An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 22, 2023
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Meaningless words mean less than a meaningful silence.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 21, 2023
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Proving that regret is more prevalent than gratitude is easy, dead people get more flowers than the living.
Does Any of This Make Any Sense? March 20, 2023
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Looking at the world around us it’s easy to find ourselves asking this question. When we see the suffering, the depression, the poverty, and the horror of everyday life for so many it’s hard not to see the nightmare reality of this world as a curse.
That’s a good place to start searching for the meaning in it all because it is a curse.
You see when God created the world He created it as a good thing, a wondrous, and beautiful thing. Here’s the rub; actions have consequences.
I’ve always thought if I ever found a perfect church, I’d spoil it by joining because I’m not perfect. Most of us mature enough in life to realize we aren’t quite what we could or should be. Some people never attain this level of self-awareness and we judge them to suffer from a type of psychological problem known as narcissism. A central aspect of narcissism is grandiosity. That is, narcissists tend to think highly of themselves. In particular, they tend to have a positive view of themselves compared to other people.
Most of us don’t suffer from this malady. It is more often some form of feeling we aren’t good enough that plagues us. Those who stumble out of a dysfunctional family are all too often familiar with this one.
Whatever brand of psychobabble seeps through our lives working itself out in hubris and braggadocio or anxiety and self-doubt it doesn’t take a genius to figure out this world is messed up. Neither is it too complicated for the least perceptive among us to discern. All too often what the world calls good is bad and what the world calls bad is good. This alone is enough to make us see the fractured carnival mirror reflection of justice that permeates our reality. Add to this our personal experiences and anyone who thinks we’ve found ourselves in a bed of roses may be fooling themselves, but they aren’t fooling anyone else.
Anyone who can walk through this vale of tears with no faith is a better man then I Gunga Din.
I wasn’t able to do it. I made it till I was thirty years old and the meaninglessness of it all was on the verge of driving me to suicide. I kept coming back to if that’s all there is, my friends then let’s keep dancing let’s break out the booze and have a ball if that’s all there is. However, I found living at the perpetual party at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe was not very uplifting and after a while I couldn’t even pretend it was fun. How anyone can stagger through all this with no hope of anything beyond this is beyond me.
I can only pray that if they ever come to the end of themselves they will look to God. That’s what I did and I was surprised to find that God was looking at me.
‘Why is the world so messed up? Because God made man His viceroy in this creation and instead of listening to God and doing things His way we listened to Satan and gave the whole shooting match away. The story is there for us in Genesis and because of that decision God laid a curse on the whole deal.
But He also gave us a promise at the same time that He would send a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. The penalty for disobeying God is eternal separation from God. The only way back is to live a perfect life which no one can do. God became a human, lived a perfect life, and then died for the sins He never committed as a substitute for us.
In doing this He defeated sin, death, and the Devil. He also opened the way for all of us to get in on the action. All we have to do is accept Jesus as our leader in life and believe that God raised Him from the dead and that’s it. The whole deal is reversed, and we are welcomed home. Let’s run like the prodigal to greet the Father who has waited for us, who greets us like the like lost child we are.
Does any of this make any sense? It does. As a matter of fact, it makes perfect sense.
You see no matter how messed up it is if we will accept God’s offer, if we will step past the end of ourselves and into His waiting arms the veil will fall from our eyes, and we will see this world for what it is: an incubator for the children of God.
It’s not a matter of seeing and then believing instead it’s a case of believing so you can see.
The Bible lays all this out in great detail. Anyone who’s interested can contact me for a guided tour.
This is an excerpt from the book Hope by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 19, 2023
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The secret of a successful life is to find out what God wants us to do, and then do it.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 17, 2023
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When we can’t change the direction of the wind let’s adjust our sails.
Can Anyone Say Amen? March 16, 2023
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Staring at the carnival mirrors of this life we squint through a swirling mist at the constantly shifting mirage of a fallen world. Things are not as they seem. Good is so often trampled underfoot while evil triumphs. Sacrifice devours the innocent as the guilty ride roughshod over justice. Crowds of people walking in the ways of the flesh stumble through a maze feeling all alone. Social Darwinism runs amuck. Survival of the fittest is the order of the day as the weak, the poor, and the defenseless are shoved out of the way for the next conqueror as they elbow their way to the fleeting throne that will eventually become their funeral pyre. Allowing our flesh to rule and guide us is walking with our eyes closed in the dark and following the lie that we can be like God creating our own realities through our selfish choices.
There is a better way. Walking with God is walking in the light reaching out for His revelation in His Word which is truth.
As we mature by meditating on the Word of God the things of this world grow strangely dim. Suddenly a light shines through the darkness and the spiritual world which is invisible to the natural man comes into focus. Paul put it best in his first letter to the Corinthians, “The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, ‘Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?’ has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.”
Look at it this way if tomorrow morning when we opened our eyes we saw Jesus standing right there beside our bed physically manifested before us do you think we might have a different kind of morning than normal? Now imagine if He were to walk next to us all day. Everywhere we went He went. Do you think an experience like that might change the way we saw things?
The Lord is with us every day wherever we are and wherever we go because He prayed that the Father would send us the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God. And we know the Father always hears and answers the prayers of His Son Jesus. Here’s what Jesus said about this, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” He lives within in us. This is the fact of a born-again life. But do we really live this way? Or do we let the mundane sameness of this life gradually gloss over the sparkling joy of our first love? If we will open our spiritual eyes we’ll see through the filthy fog of this world and see Jesus in all the power of His resurrection with us every step of the way.
I’m not saying this will instantly convert a vale of tears into a bed of roses. Jesus told us we shouldn’t expect any better treatment than He received at the hands of man, and they crucified Him. Look at Stephen the first martyr. He preached the good news that man can be reconciled with God by confessing Jesus as the Lord and leader of our life and by believing that God raised Him from the dead. This upset the applecart for all the religious leaders who made their living and maintained their power by confining people within the straitjacket of religion filled with rituals and symbols but lacking in a personal relationship with God.
These wolves in sheep’s clothing couldn’t meet Stephen in open debate. They couldn’t contend with the power of God that was so obvious in his preaching. Instead, they manufactured lies and spread false rumors. They stirred up a crowd and then aimed the violence of the mob directly at this man of God. But even while they stoned him, he had his eyes on Jesus and while the last breaths were crushed from his tortured lungs he cried, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
We too can live our lives walking, breathing, and speaking in the presence of the Son of Man, Jesus who is the Christ and there’s nothing the world can do about it. No one can snatch us out of God’s hand. To paraphrase one old song Jesus gave it to us and the world can’t take it away. Abandon the snipe hunt of seeking peace or fulfillment through walking in the flesh and embrace the reality of walking in the Spirit. Heed the words of the Master, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Here’s a prayer I’d like to share, “Father let me see with Your eyes, hear with Your ears, speak with Your words, love with Your heart, and touch with Your hands. Reach through me to those in need. Let the fire of Your love burn so bright in me that when others look in my direction You are all they see.”
Can anyone say, “Amen?”
This is an excerpt from the book Hope by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 15, 2023
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Let’s encourage and support our kids because children are apt to live up or down to what we believe of them.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 14, 2023
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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 13, 2023
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Good health is a crown worn by the healthy that only the ill can see.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 12, 2023
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Few know how much we must know in order to know how little we know.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 11, 2023
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When we stand before God at the end of our life, let us hope that we would not have a single bit of talent left, and can say, “I used everything you gave me.”
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 10, 2023
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Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 9, 2023
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You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 8, 2023
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If we fear God, we won’t fear anything. If we don’t fear God, we’ll fear everything.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 7, 2023
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It’s naive to predict that unpredictable events won’t happen in the future.
By Grace You Have Been Saved March 6, 2023
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When I think of my neighbor I pray for justice. When I think of myself, I pray for grace.
Grace is defined as the love and mercy given to us by God because God wants us to have it, not because of anything we’ve done to earn it. We all need grace to be saved from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint. Quoting the Old Testament Paul put it this way, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
Extending grace, mercy, and the forgiveness it demands isn’t just a good idea. It’s what God requires of us. Remember we reap what we sow. If we sow to our flesh of the flesh, we’ll reap corruption. But if we sow to the Spirit of the Spirit we’ll reap everlasting life. Refusing to forgive is of the flesh. Forgiveness is of the Spirit. And we get to choose which one we’ll do.
We’re called to walk as pilgrims in this world remembering that as born-again children of God this is not our home. We have a home in Heaven with God in Christ Jesus. Trying to live this out day-by-day soon teaches us that it’s easier said than done prompting us to ask, “How then shall I live?”
One quick answer is we should forgive others as God in Christ Jesus forgave us. This is nothing more or less than a natural outworking of Christ’s command that we love others as we love ourselves. Of course, loving others so completely isn’t always easy. So often other people do things we wouldn’t do or things we think others shouldn’t do. Not that we should turn a blind eye to sin but we should certainly open both eyes to the idea that there’re many ways to please God and He’s well able to lead each of us into the best way for us to do it.
It all comes down to love. We need to ask ourselves, “How does God love us?” Did He wait until we were perfect? Did He wait until we quit making mistakes? Did He wait until we were sin free?
If we won’t forgive others, we aren’t dealing with them from love. Instead, we’re judging them. Jesus is the judge, and we should leave that job to him since we never get it right anyway. It’s easy to say we love God. But how can we say that we love God when we won’t love our brother? How can we love our God who we can’t see when we don’t love our brothers who we can see?
If we’re really filled and motivated by God’s Spirit, we’ll have His nature. We’ll reflect Him much as a mirror reflects our own image. We can reflect that nature not just in our personal circle of friends but also into the wider world. Imagine how much greater the leadership of our nation, our organizations, and our churches would be if instead of constantly criticizing those whose thoughts and beliefs differ from ours instead, we devoted that time and energy to praying for them? If we as the born-again Church of Christ turned our criticism into intercession, we would see the most effective changes possible shining like a bright light after a dark night.
It comes down to this: by grace we have been saved so we should extend grace to those around us. To love as we have been loved. And to forgive as we have been forgiven. We are one in Him so let’s go forth and be one with each other.
This is an excerpt from the book Hope by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 5, 2023
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In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges, and the foolish build dams.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 4, 2023
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We’re all made of the same clay, but not from the same mold.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens March 2, 2023
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Good doesn’t become bad, wrong doesn’t become right, and truth doesn’t become a lie just because a majority of people want them to.
All We Need to Know March 1, 2023
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The Bible tells us Adam sold us down the river of sin. His first sin, disobedience was followed by death; spiritual death or separation from God and then physical death. The Bible also tells us no one gets a free pass. Every one of us descended from Adam is born in sin and subject to death. Because that first sin of Adam’s broke humanity’s relationship with God in every way.
However, the far-reaching extent of this wasn’t apparent till God made it crystal clear to Moses. Here’s what we learned from God’s detailed and explicit law: Sin is a yawning chasm separating us from God that leads to death. We also learned that even those who don’t sin in the same way Adam did, by disobeying a specific command of God, sin in one way or another. Consequently, we all experience both the spiritual and the physical end of life which is separation from God not just as an inheritance but as something each of us earns on our own.
But God didn’t leave us hopeless. When God cursed the serpent for tempting Eve to sin which is what dragged Adam into choosing fellowship with his wife over fellowship with his Creator, He also made a promise that from woman would come a Savior. From the moment of the fall comes the hope of resurrection pointing ahead to the One chosen before the foundation of the world to get us off this one-way conveyor belt to hell.
To maintain God’s absolute justice sin had to be paid for. The penalty of separation and death had to be fulfilled. All humanity could ever do was continue the cycle over and over since everyone sinned and added to the burden of the verdict. Then Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to bear the burden and pay the price becoming a sinless sacrifice, the just for the unjust. His death foreshadowed by every sacrifice ever offered up under the Law.
However, the blood of goats, bulls, sheep, and other animals could never cleanse from sin. The best they could do was cover symptoms of sin through obedience to the commands of God. They couldn’t deal with the root cause, separation from God because no human ever lived a sinless life after offering one sacrifice so another was always needed and death flowed like a river of sewage through the lives of all.
Just as Adam’s sin brought death into the world one person condemning many the sacrifice of Jesus brings life into the world One person making the way open for many. Though one foreshadowed the other and one fulfilled the other the gift of Jesus is not perfectly parallel to the death-dealing sin of Adam. You see if Adam’s sin put all of humanity in the well-deserved black hole of separation from God, imagine what God’s undeserved gift poured out through Jesus Christ’s sinless sacrifice can do. How can we possibly compare Adam’s death-dealing sin and Jesus’ life-giving gift? The righteous verdict on Adam’s sin was the death sentence on everyone born of Adam. The gracious verdict on the sacrifice of Jesus is this life restoring sentence on everyone born of Jesus, the second Adam.
Here it is in a nutshell: Death which is separation from God gained the upper hand through Adam’s sin. Now the astounding recovery of life, real life, life in union with God explodes in our spirit as soon as we’re born-again out of the descending line of Adam and into the ascending line of Jesus. Since the price has been paid and an acceptable sacrifice made the just for the unjust everyone who accepts this undeserved and free life-gift sees reality flow back into the mold God initially wanted for humanity: Living, loving, and praising in union with Him.
That’s the back story now for all you need to know:
If we confess Jesus as the head of our life and if we believe in our hearts God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.
It just that easy and it’s yours if you want it.
This is an excerpt from the book Hope by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
The Newest Book from Dr. Robert Owens is now available! February 28, 2023
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New Old Sayings Volume Three
The offerings in this book, the third in the New Old Sayings series are quips and quotes from hundreds of songs, poems, essays, articles and more than thirty books of both fiction and non-fiction published and unpublished offered to highlight how gracious God is in revealing Himself to us in so many ways. Inspired by the book of Proverbs the books included in the New Old Sayings series presents the collected wisdom and insights gained from more than sixty years of study, contemplation, and life.
Available at Amazon
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 26, 2023
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Who we are is just who we are it isn’t who we have to be.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 25, 2023
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God told us through Jesus that we are worth saving.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 24, 2023
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We can do what we can do. We can’t do what we can’t do. Wisdom is knowing the difference.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 23, 2023
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It wasn’t three nails that held Jesus to the cross, it was love.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 22, 2023
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Forgiveness can’t change the past, but it can change the future.
What is Righteousness and How Do I Get It? February 21, 2023
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The first part is easy. Righteousness is the ability to stand in the presence of God as if we’d never sinned. When we stand in righteousness before God the Father it’s without any sense of fear, condemnation, or inferiority. We have this righteousness because we are now children of God through Christ and as children, we are members of the family and have a rightful place.
Just think of Buckingham Palace as heaven. If you walked up to the gate and said, “Let me in” the guards would turn you away. If Prince William walked up and said, “Let me in” the guards would open the door and bow as he walked past. It’s the same way with heaven. If we show up covered in our sin, we will get turned away. If we show up in Christ, as a member of His body the gates will swing open and glory to God, we will at last be home.
This was promised to us through the prophet Isaiah long ago, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.”
As natural men we have a sin consciousness. We inherently know that we’re not worthy to stand in the presence of God. We have knowledge of our own weakness to the sins which so easily overtake us. This has kept us slaves to sin. This consciousness of our own sin and weakness destroys our abilities and short-circuits our ability to live as God intends.
That is why we must be born again. For in our re-birth, our re-creation in Christ we acquire righteousness. Without it we could no more be children of God than an ant could be a man. For without righteousness the Father could take no pleasure in us as His children we’d shrink away from the fire of His love since it would then be the fire of His judgement, for it is the same fire.
This righteousness is the gift of God. It’s not something we could have ever earned for ourselves. Before we’re born again, we were without Christ. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. We were bankrupt, sold out to sin, and without the ability to help ourselves.
This is why God laid our sins upon Christ. This is why Christ died upon the cross. He paid the penalty demanded by justice. The penalty for sin had to be paid before a fallen mankind could be re-created and, in His death, the substitutionary death of the sinless for the sinful the penalty was paid in full. And not only did Christ pay our penalty He descended into Hell, defeated our advisory stripping him of his authority over humanity. Then He rose again to give us the promise of eternal life re-created in union with Him through faith.
In the Old Testament Israel had righteousness reckoned to them but in the new creation it becomes our very nature because Christ Himself is our Righteousness.
He is the vine, and we are the branches. Since the vine is righteous, so are the branches. And so should the fruit of the branches be worthy of the price paid. We should produce the fruit of righteousness in this world and be a blessing as we are blessed. And we can bear a type of fruit that Christ could not when He walked this earth. He could heal the sick, raise the dead, and calm the storm. But He could not lead people to salvation for He had not yet paid the price. He had not yet opened the way for us to be re-united with God erasing the sin debt of Adam’s fall.
So that is righteousness, right standing with God, the ability to stand in God’s presence as if we had never sinned. We get it through confessing with our lips that Jesus is Lord and by believing in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
And once we have it, we are tasked by Christ to share our witness so that all mankind has the opportunity to have it too.
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 18, 2023
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He lived a life of love and perfection. He died a death of hate and rejection. He rose to share joy and perfection. Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 17, 2023
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Praising God for what we can’t see is thanking God in advance for what will only makes sense when seen from the other side.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 16, 2023
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The unthinkable becomes tolerable then legal then accepted then praised.
Location of the Third Temple Revealed February 15, 2023
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Do you think we’re living in the End Times?
If you spend much time with Evangelical Christians, you’re bound to be asked this question. Perhaps, more times than you’ll be able to remember. I know I have.
Those who believe that the Revelation of John found in the New Testament foretells future evets are constantly looking for signs that the End Times have begun. They’re always on the lookout for the birth of the Red Heifer, the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant, and the building of the Third Temple.
News flashes from around the world:
1. The writer of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament tells us that the end times were already upon us back in the first century when he said, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…”
2. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announced in September of 2018 that the first red heifer born in Israel in 2,000 years “was certified by a board of rabbis as fulfilling all the Biblical requirements.”
3. According to the Smithsonian.com the Ark of the Covenant may not have been lost at all. “Through the centuries, Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the ark rests in a chapel in the small town of Aksum, in their country’s northern highlands. It arrived nearly 3,000 years ago, they say, and has been guarded by a succession of virgin monks who, once anointed, are forbidden to set foot outside the chapel grounds until they die.”
And there are scholars who agree with the Ethiopian Christians. “While the idea that the Ark was taken to Ethiopia is not new there has been renewed interest after evidence was unearthed by the Bible Archaeology, Search & Exploration Institute (BASE). In a blog post on the organization’s website, it said: “As unusual as this may sound, the BASE team has uncovered compelling evidence that the Ark may well have been spirited up the Nile River to an eventual resting place in the remote highlands of ancient Kush–modern-day Ethiopia.
According to their research the Ark was taken out of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the reign of Manasseh where it was first taken to a Jewish colony on Elephantine Island in Egypt.
After that it is thought it was taken down the Nile to Lake Tana in Ethiopia and in particular Tana Kirkos Island, which is considered to be a holy island only populated by Christian monks.”
4. And in this article, I will reveal the location of the Third Temple.
Let me digress:
When I gave my life to Christ and was born-again into a new life. In my old life I was an alcoholic drug addict.
I’d never thought that was a bad or unusual thing, either before I was born-again or immediately afterward. Let me explain. You see I thought everyone was an alcoholic drug addict except of course for those bland bobble-heads I called squares or citizens, and they meant no more to me than the gravel under my feet. Everyone who was anyone in my life was someone who either helped me get alcohol and drugs or enjoyed them with me.
I didn’t think there was anything wrong with using and abusing alcohol and drugs because where I came from everyone did. At least everyone I knew or interacted with. The local priest had his own stool at a local bar and was famous for his capacity to drink people under the table. The pastor of the church my parents attempted to make me attend was a notorious drunk. I knew police officers who got high and arrested people just to seize their drugs. I sat in police cars drinking with on duty officers. My best connection for weed was a Chicago police captain. In my neighborhood teachers, judges, doctors, everyone self-medicated.
I figured the only reason drugs were illegal was because the government had to throw a bone to the mob when they made alcohol legal. And besides in my mind the government made more money running people through the system then they would if they just taxed drug sales. I figured the presidents and others running the country got high they just had the real good stuff.
After I was born-again, I was consumed with reading the Bible. As much as possible that was all I did. I would walk around my house reading the Bible drinking whiskey while chain-smoking cigarettes and joints. I just figured I was getting a spiritual high to augment my religious devotion to a self-medicated continuous life buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It was beautiful.
Then I ran headfirst into I Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
This brought me up short. “I’m the temple of God!” I thought. Looking at the eight-ounce tumbler of whiskey in one hand and the cigarette in the other I thought, “What am I doing?”
Right there and right then I set down that glass of whiskey, put out that cigarette looked at the bag of weed lying next to my hands on the desk and gave them up. That was it. No withdrawals. No regrets. God did all the heavy lifting and He made me clean.
Since that day I’ve never been drawn off course by anyone wondering about when the Third Temple was going to be built because God makes it clear that we are the temple of God. In I Corinthians 3:16-17 He says it straight out, “you are the temple of God.” And if that wasn’t enough there are other references to this fact in the Bible as well. Such as I Peter 2:4-5, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
What is the Temple besides God’s house? What is it for? It is where the priests offered sacrifices. In the new world, the New Earth we inhabit when we become a new creation the sacrifices are spiritual and they are offered up in God’s house, His Holy Temple, which temple we are.
Secret revealed:
Where is the Third Temple? It is right here right now … it is the body of Christ made up of all believers collectively and individually.
So don’t be drawn off base looking for that which has been revealed. Our Father God calls every Christian to be Christ to the world around us. To see with His eyes, hear with His ears, touch with His hands, and love with His heart. He told us that we will do the same kind of works He did while He walked among us only greater. Let’s not waste our time navel gazing into a reflecting glass of superimposed meanings when Revelation tells us clearly; Jesus is God, God wins in the end, and no matter how bad it gets we should pray, “Even so come Lord Jesus.”
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 14, 2023
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Sometimes it feels like prayer is all we have. Luckily, prayer is all we need.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 11, 2023
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Sometimes life seems like a long time. It always feels like we have hours to kill but not a moment to spare.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 10, 2023
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It’s never too late. Until it is.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 9, 2023
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How can we hear the Lord when we spend so much time listening to the world?
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 8, 2023
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The mistakes of our past don’t have to be the blueprint of our future.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 7, 2023
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When we come to the end of ourselves, we have the chance to find the beginning of everything else.
The Heart of the Problem is in the Heart February 6, 2023
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Benjamin Franklin told us, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Socialism is a debilitating confidence game dressed up as an ideology used by demagogues and want-to-be dictators to fool its victims into believing it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. Those who fall under the spell of the charlatans singing this siren song come to believe it is fair and just to force some people to labor for the good of others. This is the same type of sophistry and rationalization that was used by the clergy and philosophers of the Antebellum South to justify unending human bondage for an entire race of people because it was for their own good.
This twisted tool of central planners and bureaucratic tyrants teaches those who have not that it is fair and just to take from those who have and re-distribute the plunder as the government decrees. This is not fair! This is not just! To teach that it is raises up generations of people who believe they have a birth-right to that which is not their own forfeiting their true birth-right: the opportunity to succeed through their own efforts. The products of such an educational system are citizens without virtue voting pawns without honor. Not because they have made a personal decision to live without these two attributes but because they have been programmed to believe taking the fruit of someone else’s labor is permissible as long as it will be given to someone else. Theodore Roosevelt said, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
Those who drank the Kool-Aid dispensed by the government schools learned this type of theft is not only permissible it is laudable. They were told and they believe that this is what Robin Hood did: steal from the rich to give to the poor. However, the legend of Robin Hood tells of a fighter for liberty and the sanctity of personal property who robbed the stolen wealth of corrupt government officials so that he could return it to its rightful owners: those who produced the wealth in the first place.
However, the leaders of those wishing to turn America into a Venezuelan style worker’s paradise have turned the world upside down demanding that people objectified by the name “Millionaires and Billionaires” need to pay their fair share. Yet they never say what that fair share is or when enough will ever be enough. According to Noah Webster, “…if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.”
We look around us and we watch as our beloved United States of America crumbles. Our elected leaders act as if it is their goal to spend us into oblivion. The only way to understand their pronouncements and actions is if we consider ourselves a conquered people and the Washington-centered oligarchy as an occupying power. We, the silent majority who labor, innovate, and produce are treated as subservient beasts of burden needed and appreciated more for what can be extorted from us than for who we are. Samuel Adams once said, “No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”
It is no wonder that we see such a sorry collection of second-rate scoundrels prancing about on the stage of power. They sell their snake oil of class warfare indoctrinating their victims to be needy and then promising to fill their gnawing need with loot legally taken from others. This immoral process breeds a population without the virtue of self-reliance or the honor of being independent. The soul sapping addiction to eternal government support leads to a nation neither adapted to nor deserving of liberty. When a birthright has been sold for a bowl of stew it cannot be regained by demanding more. Thomas Jefferson said, “Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”
We the present-day guardians of America must stand before the tsunami of anti-education that leads our nation away from virtue and into unrighteousness. We must serve as examples working to earn what we receive and refusing to either play the victim or accept the self-imposed victimhood of those who seek to expropriate the fruit of someone else’s labor. We must stand for righteousness, or we will fall before the juggernaut of socialism’s final assault upon the land of the free and the home of the brave.
In future elections we need to choose wisely. We need to support candidates who are virtuous and who adhere to the principles of constitutionally limited government which alone can protect personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity. Samuel Adams instructed us in this basic truth, “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen onto any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.”
Douglas MacArthur warned us, “History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”
Finally, looking to the ultimate source of wisdom Proverbs 14:34 tells us, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 5, 2023
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To atheists the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a conspiracy theory.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 3, 2023
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The problems that rise before us are never greater than the power that stands behind us.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens February 2, 2023
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When we get what we want, that’s God’s direction. When we don’t get what we want, that’s God’s protection.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 31, 2023
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We spend hours each day watching TV, reading the news, and listening to music. We pend maybe a few minutes each day in prayer, in the Bible, and seeking God. And we wonder why our lives are confused, pointless, and lonely?
Is America Under Judgment? January 30, 2023
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All that follows I will preface with, “I believe.” I am not attempting to establish theology for anyone or to declare that anyone who does not agree with me is a heretic. I am merely sharing my beliefs, grounded on study and prayer, since my opinion has been solicited on this topic more than once.
Many Christians today bring every conversation back to, “Do you think these are the last days?”
This may be based on a personal reading of the Book of Revelation in the Bible. It could be based on the broadcast sermons and teachings of any number of professional End Times preachers who have built careers on pointing to an apocalypse around the corner.
The signs of the times are always easy to read they just aren’t so easy to interpret. Nero was the Antichrist as was Diocletian, King James II, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. False Prophets have equally abounded from the Pope to Martin Luther, from Henry VIII to Rasputin to Jim Jones.
Is the End coming? Most certainly. Can we know when it is coming? Most certainly not. Since it is impossible to know when the end is coming I cannot believe that God would want us wasting any of the precious time He gives us speculating as to when it will arrive instead of being His witnesses to the world.
Since it is anti-biblical to believe we can know the date of the End, it is obviously not a Godly use of our time to try and figure it out anyway. What can we know? Just as we can look at the clouds and know when a storm is coming or smell the wind and know when a rain is on the way, so to we can look at the present state of our nation and know the time of the season. If we use the analogy of a year’s cycle it is obviously fall headed for the winter. It has been fall headed for the winter since the crucifixion of Christ: the fulcrum of History.
Some may ask, “Why has fall lasted so long?” The problem is we really don’t know how long the previous winter and spring were. The belief that the Bible tells us that there were approximately X number of thousand years before Christ and there will be X number of years after Christ equaling 7,000 years as a week in God’s time as taught by some popular TV preachers is based on the a tissue of strung together scriptures and cherry-picked verses. Equally, the belief that the time from Adam and Christ is discernible from the Biblical text is based on the erroneous belief that the Bible is presented as a linear historical document.
While I believe that the Bible contains real History and that it is literally true, I do not believe that it presents a year for year time-line type of presentation. The Old Testament is above all a spiritual History of how God chose one people and eventually one person to bring forth the Chosen One: Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of man. I do not believe that by counting the lives of everyone mentioned in Old Testament genealogies it is possible to know how many years elapsed between “Let there be light” and the birth, death, or resurrection of Christ.
Most of the names mentioned in the many Old Testament genealogies have no age associated with them so the would-be Biblical time liner has to make a guess. Also, when you compare the genealogies there are obvious overlaps, repetitions, and omissions. Compare the New Testament genealogies of Christ found in Luke and in Matthew and you will see the problem with genealogies as linear History. Now multiply that by all the genealogies in the Old Testament and you will begin to see the problem with this method of calculating time.
The people who tell us that the Old Testament gives us an accurate count of the years between the beginning and the beginning of the end are the same ones who tell us that they can figure out from the book of Revelation when the end of time will come. They do this although Christ Himself tells us in Matthew, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Then to make the point again it was one of the last things He told us before ascending to Heaven in Acts, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
Since we cannot know the day or the hour, the times or the seasons how godly can it be to spend so much time trying to figure it out? So much for trying to figure out when THE end is since it can’t be done. However, I felt I had to deal with that before I moved on to the real subject of this column: whether or not America is under judgment.
I believe that is a topic that can be discerned by anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. I am not talking about the end of the United States. It is and will be called by the same name, waving the same flag. I will let you judge if it is the same country we grew up in.
Looking at the spiritual History of the Old Testament as a guide we see that Judah the southern kingdom of the Jews, the believing remnant that carried on the covenant after the apostatized Kingdom of Israel had been carried off into exile was finally delivered into the hands of its enemies because they had sacrificed their children to pagan gods and walked in the ways of the world. Since 1972 when a case based on a lie was used by an activist Supreme Court to invent a constitutional right to abort babies over 60 million Americans have been deprived of the most fundamental right of all: Life.
God does not condemn societies because of the sin within them because the same sins are in all peoples at all times. Rather God condemns societies for the sins they condone. Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of the plains were not destroyed because they were filled with more evil than the Canaanites that God eventually sent the Israelites to destroy. No, these cities were consumed by fire and brimstone because they gloried in what others did in shame.
Stroll down the streets of San Francisco. Flip the dial from the Modern Family to Two and a Half Men from The Jersey Shore to Glee and it seems Jerry Springer has defined the new America. On cable and satellite hard core porn fills the overnight hours while state after state legalizes pot on their way to legalizing everything. The government has taken over the numbers racket, calling it a lottery as they plunder the poorest amongst us by selling them false hope where winning is as likely as being struck with lightening.
What is the judgment of God on nations that have moved out from under His blessing by rejecting His guidance? He casts them down from the heights their former obedience had achieved. In the near future we may become the tail instead of the head as our leaders continue to wag the dog.
Alexis de Tocqueville one of the most astute observers of America said in the early 1800’s “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Now survey the current state of America for yourself. Don’t accept the opinion of someone else but make up your own mind.
Is America good? The answer to that will provide the answer to the question posed in the title of this column “Is America under Judgment?” For if we are not good what are we? And what is the result of that?
If you decide for yourself that America is under judgment does that mean you should run for the nearest exit or hide in a fallout shelter?
Remember God has told those who follow Him, “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.”
Don’t hide run. Run to the nearest rooftop and proclaim Jesus as Lord. Share your witness everywhere with everyone you can for it will only be through a renewal of the heart that we will come to the heart of the problem.
Keep the Faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 25, 2023
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When we close our eyes or shrug our shoulders to injustice, we might as well say we agree with it.
What is Righteousness and How Do I Get It? January 24, 2023
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The first part is easy. Righteousness is the ability to stand in the presence of God as if we’d never sinned. When we stand in righteousness before God the Father it’s without any sense of fear, condemnation, or inferiority. We have this righteousness because we are now children of God through Christ and as children, we are members of the family and have a rightful place.
Just think of Buckingham Palace as heaven. If you walked up to the gate and said, “Let me in” the guards would turn you away. If Prince Charles walked up and said let me in the guards would open the door and bow as he walked past. It’s the same way with heaven. If we show up covered in our sin we will get turned away. If we show up in Christ, as a member of His body the gates will swing open and glory to God, we will at last be home.
This was promised to us through the prophet Isaiah long ago, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.”
As natural men we have a sin consciousness. We inherently know that we are not worthy to stand in the presence of God. We have knowledge of our own weakness to the sins which so easily overtake us. This has kept us slaves to sin. This consciousness of our own sin and weakness destroys our abilities and short-circuits our ability to live as God intends.
That is why we must be born again. For in our re-birth, our re-creation in Christ we acquire righteousness. Without it we could no more be children of God than an ant could be a man. For without righteousness the Father could take no pleasure in us as His children since we would shrink away from the fire of His love since it would then be the fire of His judgement, for it is the same fire.
This righteousness is the gift of God. It is not something we could have ever earned for ourselves. Before we’re born again, we were without Christ. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. We were bankrupt, sold out to sin, and without the ability to help ourselves.
This is why God laid our sins upon Christ. This is why Christ died upon the cross. He paid the penalty demanded by justice. Sin had to be paid for before a fallen mankind could be re-created and, in His death, the substitutionary death of the sinless for the sinful the penalty was paid in full. And not only did Christ pay our penalty He descended into Hell, defeated our advisory stripping of his authority over humanity. Then He rose again to give us the promise of eternal life re-created in union with Him through faith.
In the Old Testament Israel had righteousness reckoned to them but in the new creation it becomes our very nature because Christ Himself is our Righteousness.
He is the vine, and we are the branches. And since the vine is righteous so the branches. And so should the fruit of the branches be. We should produce the fruit of righteousness in this world and be a blessing as we are blessed. And we can bear a type of fruit that Christ could not when He walked this earth. He could heal the sick, raise the dead, and calm the storm. But He could not lead people to salvation for He had not yet paid the price. He had not yet opened the way for us to be re-united with God erasing the sin debt of Adam’s fall.
So that is righteousness, right standing with God, the ability to stand in God’s presence as if we had never sinned. We get it through confessing with our lips that Jesus is Lord and by believing in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
And once we have it, we are tasked by Christ to share our witness so that all mankind can have it too.
This is an excerpt from the book Faith by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 22, 2023
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If we slander our neighbors, we curse our neighborhood.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 21, 2023
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Traditions are the living faith of dead men. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living men.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 20, 2023
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If all we seek is pleasure, we will never know satisfaction.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 19, 2023
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Using religion to get ahead stinks to high heaven.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 18, 2023
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Knowing what is right, is deep water in our heart, doing what is right is sharing that water with a dry and parched world.
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 