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 26, 2022
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Satan’s original sin was to want to be God. Humanity’s continuing sin is the same one.
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.
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens November 22, 2022
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God drops no one into Hell, people jump.
Is Thanksgiving All About Receiving? November 21, 2022
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In millions of homes throughout America families and friends join to together to celebrate a cherished holiday, Thanksgiving. In countless homes people go through various types of rituals and traditions including taking time to share what they’re thankful for. If we listen to those often hastily prepared statements, we’ll find most of them refer to what’s been received.
“I’m thankful for my family.” “I’m thankful for health.” “I’m thankful for peace, prosperity, safety, security, a home, a car, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, etc.”
It’s good to give thanks for all we’ve receive. It’s even better to give thanks for the Giver and to recognize that it’s all a gift.
The greatest gift of all is Jesus. God gave Him to us as our Savior. It’s through His stripes we’re healed. It’s through Him making Himself poor that we became rich. And it’s through the indwelling Spirit of God that we have access into the wisdom of the ages. And that wisdom teaches us that it’s better to give than receive.
This Thanksgiving as we share what we’re thankful for perhaps we should be thankful for all the opportunities we have to give. The Word of God tells us plainly, “If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.”[1] In another place it says, “Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way.”[2]
All around us a world in need of God stumbles through the inky void of uncertainty not knowing why bad things happen to good people, why evil seems to triumph over good, or where they’re going when they die. And we have the answer. His name is Jesus.
So how do we share what isn’t just good news but the best news ever with the lost and broken around us?
It isn’t by trying to shove a Bible down their throat. It isn’t by beating them up with doctrines they don’t know repeated in religious speak. It isn’t by trying to scare them to death with stories of what will happen when they die. When we use these time-tested mistakes while trying to share the most beautiful truth in the world, that Jesus came to bring us life, our success rate is perfectly expressed by my favorite band, Casting Crowns, “Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth’s become so hard to see. The world is on their way to You, but they’re tripping over me.”
It’s not about who we are it’s about who He is. It isn’t about what we’ve done it’s about what He did. And it isn’t about what we get it’s about what we give.
I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! May the Lord bless you and keep you may He make His face shine upon you. As we gather with our loved ones on a day set aside for giving thanks instead of offering a litany of what we’ve received let’s give thanks for opportunities to give.
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.
[1] Luke 17:33 MSG
[2] Luke 6:38 MSG
An excerpt from New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens November 20, 2022
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If we deny God, He will deny us.
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 