An excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens July 20, 2023
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We can only get where we’re going by leaving where we are.
This is an excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon
Season Two Episode Seven of I Took a Right Turn July 19, 2023
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In Season Two Episode Seven of I Took a Right Turn Robert + Rosalie continue their talk about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. They look at John 20:18-23 and Acts 1:8. They share their home-grown song “Jesus the Lord” and Robert reads chapter seven in his fiction series America’s Trojan War.
Fear is the Opposite of Faith July 17, 2023
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As we wandered through the wilderness of the late great pandemic it was a perfect opportunity to realize that God is in control. We may think we’re the masters of the universe but in fact we aren’t. God is.
Humanity has built a planet wide civilization. Our machines transform deserts, harness the wind, and connect everyone in an ever-growing web of communication and information. Our planes fill the skies. Our ships fill the seas. We’ve walked on the moon, sent robot ships to Mars and the other planets, flung satellites out of the solar system, touched the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and built permanent habitations in Antarctica. Humanity stands proudly at the apex of life on earth as we cower before an unseen enemy and wage a war against a virus. Our leaders tell us we’ll win this war while in the back of everyone’s mind dwells the thought, “Someday we may face another virus or germ that will wipe us out.”
We live on a rock hurtling through space. Even a brief study of geology, paleontology, and astronomy makes it abundantly clear we live in a cosmic pinball machine. Over and over large asteroids have smashed into the earth often bringing an end to most life and signaling the beginning of a new epoch in the planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. It isn’t a question of if. It is a question of when.
And if species eliminating pandemics and globe shattering collisions aren’t enough, there are super volcanoes lurking around the planet waiting like alarm clocks to explode and wake us from our blissful dream of ruling creation.
When we ponder our current situation, it might not be too far off to say, “This may not be the end of the world, but you can see it from here.”
With that thought in mind we might want to meditate on The Living Bible’s rendition of Proverbs 19:1, “Man proposes, But God disposes.”
The pandemic raged all around us. The government had us isolated, locked down, watching infection charts and mortality rates wondering what happens next. As we fixated on survival, wishing we’d been crazy enough to be a prepper before being a prepper was cool, off in the distance our mind’s eye tried to envision the New Normal the media echo-chamber told us was on the other side. Then we learned the new normal was what we used to call abnormal.
With the world rushing at us with ever increasing speed the easiest thing to do is to allow fear a toehold in our lives. Fear of catching a virus. Fear of our loved ones catching a virus. Fear of losing our jobs. Fear of watching our carefully constructed lives wither on the vine. Fear of not having enough money, food, hand sanitizer, or toilet paper to make it through the blast. Fear, fear, fear seems to be all the “If it bleeds it leads” news media offer wall-to-wall 24/7.
A wise woman told me that Fear is the captain of legions of other foul spirits such as greed and selfishness. Look at how many have responded to these ever multiplying crises, and you see those in bondage to Fear and its minions cleaning off shelves, ignoring shelter-in-place orders, and partying like there’s no tomorrow.
Let me show you a better way. Fear is the opposite of faith. Choose faith and live.
We know that most of the things we worry about never happen. Why waste our time worrying when we can instead walk in faith and have peace? God tells us not to worry more times than He tells us not to steal and we all know what stealing is. There’s a formula for peace. It’s like a recipe. We can follow it and bake it into our lives. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
I’m a Christian. I believe Jesus is the divine incarnation who came to pay the penalty for sin. He lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death, rose from the dead conquering sin and death for all humanity. I believe He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of our Father the Creator, and that He’s coming again to judge the living and the dead. I believe all that as strongly as I believe I’m typing these words right now. This is the foundation of my reality. This is my faith. Faith banishes fear.
If you’re tired of living your life in fear join me in a walk of faith. To begin a new life in Christ is easy because the sacrifice of Christ has paid the price of admission. All you need to do is confess Jesus as the leader of your life and believe in your heart the God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
I’m not saying once we confess and believe we’ll skip down the primrose path with never a problem, a challenge, or a defeat until we dance our way through the Pearly Gates. What I’m saying is once we confess and believe we can rest assured no matter what happens we’re in God’s hand and no one and nothing can ever snatch us out. The viruses, asteroids, and volcanoes might come but our future is secure in the everlasting promises of God.
After we confess and believe we’re still facing all the same challenges we faced before, but now we have faith instead of fear. Now we know that when we pray God hears our prayers. In the natural world we look to the government to save us. But the government is of the world and the world is passing away. All things will pass. Only those things done in Christ will last. Reject the transitory dying things of the world and embrace the life that’s in the Spirit of Christ.
Embrace the faith. Defeat the fear. And remember the recipe, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
It may feel like prayer is all we have. Luckily prayer is all we need. Faith is the answer. Prayer is the key. Why worry when you can pray?
This is an excerpt from the book Love by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens July 16, 2023
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A person crazy enough to think they can change the world is usually the one who does.
This is an excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon
An excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens July 14, 2023
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The last day of something old is the first day of something new.
This is an excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon
I Took a Right Turn Season Two Episode Six July 11, 2023
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In Season Two Episode Six Robert + Rosalie look at Acts 1:4-8 and talk about what God wants us to do and the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. They share their original song, “There’s a Reason for Our Breathing,” and Robert reads chapter six of America’s Trojan War. All of Robert’s books are available through Amazon
All That Really Matters July 10, 2023
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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 becomes 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 forever 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? 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 didn’t the COVID pandemic rampage 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.”
This is an excerpt from the book Love by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon.
An excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens July 9, 2023
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If we never change our minds, we’ll never change anything.
This is an excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon
An excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens July 8, 2023
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Our life will only change when we give more energy to our dreams than we do to maintaining our comfort zone.
This is an excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon
An excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens July 7, 2023
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Little changes can lead to big results.
This is an excerpt from the book New Old Sayings by Dr. Robert Owens. This and all his books are available from Amazon in paperback or kindle at Amazon
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 