All That Really Matters September 14, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Born-again, Dr. Robert Owens, Jesus saves, Salvation
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Back when I was an atheist and I believed this is all there is I was passionately interested in politics, economics, and current events. I was committed to working for my side and to defeating the other guy. Now that I’m a born-again child of God, a citizen of Heaven, and merely a pilgrim here I follow the ever-changing kaleidoscope of civic events more like a soap opera.
Yes, I understand that within this bubble we know as the space-time continuum the ins and outs of who’s up and who’s down actually make a difference. For example, it will have a profound impact on the United States whether we hand the government over to socialist revolutionaries or if we deliver it to capitalists. However, in the grand scheme of things this makes about as much difference as which queen bee is laying eggs in which hive.
I came to this level of a wokeness after years of Bible study, prayer, and fellowship with God. Just as a caterpillar goes through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly, I believe humans go through much the same process. Only instead of a two-stage process like a butterfly we go through three stages.
First, we’re a fetus (in Latin fetus means little one) for approximately nine months. Second, we’re born into this world and live here for as long as we do. And finally, we pass from this world into eternity. Let’s see: nine months, maybe 120 years, eternity. Which stage do you think is the real deal? The nine months prepare us for the 120 years and the 120 years prepare us for eternity. Two of these stages are merely steppingstones for the main event. Therefore, I contend that humans are in fact eternal beings who pass through two stages of development to become what we were created to be.
All that really matters in this stage of our development is the direction we’re facing when we leave it. Are we looking to God and putting our faith in Him? Or are we looking to the world still grasping for all it has to offer? Think of it this way: if when we’re a fetus inside our mother the umbilical cord is wrapped wrong or if there is a chromosomal problem we could enter life with some sort of handicap that we will spend the next 120 years dealing with. In the same way if we enter eternity facing in the wrong direction, we will spend eternity dealing with the ramifications of that choice.
From my personal Christian perspective here’s the 411 on how we turn from the world and face in the right direction.
Everyone can see that this world is broken. Evil runs rampant. The bad are rewarded. The good are crushed. Sickness, poverty, and oppression are on display in every direction. If God is good, why would He create such a horror show?
The easy answer is He didn’t. When He was done with creation He paused and looked around. Surveying all that He had done and it was “Good.”
Then man turned away from God, embraced Satan, and God cursed the world while at the same time promising that a Savior would come who would step on Satan’s head and deliver humanity from the grip of the evil we chose.
The price was a sinless sacrifice, the good for the bad. No human could do it because none of us has ever or could ever live a sinless life. Therefore, God sent His only Son, Jesus, to be incarnated as a human, live a sinless life, and then offer himself up as a sacrifice for us all. After His sacrifice Jesus descended into hell and as an eternal being suffered the punishment for every sin that had ever or would ever be committed. Then He was born-again in the very heart of darkness, triumphed over Satan, and God raised Him from the dead. Jesus led all those who had died waiting for this deliverance out of Satan’s grasp and emerged on the third day with the keys to death and hell.
After spending forty days instructing His disciples on how to carry the message of the best news ever to the world He ascended into heaven. Ten days later the Holy Spirit arrived and filled the new believers so that from then on they were no longer earth bound humans. They were instead wall-to-wall God birthed children of the Most High on a pilgrimage here with a mission to share their experience to be witnesses.
There it is in a nutshell. The word Gospel means “Good News” in old English. So, when you get filled to overflowing with all the bad news the world vomits up every day why not turn to the good news.
Don’t worry about what you can’t do anything about. Do you think if you missed one news broadcast or if you stopped watching them for ever it would make any difference to what is happening on the stage of the world or would the actors just keep reading their lines and playing their parts? The bad news impacts us more than we can ever impact it.
It’s like a joke making the rounds:
An English asks an Amish fellow, “Why isn’t the COVID rampaging through your communities?” The Amish fellow says without hesitation, “Because we don’t have any TVs.”
The TVs, radios, magazines, and papers may carry the news, but only the Bible has the Good News. It all comes down to choices: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” In other words no matter what, we’re all going to serve somebody. It will either be any one of the countless gods of this world or the one true God.
How do you make that choice? Is it by joining the right church? Is it by attending the correct services, worshipping in a certain way, or following any of the endless rules the world invents to complicate and build a barrier between us and the God who wants us to join His family? No! Not only has He made it simple He has made it easy. All we need to do is confess Jesus as the Lord of our life and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead and we will be saved. That’s it. Do that and we have joined God’s family. Then we can pour ourselves into His Word so that it’s life-giving Spirit will fill us and recreate us.
Forget about the bad news and study the Good News instead. Let’s “Eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive, latch on to the affirmative, and don’t with mess mister in between.”
Or to put it another way, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Veteran’s Benefits Aren’t Entitlements March 10, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Forever GI Bill, Mission Act, National Roadmap to Empower Veterans, Veteran’s benefits, Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act
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Federal law requires everyone who enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath. The oath is traditionally performed in front of the United States Flag. Everyone who has ever worn the uniform has said:
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
When every veteran took this oath to defend our country, our Constitution, and our way of life they presented the nation with a blank check to serve and protect We the People. That check was written with their lives, their bodies, and their sacred honor. They pledged to give their all. And as the saying goes, “All gave some. Some gave all.”
Those of us who have enjoyed generations of peace need to acknowledge our country is the home of the free because of the brave. We live our tranquil lives unmolested by hordes lurking beyond our borders who would love to pillage the richest nation the world has ever seen. From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Normandy from Flanders Field, Inchon, Khe Sanh, Fallujah, and ten thousand nameless battlefields in-between America’s best and brightest have fought selflessly and heroically.
Often, they’ve come home and quietly taken up their lives unrecognized by those of us who reap the benefits of their sacrifice. Sometimes they’ve been ridiculed, belittled, and even spat upon for the debt they paid for the rest of us. Mostly they’ve been forgotten. The benefits promised by a government swift to call and send but slow to remember were often second-rate, slow in coming, or denied all together. Administration after administration paid lip-service to our veterans while doling out benefits with a stingy hand.
But then came Trump.
Since his inauguration President Trump works tirelessly to provide the benefits and services our brave veterans deserve. He seeks to keep the promises made to generations of veterans. He’s leading the charge and winning the battle to finally give our heroes the homecoming they were promised, the one they’ve earned.
President Trump has declared, “My administration is committed to taking care of every warrior that returns home as a veteran.” As a case in point President Trump is ensuring our veterans receive the student loan and educational benefits to which they are entitled and deserve. He has previously noted the process by which our disabled veterans apply for Federal student loan discharges is too burdensome. Which has led to this sad reality; only half of the roughly 50,000 disabled veterans qualified to have their Federal student loans discharged have received this entitled benefit.
Consequently, on August 21, 2019 the President signed a presidential memorandum ensuring our totally and permanently disabled veterans obtain the Federal student loan debt discharges they’re entitled. The memorandum directs the Secretaries of Education and Veterans Affairs to develop a new expedited process to help totally and permanently disabled veterans have their Federal student loan debt discharged with minimal burdens. This combined with the Forever GI Bill which the President signed into law in 2017 allows individuals to access their veteran educational benefits at any point during their lifetime.
Turning to a more general assault on the stone wall standing for too long between our veterans and their earned benefits in June of 2017 the President signed into law the Veterans Affairs (VA) Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, making it easier to fire failing VA employees and support whistle blowers.
Since the passage of this act, the VA has successfully fired more than 7,600 employees who’ve failed our veterans. Previously the archaic rules of the bureaucratic swamp made it almost impossible to remove these roadblocks to the healthcare of veterans. Using the new streamlined policies, the VA has instituted reforms to increase efficiency and decrease abuse.
Consequently, VA healthcare has now significantly improved since President Trump was elected and trust in VA outpatient health care has risen in all areas.
Building the foundations necessary to win the victory in his Battle for the Vets the President signed the VA MISSION Act. This provides more healthcare options for veterans by consolidating existing programs and expanding access to care in veterans’ own communities. Eligible Veterans can use VA health care services nationwide, including through mobile health clinics serving rural areas and via telehealth (care through a phone or computer). Under the MISSION Act, veterans have more ways to access health care.
This includes within the VA’s network and through approved non-VA medical providers in your community, called “community care providers.” Depending on the situation for example, if a certain type of health service isn’t provided by VA the veteran may be able to go to a non-VA provider, using their VA coverage. This is one way to break the logjam which kept so many deserving Vets waiting in line until they died. Because of the reforms spearheaded by President Trump this is a victory for our heroes.
Stepping into a tragedy that unfolds in too many lives of those returning from service, President Trump signed a new Executive Order on a National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Veteran Suicide (PREVENTS) to address veteran suicide prevention. The executive order creates a new cabinet level task force led by VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. The task force will create a comprehensive public health road map bringing together local government along with the private sector to improve the quality of life for our Veterans and turn the tide on the Veteran suicide crisis.
“It is about pulling together the resources of the federal government, our states and localities our charities non-government organizations and coming together with a road map and resources,” said Secretary Wilkie.
The President said, “Our mission is to mobilize every level of American society to save the lives of our great veterans and support our veterans in need.” The President added, “To every veteran I want you to know that you have an entire nation of more than 300 million people behind you. You will never ever be forgotten. We are with you all the way.”
And remembering Ronald Reagan’s famous quote, “The best social program is a productive job for anyone who’s willing to work,” thanks to the roaring Trump economy since the President’s election, veteran unemployment has been reduced to the lowest level ever recorded.
The VA Secretary Wilke also said, “I’ve said many times that the mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs is to remind our fellow citizens why they sleep soundly at night. They sleep soundly at night because of the sacrifices of a select number of their fellow Americans.” This is a sentiment we would all do well to ponder.
The sum of all this adds up to one thing; Veteran’s benefits aren’t entitlements. They’re payments for services rendered and the least a grateful nation can give to the faithful few who answered the call.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Empires Rise and Empires Fall October 21, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2020 election, Dr. Robert Owens, lessons of history, revival
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Almost everyone has heard the saying of Winston Churchill, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” It’s true that one of the most important benefits of studying History is that it gives us the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others. However, a careful study of History teaches us that this seldom happens. Which is why I’ve added an addendum to Churchill’s famous saying, “Those who do study History are doomed to watch everyone else repeat it.”
Looking back over the grand sweep of History we see that all nations and empires rise and fall. From the ancient cultures of China, Babylonia, Egypt, and Rome to more modern examples such as the Spanish, Russian, French, German, and British empires and in an almost textbook case the USSR we see that no matter how powerful, enduring, or effective these societies have been in projecting their power, providing an ordered life for their citizens, and maintaining control they’ve all passed from the scene.
We’ve all heard some of our self-declared enlightened pundits compare modern day America to Rome just before the fall. True there are many parallels such as military over-reach, deficit spending, inflation, crumbling infrastructure, and metastasizing bureaucracy. I guess the example of Rome is used because so many people can relate to it.
However, if we look at the other examples mentioned we see that these same deteriorating conditions existed across the board. These malignant outgrowths of the hyper centralization of government are often highlighted and pronounced by pontifical pundits and academics as the litmus test for evaluating where along the trajectory to the dustbin of History a society may be at any specific time.
While not disputing that these indicators of decay are evident as waystations to dissolution, I would like to add one more that is seldom if ever mentioned: the rise of leaders who betray the central values, ethics, and morals upon which the society stands.
John Adams, one of the principle framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution who served as the first Vice President and as the second president said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
In many ways America has morphed from a shining city on a hill into a cesspool that makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like puritan pitstops on the way to Pee-Wee Herman’s playhouse. However, we’re still the go-to destination for all the poor huddled masses around the world. One of the problems of this is that most of them have never known anything besides authoritarian socialist government. And though the tragic results of those governments are what caused them to make the perilous journey here they seem to automatically vote for the American version of the failed systems they left. Much as the refugees from California, Illinois, and New York all appear dedicated into turning Iowa, Arizona, and Maine into smaller versions of the failed states they’ve fled. With these uninformed additions along with those who vote not by thought but by habit we currently have roughly half the people in America ready to vote for the final transformation of our country into a socialist paradise à la Venezuela.
The reason this governmental rot appears to be spreading like COVID in our society is that we as a people have lost our moorings. We’ve abandoned the fundamentals of the Christian faith: first, to love God above all else and second to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The outward societal expression of this love does not mean we should turn the safety net of compassion established for the needy into a hammock for the lazy. But it does mean we should provide decent and respectful care for those who cannot care for themselves while encouraging everyone to achieve to the best of their abilities. It does not mean we should facilitate or allow violence and civil unrest. But we should provide and protect space for the free exercise of free speech in all its many forms. It does not mean that we should tax people into poverty and spend future generations into hopelessness. But we should contribute for the maintenance of a government of, by, and for the people. And that government should be filled with citizen legislators. Not professional politicians, intent only on keeping an iron grip on power so they can line their own pockets and those of their families and supporters with the loot confiscated from others.
Once we instinctively knew these things. They were the mother’s milk of American pride and self-reliance. Today after generations of students taught what to think instead of how to think we are faced with the spectacle of masses of people supporting socialism who don’t know the history or the 100% tragic results of socialist experiments through History. We’re confronted with shouting mobs crying out for the centralizing agenda of dedicated statists in the name of anarchy and with continuing conflagrations in our cities ignited by people who want better lives while burning down their own neighborhoods.
What we need is a revival of Christianity in an increasingly pagan America. Let those who see the light be the beacons of love Christ called us to be not conduits of condemnation who turn their noses up at anything that doesn’t resemble them or theirs. Living as we do in a representative republic which operates with democratic input, we as citizens should vote our conscious. Vote only for those who will uphold your beliefs remembering always that when we choose the lesser of two evils, we’re still choosing evil.
The ultimate source for our guidance as always is God’s Word. Speaking through the author of Second Chronicles the Spirit tells us, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” And on a more personal note Joshua exhorted the ever wavering Israelites saying, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
And while God’s Word is the ultimate source of wisdom there is much to find among the words of men. Winston Churchill reminded us, “A nation that forgets its past has no future.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event October 15, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
When:
Friday Oct 16 4 PM – 9 PM
Saturday Oct 17 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday Oct 18 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
Westfair Fairgrounds
22984 Highway 6
Council Bluffs, IA 51503
Dr. Owens has three new titles published this year.
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All sixteen of Dr. Owens’ titles will be available. His books include: Five novels in the America’s Trojan War series, America’s Odyssey: You Can’t Go Home Again, America’s Odyssey II: You must Go Home Again, America’s Steel Brigade, and America’s Armageddon. Five books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, Drain the Swamp, The Complete Encyclopedia of Socialist Wisdom, and Make America Great Again – AGAIN a book that chronicles some of the positive accomplishments of President Trump’s first term. Five, History Books: America Vol. One: Colonial History, The Azusa Street Revival, The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same (describes how the elites in America use presidential assassinations to create and sustain a secular political religion), America Won the Vietnam War! and, Skid Marks in the Sky: The Legendary Life and Hippie Adventures of Bobby Backstreet. A book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years. And two books designed to strengthen and encourage Christians called Faith, and Hope.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at: https://www.amazon.com/author/drrobertowens
He is the Head We Are the Body October 13, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Born-again, Christ the head, Dr. Robert Owens, redemption, Salvation
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As the body of Christ, we are His hands, His feet, and we should strive to speak His words, see with His eyes, and love with His heart. We’ve been washed in His blood and we are the redeemed.
And this is not merely a spiritual renewal though that is the foundation of all that flows from it. We are renewed when we reckon ourselves dead to this world and alive to God. When we put off the old man born in sin in the line of Adam and are re-born in the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the second Adam.
This action: cleansing the sinner of all guilt and making us able to stand in the throne room in the very presence of God with no shame or feelings of inadequacy may seem extravagant. Paul tells us that we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and that all this is not some hap-hazard addendum. No, it flows directly from all God’s wisdom and prudence.
This action on God’s part not only impacts the spiritual renewal of the believer. It also leads to a physical and mental renewal which the believer experiences here-and-now. This is the redemption of our bodies.
And just as Christ is redeemed now so is the believer who is in Christ Jesus. Our bodies will someday be glorified fully in the presence of God, but in the here and now we taste the first fruit of our redemption in the total renewing of our lives. For as members of the body of Christ, as children of God, as joint heirs together with Jesus we are born of one baptism and filled with one Spirit. We are the body and Christ is the head.
However, since we are born of the flesh as descendants of the first Adam. Conceived, born, living in sin, and the members of a lost and degraded race, we must be redeemed and sanctified before we can enter the kingdom of God. Remember we were chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. Once we have accepted Christ as our Savior and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead this inheritance is our possession
However, we must possess our possessions for them to do us any good. If we don’t accept the love of God in and through Christ Jesus, they are just so many gifts lying about unaccepted.
The Life is in the blood. And it is the shedding of His blood that is the first action in the unfolding of our redemption. This is the Good News and it’s the best news ever. Christ poured out His blood so that we might be freed from our burden of sin. There is no longer an unbridgeable gulf between God and humanity. The sin life, the sin nature that the first Adam assumed when he disobeyed God and then passed on to all his offspring has been washed away in the blood of Calvary.
Lord, let us see with your eyes, hear with your ears, love with your heart, and touch with your hands. As we strive to be about Your business send us somewhere to be a blessing to someone somehow.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event October 9, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.add a comment
When:
Friday Oct 9 5 PM – 9 PM
Saturday Oct 10 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday Oct 11 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
Hawkeye Downs
4400 6th St SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
Dr. Owens has three new titles published this year.
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All sixteen of Dr. Owens’ titles will be available. His books include: Five novels in the America’s Trojan War series, America’s Odyssey: You Can’t Go Home Again, America’s Odyssey II: You must Go Home Again, America’s Steel Brigade, and America’s Armageddon. Five books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, Drain the Swamp, The Complete Encyclopedia of Socialist Wisdom, and Make America Great Again – AGAIN a book that chronicles some of the positive accomplishments of President Trump’s first term. Five, History Books: America Vol. One: Colonial History, The Azusa Street Revival, The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same (describes how the elites in America use presidential assassinations to create and sustain a secular political religion), America Won the Vietnam War! and, Skid Marks in the Sky: The Legendary Life and Hippie Adventures of Bobby Backstreet. A book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years. And two books designed to strengthen and encourage Christians called Faith, and Hope.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at: https://www.amazon.com/author/drrobertowens
Parler
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event
When:
Friday Oct 9 5 PM – 9 PM
Saturday Oct 10 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday Oct 11 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
Hawkeye Downs
4400 6th St SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
His books include: The America’s Trojan War series, America’s Odyssey: You Can’t Go Home Again, America’s Odyssey II: You must Go Home Again, America’s Steel Brigade, & America’s Armageddon. Five books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, Drain the Swamp, The Complete Encyclopedia of Socialist Wisdom, & Make America Great Again – AGAIN. Five History Books: America Colonial History, The Azusa Street Revival, The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same, America Won the Vietnam War & Skid Marks in the Sky: The Legendary Life & Hippie Adventures of Bobby Backstreet. COGIC History: The Dark Years. & 2 book designed 2 strengthen & encourage Christians called Faith, & Hope.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at:
Believe it Confess it Receive it Live it October 6, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Born-again, Dr. Robert Owens, In Him, Jesus saves, Righteousness, Salvation
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Here’s one of those fifty cent words we Christians throw around, Omniscient. In other words, God is all knowing. Since He’s the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last He knows the end from the beginning and everything in between.
All of which brings forward a question that’s a mystery often presented as a conundrum some people pose as a veiled attack against the reality of God.
They ask, “If God knows everything doesn’t that mean He knew Adam would fall even before He created him in the first place? So why do we make a big deal about God making a way for salvation when He created man to fail?” Some even compare this to the fireman who starts a fire then calls in the alarm so that he can become a hero for putting it out.
The biblical answer for this is found in Paul’s rendition of the story of Pharaoh hardening his heart against God found in Romans chapter nine:
For the Lord says of Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
That’s it. “Does not the potter have power over the clay?” Remember what we were originally “God formed man of the dust of the ground. Adam was nothing but a clay mannequin until God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” It was only after this that “man became a living being.”
We are the clay. He is the potter. And the fact that He made one “for honor and another for dishonor” is none of our concern. It is the fact that He made a way for the dishonorable to become the honorable is what this is all about.
The first work of God for our salvation was His decision that He would make a way for us to become not only reconciled to Him but actually become His children. This is not based on anything we’ve done, will do, or could ever do. It is not because of any good which is in us. It is based solely on the love of God.
This truth gives us perfect security and assurance in our transitory world of sin. For the love of God never fails, never wavers, and is always everywhere dependable, reliable, and ever present. What can the world do to us when we’re safe and secure in the love of God?
Paul expressed this perfectly in his letter to the Romans, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Though all may be saved not all will be. All of us were born in sin. We carry embedded in our fallen bodies the burden of Adam’s original sin. Then along the way we all contribute to that sin burden ourselves. All these sins were paid for at the cross. All of us can have Adam’s sin as well as every sin we have ever or will ever commit washed away by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice however, not all will avail themselves of this glorious gift.
Look at it this way; if I purchase a brand-new car and I offer it to you. If you accept the gift it is your car. But if you refuse to accept it, it may have been purchased for you, it may be waiting right there in your driveway, but if you don’t accept the gift it isn’t yours.
From the first moment that we confess Christ as our Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead we’ve walked in the kingdom of God. Our steps may still be visible in the natural world, but we’re walking in the Spirit. Before that, satan held the title deed to our lives. We were born into the line of the first Adam, sold in sin and separated from God. But, once we’re born-again we stand in the line of Christ, the last Adam.
God places us in His family, and He has work for us to do. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
And since He has work for us to do, He has prepared us for that work. Every gift, every talent, every opportunity we have has been strategically placed in us and in our lives to help us fulfill the mission God has for us. He doesn’t send us on to the battle without equipping us for the fight. We aren’t some kind of busted up, raggedy sinner who just barely scraped in by the skin of our teeth. No! We’re the born-again children of God bought with the precious blood of Christ. In Him we are the righteousness of God.
We’re washed in the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Believe it. Confess it. Receive it. Live it. We not only stand blameless before God our Father we stand redeemed and holy in the love of Christ, children of God received before the throne not as one who lived a wasted life of sin, but instead as one set right, accepted, and honored as a member of the Body of Christ, a living stone in the temple of God.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
We Are Accepted September 28, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Born-again, Dr. Robert Owens, Jesus saves, redemption, Salvation
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Everyone from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint needs the grace of God. Everyone who wanders through the vail of tears that is this fallen world is tested, tried, and assaulted by our adversary, the prince of the power of the air, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. Our fallen body and soul are open to him and his minions. And if that isn’t bad enough our own sinful desires lure us into trap after trap.
Surrounded and attacked by all this it seems natural that we would cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
There is an answer to this cry. We don’t stand alone before the heavenly court of justice. If we did not even one of us would deserve anything except eternal damnation and separation from God. Instead of standing alone in the withering judgement fire “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” and the fire of His presence becomes for us the life-giving warmth of His love.
We need to praise the glory of God’s grace, His unmerited favor because, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We may have been the worst of sinners. We may have cursed God and persecuted His people but once we turn from the darkness to the light, once we embrace Him and are born again all that changes. We change and the world around us changes.
Peter sums it up well when he says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
The author of Hebrews goes into even greater detail showing how the eternal sacrifice of Christ is superior to the shadow sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 1And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
This is the description of our present state. We are accepted. We have entered our inheritance. Today we “see in a mirror, dimly,” but once this perishable has been swallowed and replaced by imperishable, we shall see “face to face.” For “Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
The Blue State Blockade September 21, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2nd stimulus, bail out, COVID-19, Dr. Robert Owens, economic shut down, KAG, MAGA, stimulus bill
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It took just three years for President Donald Trump to lead America from the perpetually stagnant New Normal of the Clinton/Bush/Obama Trifecta of Failure back to the Morning in America of the Reagan era. This was nothing short of an economic miracle that began the day after America’s blue-collar billionaire won the biggest upset in our political history when the stock market took off like a rocket.
In a steady assault on the Deep-State Swamp President Trump hit the delete button on more regulations in three years than every other president in our history combined. He renegotiated the give-away trade boondoggles of the Trifecta and set off an avalanche of industrial growth and the return of prodigal corporations. He rebuilt our military after eight years of neglect. He re-started our space program. He required our NATO allies to quit freeloading on the gravy train and start making meaningful contributions to their own defense. He defeated ISIS, started negotiations to end the forever war in Afghanistan, pulled out of our incursion into Syria, and created a Trump Doctrine. He alerted the world that under his administration America would only commit forces to defend our interests; no more nation-building, no more free mercenaries carrying the water for others.
Of course, the Deep-State Swamp creatures didn’t just sit on their hands. The perpetually re-elected civil service protected corporately selected troika of politicians, bureaucrats, and media megaphones fought tooth and nail. They used the politically corrupted ranks of the FBI and the national security forces to first try to undermine the Trump campaign. When that didn’t work the Obama Administration used the waning days of their regime to set in motion an attempt to thwart and if possible overthrow the incoming Trump Administration.
For three years they beat America about the ears with their fake news of supposed evidence through illegal leaks, politically motivated highly coordinated whistleblowers, and secret hearings in the underground star chamber deep in the bowls of Congress. Recent revelations brought to light through Freedom of Information exposures revealed that Pelosi, Schiff, Mueller, and the rest of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight knew from day one that there was no Russian conspiracy and that even the supposed hack of Democrat computers was a red hearing. Yet the luminaries of the left were on every available outlet of the ABCCBSNBCCNNMASNBCNPRPBS Cartel indoctrinating the low information voters with their propaganda day and night.
Then came the Impeachment Hoax. Facts now show the Democrats were plotting to impeach Trump before he was elected. The Washington Post started calling for impeachment on the very day Trump was inaugurated. And the disloyal opposition have also admitted they had to impeach Trump as part of their 2020 election strategy. Talk about trying to interfere in an election! They impeached the President for things that were not criminal, that were built on false testimony, inaccurate and made-up reporting, and purely out of spite.
Three years of attacks such as no other politician ever has survived, and President Trump not only survived but he thrived. Then along came COVID-19 and sat down beside him.
Accepting the flawed models of Fauci, Birx, and other globalists the President erred on the side of caution when it came to American lives. He gave us a textbook example of crisis management along the way. Taking over the decrepit testing system left moldering in warehouses Mr. Trump quickly led us to the most dynamic testing regimen in history, directed manufacturers to make a surplus of the masks and respirators needed. He left the mechanics of the economic shutdowns in the hands of the governors of the States as is proper in our federal system.
And America ground to a halt.
Unemployment skyrocketed and stimulus money flowed to who knows where out of Washington as money was created out of thin air. The stock market cratered wiping out the savings of millions. Now we are socially distanced into isolation.
As a natural contrarian President Trump has always gone against the grain. He was the first world leader to shut down travel from China. And early on he began to say, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
Instinctively knowing there may be more deaths from the ramifications of stopping the greatest economy the world has ever seen than from the Social Security Flu. Now President Trump is the cheerleader for Making America Great Again Again.
Certainly, there are obstacles. The Democrats who identify as journalists are spewing their disinformation and hate wall-to-wall online, on the air, and in print every day. The Democrat machine in Congress is threatening to impeach the President again and holding more hearings on conjured evidence heading towards preprogrammed conclusions.
All this resistance aside the country is starting to open. The pent-up demand that follows any artificial roadblock to supply and demand will make the economy blossom. No matter how the Progressives try to get Americans addicted to free money. No matter how hard they try to turn the U.S. into a command economy sitting atop a submissive herd of regimented citizens the spirit of America cries out, “Let’s get back to work!”
What is the political damn the Democrats seek to build across the flood of people returning to normalcy? I call it the Blue State Blockade. Thirty percent of America’s economy is in California and New York. Two States long controlled by entrenched Democrat machines. Both these Progressive sink holes have spent themselves into the failed state zone of economics. The Federal Government/taxpayers spent billions supporting these two Democrat fiefdoms during the COVID pandemic. We built them hospitals they demanded and never needed, we sent them hospital ships, and military personnel to meet needs that never materialized. And now they’re demanding we bail them out of the financial difficulties they created, and which existed long before anyone ever heard of the Social Security Flu.
Like all Progressives they don’t just ask for help. They demand it. They’re holding the economy hostage saying they won’t open their States until they get the money. And it isn’t just the Big Two. Most of the other blue States are also demanding bailouts. These cynical power brokers believe that if they can keep the economy or at least as much of it as they control shut down long enough, they can cause a Greater Depression. They long to cast President Trump as the 21st Century Hoover so they can wheel Old Joe out of the basement as the new FDR and usher in the Green New Deal.
Never in the History of the world has any society quarantined healthy people. Never in the History of the world has any society voluntarily shut down its own economy. We are in uncharted territory. What will it be? Will it be a return to Trump’s Morning in America or a retreat to the Trifecta’s Mourning in America?
We need to ask ourselves, “Why would any political party see the destruction of our own economy and all the resulting problems that accompany poverty as a good thing?” Now we should ask, “How can anyone who has any respect for the dignity of people support such a cynical policy?” Perhaps we should ask ourselves these questions the next time we get to vote?
In this lost world we see through a glass darkly. It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future. I know what I would like to see. Kick out the jams and let the good times roll! Let’s get back to work and get something done. However, I know that the fate of nations is in God’s hands. He has given us the formula for success if we’re wise enough to take it.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Corporately that’s it. Individually I know I can swear, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Excerpt:
President Trump is the cheerleader for Making America Great Again Again.
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Revelation Not Contemplation Shows Us the Way September 8, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Sometimes we try to define God’s words and actions too perfectly. In our arrogance we think we can adequately describe exactly what God always means in all situations. This easily can lead us into thinking our doctrines are God’s doctrines. We act as if God is sitting on the throne studying our catechisms and judging by our standards.
When we do this, we’re trying to put God in a box. The biggest problem with this is that when God decides to draw outside the lines, we run the risk of misidentifying a move of God as a heresy that violates one of our rules.
It’s good to devote our efforts to grasping the meanings of God’s Word; however, we must always be aware that it’s possible to veer from seeking understanding into believing we’ve cornered the market on that valuable commodity. We just cannot reduce the immensity of God into formulas.
In any equation we devise to represent God, His Word, or His actions the “X” of God is always undefined. Eternity, infinity, and omnipresence are all terms we can define but we can never fully comprehend. The reality of God, the only self-existent One is as far removed from our understanding as the operation of a supercomputer is from an amoeba. The prophet Isaiah told us, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
We must acknowledge that we can’t think our way to or through God’s truth. Our human minds are fundamentally incapable of encompassing such immensities. The Word puts it like this, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Many unbelievers and sceptics try to cast aspersions on the Word of God by pointing out what they perceive as contradictions in the text. When we’re reading or meditating in the Word if we encounter anything we feel is a contradiction, we don’t let it weaken our faith instead we stand on faith. Instead of wavering do as one of the Biblical authors suggests, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
And don’t despair, don’t think I just can’t understand this. Don’t think God has given us a puzzle instead of a revelation. Just because we can never fully understand all of it doesn’t mean we can’t understand any of it. Just because we can’t use God’s Word to develop a spiritual unifying field theory for every person everywhere every time it doesn’t mean we can’t understand enough with God’s help to have a reliable guide for life. The man God used to write the largest portion of the New Testament tells us, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
Don’t fall for the siren song of glorified humanity. Don’t accept the old as sin New Age traps of believing we can come to an understanding of God by chanting a mantra or staring at our navel. We can’t think, imagine, or guess our way into the secrets of eternity. God has revealed all we need to know to take His hand as He reaches out to us. He promises if we seek Him, we’ll find Him. His revelation is in His Word. If we’ll dive into His Word, we’ll find not only the peace we seek, the joy we desire, but also the life we need to stand before Him with no sense of guilt or shame.
Don’t delay for we’re here today gone today. Few have the privilege of knowing in the morning that we won’t see the evening. We don’t know when eternity might reach up and snatch us out of this bubble of time. The Lord comes as a thief in the night and we always need to be ready for eternity. We may have hours to kill but we don’t have a moment to spare. Do it today. Don’t tell yourself you will do it tomorrow for tomorrow may never come.
The choice is ours. Let’s choose life.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
What’s All This “In” Christ Business About? August 31, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: born again, Dr. Robert Owens, filled with the Holy Ghost, justification, propitiation, Salvation
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Sometimes we born-again believers talk in such a closed-circuit Christianese dialect that baby believers, old line denominational members, let alone your everyday garden variety sinner has no idea what we’re talking about. We throw around words that carry massive meaning to us but sound like in-crowd jargon to those hearing them from the outside.
Propitiation, justification, and salvation are all words that trip up nonbelievers as they tiptoe around the cross. Then there are phrases we think say it all that leave those we want to reach scratching their heads and standing off instead of kneeling down. Phrases such as: substitutionary death, pleading the blood, I’m born-again, I’m Filled with the Holy Ghost, and here’s one that throws them all, in Christ.
A dictionary will help with the words. The phrases usually take a little time in fellowship with others to sort out and understand. I can’t try to explain them all here, but I will try to address one of the most cryptic phrases to the uninitiated, in Christ.
“In Him.” This is a major theme of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and of the whole New Testament. It’s a central teaching and a foundational truth. If for some reason this sounds strange to your ears or is a new concept study to show yourself approved. We should follow the example of some early believers who upon hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
We can’t allow our development as believers to be the responsibility of anyone else. Yes, it’s good and advisable to have teachers and mentors; however, we can’t rely on them alone. In his letter to the Philippians Paul told them to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” and this is advice that we should also take to heart.
This major theme echoes through the New Testament: we are “in” Christ. Thousands of years after it was first presented to humanity it continues to ricochet through this verse into our spirit. The born-again believer resonates like a tuning fork to this life-giving message. The message, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” floods down the corridors of time like an avalanche of hope.
The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ is the living parable of love for all to see.
The birth of Jesus set forth in scripture, is a graphic portrayal of prophecy fulfilled. The Incarnation is the union of deity and humanity. It was divine love’s invasion into the realm of human selfishness. That which had been foretold for millennia finally arrived. Or as the author of Hebrews tells us, “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, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.”
This invasion wasn’t by an army of angels though it could’ve been. It wasn’t by raising up Israel to conquer the world and imposing belief in the One True God by force though that could’ve happened. Instead this invasion took the form of a tiny, defenseless Baby born in a manger on the poor side of town.
His parents called Him Jesus and His name has filled hearts and souls of humanity with songs and praise ever since. The love brought by God through this one birth has given hope to the defeated, healing to the sick, liberty to those in bondage, and salvation to all who confess Him as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead.
All this is based upon the finished work of Christ. This finished work is the ultimate revelation of divine love. Jesus gave His life freely in place of ours. He voluntarily became sin in our place so that we could become the very righteousness of God.
And we become that righteousness when we claim our place as a part of the body of Christ, the church so that when we stand before God He doesn’t see our sins and our shortcomings, instead He sees the absolute righteousness of His own Son. This is how we can stand before a holy God with no sense of shame, guilt, or inadequacy.
The New Testament describes this well, “The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one-part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one-part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.”
And this is what we mean by being “in” Christ. We have accepted our place as a member, or part of Christ’s mystical body: the church. It is no longer we who live but Christ lives in us and through us. And now that we know, let’s go forth and be all that God has called us to be, let’s allow Christ to live in us as we live in Him. Let’s allow Him to reach through us and minister to a world in need.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
