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.
Jump January 16, 2023
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!Christ came to fulfill the Old Covenant. He paid the price for Adam’s sin and made a way back into fellowship with God. Sin was the problem and Jesus is the answer.
When he was offered up by the High Priest as a sinless sacrifice, He fulfilled all that had ever been required in the Old Covenant.
When He breathed His last on the cross and cried out, “It is finished,” the curtain in the temple was ripped in half. God left the Holy of Holies on earth signifying the end of the Old Covenant. When Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He poured out his blood on the eternal alter of God in the heavenly temple of God. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament had been but a foreshadowing of this event.
When we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead as it says in Romans 10:9-10 we shall be saved. It doesn’t say we might be saved. It doesn’t say we will be saved by and by. It says we shall be saved. The moment we do that we’re born again, recreated, and translated from the old world of sin caused separation from God and death to the new world of fellowship with God and life.
Once we’re saved from the curse of sin, we become the righteousness of God. This means we can stand in the presence of God without any guilt, shame, or fear for we’ve become His children. And as His children we have the right and the ability to come boldly into our Daddy’s throne room any time we want.
Think of it this way, if you or I walked up to the gate of Buckingham Palace and told the guard, “Let me in I want to see the queen” we wouldn’t even get a smile from one of those guys. But if Prince Phillip walked up and said the same thing, they would immediately usher him into the royal presence.
It’s the same with us and the heavenly Holy of Holies. God is our Father. We can enter His presence any time we want. There’s no need to beg or plead. It’s our right as His child because we are one with Christ. He’s the head and we’re the body. We’re the very living stones built up into His eternal temple. We’re individually the tabernacles of His Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
Don’t accept less. Be all that God re-created you to be. We’re a new creation the old has passed away and behold all has become new. We dwell this moment in God’s New Jerusalem and collectively we are His Holy Temple. God the Father is on His throne. Christ the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world and yet lives is seated to His right hand. The Holy Spirit indwells the temple built of living stones.
There is nothing left to be done. It is finished. There is nothing we can add. We have been given the authority to act in the Name of Christ. We shouldn’t sit back waiting to get good enough. We shouldn’t expect some hireling to do what God has called us to do. We’ve been called to take the light of Christ into a world of darkness.
He never told us to build a lamp. He never told us to pay a lighthouse tender. He told us to take the light of His love to those sold under bondage to the king of this world. And we must always remember greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.
Jesus told us that if we have faith, even if it’s as small as the smallest seed, and we tell the mountain to jump it’ll jump. Let’s quit waiting for some collective bulldozer to move the mountains and start living as what we are: children of the Most High God.
In the desert God told Moses to speak to the rock. He has told us to speak to the mountains. So now, all together on the count of three let’s say to the mountains in our life, “Jump!”
One, two, three.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 14, 2023
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If we don’t allow God to guide us who knows where we’ll end up.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 13, 2023
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We may inherit many things from our parents, but a true and loyal spouse is a gift from God.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 12, 2023
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Following the crowd instead of following God comes from fearing man more than we fear God.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 11, 2023
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When I am alone God is there with me. When I am nothing, God is my everything. When I am sad God is my song of joy. And when I am weak God is my strength.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 10, 2023
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Since most people only hear what they want to hear, why waste time with explanations?
I Got Faith You Got Faith All God’s Children Got Faith January 9, 2023
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Pastor John Osteen the father of Mega Church Joel used to lead his congregation in this confession, “This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.” while waving his big black Bible in the air. He started every service this way encouraging the faithful to stand on God’s Word.
It’s our confession of God’s Word that opens the door to miracles. For if we don’t believe God’s Word how can we say we believe God? And if we don’t believe God who and what do we believe?
Many of us have been told we’re losers. Many of us have been told we’re worthless, unwanted, unnecessary, and unloved. Not all of us grew up with Mom and Pop Cleaver protecting, supporting, and affirming us. Many of us have told ourselves we’re no good, forgotten, and useless. And sad to say many of us believe what the world says about us. We often believe ourselves and allow these beliefs to shape and guide our lives.
Maybe we should try God? Let’s believe His Word and let that shape and guide our lives.
Now think about God’s Word for a moment. He says that His word is truth, and that His judgments endure forever. He also says He watches over His Word to perform it. If He’s lying about all that He’s a liar, and we know God isn’t a liar. The devil is. That’s his very nature. And since the devil’s original sin was his desire to be recognized as God, when we say or act as if God is a liar, we’re giving the devil exactly what he wants, because we’re saying the liar is our God.
Spiritual things can only be understood by those who are spiritual. To the natural man they’re foolishness and the fool has said in his heart there is no God. I’m speaking to believers and hopefully to those without hope who might become believers. To those who’ve confessed Jesus as Lord and who believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead. If we’ve done those things His Word says we will be saved. It doesn’t say might be. It doesn’t say could be. It says will be. Which also means you can be.
He also says we overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb AND the word of our testimony, that we will be judged by the words that come out of our mouth, and that whatever we ask in the name of Jesus we shall receive that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
That is some powerful stuff. Our words are important. Some people interpret all this in such a way that God becomes their servant and that He’s honor bound to give us anything we ask for. But in His Word, He tells us that we need to ask for the right stuff when He says you ask and don’t receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
We need to get lined up with Him. We need to allow Him to put the desires in our heart and then use the power of confession in the Name of Jesus to move forward in the ministry He’s called us to, and then we’ll receive the desires of our heart, the ones He put there. For make no mistake if you’re a believer you’ve been called to minister the Word to a world dying to receive it. That ministry is your witness. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar. God will always give you the words to say if you testify of Him. Share your witness, your testimony. Simply tell what the Lord has done for you. And if you don’t have a testimony, seek the Lord until you have one.
All it takes is faith to walk out on God’s Word and expect Him to accomplish it. That’s what we do to get saved. And that’s what we must do to be who He says we are, to have what He says we have, and to do what He’s called us to do.
And if the believers among us think we don’t have enough faith remember we had enough faith to believe God for salvation. And I don’t know about you but if I have enough faith to believe God will welcome someone like me into heaven, I’ve got more than a mustard seed’s worth so mountain you better start jumping. Also remember faith itself is a gift from God. We can always ask for more. If you don’t have enough faith to believe God for salvation, ask God and He will give it to you.
I got faith, you got faith, all God’s children got faith, and the only kind of faith for me is faith in Jesus Christ.
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 7, 2023
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We may not get to decide how or when we will die, but we can always choose how we’re going to live.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 6, 2023
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If we live our lives walking with God when we die even the man selling obituaries will be sad.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 4, 2023
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Our life should be an act of worship not just contain acts of worship.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens January 3, 2023
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How can we expect anyone to take our advice and ignore our example?
I’m Blessed January 2, 2023
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When asked by the Barna Group, “Do we have a personal responsibility to share our faith with others?” most Christians answer, Yes.
100% of Evangelicals and 73% of born-again Christians said yes. When this conviction is put into practice however, the numbers shift downward. Only 69% of Evangelicals and 52% of born-again Christians say they actually did share the Gospel at least once this past year to someone with different beliefs in the hope that they might accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
“Born again Christians” were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” and who also indicated they believe that when they die, they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “born again.” Being classified as “born again” is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.
“Evangelicals” meet the born-again criteria described above plus seven other conditions. Those include: saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance, the denominational affiliation of the church attended, or self-identification.
Many people have a hard time sharing their faith in Christ. They feel as if they don’t want to be perceived as pushy. Possibly they’re afraid to speak to strangers or they don’t know how to get a conversation to a place where speaking about faith might be appropriate.
Here’s an easy, comfortable way that my wife introduced me to many years ago.
In America a common greeting is, “Hi how’re you doing?”
Most people aren’t really concerned with how we’re doing it’s just a greeting. However, when someone asks us a question, we’re free to answer it and it’s a natural and comfortable thing to do.
Whenever I’m asked America’s greeting “Hi how’re you doing?”
I answer, “I’m blessed.”
The reactions are very interesting. Some just give a quizzical look. Some say, “You are?” which is another question.
And as in the initial situation answering a question is an easy natural thing to do. I’ll answer, “You are?” with something like “I am and I won’t accept anything less.”
Sometimes people will answer with another question something like, “Why are you blessed?” and this opens the door for easily speaking about Jesus gave it to me and the world can’t take it away or some other friendly answer that leads directly to speaking of Jesus. Not often but occasionally, it leads to an actual chance to share the hope of the Gospel. If nothing else, it opens the door to speak the name of Jesus in public. And you never know who might be listening and what the sound of that Name may have in the ripple effect of reality.
Sometimes our initial response of “I’m blessed” is met with, “I am too.” This opens a door for fellowship with a fellow believer and the collateral opportunity for others to hear people who aren’t afraid to share their faith in public and another opportunity to speak the Name of Jesus into the air of a world that needs him.
This type of conversational evangelism is reflected in one T-shirt I have. It says, “I’m Blessed” and then under that large headline it offers an answer to anyone who might ask why, “You better ask Jesus.”
It’s also reflected in the words to an old song from the hills of Missouri:
I’m Blessed and I know that I am since Jesus took control of my life.
I’m blessed and I know that I am since He gave to me a new life.
I’m blessed and if you happen to ask how I am my friend.
I’m Blessed, I’m Blessed, I’m Blessed
For any of us who find it hard to get started with sharing the good news of the Gospel with others why not give, “I’m blessed,” a try since we are. Then get ready to walk through any doors God decides to open.
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 December 31, 2022
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Giving someone a smile might be the only sunshine they see that day.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 29, 2022
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Often one of the greatest blessings in life is not getting what we want.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 28, 2022
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We call it success when we get what we want. We know it’s happiness when we like what we get.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 27, 2022
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We’ll never make it across an ocean if we’re afraid to lose sight of the shore.
A New You for a New Year December 26, 2022
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Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Have you reached the end of your rope only to find out that it’s much shorter than you imagined? Was last year as good as you hoped it would be? Was it as bad as you feared it would be? Does the uncertainty of the future leave you anxious? Has your own mortality entered like a crack in the ice in your youthful belief in personal indestructability?
But wait there’s more…
Does the randomness of good happening to bad people and bad happening to good people leave you wondering if there’s any rhyme or reason to reality? Is looking for answers to these and many other questions like looking for needles in haystacks? Is the quest to find meaning in life like trying to nail fog to the wall?
If you’ve rejected Christ because of Christians don’t mistake the messengers for the message. Christ told his followers to lake His light to the world, and most have spent the years since we were told this trying to build a lamp and pretending it was the light.
The message is as simple as receiving it: Confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.
That’s it.
It’s not about joining the right club or following the right rules. We don’t need a seminary degree or someone with one to walk us through learning the secret handshake or the Abra Kadabra password. And there is no magic decoder ring. We don’t have to read the Bible from cover to cover. We don’t have to wear the right clothes, beard, or haircut. We don’t have to vote for the right candidates. We don’t have to take an oath to believe the same things that everyone else who confesses Christ as Lord does.
It isn’t about being good enough. That’s one of the great miracles of God’s economy. While we were yet sinners Jesus came and died so that we could live.
It isn’t about becoming a religious robot who says the right things at the right time to the right people in the right place. God is the One who created us with free choice, so we’re free to choose. It isn’t about conformity. God is the One who created us to be an individual and He doesn’t make junk. We are who He created us to be. He has placed us in a certain time and place so that we can become all He designed us to be and do all that He has called us to do. And that means what He created, placed, and called you to be, will be different than what He created, placed, and called me to be. You see it isn’t about cookie-cutter, repeat a formula, and follow the rule book club membership.
It’s about each of us individually confessing Jesus as Lord and each of us individually believing God raised Jesus from the dead and then learning to commune with God, to hear Him speak to us as individuals and then doing what He tells us to do.
If the questions at the beginning of this article float through our minds like storm clouds in a cloudless sky obscuring what should be clear. Let’s give up the battle to do it on our own. Let’s surrender and find victory in allowing God to count the victory of Jesus over sin and death to our account.
It’s so easy we can do it right here right now. We don’t need to be in a meeting, at an altar, or in a special building. We don’t need anyone to hold our hand or even know what we’ve done. We will know. God will know. And once we’re in his hand no one can snatch us out.
I confess Jesus as Lord and I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the Dead. That’s it. All done. The battle is over. The war between us and God is over, and we are one with Him. Welcome to a new you for a new year.
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 December 25, 2022
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Most of us don’t have a problem with aiming to high and missing the mark. Instead, most of us have a problem because we aim too low and get a bullseye.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 23, 2022
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Don’t lose the little you need by reaching for the more you want.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 22, 2022
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A world of lies is outweighed by one word of truth.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 21, 2022
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Organized religion turns the vastness of God into club rules.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 20, 2022
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Finding something often gives us more joy than what we have found.
What is Christmas Without Christ? December 19, 2022
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What have Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, It’s a Wonderful Life, roasting chestnuts, hippos, hula hoops, and barking dogs got to do with Christmas?
They may bring warmth to our hearts. They may bring a smile to our lips. Or they may make us groan. Whatever they do to each of us what they all have in common is that they’re glued to Christmas like barnacles to the hull of the good ship lollipop. They’re the accumulated cultural baggage that increasingly obscures the real meaning of a revolutionary blessed event under the camouflage of a socially acceptable winter break.
The ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCPBSNPR Cartel tells us constantly that we now live in a post-Christian America. They exalt in proclaiming the end of Christ’s dominant influence on Western Civilization. As a result, we’ve descended from a city on a hill to a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Our elites call evil good and good evil.
Ever since the nine black-robed masters of America decreed back in 1962 that God was expelled from school we’ve witnessed the steady degradation of our society. The coarseness and vulgarity we’re deluged with on a daily basis was unknown in earlier days.
What we call prime time entertainment was once known as pornography. What were abominations and generally accepted as perversions have become the norm while believing them to be against God’s Word is now considered some type of mental disorder. The cabal of self-appointed paragons of pomposity that masquerade as educators, politicians, and journalists cap their war against God when they glory in the right of self-interest to sacrifice the lives of the innocent and demand that the government not only endorse it but subsidize it.
As a natural outgrowth of the city of man’s war against God that defines America’s progressive culture comes the war against Christmas.
Back in the dream time we used to go to Christmas programs at our children’s schools and listen to the little darlings sing The First Noel, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and O Come O Come Emmanuel. Now we listen to them sing songs in foreign languages or do beautiful arrangements of sounds that don’t even have a meaning intermixed with a few songs about winter, snow, or maybe animals. It may all be Woke but it sure doesn’t have anything to do with the reason for the season.
Just in case all the tinsel and the twinkling lights have blinded us to what that reason is let me elaborate.
Christmas is all about Jesus the Christ born as a human so that he could bear the sins of the world, die a substitutionary death in our place, rise triumphantly from the grave and ascend into heaven so that we who believe can live in and through Him. That’s what it’s all about. Christmas must be linked to Easter to have any meaning.
I’ve met people who never realized that the Jesus in the manger on Christmas was the same Jesus who hung on the cross on Good Friday. I did not meet them in the jungles of some remote island but in America with a church on every corner. This is a clear case of Santa with a coke in his hand winning the advertising debate over the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It may all be Woke but it sure doesn’t have anything to do with the reason for the season.
What is Christmas without Christ? It’s a worldly hedonistic overly commercialized gift giving/receiving orgasm perpetrated by humanity’s enemy to keep us from knowing that Christ came to set us free, to reconcile us to God, and to make a way for us to live as a new creation in a new creation.
Not to be Grinch, let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Let’s enjoy our family and friends. Let’s celebrate our traditions as we remember Jesus is the reason for the season. Let’s wake up and smell the frankincense and myrrh for without Christ in Christmas all we have is “mas.”
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 December 18, 2022
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Forget nothing but injuries. That’s the best memory we can have.
An Excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 17, 2022
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Our opinion doesn’t matter. The Bible is true whether we accept it as true or not.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 16, 2022
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It’s hard to free people from chains they cherish.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 15, 2022
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Are the things we are living for worth Christ dying for?
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 14, 2022
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Christ came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
Does God Speak to You? December 12, 2022
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Whenever people ask me this question, “Do you mean God speaks to you?” I answer it with another, “Do mean God doesn’t speak to you?”
You can officially mark me down as a crazy person or whatever you like I don’t care. But I initially turned from the world to face God because I heard a voice answer my silent plea, the plea of a lost and lonely sinner about to give up on life, “I’ve got to try something.”
What I heard was a voice as real as any I’ve ever heard say right in my ear, “Why don’t you try God.”
As a militant atheist I turned to confront whoever it was that dared to say some invisible make-believe spirit might be the answer to my aching heart. There was no one there. At least there was no one there that I could see or find. After an exhaustive search that turned up no one I started searching for who might have been there that I couldn’t see. It was a search that eventually led me through the Gospels to Jesus. It was a search that led me from a dead-end life to a life filled with hope.
I said all that to say all this:
Have you ever felt God leading you to do something? It probably won’t be an audible voice. I am convinced that God only uses an audible voice for either the extremely hard-hearted/hard-headed or to comfort the extremely hard pressed. Instead, he leads us through our spirit which is linked to Him through His Spirit which lives in us as born-again believers.
If you aren’t one of those it’s easy just confess Jesus as Lord or leader of your life and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead…and that’s it. Done and done.
So here we are children of God through adoption, made right with Him, spiritually standing in Daddy’s throne room, minding our own business and His Spirit leads us to do something: something that doesn’t seem like something we would want to do on your own……. say He leads us to spend everything we have to buy Bibles to give to homeless people.
What should we do?
I’m talking about spending way more money than our natural head says we can afford. It just doesn’t make sense when we look at our budget through natural eyes. And the wisdom of the world tells us, “Come on most of the homeless you give a Bible will either lose it or throw it away.” Or, “Come on they’ll only listen to you witness about what Christ has done for you and accept the Bible so they can get a handout or something.”
But there it is again, an urging, a leading to do this thing that makes no sense. It itches at our hearts. It won’t leave. We feel our spirit saying, “If I don’t do this, I’ll miss an opportunity to do what I’m supposed to do,” while our head says, “Are you crazy you can’t afford to do that!”
Over and over our heads, filled with natural sense knowledge keep shouting, “If I spend all that money just to give it away, I won’t have it for what I need.” Or the ever ready, “Can’t someone else, do it? Like someone who has more money.”
God isn’t looking for ability He’s looking for availability. If He can make donkeys speak and use murderers to being people back to life, turn water into wine, and save sinners like us He can surely provide for all our needs. When we say we can’t do what God calls us to do we are saying that our inability is greater than God’s ability.
If we want to see the miracles of God, we need to follow Him into uncharted water. We need to do what He calls us to do because where God guides God provides. Walking in faith always sensitive to what He calls us to do and then following Him in the doing … that’s the way to see the miracles of God.
Faith isn’t doing only what we can do on our own. Faith is doing what God calls us to do even when we know we can’t. Let’s step out of the boat and feel the waves beneath our feet.
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 December 11, 2022
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The distance between believing in our head and accepting in our heart may look like about twelve inches but it is really the distance between heaven and hell.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 10, 2022
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If we don’t change after we embrace God, the acceptance of our mind may not have become the conviction of our heart.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 9, 2022
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As we respond to God in our beliefs, our prayers, and our actions all these things like the concentric circles caused by a pebble tossed in a pond ripple through the world.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 8, 2022
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As we embrace God we change and as we change the world around us changes.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 7, 2022
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Every response to God has a cascading impact in the world touching our family, our friends, our neighbors, and community.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 5, 2022
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A fool is thinking of what they will say instead of listening to what is said.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 3, 2022
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There is a cure for injustice, a solution for oppression, and an answer for unfairness … The deliverance of God.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens December 2, 2022
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Things done in haste are often regretted at a much slower pace.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens November 30, 2022
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It’s never too late to change our wrong ways or habits until it is. Then comes the judgement.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens November 29, 2022
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We can pass laws and make rules ultimately, it’s God’s design that plots the course.
A Soap Opera That Never Ends Will Finally End Then What? November 28, 2022
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All my life I’ve been in love with History. I learned at an early age that if you love reading you can live a thousand lifetimes and if you’re wise you have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others. I’ve certainly experienced the former while unfortunately not doing much of the latter.
My love of History metastasized into a love of Political Science. These two intellectual “Loves of my Life” have given me countless hours of joy lost in reading, mired in thinking, and entertained by speculation.
Now as I enter what are called the golden years, though I believe they might be made of brass, having spent several decades teaching both subjects I feel a need to share some insights not on particulars but instead on something that is usually disparaged and often dismissed, generalities.
Though most have never heard of him many can misquote the writer and philosopher George Santayana who is reported to have said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” What he actually said was, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” There is a subtle difference there for learning and remembering are two different things. This sounds so wise. It even appears self-evident. And it apparently, at least to my observation, it’s an oxymoron. After a daily study of History for sixty years the only lesson I’ve learned is that humanity never learns the lessons of History.
In my classes I tell my students that History is nothing more than the stories of people just like us who lived at different times in what were essentially different worlds. They had the same bodies and minds that we do. They felt the same emotions. They lived, they died, and now it is our turn. I also tell them that if we don’t learn anything from History that helps us in our everyday life we might as well pick up a good fiction book and at least enjoy some good writing.
I know that most people study History because they have to. I know most people find it boring. As an exercise in memorizing dates, names, and facts to be later regurgitated on a test and forgotten I can well understand the boring part. There are so few who can see through the process to the stories that make History so exciting. Few can lose themselves in the narrative, imagine themselves on the deck of that ship, in the palace with the king, or in the hut with that peasant. They only see dates, and names, and facts. BORING!
And Political Science who cares about that? I tell my students who don’t care about it at all that it’s the science of who gets what and if they don’t care about it someone else will and then they get to make the decisions. What do you want? You decide.
Now after decades spent following politics through the lens of History attempting to share with others the insights gained, I must tell you all that it’s essentially the equivalent of an ant studying a castle made of sand. He spends his life telling other ants how wondrous the castle is, how imposing its turrets are, how deep its moat, and how formidable its defenses then the waves come in the castle is gone and the ants have disappeared.
I recently taught a class on American History from 1877 until the present to a class full of millennials. We used a textbook that was more than a thousand pages long. It wasn’t until the last few pages that we reached anything the students could remember as having happened since they became aware of the world around them. That last twenty minutes of the semester really had an impact.
To most people History begins the day they’re born. For all of us it ends the day we die. And Political Science ends up being the science of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
In the 4.5 billion years of this planet’s existence, in the fifteen billion years since the Big Bang the history of humanity doesn’t even take up the last few paragraphs. It would fill perhaps part of a sentence, a few words such as……………. All things will pass only those things done in Christ will last.
That’s it, the sum total of all I’ve learned, all I’ve discovered, and all I’ll ever know. No Christ no peace. Know Crist know peace. For those who seek to gain their life will lose it and those who lose their life for Christ will find it. He is the truth, the light, and the life and without Him there is no truth, or light, or life.
Stop fighting a war that’s already been won. Stop spinning your wheels running in a race that goes in a circle. Step out of the darkness and into the light and let this be the first day of the rest of your life.
The stories of those who have gone before teach us nothing if they don’t lead us to Christ. The politics of this world are an endless loop, a tempest in a teacup, a soap opera that never ends. It may be engaging to watch like a slow-motion train wreck. It may be exciting, exhilarating, even entertaining but for most of us in a hundred years no one will even know we were here. In a thousand years no one will remember the compelling arguments of today, the all-important bitter debates about whether we place the deck chair here or there. Yet in an eternity from now heaven will know whether or not we acknowledged Christ as our Savior, for if we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we shall be saved.
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 November 27, 2022
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Some roads look perfectly safe, but they’re really made of quicksand.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens November 25, 2022
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Freedom is responsibility. It is our vehicle to either choose the truth or to embrace the lie.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens November 23, 2022
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When it comes to the ultimate decision in life, we have free choice, and no one can take that away from us. We can either choose God or choose the world and God is so fair we get exactly what we choose.
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 