My Dear Pastor,
“Preach Christ… He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great, all-comprehending theme.” —Charles Spurgeon
Your Spiritual Patellar Reflex
November 12, 2012 — Craig T. OwensListen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
If you’ve ever been to a doctor’s office, you have probably experienced the patellar reflex test. It might be better known as the “knee-jerk reaction.” This is when the doctor taps your knee just below the kneecap to test your body’s involuntary response. How you respond (or don’t respond) tells the doctor a lot about your nervous system’s health.
Did you know that we have a spiritual patellar reflex too?
Consider this verse—
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
How you respond spiritually to stressful things says a lot about your spiritual knee-jerk reflex.
We see this spiritual knee-jerk reflex in the well-known story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Some of the guys who were jealous of Daniel trick the king into passing a law that forbids everyone from praying to anyone other than the king. Look at Daniel’s spiritual knee-jerk reflex:
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (Daniel 6:10)
Daniel’s knee-jerk reaction was to hit his knees in prayer!
This is because hitting his knees in prayer was a spiritual habit for Daniel. Check out this key phrase: he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. The verb tense here is one that means unbroken continuity. In other words, Daniel always prayed, so when anxious times came his spiritual knee-jerk reflex was to do what he always did: Pray, giving thanks to God.
It’s this lifestyle that prompted me to coin the word givingthanksgiving. Giving thanks shouldn’t just be on Thanksgiving Day. It should be a regular activity. And if it is, hitting our knees in prayer will become our spiritual knee-jerk reflex as well.
I want to do better at living this way. I want to pass the spiritual knee-jerk reflex test just like Daniel did. How about you?
Check out the other message in this two-part series series here.
►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials, like this exclusive video in which I take my supporters behind the scenes of my thought process in designing my confrontation flowchart. ◀︎◀︎
givingthanksgiving
November 7, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching, and families are already making their travel plans, and meal plans, and football-watching plans, and Black Friday shopping plans. Whew! That’s a lot to pack into one weekend!
So what if we don’t try to pack it into just one weekend?
What if we made sure that Thanksgiving was not just a day, but every day was a day of giving thanks?
What if giving thanks was more than just Thanksgiving?
That’s what we’ll be exploring and learning about from God’s Word over the next two Sundays. I hope you will be able to join me for this eye-opening, heart-challenging two-part series called givingthanksgiving.
And if you can’t join us in person, I challenge you to take some time to answer the question for yourself: What if giving thanks was more than just Thanksgiving? If this were true, how much sweeter your life would be!
If you missed either of the messages in this series, check them out here:
Sola Deo Gloria
November 5, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
God wants to be glorified in your church service! That’s probably a “Duh!” statement, right? After all, who would disagree with that one?
But did you know God also wants to be glorified when you’re eating your dinner? And when you’re out with your friends? And when you’re on your job? And in your marriage? And in your private thought life?
Sola Deo gloria means that everything we do is only for the glory of God.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Sola Deo gloria means that there are no sacred/secular compartments in your life. You don’t have some activities that are for God and other activities that are not for God. All of life is for Him and for His glory.
“The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God! Then divine service is not a thing of a few hours and a few places, but all life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every place and thing, as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick.” —Charles Spurgeon
It borders on arrogance for me to say, “God, this is what I’m going to do and I want You to bless it.”
A better way to say it is like this: “God, what will bring You the most glory as I go to work? Or have a conversation with a friend? Or enjoy an evening out with my spouse? Or spend some time watching TV?”
What will bring You the most glory? If you ask this question, the Holy Spirit will answer it. Instead of you asking God to bless what you are going to do, He will show you what He’s already blessing—the ways in which He will be most glorified—and then you can go do that.
Try it this week: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you can bring glory to God in all that you do. Sola Deo gloria!
If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.
UPDATE: After posting this, I ran across a video from John Piper about God’s glory and I wanted to share it with you…
Sunday Recap
November 4, 2012 — Craig T. OwensI know we covered a lot of ground today in part 5 of the Sola series. Several folks have asked me to make available the resources I shared this morning, so here they are. Enjoy!
The “Sola pyramid” shows how each of the sola statements build on each other, pointing to the apex of God’s glory.
- Sola scriptura is the foundation because it gives us the authority of God’s Word on which we build all the other statements.
- Faith comes by hearing the Word (sola scriptura) and so it leads to the understanding of sola fide.
- God’s mercy is extended to us in justification, but then his grace is the amazing, above-and-beyond gift to us in sola gratia.
- We remember grace with this acrostic: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. So grace is possible sola Christo—only through the work of Jesus Christ.
- Jesus Himself said that all He did was to bring glory to the Father, so sola Deo gloria becomes the penultimate focal point of everything else.
Here are the quotes I shared:
“We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; but when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered. The sun of God’s glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. When it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center.” —John Piper
“The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God! Then divine service is not a thing of a few hours and a few places, but all life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every place and thing, as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick.” —Charles Spurgeon
“If God’s glory is the only all-satisfying reality in the universe, then to try to do good for people, without aiming to show them the glory of God and ignite in them a delight in God, would be like treating fever with cold packs when you have penicillin.” —John Piper
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, Amplified Bible)
And, finally, here is the picture of George Friederic Handel’s signature on all his music. “S.D.G.” is Sola Deo gloria, which appears before the initials “G.F.H.” of his own name.
Sola Christo
October 29, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
Sola Christo means that it is by Christ’s work alone are we saved. We must get this firmly in our minds, and be aware of anything which reduces Christ, augments Christ, or replaces Christ.
I don’t believe in studying cults (the counterfeit). Instead, I study the Real, the Authentic, the One and Only. I want to know Jesus so well, that I can easily spot a counterfeit.
God is Spirit (John 4:24)
Jesus is God made flesh (John 1:14)
God is invisible; Jesus is the visible representation of the Godhead (1 Timothy 1:17; Colossians 1:15; Isaiah 9:6)
There’s no way to the Father but through Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
Jesus wasn’t created; He is Creator (John 1:1-3)
Jesus isn’t a greater angel; He is God (Philippians 2:6)
Jesus isn’t a superior human being; He became a human to save us (Philippians 2:7-8)
Jesus did have a physical body (Luke 24:39)
Jesus did feel pain, experience emotion, wrestle with temptation; get tired and hungry (Matthew 4:2; Matthew 26:38; Hebrews 4:15)
Jesus actually physically died on the Cross and was actually physically resurrected (1 Peter 3:18; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 12-28)
Jesus is fully Man and fully God without diluting either of them (Matthew 3:16-17)
Jesus is…
Creator
Sustainer
Savior
Redeemer
King
Judge
Lord
That’s my King!
If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.
Sola Fide
October 15, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
Out of the Reformation came five sola statements—five statements that tried to bring people back to the purity of the gospel message. This week as I studied to prepare my message on sola fide (justification with God by faith alone), I was struck by how in need of another reformation we are today!
That shouldn’t be surprising, because satan is always trying to so sneakily get us off track. So he gets people believing that they don’t need faith in God, that God is a myth, or if He does exist, He’s really not that involved in our individual lives. For these people, satan tries to get them to buy into this lie:
Works > Faith
In other words, what you can do for yourself is more important than the faith you can place in anyone (or in The One).
Some people might accept that the approach to God is through faith, but then they feel they have to add something to their faith in order to stay in God’s good graces. These people have bought into the lie:
Faith + Works
And then there are some that go to the far extreme of thought that faith means utter inactivity on their part. They have received forgiveness from God, so now they can just sit back and enjoy the ride to Heaven. They’ve bought into satan’s lie:
Works ⊈ Faith
In other words, now that I have faith, I don’t have to work anymore. Or even, the more faith I have the less work I have to do. (The mathematical symbol ⊈means faith is not a part of work, nor is work a part of faith.)
The Scripture is clear that you cannot buy your justification by working for it, nor can you keep it by adding works to your faith; however, faith does indeed require work for it to grow and mature.
The Westminster Confession says it this way:
Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.
The bottom line:
Sola Fide = Faith Works
Faith works in justification. Faith works in the atonement. Faith works in sanctification. Faith works in love.
If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.
Sola Scriptura
October 8, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
Of all the other sola statements that came out of the Reformation, sola scriptura has to be one of the most foundational. Without a firm understanding of the truthfulness of God’s Word, all other doctrinal statements are without authority. Sola scriptura means that we use the Bible as our authoritative guide for everything in our lives.
Jesus confronted the religious leaders for their misuse and abuse of Scripture. The Sadducees had a tendency to ignore the parts of Scripture which didn’t fit their “theology.” The Pharisees, on the other hand, would over-exaggerate some Scriptures which would leave other passages dwarfed or forgotten.
In Matthew 23, Jesus took on both of these incorrect approaches. What I love is that Jesus didn’t share His opinion, He didn’t argue with them, He didn’t try to convince them to accept His viewpoint. Jesus just took them back to Scripture.
- You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God (23:29).
- Have you not read what God said to you (23:31).
- David, speaking by the Spirt…says… (22:43).
When Jesus said, “You are in error,” the verb tense is the passive voice. This means it was something done to them, not something they did. These religious leaders were not purposely straying from Scripture, but by listening to men instead of God they allowed themselves to be lead astray.
That’s why this insight from Luke is so powerful:
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, 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)
This is great counsel for all of us. We should all listen to pastors and teachers, or read authors, through the filter of Scripture. We need to make sure we aren’t passively straying, and we do this by examining the Scripture.
If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.
Neglect Of Our Gift
October 5, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
Pastors, I’m challenged by these words from Charles Bridges—
It is indeed a ‘neglect of the gift of God that is in us,’ to trifle either in the study or in the pulpit. God will bless our endeavors—not our idleness. Our Master, and our people for our Master’s sake, have a just claim to our best time and talents, our most matured thoughts, and most careful studies. To venture upon this infinite work of God with slender furniture, proves a guilty unconcern to our high responsibility.
Idleness is not just laziness (although it can be that too). Think of your car when it’s idling: perhaps it’s not in gear, or maybe your foot is still on the brake. In either case, the car is not moving along to its full potential.
It’s the same for us. If we’re not moving along to our full potential as pastors, we’re idling. And that, in the words of Charles Bridges, is a neglect of the gift of God that is in us.
How might you and I be idling?
- Not spending enough time in prayer? If we’re not praying, we’re operating in our own strength, not in God’s strength.
- Hunting for a text to share, instead of seeking the mind of the Lord and letting Him reveal the text we should share?
- Taking on too many projects?
- Not delegating?
- Not organizing or planning ahead?
- Not taking care of our physical health, so we’re battling staying alert or staying healthy?
- Not spending enough time in personal devotions, so our “tank” is nearly dry?
Those are just a few thoughts that came to my mind. The Holy Spirit can reveal where you may be idling and possibly neglecting such a precious gift, if you will ask Him.
Let’s always be men and women who live up to the full potential of what God has called us to. I’m praying for you!
Sola
October 3, 2012 — Craig T. Owens
On October 31, 1517, a sea change in world history was begun. On that day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church, challenging the traditions of organized religion which he believed had strayed far from the instructions in the Bible.
The Reformation had been launched.
I truly believe that we all must be students of history, partly because all of his story is His Story. When we study history, we can see how God is working out His Story.
Second, we also need to know our history because as George Santayana rightly said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
A third reason to (re)learn the thoughts brought out during the Reformation is for doctrinal strength. It’s important to know not only what why believe but why we believe it. And there are some valuable doctrinal truths in the history of the Reformation.
Finally, I believe an important part of learning is unlearning. Sometimes we accept something just because it’s been handed down to us. That is in large part what Luther and other reformers were challenging, and calling us to unlearn tradition and relearn what the Bible has to say.
So beginning this Sunday we will be walking through the five Sola doctrinal statements the reformers taught. I am really looking forward to relearning and unlearning, and just outright learning the biblical truths of the five solas.
I hope you can join me at Calvary Assembly of God.
Here are the topics we covered in this series:
My most-viewed posts
Craig T. Owens 