Thursdays With Spurgeon—Never Give Up On Grace And Mercy

April 22, 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.

Never Give Up On Grace And Mercy

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25) 

     My friends, it is one thing to go to church or chapel. It is quite another thing to go to God. …

Coming to God is not what some of you suppose, that is, now and then sincerely performing an act of devotion but giving to the world the greater part of your life. You think that if sometimes you are sincere, if now and then you put up an earnest cry to heaven, God will accept you. And though your life may be still worldly and your desires still carnal, you suppose that for the sake of this occasional devotion God will be pleased, in His infinite mercy, to blot out your sins. I tell you, sinners, there is no such thing as bringing half of yourselves to God and leaving the other half away. …  

     If I should see a sinner staggering on his progress to hell, I would not give him up, even when he had advanced to the last stage of iniquity. Though his foot hung trembling over the very edge of perdition, I would not cease to pray for him. And though he should in his poor drunken wickedness go staggering on till one foot was over hell and he was ready to perish, I would not despair of him. Till the pit had shut its mouth upon him I would believe it is possible that divine grace might save him. See there! He is just upon the edge of the pit, ready to fall. But before he falls, free grace bids, ‘Stop that man!’ Down mercy comes, catches him on her broad wings, and he is saved—a trophy of redeeming love. 

From Salvation To The Uttermost 

My friend, if you don’t have a personal relationship with God through the forgiving work that Jesus accomplished on the Cross, I implore you to come to Him before another minute passes. When Jesus said from this Cross, “It is finished,” He told you that He paid in full your debt that would have kept you separated from God forever. 

Now you just need to come to Him in faith. Simply pray something like this: “God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner separated from You. But I believe that Jesus paid the penalty for all of my sins when He died on the Cross. Because of that payment, I am asking You to forgive me and bring me into a full relationship with You. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.” 

And let me speak to you, my Christian brother or sister who has been praying earnestly for the salvation of someone dear to you. Let me encourage you to not give up! God’s mercy and God’s grace are so swift that even with the last breath they can swoop in to save. Never cease to pray for them and know that Jesus is interceding for them before God’s throne too!

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? ◀︎◀︎

 

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

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




►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? ◀︎◀︎






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Thursdays With Spurgeon—Christ’s Gifts For The Rebellious

April 30, 2020 — 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.


Christ’s Gifts For The Rebellious


When You ascended on high, You took many captives; You received gifts from people, even from the rebellious—that You, Lord God, might dwell there. (Psalm 68:18) 


     What a strange sovereignty there is about the grace of God! Truly He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, for in this instance He selects for special mention those whom you and I would have passed over without a word! ‘Even from the rebellious.’ … 


     ‘Even among the rebellious.’ When our Lord rode home in triumph, He had a pitying heart toward the rebellious! When He entered the highest place to which He could ascend, He was still the sinner’s friend! When all His pains and griefs were being rewarded with endless horror, He turned His eyes upon those who had crucified Him and bestowed gifts upon them! …


     When God gives gifts, will you turn them away contemptuously and say, ‘I like this one but the other I do not’? Did the Father bestow these gifts upon His Son? And has the Holy Spirit put them into different earthen vessels that the excellence of the power might be of God?


From Our Lord’s Triumphant Ascension


Jesus gave gifts to the rebellious?! 


Yes, because that’s what we all were. Not one of us was righteous (Romans 3:23) nor worthy of His love (Romans 5:6-8)—let alone any gifts from Him! But Jesus took all our punishment upon Himself (Isaiah 53:4-6). 


And not only did He take away our punishment, He gave gifts to the rebellious—to you and me! Such wondrous love! 


Friend, there is a question we must all ask ourselves: How I am treating the precious gifts my Savior purchased for me?


 


 






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Thursdays With Spurgeon—Why Did Jesus Suffer?

April 2, 2020 — 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.


Why Did Jesus Suffer?


     Think much of all your Lord suffered, but do not overlook the reason for it. If you cannot always understand how this or that grief worked toward the great end of the whole passion, yet believe that it has its share in the grand why. Make a life-study of that bitter but blessed question, ‘Why have You forsaken Me?’ …


     Why, then, did God forsake His Son? I cannot conceive any other answer than this: He stood in our place. There was no reason in Christ why the Father should forsake Him—He was perfect and His life was without spot. God never acts without reason, and since there were no reasons in the character and person of the Lord Jesus why His Father should forsake Him, we must look elsewhere. … 


     He bore the sinner’s sin and He had to be treated, therefore, as though He were a sinner, the sinner He could never be! With His own full consent He suffered as though He had committed the transgressions that were laid on Him. Our sin and His taking it upon Himself are the answer to the question, ‘Why have You forsaken Me?’ …


     So long as the smile of God rests on the man, the law is not afflicting him. The approving look of the great judge cannot fall upon a man who is viewed as standing in the place of the guilty. Christ suffered not only from sin, but for sin. If God will cheer and sustain Him, He is not suffering for sin. The judge is not inflicting suffering for sin if He is manifestly encouraging the smitten one. There could have been no vicarious suffering on the part of Christ for human guilt if He had continued, consciously, to enjoy the full sunshine of the Father’s presence. It was essential to being a victim in our place that He should cry, ‘My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?’ … 


     Beloved, see how marvelously, in the person of Christ, the Lord our God has vindicated His law!


From My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?


The great apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth about his singular focus—When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:1-2) 


“Think much of all your Lord suffered, but do not overlook the reason for it,” Spurgeon said. 


That earth-quaking, darkness-inducing, temple-rattling, soul-piercing cry of Jesus—My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?—could only have been uttered by someone perfect. I know plenty of reasons why God could have forsaken me, but Jesus knew only a single reason. 


Jesus did not suffer because of something He had done wrong, but because of all I had done wrong. 


That Cross was stained with His blood for my sin. 


Because He was forsaken, I am now accepted in the Beloved Jesus (Ephesians 1:6-7). Think much on this: Jesus was crucified for you and me SO THAT we wouldn’t have to bear the penalty of our sin. Justice was satisfied. Now, by faith in His sacrifice on the Cross, we can come to God not only with our sins forgiven, but we can be accepted by Him as His children. 


My friend, think much on this. Resolve to know the unspeakable value of Christ crucified for you. And then rejoice greatly that you are accepted in the Beloved. If you would like to know more, please contact me.


 






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Thursdays With Spurgeon—God Will Not Acquit The Wicked

November 7, 2019 — 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.


God Will Not Acquit The Wicked


     The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked [Nahum 1:3]. The Lord is slow to anger because He is great in power. ‘How say you so?’ says one. I answer: He who is great in power has power over himself. And he who can keep his own temper down and subdue himself is greater than he who rules the city, or can conquer nations. … When God’s power does restrain Himself, then it is power indeed—the power to curb power. The power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. God is great in power, and therefore does He keep in His anger. … We bless God that the greatness of His power is just our protection! He is slow to anger because He is great in power. …  


     I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins [Isaiah 44:22]. Not of one of all those sins that have been pardoned was pardoned without punishment. Do you ask me why and how such a thing as that can be the truth? I point you to yonder dreadful sight on Calvary. The punishment that fell not on the forgiven sinner fell there. … Sin is still punished, though the sinner is delivered. … 


     And now we trace this terrible attribute to its source. Why is this? We reply, God will not acquit the wicked, because He is good. What? Does goodness demand that sinners will be punished? It does. The judge must condemn the murderer because he loves his nation. …  


     Mercy, with her weeping eyes (for she has wept for sinners), when she finds they will not repent, looks more terribly stern in her loveliness than justice in all his majesty. She drops the white flag from her hand and says, “No. I called and they refused. I stretched out my hand and no man regarded. Let them die, let them die” and that terrible word from the lip of mercy’s self is harsher thunder then the very damnation of justice. Oh yes, the goodness of God demands that men should perish if they will sin. …  


     Can you by humble faith look to Jesus and say, “My substitute, my refuge, and my shield; You are my rock, my trust, in You I do confide”? Then, beloved, to you I have nothing to say except never be afraid when you see God’s power. For now that you are forgiven and accepted, now that by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify his wife or his child.


From Mercy, Omnipotence, And Justice


Have you looked in faith to the work Jesus did on Calvary so that your sins could be forgiven? If so, wonderful! You have nothing to fear from God’s justice. 


If not, I plead with you—look again. God’s mercy has been extended to you at least long enough for you to read this, but His justice must fall. Don’t procrastinate another moment: Allow the acquittal of your sins that Jesus purchased with His blood to be yours this very moment!




 






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Poetry Saturday—An Acrostic

August 3, 2019 — Craig T. Owens 




I am a vile polluted lump of earth;


So I’ve continued ever since my birth;


Although Jehovah grace does daily give me,


As sure as this monster satan will deceive me.


Come therefore, Lord, from satan’s claws relieve me.


Wash me in Thy blood, O Christ,


And grace divine impart;


Then search and try the corners of my heart,


That I in all things may be fit to do


Service to Thee, and sing Thy praises too. —Isaac Watts (written at age 7)






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Thursdays With Spurgeon—Blessed Assurance

May 16, 2019 — 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.


Blessed Assurance


     The Holy Spirit, who enabled me to believe, gave me peace through believing. I felt as sure that I was forgiven as before I felt sure of condemnation. I had been certain of my condemnation because the Word of God declared it, and my conscience bore witness to it; but when the Lord Jesus justified me, the same witnesses made me equally certain. The Word of the Lord in the Scripture says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned” (John 3:18), and my conscience bore witness that I believed, and that God in pardoning me was just. Thus I had the witness of the Holy Spirit and also of my own conscience, and these two agreed in one. …  


     I find the apostle Paul speaking by the Holy Spirit and saying, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God” (Romans 5:1). If I know that my trust is fixed on Jesus only, and that I have faith in Him, were it not ten thousand times more absurd for me not to be at peace than for me to be filled with joy unspeakable? It is but taking God at His Word, when the soul knows as a necessary consequence of its faith that it is saved. …  


     Has Jesus saved me? I dare not speak with any hesitation here; I know He has. His word is true; therefore I am saved. My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved. I live habitually in the enjoyment of this blessed fact, and it is long since I have doubted the truth of it, for I have His own Word to sustain my faith.


From The Autobiography Of Charles Spurgeon


The joy that Spurgeon recounts in his conversion is the same joy that is available to all who call on Jesus in faith. As Spurgeon was prone to quoting passages of hymns in his sermons and books, these words of his remind me of a favorite hymn as well—


Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;


Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! 


Heir of salvation, purchase of God,


Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. 


This is my story, this is my song,


Praising my Savior all the day long!






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Thursdays With Spurgeon—Keep The Focus On The Savior

May 9, 2019 — 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.


Keep The Focus On The Savior


     I have heard men tell the story of their conversion, and of their spiritual life, in such a way that my heart has loathed them and their story, too, for they have told of their sins as if they did boast in the greatness of their crime, and they have mentioned the love of God, not with a tear of gratitude, not with the simple thanksgiving of the really humble heart, but as if they as much exalted themselves as they exalted God. Oh! When we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with great sorrow, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. … 


     My Master, I cannot understand how You stoop Your awful head to such a death as the death of the Cross, how You could take from Your brow the coronet of stars that from old eternity had shone resplendent there. But how You should permit the thorn-crown to gird Your temples astonishes me far more. That You should cast away the mantle of Your glory, the azure of Your everlasting empire, I cannot comprehend. But how You should have become veiled in the ignominious purple for a while and then be mocked by impious men who bowed to You as a pretended king; and how You should be stripped naked to Your shame, without a single covering, and die a felon’s death. This is still more incomprehensible. But the marvel is that You should have suffered all this for me! … 


     I, a lad, found the Lord of glory. I, a slave to sin, found the great Deliverer. I, the child of darkness, found the Light of Life. I, the uttermost of the lost, found my Savior and my God. I, widowed and desolate, found my Friend, my Beloved, my Husband. Oh, how I wondered that I should be pardoned! It was not the pardon that I wondered at so much; the wonder was that it should come to me. 


From The Autobiography Of Charles Spurgeon


How sad that many times the story of our salvation focuses more on how bad we were, and gives so little glory to how amazing our Savior’s rescue was. 


Just as the Apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners, and stood in amazement that Christ’s love would reconcile him to God, so Spurgeon stood amazed that Jesus would stoop to die for “the uttermost of the lost.” 


It’s fine to tell people what used to be, but please make sure your story focuses more on how amazing it is that God’s love saved you from those sins. Amazing love! How can it be that You, my King, would die for me? 


Let’s keep the focus on the Savior! 






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



Poetry Saturday—See How The Patient Jesus Stands

April 15, 2017 — Craig T. Owens 




See how the patient Jesus stands,


Insulted in His lowest case!


Sinners have bound the Almighty hands,


And spit in their Creator’s face.




With thorns His temple gored and gashed


Send streams of blood from every part;


His back’s with knotted scourges lashed,


But sharper scourges tear His heart.




Nailed naked to the accursed wood


Exposed to earth and heaven above,


A spectacle of wounds and blood,


A prodigy of injured love!




Hark! how His doleful cries affright


Affected angels, while they view;


His friends forsook Him in the night,


And now His God forsakes Him too!




Behold that pale, that languid face,


That drooping head, those languid eyes!


Behold in sorrow and disgrace


Our conquering Hero hangs, and dies!




Ye that assume His sacred name,


Now tell me, what can all this mean?


What was it bruised God’s harmless Lamb,


What was it pierced His soul but sin?




Blush, Christian, blush: let shame abound:


If sin affects thee not with woe,


Whatever life is in thee found,


The life of Christ thou doest not know. —Joseph Hart






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »



	



14 Quotes From “Our Brilliant Heritage”

July 29, 2015 — Craig T. Owens 




Our Brilliant HeritageAs I said in my book review of Oswald Chambers’ book Our Brilliant Heritage, it’s hard to come up with enough good words to say about this man’s insights! You can read my review of this book by clicking here, and check out my first batch of quotes below.


“The writer to the Hebrews does not tell us to imitate Jesus when we are tempted; he says—‘Come to Jesus, and He will succor [help] you in the nick of time.’ That is, all His perfect overcoming of temptation is ours in Him. … Jesus Christ does not give us power to work up a patience like His own. His patience is manifested if we will let His life dwell in us.”


“Paul does not say, nor does the Spirit of God say anywhere, that after we are born again of the Spirit of God, Jesus Christ is put before us as an Example and we make ourselves holy by drawing from Him. Never! Sanctification is Christ formed in us; not the Christ-life, but Christ Himself. In Jesus Christ is the perfection of everything, and the mystery of sanctification is that we may have in Jesus Christ, not the start of holiness, but the holiness of Jesus Christ.”


“The very spirit that ruled Jesus in His life now rules us. How has it come about? Read Romans 8:10. ‘And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ John the Baptist said of Jesus—‘He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.’ The Spirit of God who wrought out that marvelous Life in the Incarnation will baptize us into the very same life, not into a life like it, but into His life until the very holiness of Jesus is gifted to us. It is not something we work out in Him, it is in Him, and He manifests it through us while we abide in Him.” 


“Some of us have never allowed God to make us understand how hopeless we are without Jesus Christ.”


“‘Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation’! (2 Corinthians 5:17). … Those of us who are in the experience of God’s mighty salvation do not give ourselves half enough prayerful time, and wondering time, and studying time to allow the Spirit of God to bring this marvelous truth home to us.” 


“We are too free from wonder nowadays, too easy with the Word of God; we do not use it with the breathless amazement Paul does. Think what sanctification means—Christ in me; made like Christ; as He is, so are we.”


“Men are apt to cry to God to stop—‘If only God would leave me alone!’ God never will. His passionate, inexorable love never allows Him to leave men alone, and with His children He will shake everything that can be shaken till there is nothing that can be shaken anymore; then will abide the consuming fire of God until the life is changed into the same image from glory to glory, and men see that strong family likeness to Jesus that can never be mistaken.”


“The marvelous thing about the inheritance of the saints in light is that when we take our part of the inheritance, everyone else is blessed in the taking; but if we refused to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, we rob others of its glory and its wonder.”


“We cannot do what God does and God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves or sanctify ourselves; God only can do that; but God does not give us good habits, He does not give us character, He does not make us walk aright; we must do all that.” 


“If, when no one is watching us, we are building ourselves up in the Word of God, then, when a crisis comes, we shall stand; but if we are not building on the Word of God, when a crisis comes we shall go down, no matter what our wills are like.”


“With Jesus it is never ‘Do, do,’ but ‘Be, be and I will do through you.’”


“One strong moral man will form a nucleus around which others will gather; and spiritually, if we put on the armor of God and stand true to Him, a whole army of week-kneed Christians will be strengthened.”


“The surest evidence that the nature of God has come into me is that I know I am a sinner.”


“The deepest repentance is not in the sinner, but in the saint. Repentance means not only sorrow for sin, it involves the possession of a new disposition that will never do the thing again.”






Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »








« Older posts 


 




						

						
					

				

			

		
 
		
	



		
		




	

		

	

		
			
	


			
		
		
	
						








		
				
			
	

		

			%d bloggers like this: