If I want to present my best ideas, I need to be open to the helpful, sharpening critique that people close to me have to offer. My first idea sounds great, until others come along to make it better.
“In so far as I am Man I am the chief of creatures. In so far as I am a man I am the chief of sinners.” —G.K. Chesterton
Cold case detective J. Warner Wallace applies the same scrutiny to examining the evidence of the New Testament as he does with a suspect. “There are four critical questions that must drive our examination of any eyewitness, ancient or modern: Were they actually present to see what they claim? Can their account be corroborated in some fashion, even indirectly? Have the key elements of their story shifted over time? And finally, do they possess ulterior motives or bias that would tempt them to lie or embellish? This is not a uniquely religious or anti-religious method; it is simply good investigative practice.”
“Few men, if any, step into responsible positions without preparation. Sometimes in our shortsightedness we seem to get the idea in regard to Bible characters that they come on the scene ready-made, fully prepared; here they are, God’s gift to the world! They take up the work, and that’s all there is to it. But if you will read more carefully, you will find that usually—I think we could even say always—there is a period of preparation behind them. God lays His plans well in advance.” —William Sanford LaSor
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
On an episode of The Craig and Greg Show, Greg and I discussed some toxic behaviors that can creep into your workplace and cause major discord. Two attitudes to watch out for are confidence without humility, and humility without confidence.
Check out this full Craig and Greg Show episode here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I love the Fibber McGee and Molly radio broadcasts! One of the running gags on this show was Fibber’s closet: People who mistakenly opened the closet door got buried under a pile of stuff that Fibber had stashed away.
In one episode, Molly is determined to grow through all of the items that were strewn across the floor before they got shoved back into the closet. One by one Molly asked Fibber about all of the odd knick-knacks and he had a good explanation for every single one justifying why he couldn’t possibly part with it. One of my favorites was this—“What’s this bamboo pole,” Molly asked, and Fibber said, “Why, that pole is very important. If I was ever offered to be Joe Louis’ sparing partner, that’s the ten-foot pole I wouldn’t touch it with!”
I’m afraid that many of us have closets like this in our minds. We’ve accumulated a lot of just-in-case stuff for each and every scenario that may come upon us at some point in our lives.
All of our contingency plans implies that something is going to go wrong and that only the prepared and well-stocked will make it through.
Psalm 107 is the first psalm in Book 5 of the Psalter—the book that focuses mostly on praise. This author is recounting the history of Israel through the times of crisis:
lost and homeless (v. 4)
hungry and thirsty (vv. 5, 9)
trouble and distress (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28)
darkness and deepest gloom (vv. 10, 14)
prisoners in chains (v. 10)
knocking on death’s door (v. 18)
terrorized (v. 26)
at their wits’ end (v. 27)
We quickly go into crisis mode when we forget that God is in control!
In God’s Kingdom there is no emergency, no crisis, no Plan B. God is sovereignly in control—Isaiah 46:10.
God is in control of the macro—Genesis 1:1; Job 38:4-11
God is in control of the micro—Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 29:11
God will use what we call a crisis to display His glory—Exodus 14:4 NLT
When you feel yourself spiraling into crisis mode—when you feel you’re at your wits’ end—you can get back into contentment mode.
“When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality.” —Oswald Chambers
That’s what Job finally did—Job 42:1-2.
And that’s also what the psalmist did—Psalm 107:6-8, 13-15, 19-21, 28-31.
Prayer is a great rescue in trouble, and ongoing thankfulness is a great inoculation against going into crisis mentality. Notice that those four repeated phrases have both cried out to the LordANDLet them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love.
Let’s strive to remain aware of His unfailing love by cultivating consistent gratitude. I like v. 2 from the NLT: “Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others He has redeemed you from your enemies”. When you are preoccupied with telling others and yourself how good God is, there isn’t room in your heart for the worry that leads toward crisis mode.
Remember: We can quickly go from contentment mode to crisis mode when we forget that God is in control, so remain full of thanks. “At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:20 AMPC).
The writer of the Book of Hebrews challenges Christians to learn how to better encourage others and spur them on to their very best. This means we have to go deeper in our relationships with people. Here’s one way not to do this.
T.M. Moore cautions us against having a “too small God” mindset. He writes, “We are short-changing the people of God unless our preaching and teaching fits them to seek the Kingdom of God and the restoration of the world in all our life and work. We do not expect to recreate the original conditions that existed before the fall, but to remember them, to recall them, to recover a measure of them for the life of the world and, by so doing, to point ahead to the new and better and fully remade world that is to come.”
More archeological evidence from the city of Jericho helps scholars date the exodus from Egypt more precisely as well. All of this reinforces the absolute historicity of the biblical accounts.
“The Pentecostal movement emerged at the turn of the 20th century, resulting from a series of overlapping revivals that occurred around the world.” One of those revivals was in Wales.
“Although [traditional scientists] feel certain that dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago, unremitting soft tissue discoveries from dinosaur fossils openly challenge such age options and validate the creation model.” Check out how the Raman spectroscopy tests are aligning paleontological discoveries with the biblical timeline of Creation.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The entire Maximize team loves our veterans! Those that volunteer to serve and protect our nation deserve our utmost respect, and we honor their sacrifice. In today’s episode Greg and I discuss the leadership lessons we have learned from veterans—some directly and others by simply observing the way our nation’s protectors conduct themselves. Join us as we salute the contributions of veterans!
[0:00] Introduction
[0:15] One of our favorite days of the year
[1:08] Leadership lesson #1 from veterans: Sacrifice
[2:28] Leadership lesson #2: Selflessness
[4:12] Leadership lesson #3: Camaraderie
[5:33] Leadership lesson #4: Organization in planning and training
[8:52] Leadership lesson #5: Emotionally invested
[9:31] Leadership lesson #6: Training in action
[11:18] Leadership lesson #7: Communication skills
[12:53] Leadership lesson #8: A bigger cause—a heritage of service
[15:41] Leadership lesson #9: A visible leadership style
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Jude calls Christians to contend for the faith without contention and without compromise. As we wrap up this series, there is one final question that we should ask: What are we contending for?
I believe the bottom line for Jude is that we are contending with saints for people. In other words, we have to be united in our efforts as we seek to expand the Kingdom of God.
The first hurdle we need to overcome is eliminating the dividers. Paul told the Ephesian elders about these people (Acts 20:29-30). And Jude describes them in verses 12, 16-19 as…
blemishes
self-serving and boasting about themselves
unfruitful
grumblers and faultfinders
ungodly desires
following natural instincts = governed by their appetites
Jude then makes a stark distinction—saints are to be different! Saints are to be united in their love for Jesus and their love for each other. In fact, this is what Jesus said would distinguish His followers (John 13:35) and Paul elaborates on this in Philippians 2:1-4.
In verses 20-25, Jude calls saints to live in contrast to “these men” who divide. He challenges saints to—
keep being built up in our faith (see also Ephesians 2:20; Colossians 2:7)
praying in the Holy Spirit
keeping ourselves in God’s love
waiting in assurance for Christ’s imminent return
And as we are building, praying, keeping, and waiting, we must also be rescuing people from their path toward Hell. Our battle is never against flesh and blood. Our battle is against those powers that divide and those powers that bind and blind (Ephesians 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:26).
We must not get sidetracked or distracted, we must not contend in a contentious way, but we must remain united with Jesus and united with fellow saints as we seek to expand the Kingdom of God.
If you’ve missed any of the previous messages from this series on the Book of Jude, you can find them all here.
When you are waiting for God to fulfill His promise, keep watching with a smile. Let your childlike trust become your testimony as you entrust yourself to your heavenly Father.
“The case for the reliability of the New Testament Gospel eyewitness accounts is dependent on the trustworthiness of its authors. In cold-case criminal trials, eyewitness accounts are typically evaluated through the lens four critical questions.” J. Warner Wallace then gives a succinct overview of each of these four questions and the evidence supporting them.
“One can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place.” —G.K. Chesterton
“A great leader never sets himself above his followers except in carrying responsibility.” —Jules Ormont
“There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.” —Harold Stephens
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Before a leader can cast a compelling vision for an organization, he or she has to be living a compelling personal vision. Greg and I explain why this is an indispensable first step.
This clip is from an episode of The Craig and Greg Show where we are discussing the first book in our new series of books called Business by the Book. The first book is What the Bible says about a CEO’s vision-casting.
Check out my other podcasts, my books, and so much more by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
On this episode of The Podcast, let’s talk about seeing something brighter in the darkest of times.
Check out all of the Scriptures I reference in this video here.
You may seem some glimmers of light in your dark place—like Paul did in the Roman prison—but even if you don’t see anything but darkness, make the choice to worship. I need to remind myself that God has a plan for my life and that He is working out all the details for my good and to bring glory to Himself.
Let’s change our self-focused “Why me?” to God-focused worship as we say, “Thank You, Jesus, that You are using me to build Your kingdom!”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Jude calls Christians to contend for the faith without contention and without compromise. Instead, we are to loving serve Jesus by engaging with others mercifully, peacefully, and lovingly. This means we have to contend without quarreling.
But that’s easier said than done because people love to pick fights, and we hate to lose an argument.
Look at the ministry of Jesus. His adversaries couldn’t get around the perfect logic that He used based on Scripture, so they came up with all sorts of controversies in the hope of tripping Him up and silencing Him. They posed seemingly unanswerable dilemmas like: In heaven, which one of the seven brothers will be married to the woman they all married on earth? Should we pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay the temple tax? What’s the greatest commandment of all? They tried to get Him to take the bait about religious traditions, laws concerning the Sabbath, and the punishment for a woman caught in adultery.
Jesus never got fluster or frustrated—He never took the bait to quarrel with them, but He simply stood unwaveringly and lovingly on God’s Word. But once again, that’s easier said than done!
King Solomon pointed out the difficulty of this in Proverbs 26:4-5. Do we answer a fool or not? Yes, but we answer wisely not foolishly.
I believe Jude would agree with Solomon, Jesus, Paul, and Peter, but then he uses three examples that could spark a controversy:
the fate of fallen angels (Jude 6)
Michael and the devil arguing over the body of Moses (v. 9)
Enoch prophesying (v. 14)
But notice that how Jude uses these examples by not addressing any more than what we already know from Scripture. In this way, Jude keeps this from becoming a foolish, quarrelsome controversy (v. 10).
Notice the consistent instruction of the Bible on how to handle critics:
Michael the archangel: The Lord rebuke you! (also 2 Peter 2:11)
Jesus: Away from Me! (Matthew 4:10) and Get behind Me! (Mark 8:33)
James: Submit to God and then resist the devil (James 4:7)
Peter: speak gently, respectfully, and with a clear conscience (1 Peter 3:15-16)
Paul: warn people without becoming quarrelsome (2 Timothy 2:14, 16, 23-25)
In Luke 13:1-5, Jesus addresses two events that could have become quite controversial, but Jesus defused the controversy by simply saying, “No matter what, everyone needs to have their sins forgiven by God.” Paul continued this singleminded focus on Jesus. I love how the Amplified Bible captures his words in 1 Corinthians 2:2. And then Paul encourages his friend Timothy to operate the same way (1 Timothy 1:15-17).
Don’t let foolish controversies sidetrack you from the faith entrusted to us, but take everything back to Jesus as He is revealed in the Scripture.
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our series called Earnestly Contending, you can find them all here.
Craig T. Owens 