the Bible.
- In 2015 Laura and I hope to collaborate with more people in the Bible geekery space. One project on the table is a book of illustrations for the Songs of Ascent (Ps 120–134), which would include more of our friends in the Christian art community.
- And of course, plenty of infographics, a few study guides, and possibly some video and music!
I strongly encourage you to download the FREE ebook The Illustrated Guide To The Authors Of The Bible by clicking here. Then also subscribe via RSS feed or email to the great stuff Jeffrey & Laura produce and share at The Overview Bible Project.
My most-viewed posts
Craig T. Owens 