Links & Quotes

May 27, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Your relentless pursuit of personal improvement becomes a better resume than anything you could ever put on paper! Check out the full conversation Greg and I had about personal development on The Craig And Greg Show leadership podcast. And be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.

T.M. Moore has a regular series of posts for pastors. This week he shared this, “In his training manual for pastors, Gregory the Great wrote, ‘There are some who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they are teaching the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. Whence it comes to pass that when the shepherd walks through steep places, the flock follows to the precipice’ (The Book of Pastoral Rule).” If you are a pastor, I encourage you to check out the Pastor To Pastor posts on The Fellowship Of Ailbe.

On May 22, A.D. 337, Emperor Constantine died. John Stonestreet wrote, “Many Christians think that Constantine was perhaps the worst thing to happen to the Church. They believe he made Christianity the imperial religion, thus leading the Church to compromise with pagan culture, marrying it to state power, and derailing the spread of the Gospel. The Church, they argue, was better off as a persecuted minority.” Please check out this post co-written by Dr. Glenn Sunshine that gives some better historical perspective than perhaps what you have heard previously.

The other day, a friend of mine was scammed through her Facebook page. Scams are everywhere, so you need to stay aware of the ways to protect yourself. This is a helpful overview from Capital One of various types of scams.

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.” —Duke Ellington

Jellyfish fossils point to a global Flood, like the one reported in the Bible. Because jellyfish are 95 percent water, they have to be buried quickly in order to be saved as a fossil. 

J. Warner Wallace describes how Jesus arrived at the perfect moment in history. Once again giving more evidence to the historicity of the biblical accounts.

One of the most powerful missions sermons I have heard was preached by Dick Brogden:

An important warning from Axis—What it is: The Surgeon General has issued a warning on the dangers of social media for teenagers. Why the alarm bell is reaching a fever pitch: People have been wary of social media’s impact on developing brains for two decades—so why are highly-visible tone setters, like the Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association, issuing big, sweeping statements now? Part of it could be because we are getting more quality data on how social media shapes a young person’s brain. One newer study that’s been getting some buzz suggests that individuals who received their first smartphone at a later age have better mental health as young adults. Several big bills that aim to protect minors online will be voted on this year as tech giants face increased scrutiny over their safeguards (or lack thereof), for younger users. Kids growing up even a decade from now may encounter a completely different digital landscape when it’s their turn to learn about online literacy.

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Reason To Hope And To Proclaim

April 10, 2023 — 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. 

On Resurrection Sunday, Christians celebrate an event that is the foundational truth for all of the Bible and for the Christian faith which springs from the Scriptures: The resurrection of Jesus. 

If Jesus wasn’t resurrected, this is a terrible, cruel lie we are perpetuating. If Jesus was resurrected, we have been given the key to eternal life. No one has ever made the bold claims that Jesus made about His own death and resurrection and then backed them up! 

On the Sunday morning after Jesus was crucified, some women arrived at His tomb to finish preparing His body for burial, but Luke records something fascinating: “They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:1-8). 

Think about this in a modern-day setting. If you were at the bedside of your loved one when they took their last breath, if you heard the doctor pronounce them dead, if you were at the funeral and saw their body in a casket, and if you saw that casket closed, sealed, and lowered into the ground, you would have every reason to find a body if that casket were re-opened. 

These women were on Golgotha when Jesus died, they saw the Roman soldiers verify His death, they witnessed Joseph and Nicodemus wrap His body in linen strips, and they saw His body placed in a sealed tomb. 

Then when there is no body where the dead body of Jesus is expected, there are only three possibilities: 

(1) He never died

Medical experts have concluded that the horrific torture that Jesus endured prior to even being crucified resulted in significant blood loss, and would have put His body in shock. Then the strain on His weakened body during crucifixion would have resulted in His body experiencing either pleural effusion or cardiac effusion, which is attested to by the flow of “blood and water” from Jesus’ dead body when His side was pierced by a Roman spear (John 19:34). 

The dead body of Jesus was thoroughly examined by both the Romans who conducted the crucifixion and His friends who prepared His body for burial (Mark 15:43-45; John 19:38-40). And two contemporary historians—Tacitus and Josephus—who were unfriendly to the cause of Christianity both attested to Christ’s death by crucifixion. 

(2) His body was stolen

The Sanhedrin was so insistent on Jesus being crucified, they wouldn’t have left the “conspiracy” option open. So they convinced Governor Pontius Pilate to allow them to both seal the tomb and place a group of soldiers outside the tomb to guard it (Matthew 27:62-66). It is highly unlikely that the disciples who fled before the temple guard and who were now locked in a room because they were quaking with fear would somehow gain the courage to undertake a mission to steal Jesus’ body. Nor is it likely that they could have escaped the notice of the highly-trained Roman soldiers guarding the tomb. 

(3) He was resurrected 

The angels at the empty tomb reminded the women that Jesus had foretold both the manner of His death and the assurance of His resurrection. Jesus described His death in detail multiple times, including such key details as His death would be in Jerusalem, the religious leaders would pronounce a death sentence but the Romans would crucify Him, and that He would be resurrected three days later (Matthew 20:18-19; Luke 18:31-33). In addition, Paul tells us that there were hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). 

Jesus said, “The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father” (John 10:17-18). 

If Jesus foretold this and fulfilled this, we can also trust His other promises. Assurances such as:

  • He is preparing an eternal home for us and He will come back to take His followers there 
  • That He alone holds the keys to Death and Hades
  • And that only those who have been cleansed from their sins will be able to enter Heaven

(see John 14:1-3; Revelation 1:18, 22:12-14)

The bold claim that Jesus would be resurrected back to life is adequately backed up by the events on Resurrection Sunday! So now we can say that believing the bold claim of Christ’s resurrection gives us hope for the future and reason to tell others about Him! 

If you’ve missed any of the other bold claims that we have discussed, you can find them all by clicking here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

March 31, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

I have a series of nearly 70 posts on the topic of godly leadership. Here is the latest installment about going all in. Be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.

T.M. Moore writes persuasively to Christians to encourage them to build for the future. He wrote, “For most Christians today, the Kingdom which Daniel saw, Jesus proclaimed and brought near, and the Spirit inaugurated on that first Christian Pentecost—that Kingdom is little more than a theological idea, or a distant hope. It is not a daily reality to be sought, seized, shared, and strengthened in every nook and cranny of our Personal Mission Fields. Christians today are trapped in their past or mired in their present, and they have little or no sense of what it means to build for the future so that righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit increase wherever they live, move, and have their being.”

Whether you know it as the Mesha Inscription, the Mesha Stele, or the Moabite Stone, this 1868 discovery is another piece of archeological evidence lending proof to the historicity of the Bible.

And another piece of research from both paleontologists and entomologists points to the Flood described in the Bible as historically viable. Researchers discovered fossilized giant ants in Canada where evolutionists claim they shouldn’t be. The Institute for Creation Research commented, “There is no need to postulate ants trekking across the Arctic to explain the distribution. Nor is there a need to inject short ‘hyperthermal’ episodes to allow passage from one continent to another. The global Flood explains what we observe the best. The warmer pre-Flood conditions and likely higher oxygen levels explain the large size of the ants. And their fossil distribution is best explained by their transport off the highest pre-Flood hills as the waters were receding.”

“If we were to look at Jesus’s death merely as a result of a betrayer’s deceit and the Sanhedrin’s envy and Pilate’s spinelessness and the soldiers’ nails and spear, it might seem very involuntary. And the benefit of salvation that comes to us who believe might be viewed as God’s way of making a virtue out of a necessity. But once you read Luke 9:51, all such thoughts vanish. Jesus was not accidentally entangled in a web of injustice. The saving benefits of His death for sinners were not an afterthought. God planned it all out of infinite love to sinners like us, and He appointed a time.” —John Piper, Love To The Uttermost reading plan on YouVersion

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Our Perfect King

February 27, 2023 — 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. 

Our country has a policy of separation of church and state, and that appears to be a good thing. When the head of the government starts telling the church how to worship, or when the head of the church starts telling the government how to run its affairs, strife typically results. 

There have been some notable examples of wise kings who were God-fearing rulers, and some examples of religious leaders who had the wisdom to make just laws. But history has most often shown us that when a king imposes on the church a mode of worship or a pastor imposes on the king religious ways of governing, clashes result. Some of them have been bloody civil wars and some have spread into international conflicts. 

That being said, wouldn’t it be better for everyone if there was a way that one person could hold both of those offices simultaneously? If only there was some way to bring those different offices together. Very few people could ever accomplish this because it would require a perfect person with both absolute wisdom and complete God-honoring selflessness, someone so confident in both their wisdom and their relationship with God that they would never be swayed unfairly one way or the other. 

Last week we saw the first bold claim from Jesus: “I am the I AM.” With this title and authority, Jesus claimed to be the Head of the Church. This is a title Paul uses several times in his letter to the church at Ephesus (Ephesians 1:22, 5:23). Paul goes on to remind us that our aim as the Church body is to grow into maturity under the Headship of Jesus (Ephesians 4:15). 

Consider two other notable rulers during this same time period. As the high priest, Caiaphas would have laid claim to the title of “head of the church.” As the Roman governor, Pilate would have laid claim to the title of “head of the government in Judea.” Yet both of them clearly demonstrated that they had “become the symbol of those who make religious decisions based on political expediency rather than truth and justice,” as Dr. Donald Stamps noted. 

Paul goes father than calling Jesus simply the Head of the Church—

And He [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. (Colossians 1:18) 

Not just Headship over the Church, but Headship over “everything.” 

After the bold claim of Jesus that He was the I AM, the Sanhedrin wanted to have Him put to death, so they took Jesus to Pontius Pilate (Luke 22:71—23:2; Matthew 27:1-2; John 18:28-37). 

Pilate “knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him” (Matthew 27:18), but he still asked Jesus, “Are You the king of the Jews?” Just as Caiaphas was trying to save his position of power by keeping a delicate balance between the Jews and the Romans, Pilate was also trying to save his skin. Pilate was trying to appease both the Sanhedrin and Tiberius Caesar. 

Jesus answers Pilate’s question in a way Pilate never expected. Twice Jesus says “My kingdom,” noting that His kingdom is other-worldly. His kingdom comes from outside this world and therefore supersedes any government of this world. Pilate clearly has never heard anything like this, so after hearing this statement he announces, “You are a king, then!” 

Just as Jesus had answered the Sanhedrin with, “You are right in saying I am the Messiah,” now He answers Pilate, “You are right in saying I am a king.” 

Combining those two bold claims—“I am God” and “I am a King”—Jesus is the only One who can perfectly hold both offices without any conflict. This is what the prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-7 foretold, and this is the fulfillment that John shows us at the end of time (Revelation 17:14, 19:11-16). 

What does this mean for us? How are we now supposed to live knowing Jesus as our God and as our King? We should live confidently before our King and humbled before our God. We don’t fear earthly kings, but neither do we fight them. We don’t have to try to convince earthly kings to rule a certain way because they are God’s servants to accomplish God’s plan. We don’t have to get caught up in the politics of the day because this day will come to an end. 

We are subjects of a kingdom not of this world, so the kings of this world don’t get to decide our final destiny!

(If you would like to explore this topic further, check out my series of messages from 1 Peter called Aliens and Strangers.)

If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series called Bold Claims, you can find the full list of messages by clicking here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

December 31, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Every Monday I share a 1-minute thought to get your week started. It’s my weekly Monday Motivation series of videos. Check out this week’s video that I posted the day after Christmas, and please subscribe on YouTube.

T.M. Moore wrote one of the endorsements for my book Shepherd Leadership. In an interview I then did on his Fellowship of Ailbe podcast, I shared my dismay over unbiblical ideas and practices that have crept into the church. Both T.M. and I share a passion to see our church leadership return to our secure biblical foundation. 

In a recent blog post, T.M wrote, “From the days of the apostles onward, a tendency has existed among church leaders to drift from the plain teaching of the Word of God into forms of Christian life and ministry that derive from sources other than Scripture. Or that stretch the meaning of Scripture to fit the shape of certain cultural forms.” Please check out T.M.’s post “Do not go beyond.”

In a fascinating post from Rabbi Benjamin Blech, I read these thoughts about the power of a name: “The Hebrew word for soul is neshamah. Central to that word, the middle two letters, shin and mem, make the word shem, Hebrew for ‘name.’ Your name is the key to your soul. … When the Torah says, ‘God created,’ it doesn’t suggest that He worked with what He fashioned by labor, but merely that He spoke—and the very words describing the object came into being. God said, ‘Let there be light and there was light.’ The Almighty merely gave it a name, and the very letters defined its atomic structure.” Check out the full post here.

And once again archeologists discover evidence that corroborates the biblical accounts. In this case, more evidence is found from King Hezekiah. As I have said numerous times, the historicity of the Bible is amply verified.

“Success” doesn’t always mean bigger numbers. King David got into trouble with God when he wanted to measure his success by how many fighting men he had under his command. Consistently throughout the Bible God’s measure of success is our trust in Him. This thought was a key part of the sub-title of my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter.

Cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace tackles an important topic: Does objective truth exist, and how can it be defined? This is a quite lengthy post but it is well worth your time.

“Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.” —Mary Tyler Moore

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Verifiable Facts About The Birth Of Jesus

December 21, 2022 — 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. 

Check out the resources I mention in this video:

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

October 15, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Premier athletes know the value of flexibility for keeping them in the game. I think we would be wise to practice flexibility in our relationships too—this is definitely a game-changing move! Check out my weekly Monday Motivation videos on my YouTube channel. 

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger like, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” —Thucydides

This week we remember Columbus Day. You probably remember the rhyme: In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Many people have thought Columbus set out to prove the world was round, but the History Channel has a mini-biography that debunks this claim.

One of my YouVersion friends (Nikki) commented a great reminder: “God can do way more with my surrender than with my striving.”

Thomas Zimmerman was an influential leader in the early days of the Assembly of God fellowship’s history. “Over a 50-year period, Thomas F. Zimmerman (1912-1991) served the Assemblies of God as pastor, district official, department leader, assistant general superintendent, and general superintendent. His leadership greatly increased the influence of the Pentecostal movement in the evangelical world, as well as in the broader American religious landscape.”

I post quality content nearly every day. If you don’t have time to read all that I share, please let me read it for you. The Craig T. Owens Audio Blog is just like this blog, except you get to hear me read my blog posts. Check it out my podcast on Spotify, Apple, and even Audible.

“The word ‘hell’ is used in the New Testament fourteen times, twelve times by Jesus Himself. It is not a myth created by dismal and angry preachers. It is a solemn warning from the Son of God who died to deliver sinners from its curse. We ignore it at great risk.” —John Piper

Christian apologist and cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace wrote, “the battleground on the abortion issue is beginning to shift, and this shift is going to cause us to rethink our approach to the debate.” Pro-life advocates need to check out Wallace’s post Justifying Homicide: The Future Battleground In The Abortion Debate.

Responsibility isn’t supposed to be fatal! Exceptional leaders accept and promote appropriate responsibility, while weak leaders play the blame game. But accepting responsibility doesn’t mean “falling on your sword”! You can check out the rest of this conversation I had with my podcast partner Greg Heeres on The Craig And Greg Show leadership podcast.

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10 Quotes From “The Roots Of Endurance”

March 8, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

John Piper’s intertwining of the biographies of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce in The Roots Of Endurance was masterfully done! Especially because, unlink the previous books in Pastor John’s “The swans are not silent series,” all three of these men knew each other and interacted with each other. Check out my full book review by clicking here. 

“Simeon with us—his heart glowing with love of Christ. How full he is of love, and of desire to promote the spiritual benefit of others. Oh! that I might copy him as he Christ.” —William Wilberforce, writing in his journal about Charles Simeon 

“It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation.” —John Newton, in a letter to William Wilberforce 

“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of man and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you.” —John Wesley, at 87 years of age, in a letter to William Wilberforce 

“Frustration is normal, disappointment is normal, sickness is normal. Conflict, persecution, danger, stress—they are all normal. The mind-set that moves away from these will move away from reality and away from Christ. —John Piper 

The remaining six quotes are exclusive content for my Patreon supporters. In addition to book quotes, there are videos and behind-the-scenes views that only these supporters have access to. I would love it if you would prayerfully consider supporting my ministry for just $5 per month.

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The End Of Our Struggle

December 25, 2021 — 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. 

Christmas time finds me sampling a whole lot of delicious treats, and I’m not complaining at all! But I’m a pretty simple guy, so one of my favorite treats is just plain old peanut butter. I love it! Sometimes I stick my spoon right in the jar and eat a big spoonful. 

But then there’s the age-old problem: How do you get peanut butter off the roof of your mouth? You can use your tongue or try blowing on it. Or you can use your finger! 

But then there’s another problem: How do you get peanut butter off your finger? Blow it? Shake it? Or eat it! 

Hmm, now I seem to be back to the original problem: How do you get peanut butter off the roof of your mouth? 

Maybe you’ve tried to solve one problem, only to create another problem. And then when you solve that problem you find yourself right back where you started! Round and round it goes! 

The Israelites were facing much the same situation. They sinned, God punished them through King Nebuchadnezzar, they tried to rebel, they were taken into captivity, and then they were finally allowed to return to Jerusalem after 70 years. But they still weren’t in charge of their own fate. First it was the Babylonians calling the shots, then the Medians, then the Persians, and then the Romans. Luke begins the birth story of Jesus with the words “in the days of Caesar Augustus” (Luke 2:1). 

The Israelites were waiting for God to restore their Promised Land to them. Some people believed a miraculous champion was going to come on the scene (much like Samson of old), and some thought a new anointed king from King David’s line would appear and rally an army to himself. 

We can understand this because of one of the prophecies from Isaiah 9 that talks about a warrior and God’s zeal. 

That word “warrior” got people pumped up! As did the promise that “the zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this”! For many, this was their proof that God wanted His people to rule this Promised Land for themselves 

We’ve been going through a series called People Will Talk, and these voices of a miraculous champion or a new king from David’s line were loud voices to be sure. But interestingly, the Bible doesn’t record much of what these loud voices were saying. 

Also among the people of this time there was another group that were called “the Quiet in the Land.” These were people who didn’t talk very much, but instead they clung to the promise spoken by God Himself of the Messiah. One of these quiet ones was a man named Simeon.

He was called “righteous and devout” and someone “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Which meant he carefully attended to the prophecies of Scripture. The Amplified Bible says that Simeon “lived in prayerful expectancy [of] the Lord’s Christ.”  

I left out an important part of that prophecy in Isaiah 9—something that I think the loud ones overlooked or downplayed too. In between those words about “warrior” and “God’s zeal” we read this: “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given. The government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). 

What does the “Prince of Peace” have to do with a warrior? Quite simply, when Jesus the Messiah came, the struggle was over. Jesus was the Warrior King who defeated the enemy of sin that kept us out of God’s presence. 

The loud Israelites believed God wanted His people to rule their Promised Land for themselves. But God wanted a people exclusively for Himself. ALL people—Jews and Gentiles alike—regardless of where or when they lived! 

Jesus is the way into God’s presence. He told us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). 

You can try to solve your own problems, but only Jesus can bring the ultimate salvation. In the Christmas carol Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, check out the lyrics of the second stanza:

Born Thy people to deliver, 
Born a child and yet a King, 
Born to reign in us for ever, 
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring. 
By Thine own eternal Spirit, 
Rule in all our hearts alone; 
By Thine all sufficient merit, 
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.


A relationship with Jesus means there is no more struggle of trying to solve our own problems, or figure out how things are supposed to work, or pushing down one problem only to have another one pop up. We come to the One and Only One who can raise us to His glorious throne forever and ever! 


Advent is a celebration of the end of our struggle because Jesus has made the way for us to have peace with God. 


And that means a very Merry Christmas indeed! 




If you’ve missed any of the messages in our Advent series People Will Talk, you can find links to all of them by clicking here. 


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The Sovereign King

December 13, 2021 — 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. 



What people were saying about Jesus right from His birth—before He preached a sermon, performed a miracle, or stepped on the toes of religious or political leaders—was revealing the truth. 


As the Gospel of Matthew’s account of Christ’s birth begins, Persian Magi came from Babylon, having been keepers of the Truth handed down to them for over 500 years from Belteshazzar the Chief of Magician. This was the Babylonian name given to the Hebrew exile Daniel. 


Daniel served under multiple kings, even as the regimes changed from Babylonian, to Median, to Persian. He never waiver in his adherence to the Truth that God had spoken. He fearlessly told these world leaders, “The Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone He wishes” (Daniel 4:25). 


Most leaders forget this the moment they obtain power. Such is the case of the man the Magi met: King Herod the Great. Listen to how William Barclay describes this monarch: 


“Herod the Great was always despised by the pure-blooded Jews because he was half an Edomite; and we can see the importance that even Herod attached to these genealogies from the fact that he had the official registers destroyed, so that no one could prove a purer pedigree than his own. … 


“He had made himself useful to the Romans in the wars and civil wars of Palestine, and they trusted him. He had been appointed governor in 47 B.C.; in 40 B.C. he had received the title of king. … 


“But Herod had one terrible flaw in his character. He was almost insanely suspicious. He had always been suspicious, and the older he became the more suspicious he grew, until, in his old age, he was, as someone said, ‘a murderous old man.’ … He murdered his wife Mariamne and her mother Alexandra. His eldest son, Antipater, and two other sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, were all assassinated by him. Augustus, the Roman Emperor, had said, bitterly, that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son. … 


“When he was seventy he knew that he must die. … He gave orders that a collection of the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem should be arrested on trumped-up charges and imprisoned. And he ordered that the moment he died, they should all be killed. He said grimly that he was well aware that no one would mourn for his death, and that he was determined that some tears should be shed when he died.” 


Lord Acton famously said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. …  Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.” This is so obvious in Herod! So we can understand why the city of Jerusalem was disturbed when the Magi arrived! Whether Herod knew the prophecy of the coming Messiah or not, it’s inescapably true that his days and his legacy were numbered (see Isaiah 9:2-7). 


When King Herod heard the announcement from the Magi, his reaction was violent. Perhaps Herod lashed out so ferociously because these words of Truth from the Magi reminded him his end was near, his power was not absolute, he had to answer to The Most High who is sovereign over all. 


We are no better. Oswald Chambers defines sin as “my claim to my right to myself.” We want absolute sovereignty over ourselves, but Jesus will allow no rival to His throne! He is either King over all or else He is not King at all. 


Beware of your own reaction when the Holy Spirit convicts you of a rival to Christ’s throne in your heart. If you lash out like Herod, dismiss it, or try to justify it, that is proof that you needed to hear that word of Truth. Don’t delay: Repent and allow Christ to have His rightful throne.


Jesus came as a Baby and a Savior at his First Advent. He opened the way for us to enter the presence of The Most High God, but it will cost us something to enter. Oswald Chambers tells us: 


“Redemption is easy to experience because it cost God everything, and if I am going to be regenerated it is going to cost me something. I have to give up my right to myself. I have deliberately to accept into myself something that will fight for all it is worth, something that will war against the desires of the flesh, and that will ask me to go into identification with the death of Jesus Christ, and these things produce a struggle in me.” 


Christ’s Second Advent will be as the conquering King and righteous Judge of all humanity. We have precious little time to tell others the good news. People may react violently like Herod did, but that is simply proof that they needed to hear that Truth. 




If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series People Will Talk, you can find the complete list by clicking here. 


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