Scared Half To Death

December 24, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Mega fearHave you ever had a really good scare that turned your life around? For some people, they need to be scared half to death in order for them to make changes in their lives.

I think this is what happened to the shepherds outside Bethlehem the night Jesus was born (Luke 2:8-20). The Bible says that when the glory of the Lord shone around them they were terrified (the King James Version is very picturesque when it says they were sore afraid). The Greek word for fear is phobeo, but the phrase Luke uses here for “terrified” is megas phobeo phobos. Get the picture? They were scared half to death!!

But now, what to do what that fear? The angel gave them the first step—Go find Jesus. He didn’t tell them to get themselves cleaned up, or start going to church, or even to stop acting a certain way. Simply go find Jesus.

The shepherds obeyed and went to meet Jesus, and then something amazing happens.

  • Their fear is turned to praise—the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God.
  • Their silence is turned to testimony—they spread the word concerning what had been told them.

Jesus was born as a Man to experience all our fears and sorrows and pains. But He took these upon Himself as He became the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice. Now there are no fears that can keep us from God’s presence. Jesus conquered all that kept us from God! 

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.He was despised and rejected—a Man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. (Isaiah 53:2-5; Ephesians 1:3-4)

This Christmas I pray you will…

Find Jesus for yourself!

Let your praises to Him ring out!

Tell others what Jesus has done for you!

If you have missed any of the messages in our Fear Not! series, you can find them all by clicking here.

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Thursdays With Oswald—God’s Honor Is At Stake

December 20, 2012 — 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. 

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

God’s Honor Is At Stake

      As long as a Christian complies with the standards of this world, the world recognizes him; but when he works from the real standard, which is God, the world cannot understand him, and consequently it either ignores or ridicules him….

      God’s honor is at stake in my eyes, in my hands and feet; His honor is at stake wherever I take my body. My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, therefore I have to see that it is the obedient slave of the disposition Jesus Christ has put in to stand for Him.

From Biblical Psychology

God’s honor is at stake in how I live, so I must constantly allow the Holy Spirit to help me answer the questions, “How am I living?” and “How am I representing God?”

Here’s a passage of Scripture I try to keep in mind to help me answer those questions:

   But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:15-17)

In light of that passage from Peter and the wise words from Oswald Chambers, these are some good questions to ask ourselves:

Remember, “God’s honor is at stake in my eyes, in my hands and feet; His honor is at stake wherever I take my body.”

May God always be honored in the way that we all live!

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Heaven Is Rejoicing!

July 1, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

One of my all-time favorite things to do as a pastor is water baptism. I love hearing the stories of lives that have been completely transformed by Jesus Christ! This morning the Calvary Assembly of God family celebrated with Crystal as she made her public declaration that she is totally sold-out for God!

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Engaging Culture

June 29, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

There has been a debate in religious circles for a long, long time about how involved Christians should be in culture.

  • Get close to outsiders. But how close is too close?
  • Be friendly with your neighbors. But how friendly is too friendly?

The debate usually has two extremes: Either get immersed in your world, or don’t even touch a thing of this world. I hate either-or’s!

Instead I think there is a both-and balance that is very biblical. We need to ENGAGE our culture. Engaging culture means that we understand it and can relate to it, but we don’t give in to it nor compromise with it.

We Must Be In It But Not Of It

I’ll be addressing this topic in a new series at Calvary Assembly of God. I hope you’ll be able to join me to learn about the biblical ways we should be engaging our culture.

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If Anyone Ought To Be Happy

May 27, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I remember once going to play golf with two other friends. When we got to the course, the starter added another guy—someone we didn’t know—to our group to round-out our foursome. We began to “play” our round of golf (I use the term play loosely), and joke, and laugh, and enjoy ourselves.

About 4 or 5 holes into our round, our new friend asked what we all did. I responded, “He’s a pastor, I’m a pastor, and that guy over there is a missionary.”

Our new friend looked shocked. “You mean you’re all Christians?!”

“Yes, we are,” I said. “Does that surprise you?”

“Yes,” he replied, and then quickly added, “But I’ve never had so much fun playing golf before!”

It’s funny, and yet sad. Why would Christians be thought of as boring? dull? killjoys? Shouldn’t we be the most happy and joy-filled of all?

Here’s what Charles Spurgeon said—

We ought to be glad and rejoice forever in that which God creates. Ours is a heritage of joy and peace. My dear brothers and sisters, if anybody in the world ought to be happy, we are the people.

How large our obligations! How boundless our privileges! How brilliant our hopes!

What should make us miserable? Sin? That is forgiven. Affliction? That is working our good. Inward corruptions? They are doomed to die. satanic temptations? We wear an armor which they cannot penetrate. We have every reason for delight, and we have moreover this command for it: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). May God bring us into that blessed condition and keep us there!

God intends not only that we should have joy but also that we should spread it among others. He intends that wherever we go we should be light bearers and set other lamps shining.

Can people tell you have the joy of the Lord? Are you bringing light and laughter to dark and somber places? If you are filled up with God, how happy you should be!

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Um, That’s A Bit Awkward

April 15, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

Somehow I don’t think this is the most effective way to start a conversation about your faith!

Here are four thoughts I have…

Don’t compartmentalize. In other words, don’t put on your “Christian hat” to talk about your relationship with Jesus. Just be Christ-like all the time. People are looking for something real, not someone who’s playing an act.

Develop relationships first. Don’t lead with a sermon; lead with a friendship. As the saying goes, “People don’t care how much (or Who) you know, until they know how much you care.” Be a genuine friend first.

Wait until they’re ready. Jesus told stories with a deeper meaning and asked a lot of questions of people before He spoke to them directly about the kingdom of God. Don’t force people into a conversation. Keep the door open, and let them step in when they are ready.

Don’t get discouraged. Just like there are some topics you’re not ready to discuss right now, others feel the same way. So just because they say “No thanks” today doesn’t mean nothing happened. The Bible says that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt and light are always seasoning and illuminating everywhere they go. Your life is making a difference.

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Private Good Deeds

November 8, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Betsy and I went to school conferences and discovered that our youngest son has been staying after school—by his own choice—to help his teacher tidy up the classroom. Are you kidding me?! This is the first I had heard of this. Wow, am I one proud Dad!

I’m not sure if he knows this verse or not, but Brandon is living out what Jesus said:

Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

He’s serving just because he wants to serve. I didn’t know about it, but his Heavenly Father did. Thank you, Brandon, for giving me this wonderful example of servant leadership!

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Thursdays With Oswald—Not Imitating Jesus

October 7, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Not Imitating Jesus

      God does not expect us to imitate Jesus Christ: He expects us to allow the life of Jesus to be manifested in our mortal flesh. God engineers circumstances and brings us into difficult places where no one can help us, and we can either manifest the life of Jesus in those conditions, or else be cowards and say, “I cannot exhibit the life of God there.” Then we deprive God of glory. If you will let the life of God be manifested in your particular human edition—where God cannot manifest it, that is why He called you, you will bring glory to God.

From Approved Unto God

This so encourages me, because it tells me that every difficult situation I’m in is God-engineered. He put me in these tough spots because He wants the life of Jesus to be seen through me. And He wants to be glorified. If God desires these things, then He will give me His Holy Spirit to strengthen me to shine in difficult places.

Shine on!

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This Little Light Of Mine

August 27, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Did you ever sing that song as a kid?

This little light of mine

I’m gonna let it shine

This little light of mine

I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine

Let it shine, all the time

Why did I stop singing that as a “grown-up”? Yesterday I was reading in Matthew 5 where Jesus talked about shining. Many of the translations read, “Let your light shine.” But I really like the Contemporary English Version —

Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven.

Make it shine!

That’s really the most accurate translation. Let it shine sounds passive. Almost like, “Well, it’s shining already, so I guess I won’t put it out.” But make it shine is definitely in the active tense

… it’s right now

… it’s burning brightly and deliberately and unashamed

I grew up in a Christian home, so maybe I just assumed that my lamp was lit already and I could just let it shine. Maybe you’ve just assumed your light was shining too.

But today I want to be active in making my light shine. I’m going to do good so that others can praise God too.

Won’t you join me in making your light shine brightly today too?

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Leave Something Nice Behind

May 17, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I walked into a coffee shop for a meeting this morning and someone who had been in Biggby before me was wearing the same perfume that Betsy wears. It made me think of her throughout my meeting. Without even realizing it, some anonymous woman left something nice behind for me.

Here’s a thought…

…how about if we find a way to leave something nice behind everywhere we go?

A few thoughts on how we could do this:

  • Pick up a piece of trash blowing across the parking lot (even if it’s not your trash).
  • Wipe the water off the restroom counter (even if you didn’t splash it there).
  • Smile at the over-worked, under-paid server who is serving you (maybe even leave a larger tip).
  • Straighten up the magazines in the waiting room (even if you didn’t mess them up).
  • Put the toys back in the toy box (even if your kids didn’t play with them).
  • Restack the fallen cups (even if you didn’t knock them over).

Do something unexpected.

Leave everything a little better than you found it.

Leave something nice behind.

C’mon, let’s make a difference.

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