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Our Blessed Hope
November 8, 2021 — 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.
As we wrap up our series looking at our foundational belief statements, I want to combine the last four statements together, not only because they all cover the same theme of end-times events, but also because these statements should give every Christian hope!
- “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.” —G.K. Chesterton
- “One of the great enemies of hope is forgetting God’s promises.” —John Piper
- “Hope is not wishful thinking; it’s well-founded believing!” —Craig T. Owens
Christians have a fantastic, unshakable, blessed hope on which we can stand not only secure but joyful!
Foundational truth #13: “The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the church.”
This blessed hope in the future helps us live with joy today! Knowing that death has been defeated and Jesus will come back to take us home with Him should fuel us to say “no” to the temporary pleasures of sin, and live such godly lives that it turns others’ eyes to Jesus (Titus 2:11-14; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
Foundational truth #14: “The second coming of Christ includes the rapture of the saints, which is our blessed hope, followed by the visible return of Christ with His saints to reign on earth for one thousand years.”
Sometimes you will hear Christians talk about the “rapture” of the Church. Although this word itself isn’t in the Bible, the Greek word harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 means “catching up.” It also means “to eagerly claim for one’s self,” which reminds me that Jesus is thrilled to bring His Bride home to be with Him forever! After the Church has been caught up to Heaven, a period of tribulation will plague the earth, followed by Christ’s Second Coming and His millennial reign (Zechariah 14:4-5; Revelation 19:11-15; 20:1-10).
Foundational truth #15: “There will be a final judgment in which the wicked dead will be raised and judged according to their works. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, together with the devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, will be consigned to the everlasting punishment in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Christians have no fear of the second (or final) death because our names are written in the Book of Life (Luke 12:4-6; Revelation 20:11-15). Not only is there judgment for the wicked, but there will be rewards for the righteous.
Foundational truth #16: “In keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Revelation 21-22 give us a small glimpse of our eternal home.
In light of these truths, how should Christians live while still on earth? I think there are three ways we should live:
- Live circumspectly
- Live on-mission
- Live unafraid
(see Ephesians 5:15; Matthew 28:18-20; Proverbs 24:11-12; Jude 1:20-25)
With this blessed hope of the Second Coming of Jesus and our security in knowing we will remain with Him forever, let’s tell everyone we can how they too can know what it is to live with this hope in their heart.
If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series exploring our foundational beliefs, you can access the full list by clicking here.
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The Origins Of Plungerman
November 5, 2021 — 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.
In my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter I take two chapters to talk about how confident leaders need to add humility to their confidence, and how humble leaders need to add confidence to their humility.
For me, I created and became a character named Plungerman to help me learn some humility.
At a recent Q&A and book signing event I was asked about the origins of Plungerman. Take a listen to my explanation of how Plungerman came to be, and then stay tuned to hear the epic adventure of Plungerman himself!
Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter is available in print or ebook, and in audiobook through either Audible or Apple.
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Take A Big Swing
November 4, 2021 — Craig T. Owens
Leaders need to give their teammates permission to try some things, to take some chances.
If they are just standing still, doing nothing, that means there is nothing for you to coach. Let them take some chances and see what happens! You never know when their big swing is going to result in something amazing!
This is a recent clip from our leadership podcast “The Craig And Greg Show.”
True Friends
November 3, 2021 — 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.
Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy (Proverbs 27:6 NLT).
Proverbs 27 may have more wisdom about our friends than any other chapter in this book. But sprinkled throughout the entire book of Proverbs is outstanding wisdom about our closest relationships. Allow me to share just a few observations with you.
(Click here to see all of the verses I reference below.)
In a previous post where I noted the conjunctions “but” and “and,” I see this—The righteous choose their friends carefully, BUT the way of the wicked leads them astray (12:26). Righteous friends keep me on the right path.
Friends love me through my worst moments (17:17) because they have committed to stick closer than a brother to me (18:24).
I must be careful not to make friends with a hot-tempered person (22:24), and to be cautious of people who want to be friends with me only for what I can give them (19:4).
My true friends will wound me in love to help me become the best that God intended me to be (27:5-6, 9, 17), so I must never forsake these friends (27:10).
False friends will gossip to me and about me, but my true friends will guard my secrets and guard my reputation (16:28; 17:9).
In order to have true friends, I first have to be a true friend.
In my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter, I noted how true friends will help us go farther and avoid the stumbles that could cut short our leadership influence.
David was the gold standard for every king of Israel who followed him. Numerous times throughout the history of Israel, we will see a note that a certain king either followed God like David, or turned from God unlike David. Yet there exists a wart on David’s portrait: an adulterous affair with the wife of a man in his inner circle, and then subsequent lies and a murder to cover up the affair. “The thing David had done displeased the Lord” (see 2 Samuel 11).
But I’d like to turn your attention to when this affair occurred: “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war…David remained in Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1). He was without his usual comrades. The men who knew David best, who could probably sense if something was amiss, weren’t around to warn him. When David tried to find out the identity of the bathing beauty on the roof next door to his palace, an unnamed attendant tried to remind him, “Isn’t that Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah?” but David dismissed him.
Elijah was arguably the most forceful and fearless prophet in Israel’s history. Not only did he stand up to the evil kings of Israel, but he spoke out against the kings of surrounding nations, too. In answer to Elijah’s prayer, God brought a drought on the land, and again in answer to Elijah’s prayer, God sent rain. Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of the god Baal and the 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah to a duel to the death, which ended up in a decisive victory for Yahweh. Yet, shortly after this massive victory, Elijah was depressed to the point that he wanted to die.
What led to Elijah’s depression? Something very similar to David’s slide into adultery: He was alone. Elijah ran away from Queen Jezebel’s death threat, left his servant behind, and proceeded all by himself into the desert. It was when he was without a comrade that he prayed to God, “I’ve had enough. Take my life” (see 2 Kings 17–19).
And what about Peter? He boldly claimed his loyalty to Jesus, even to the point of wielding a sword at the guards who came to arrest his Master. But when Peter was alone, after the other disciples fled, he denied three times that he knew Jesus (Matthew 26:33, 51, 69–75).
God designed us to be in relationship with others. His statement to Adam in some of the earliest words of the Bible—“It is not good for you to be alone”—are words for us still today. —from the chapter “Going Farther”
We need true, God-fearing friends close to us. Ask God to bring those friends around you, and ask the Holy Spirit to make you into that kind of friend for those He does bring around you.
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It’s A Big Deal
November 1, 2021 — 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.
I get a little leery when people are advocating for a government that is friendly to Christianity. In biblical history and world history, Christians tend to backslide when things are going smoothly for them.
Difficulties and even persecution cause us to evaluate if what we’re standing on is really a sure foundation (2 Corinthians 1:9; Philippians 4:10-13).
As the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon, things were going fairly easily for them. And as they had done so many times before, they began to backslide. The Archeological Study Bible noted, “This generation was not guilty of the gross idolatry of its forefathers. Rather, these Israelites embraced a kind of dead orthodoxy, in which they tried to get by with the minimum that their faith required.”
Onto this scene comes a prophet named Malachi. Malachi means “My messenger,” and we don’t know if this was actually the prophet’s name or not, but he took it on as his nature, delivering the heavy words of God. In fact, he held the words of God with such respect that when he says this is “an oracle,” he literally is saying, “This is a heavy burden to bear!”
Malachi uses the phrase “LORD Almighty” (or LORD of Hosts in the KJV, and Lord of Heaven’s Armies in the NLT) twenty-four times. By contrast with the other minor prophets…
- Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah use this phrase zero times
- Micah and Habakkuk each use it once
- Nahum and Zephaniah each use it twice
- Haggai uses it 12 times (or 32 percent of the total verses in his book)
- Zechariah uses the phrase 46 times (which 22 percent of his total verses)
But Malachi’s 24 times is 44 percent of his total verses! In other words, he wanted his audience to be crystal clear that it wasn’t him who was speaking, but the King of kings was speaking to us through Malachi!
God is still speaking through Malachi to us today! Just like Israel in Malachi’s day, I think Christians today run the very real risk of backsliding. Just like Israel, when we forget the weightiness of the glory of the LORD ALMIGHTY we can begin to slip into an it’s-no-big-deal attitude.
By contrast, when we’re honoring the LORD of Hosts, and reverencing Him, and desirous of His glory being seen, it’s a very big deal that we listen to His voice and closely follow His commands.
So Malachi’s six warnings to the Israelites of his day should still be heeded by Christians today. We should examine ourselves very closely to see if we have the same it’s-no-big-deal attitude. We should ask ourselves, “Are we…
(1) …offering less-than-our-best sacrifices? Are we just giving God the leftovers?”
(2) …listening to church leaders that don’t reverence God’s name?”
(3) …honoring the sanctity of marriage?”
(4) …self-seeking instead of neighbor-loving?”
(5) …withholding the full tithe from our local church?”
(6) …following God only for personal gain?”
(Check out all of the verses for these questions by clicking here.)
If this study of the minor prophets—especially these last three—has told us anything, it’s that God keeps His word. When He says He is coming back as the righteous Judge, that will happen. In fact, it could happen at any moment!
We must be ready! We must guard our hearts against the it’s-no-big-deal attitude. We must reverence our awesome God. The things of God are a very big deal indeed (see Hebrews 10:37-39; Revelation 22:12-16).
To guard ourselves against this backsliding attitude, we must live every day reverencing the awesome, weighty, majestic name of Jesus!
If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series exploring the powerful lessons in the the twelve minor prophets, please click here to get the list of all of those messages.
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Shepherd Leaders Serve Others
October 29, 2021 — 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.
I had a great time on the Ailbe Podcast with Rusty Rabon.
Rusty noted that I used Jesus as the ultimate example of a Shepherd Leader, but then he wondered why I also used a man named Joseph Barnabas. Actually, I used Barnabas as a phenomenal example twice in my book—once in a chapter called “Secure to Serve” and again in a chapter about the importance of having other strong shepherds around us in the chapter “Going Farther.”
Please check out the Scriptures I mention in this snippet by clicking here.
I’ll be sharing more clips from this interview soon, so please stay tuned. Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter is now available in print or ebook, and in audiobook through either Audible or Apple.
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The History Of Zechariah
October 27, 2021 — Craig T. Owens
Zechariah and Haggai are both very specific in the dating of their prophetic activity. We can also cross-reference their dates with the historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and with numerous other extra-biblical sources.
There is an important reminder for us in this: The historicity of the biblical accounts.
In the chart I share there are references to other timelines:
- the timeline for Haggai is here
- the timeline for Ezra is here
- and the story of Zechariah’s murder is found here
Always remember that God is sovereignly in control of world events—all of history is His Story!
To check out other resources from the historical and prophetic minor prophets, check out the list I have posted here.
The Craig And Greg Show: How Leaders Overcome Their Fears
October 26, 2021 — Craig T. OwensOn this episode of “The Craig And Greg Show” we talk about:
[0:58] Our empowerment comes from facing our fears. - [1:35] How does fear paralyze a leader?
- [2:14] One fear leaders need to address in themselves and others: The fear of dropping the ball.
- [3:00] Leaders need to be aware that confidence can ebb and flow.
- [3:50] How we lead through fear.
- [4:27] Transparency in a leader empowers the team to greatness. On the other hand, blaming is a defense mechanism that disempowers the team.
- [5:49] Greg shares how we lead by example and with transparency.
- [7:25] I address the fear that blocks leaders from giving authority to others.
- [8:15] Greg suggests we switch our mindset from fear to learning opportunities.
- [9:21] I share a Little League lesson that served me well into adulthood.
- [10:50] How Greg and I help coach people through their fears.
- [11:34] What other fears to leaders face?
- [12:50] Creating a culture of safety helps our teammates confront their fears.
- [14:03] How can leaders encourage people who are trapped by their fears?
- [15:41] Leaders have to go first. I said, “Sometimes bravery is just going one step farther than you went before.”
- [16:50] Greg shares a brave moment in his adoption process.
- [18:18] We need to assess the gifts that others on our team possess.
- [19:20] Greg unpacks a great quote about bravery.
- [20:03] I share about the moment when I think bravery begins.
Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.
Confident, Bold, and Joyful
October 25, 2021 — 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.
Zechariah pronounces more messianic prophecies than any other biblical writer, with the exception of Isaiah (and he wrote 66 chapters!). These prophecies are fulfilled in Christ’s First Advent, and promised for His Second Advent. Check these out for yourself…
(All of the biblical references for the above chart can be viewed by clicking here.)
(All of the biblical references for the above chart can be viewed by clicking here.)
Why is it so vital that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies?
(1) The historicity of these fulfilled prophecies gives us a confidence for the future.
These fulfilled prophecies assure us that God is sovereign over all history. There are no accidents, and God needs no help from anyone else in fulfilling what He has promised. As a result, no world event—no matter how big it may seem—should be able to rattle us!
(2) The authenticity of what God has done gives us boldness for today.
When God does the miraculous, He authenticates His Word. This authenticity has always made God’s people stand out (see Genesis 41:39). It’s also why people recognized Jesus as the divine Son of God (John 3:2; 9:30-33). So we can live with the boldness to know that what God says He will do, He will do!
(3) The exclusivity of God’s promises and fulfillment of those promises gives us joy for our testimony.
Only Jesus could have done all of this (Luke 24:26-27, 44), so only Jesus can fulfill what is still remaining to be fulfilled! We can have supreme joy in knowing that only Jesus is our hope of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
It’s vital that we know this is true so that we can live confident, bold, and joyful! Our confident boldness and our bold joy both glorify God and attract seekers to Him.
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our series looking at the major lessons from the minor prophets, you can access all of those messages by clicking here.
You may download a PDF version of the above charts by clicking here → Zechariah prophecies for the First Advent or here → Zechariah prophecies for the Second Advent
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