Who’s in the Basket February 18, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: abortion, church planting, Dr. Robert Owens, sharing the Gospel, witnessing
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Saul of Tarsus was the first great persecutor of the church. In a blaze of glory, he met the resurrected Jesus while on his way to Damascus to attack the church there. Then, instead of attacking the Church Paul started preaching fearlessly about this Jesus who rose from the grave. The Jews sought to kill Paul because he was preaching Jesus as the Messiah who bore our sins on the cross, died in our place, and rose from the dead to bring us life. As the enraged Jews looked everywhere in Damascus for Paul, he was lowered in a basket from the walls to make his escape. When we share the Gospel with even just one person, and they receive the message and are born again we never know who might’ve just climbed in the basket.
Long long ago and far far away back in the dream time before Facebook, Amazon, and streaming, my wife and I felt the call to hold church services on the campus of a state university. Everyone told us that would be impossible what with the judiciously manufactured liberal imposed mythical Constitutional separation of church and state doctrine. I questioned God, “Are you sure?” My wife and I questioned each other, “Are you sure?” But try to resist as much as we could the calling wouldn’t leave us alone.
I traipsed from office to office asking one bureaucrat after another for permission to hold church services in a public building on the campus of a state university. Discouragement stalked me as I scuttled from “No,” to “No,” to “No way!” In the natural I was skeptical when I started and after a month or two of pushing that big rock up that steep hill all I could do was encourage myself in the Lord to keep plodding on. All we had was prayer. Happily, that was all we needed.
I finally located the right bureaucrat. He was the one in charge of renting space to outside groups. After a diligent search and several misdirected wrong turns, I located his office buried deep beneath a massive pile of bricks and steel. Then I learned he was never in his office. Whenever I showed up his secretary would tell me, ‘He just left,” “He’s off for the day,” or “You just missed him.” I tried coming at every hour of the day on every day of the week. After a month or so it got to be a running joke between me and the secretary. I’d pop in and she’d laugh, “He just left,” or one of her other variations of “You’re wasting your time.”
Then one day I walked in and there was the invisible bureaucrat standing in the middle of the room. Before the Secretary could laugh or say anything I blurted out, “I want to rent a room to hold church services.”
To my surprise he said, “No problem.” Then as he vanished into his inner sanctum he tossed, “Becky draw up a contract for the second-floor meeting room in the Student Union at the regular rate.” Within a week we were singing praises to God and preaching the Gospel on the campus of that state university. Everyone said it couldn’t be done. I didn’t think it was possible. But God did it.
For the next six months every Sunday we carried our keyboard, guitar, and a box of Bibles into the upper room. Every Wednesday, as part of our rental agreement, we had an informational booth in the Student Union inviting people to the service.
The response was underwhelming but as church planters and domestic missionaries we were used to empty seats. We had some students who came. We had a few who came more than once. And we had one who came faithfully time after time. This one student eventually confessed Jesus as his personal Lord and confessed that God had raised Jesus from the dead. He stepped from the darkness into the light, from death into life and now twenty-five years later he’s still praising God and trying his best to share the life, the light, and the joy he found with others.
As a couple of believers who’ve devoted most of our lives to preaching the Gospel, if this one born again believer is the totality of all we’ve done and all we will do before the curtain comes down … that’s more than enough. Thank you, Father, for allowing us to see the fruit from Your vine.
As slim as the attendance was, we praised God every day for the opportunity and gave him glory for opening a door everyone thought could not be opened. Then they shut us down. They cancelled our contract and slammed the door shut.
I went to see the long elusive bureaucrat to find out why. He told me a delegation of local pastors came to the school to complain because we were holding service on campus and they weren’t. The religious spirit did its best to stop the Spirit. But we know He opens doors, and no one can shut what He’s opened until the appointed time. The anointing moved on and we knew God had accomplished what he’d sent us there to do. Someone had climbed into the basket.
This reminds me of another time God called me to do something. He called me to stand in front of an abortion mill. I am the ever-remorseful father of four aborted babies. Forgiven but ashamed of what I did, but not too ashamed to confess my sin publicly if there’s even the slightest chance doing so might save a life and save someone else from living with the pain and emptiness I feel. For about six months several days a week I stood a lonely vigil in all types of weather with a handmade sign reading, “I repent for aborting my children” on one side and “God Forgave me” on the other.
People would drive by and honk. Some would give me the thumbs up. Others would use another digit to send a different message. The police came and told me I had to leave. But I was on public property and I refused. The people from the abortion mill tried several tactics to chase me away. Some people on their way in to end the lives of their children stopped to berate me and call me everything except a child of God.
No matter what the weather, no matter how vile the abuse I stayed there because I felt God called me to bear witness, so I stood my ground. Then one day a couple stopped by on their way into the abortion mill and read me the riot act. They told me what a terrible person I was. They told me it was their choice. They yelled and gestured as loudly as any one ever did. Then about a half hour later they came back and in tears told me God had convicted them and they’d changed their mind. They were going to keep their baby.
Immediately I felt released from that call. Someone had climbed into the basket.
You might not know who’s in the basket. You may never know. All we need to know is that when God says stand there and hold the rope, we need to do our part and leave the results up to Him because it’s not about who we are and what we do. It’s all about who He is and what He’s done.
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
Trump Brings Home the Bacon February 11, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Trump Bump, Trump economic policies, Trump economy improves
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According to the December report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and despite what we’re told by the democrats in politics and those disguised as journalists, the wages of America’s low-income workers are rising faster than the democrat’s designated villains: America’s top-earners. The report contains a graph which shows the median wage growth for the bottom 25% of workers hit 4.5% for the 12-month period ending in November.
According to CBS News, this exceeded the 2.9% gain in median earnings for the top 25% of earners. CBS also said, “With unemployment at a 50-year low and the minimum wage rising in states and cities across the country, employers are now opening their wallets to attract low-wage employees.”
And this cannot be attributed to that age-old stalking horse, mandated increases in the minimum wage by the central planning bureaucrats. John Robertson, a senior policy adviser in the Atlanta Fed’s research department said, “The increased tightness of labor markets, or some other factor than hikes in state minimum wages, is playing a role in pushing up the pay for those in lower-wage jobs.”
After conducting a poll CNBC said, “Every economic indicator in the poll of 800 Americans throughout the country is at or near a post-recession high. Half of all Americans judge the economy as good or excellent, the only time the percentage has been above 50 for two-straight quarters in the 11-year history of the poll. In addition, 38 percent expect the economy to improve in the next year, the second highest number since the Great Recession. And 41 percent of homeowners expect the value of their homes to increase in the next year, the highest mark since 2007.”
According to US News and World Report, “Approval of President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy has risen 7 percentage points since the impeachment inquiry began, reaching its highest level in a year.” The paper also quoted a CNBC poll saying, “According to the poll, the president’s net approval on economic issues rebounded from a minus-8% in September, the first negative of his presidency, to plus-9% in December. The 17-point jump is good for Trump, who ran on promises to improve the economy and who has continuously touted strong job numbers as part of his reelection campaign.”
These figures are higher than Trump’s overall approval rating. This may indicate that record low unemployment levels, stable gas prices, a roaring stock market even in the face of a hostile and abusive media could still help get the president across the finish line in November. Gallup Polling puts it this way, “Americans are more upbeat about their personal finances today than at any time in the past 10 years, with 49% saying they are financially better off than they were a year ago. This is up from the 44% who felt financially better off at the same time last year and from a low of 23% in 2009.”
Some attribute this rise in wages for the lowest income bracket to be a result of President Trump’s immigration policies. When there’s less low-skilled foreign competition against Americans through increased interior immigration enforcement these most vulnerable Americans experience a labor market that now resembles the labor market of top-tier workers. Nick Bunker an economist with Indeed.com pointed this out when he told the Wall Street Journal, “A strong labor market makes the bargaining power of lower-paid workers more like the labor market higher-wage workers experience during good times and bad.”
John Binder of Breitbart observes, “For the first year in decades, the U.S. economy has tipped toward American workers rather than employers in terms of the labor market. Today, due to less foreign competition, workers have more chances to seek out the highest-paying job. For decades, it was employers who would bid on workers.” Now its employers trying to attract workers.
On a recent broadcast of the New York City-based radio show “Cats Roundtable,” White House’s Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy director Peter Navarro said “Under President Donald Trump, everybody who wants a job can get a job.”
The current casting call of presidential wanabees tries to gain center stage by out bidding each other to buy our votes; “I’ll give everyone a thousand dollars a month and free healthcare!” “I’ll give every retiree $250 extra per month, free healthcare for everyone, and forgive all student loans!” “I’ll give free healthcare for everyone, free college, forgive all student loans, and get the banks to write off debts.” Blah, blah, blah, ad infinitum.
Meanwhile President Trump with little fanfare and totally ignored by the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media brings home the bacon. This may be bad news for the bi-coastal elites but it’s good news for those of us out here in fly-over country thinking about paying the rent and putting food on the table.
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
Time is of the Essence February 4, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: believe and receive, Dr. Robert Owens, Salvation, the Gospel
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According to the Business Dictionary the title of this essay is a provision often included in construction, supply, transport, and other types of contracts to stress the punctual completion of the job (or repayment of a loan) as a vital element of the performance of the contract. Any failure to complete the work (or to pay the sums) within stated time limits may constitute breach of the contract.
Salvation is not a transaction based on a contract. It’s a gift. It isn’t earned. It’s based upon the grace of God extended to all and accepted through faith. And while this gift shines from the cross of Christ through the meandering corridors of History, each of us has but a fleeting moment upon the world’s stage. When it’s done it’s done. It’s just the opposite of a concert; when the curtain comes down, we face the music. Or as the Word of God puts it, “Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences.”
The world tells us, “Opportunity only knocks once” meaning if you miss your chance it won’t come again. Looking at the totality of life that’s true, but looking within the fragile bubble of time that is our here-today-gone-today life we have opportunity after opportunity. We had last week, and yesterday, today, and God willing tomorrow. At any moment we can make an altar of our prayers and confess Jesus as our Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead. If we’ll do those two things the Word of God promises, “You will be saved.” If the curtain comes down before we do so we might not like the sequel.
The whole of the Old Testament points to Christ: the fulcrum of History. And throughout the New Testament God points back to examples and signposts of what was to come. To the Jews there is no more powerful story than their exodus from Egypt. Because they refused to believe God they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. These people who witnessed the miracles of Moses, crossed the Red Sea on dry land, ate the manna from heaven, and drank from the rock which followed them refused to worship God. Instead they followed the trinket gods of their own imagination. And God left their bodies in the dust as a testimony to their hardheartedness.
Their rebellion and their lack of faith becomes a warning to us when the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us, “Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear as in ‘the bitter uprising,’ that time of wilderness testing! Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way over and over they tried my patience. And I was provoked, oh, so provoked I said, ‘They’ll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road.’ Exasperated, I vowed, ‘They’ll never get where they’re going, never be able to sit down and rest.’”
Today is all we have. No one promised us tomorrow. If we miss our chance, if we refuse to follow God and instead embrace the world we should be prepared for a hand full of ashes. The Apostle John put it like this, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out.”
But John didn’t leave it there. He finished the passage with a promise, “but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.”
And when it comes to the promises of God we need to realize, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”
Sometimes life seems like a long time. It always feels like we have hours to kill but not a moment to spare. Our fleeting moment upon this stage is rushing by. Like flowers in the field we sprout, bloom, and fade away. For most of us one or two generations at the most and no one will remember we were here. So grab the chance and remember time is of the essence and listen to these words ringing in our ears, “Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.”
It’s never too late. Until it is.
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
It’s a Battlefield Brother January 21, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, spiritual warfare, The full armour of God
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We’re in a spiritual war every day whether we recognize it or not, and if we ignore the Bible’s exhortation to fight the good fight we’ll inevitably become a casualty.
As soon as Jesus was resurrected, after triumphing over Satan and taking the keys to death and Hell away from him He had the legal right to completely reclaim the earth Adam had given over to Satan. But He didn’t do it.
Have you ever asked yourself why didn’t Jesus set everything right when He was here? Maybe you haven’t asked this question specifically, but have you wondered, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or “Why do evil people seem to prosper?” or the classic, “Why did fill in the blank have to get cancer, get hurt, die, etc. ?” If you’ve asked any one of these questions or any one of the million variations you’ve asked, “Why didn’t Jesus set everything right when He was here?”
Here’s the short answer; He didn’t do it because if He had there would’ve been no opportunity for us to make the faith choice to join Him in His work of ruling all things. As a matter of fact, if He’d taken it all back more than two thousand years ago we never would’ve been born let alone have the opportunity to be born again.
As we fight our battle against the darkness in this world we have to realize we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. And since this is the case, we need to use the weapons that God provides not the weapons we can devise. For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare aren’t carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
And all this depends on what we decide to do with our salvation. Are we going to be secret agent Christians hiding our light under a bushel so we can go along to get along? Or, are we going to be bold warriors for Christ doing our best to share what isn’t just good news but is in fact the best news ever?
Once we’ve made the quality decision to spend our lives, the lives God has given us, sharing the light which is the light of the world with those lost in the darkness, we’ll find ourselves standing in a hurricane of resistance. The assaults of the enemy, the assaults of the world, of our families, our friends, the government, the culture will try their best to knock us down and knock us out. But we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and no matter how strong the headwind against us we must do our best to stand our ground.
And having done all to stand we need to stand therefore, having truth as a belt around our waist, putting on a bulletproof vest made of righteousness, stepping into shoes designed to deliver the gospel of peace, and above all, taking the shield of faith with which we’ll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. If we forget any of this armor, we can’t expect the enemy to play fair and not attack us in that area. We can’t say, “Don’t hit me there I’m not prepared.”
Yes, in the world we will have tribulations but we can be assured Christ has overcome the world.
Years ago, I wrote a song that expressed all this in a slightly more artistic form:
When we see the darkness all around us
We don’t wring our hands and cry about sin
We just light one candle it will burn by faith
Then we ask the Holy Ghost in.
It’s a battlefield brother
It’s a battlefield sister
It’s a battlefield not a recreation hall.
There’s nothing that the enemy can do or say
That could make me give up on God
And when I’m tested, I know I’m never tested
More than what I’ve got to handle the job.
It’s a battlefield brother
It’s a battlefield sister
It’s a battlefield not a recreation hall
God knew we can’t reach high enough
So He sent Jesus down to us.
And He knew we can’t be right enough
So He gave us His righteousness.
It’s a battlefield brother
It’s a battlefield sister
It’s a battlefield not a recreation hall
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
January 14, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Obamacare, Obamacare pro-abortion, Planned Parenthood, pro-life, Trump pro-life
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Trump the Pro-life President
Ever since the abomination of Roe V. Wade unleashed a holocaust of death upon America those of us who value life have prayed for a leader who could and would do what they should. Back in 1973 when the Burger Court turned the Constitution on its head by discovering a constitutional right to kill the unborn then President Nixon didn’t even make a public statement. Privately he said that in some instances abortion was necessary.
Since then we’ve elected several presidents who said publicly that they were pro-life: Reagan, George I, and George II. All three took some steps to restrict federal funding for abortion and made public statements condemning abortion and boosting the pro-life cause. All three gave taped addresses to the massive annual Right-to-life march in Washington filled with values and voters.
Of course, since the slaughter of the innocents gained the federal stamp of approval we’ve had every Democrat candidate champion the freedom to choose death. And we’ve had two who made it to the White House: Clinton and Obama. Once there they both proudly opened the spigot from the Treasury to the abortion mills forcing all taxpayers to pour billions into the industrial scale elimination of generations of Americans.
Unlike other politicians who tell us what we want to hear and then forget what they said until they need our votes again, President Trump works daily to fulfill his campaign pledges. Many pro-life people worked hard to elect President Trump. That hard work has paid off for the pro-life movement and the unborn! Here are just some of the pro-life accomplishments of President Trump and his Administration.
One vital pledge he continues to make a reality is his oft repeated pledge to only appoint pro-life Justices to the Supreme Court. So far, he’s appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Both are constitutional originalists who believe in the sanctity of life. In addition, President Trump nominated another 180 pro-life federal judges on the Circuit and District courts. Thanks to the failure of President Obama to fill open seats and President Trump’s untiring efforts to do his job this is more than any other President has done at this point in his first term.
Another promise repeatedly made by other Republican presidents but only half-heartedly kept, President Trump follows through in a big way depriving the abortion industry of billions of dollars. This is Trump’s three-pronged assault on the money the abortionists earn from their industrial scale destruction of life. First, the Donald signed legislation permitting states to defund Planned Parenthood of Title X family planning. Second, he issued an Executive Order giving states the option to withhold Medicaid and other federal money from organizations that perform abortions, including Planned Parenthood. And third, he also issued the Protect Life Rule which cuts Title X funding on the federal level of Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry.
Reacting to the revelations of Project Veritas’ (undercover videos concerning the sale of body parts obtained from aborted infants by Planned Parenthood) President Trump changed federal funding rules regarding research. According to the new guidelines, federal funds can no longer support research using the body parts of children killed by abortion.
Reversing the Obama Administration’s pro-abortion policy, President Trump reinstated and expanded the “Mexico City Policy.” The Bush-era Mexico City Policy protected approximately $500 million in spending. The expanded Trump policy protects over $8.8 billion in federal overseas aide from funding abortion. He also took aim at one of the premier pro-abortion organizations in the world when he stopped funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). By these vigorous steps our president ensures that our tax dollars are not funding the abortion industry overseas across all global health spending, not just family planning dollars.
Under Dr. Ben Carson the Trump Administration’s Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued a rule requiring that insurers inform their customers whether the plan they’re buying covers abortion.
President Trump created a new office in the HHS for Conscience and Religious Freedom. Now people who under Obamacare insurance regulations are forced to participate in abortion, can have their rights explained and protected more effectively.
President Trump issued rules protecting employers from the Obamacare “HHS Mandate” that forced them to pay for abortion-inducing drugs in the health insurance plans they offer their employees.
Starting with his choice of Mike Pence as his Vice-President Mr. Trump has appointed strong pro-life advocates across his administration. Most of the others don’t make the headlines. However, they’re making and implementing policies and practices advancing the right to life of the unborn.
President Trump continues the battle for life day-after-day. He consistently leads the way advocating that Congress pass such bills as the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. And he fights for the full removal of federal funding from Planned Parenthood across-the-board.
And not only does President Trump battle for life in the swamp he encourages the movement as no American leader has since Ronaldus Magnus. At his packed rallies from sea-to-shining-sea the President encourages us all by speaking in plain terms about the abortion issue, rather than other so-called leaders who use vague abstractions and veiled group-speak so as not to upset their media critics too much. And time-after-time both the President and Vice-President attend and address pro-life events including the March for Life. They also host meetings and receptions for pro-life leaders in the White House and other high-profile locations.
Long have we sought someone who would lead the pro-life movement toward our goal of ending the massacre of the unborn. I believe God does not judge societies by the sin that exist in them for the same sin lurks within all humans. I believe instead that God judges societies by the sins which they condone. God destroyed Judah because they sacrificed the children to the pagan god Moloch. Today millions of American children are sacrificed on the altar of convenience, self-will, and vanity. The blood of the innocents cry out to God.
If God does not judge us for the slaughter of the innocents it seems like He should offer an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah. But we who fear the Lord should not refrain for praying that God’s hand move against this terrible national sin. For though a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand it shall not come near you. And the truth is that our Father has told 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.”
Don’t despair. Instead rejoice for we finally have a president leading the way out of the darkness of infanticide and back to the light of life. So, keep the faith, keep the peace for we shall overcome, and why worry when you can pray.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2019 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
A New You for a New Year January 8, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: born again, Dr. Robert Owens, Faith, Hope, Jesus, Jesus saves, love, Salvation, the Gospel
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Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Are you facing a new year and thinking, “Why?” Have you ever looked at your life and thought, “I wish I could start this all over again”? When we come to the end of ourselves, we have the chance to find the beginning of everything else.
Every person is the center of their own universe simply because that’s the only vantage point available to anyone who has ever lived. Usually by the time we’re old enough to know anything we’ve figured out that just because we’re the center of observable reality that reality doesn’t revolve around us. And it doesn’t take long to realize that the cold machinery of the space-time continuum takes as little heed to us as we do to the microbes in the ground we walk over every day.
The cold impersonal avalanche of happenstance leads any thinking person to the question, “What’s it all about?” The inscrutability of the carnival mirror maze we perceive as reality leads many to conclude there is no meaning, there is no point, and there is no reason. All there is is what it is and that’s all that there is. A sort of Popeye philosophy that leaves us constantly wandering about looking for the magic can of spinach that’ll make us strong enough to break through the mirrors to scan an open horizon with a clear vista. On our own it always seems to be just around the next corner.
This is where revelation comes in. A mouse in a maze never sees the whole picture. It only sees the corridor it happens to be in at the time. And though it searches and searches it always seems like someone has moved the cheese. Only through revelation can we see enough of the puzzle to learn which piece needs to go next to which piece to make the picture whole.
Lucky for us there is a God who created all this and He wants to allow us to see behind the curtain of the physical giving us a glimpse of the spiritual, which is the essence of it all.
I’m a Christian. By that I mean I have confessed Jesus Christ as my personal Lord, and I believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead. Because of that I believe I am saved, I am born-again, and I have a free pass out of hell and into heaven. And on a daily basis I do my best to follow Christ: loving and forgiving myself and the world around me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
This wasn’t always the case. Until I was thirty years old I was an unapologetic reprobate, and an atheist who cursed a God I proudly declared I didn’t believe in. Then I had a personal encounter with Christ which led me to study the Bible, which led to my confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and my unswerving belief that God has raised Him from the dead. Through this I was born again receiving a brand-new life here and now and that afore mentioned free pass out of hell and into heaven.
I immediately transitioned from hopelessness to hopefulness, from despair to joy, from dread to expectancy. This is such a good deal I can’t bear to keep it to myself.
My words and my testimony will not get you anything. They can’t give you a new you. Only God’s Spirit can do that. We can’t think our way to God. It’s only through His revelation that we can get beyond the example of a blind man trying to picture an elephant by touching its trunk or tail. The only way I have found to find God is through His word. Think about it. If God only wrote one book out of all the billions of books in the world doesn’t it seem logical that it would be the most important thing we could possibly read? If we deny that His word is His word we close the door and throw away the key.
You might say, “Why do I need to be born again?
Here are some reasons and their biblical support:
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.
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything: life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that.
In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire, and if anyone’s name is not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Jesus Christ is always there for us. He’ll answer us anytime we call him. He stands at the door of our heart and knocks. Open the door today and He’ll come in.
As a new year begins, we can all begin a new life. The mistakes of our past don’t have to be the blueprint of our future.
One of the most important truths in Christianity is that God loves us so much that He sought us out before we even start trying to find him. Referring to Himself in a title reserved for the Messiah Jesus said, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” He also said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”
Since He chose us, all we must do is choose Him and that new life starts right now. That is the Way. I have shared what the Bible says we must do to be saved; confess and believe. But it isn’t about a formula. Being a follower of Christ is much more than that. It’s following Christ. He said “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” because as He also said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Christ doesn’t show us the way. He is the Way to a new you for a new year … or any year … any time.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2019 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
2020 Hindsight Will Judge These Predictions January 6, 2020
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: 2020 predictions, Dr. Robert Owens, economy, Impeachment, Trump re-election
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My favorite America Philosopher, Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
With that truism in mind let me begin doing the heavy lifting and tough stuff of being the Historian of the Future:
As I predicted before his inauguration our President has been impeached by a Democrat dominated House and no matter what the official charges may say the charge is that they don’t like him, and Hillary was supposed to win. In the coming year President Trump will be acquitted by the Senate and go on to win a landslide victory in November. His coattails will sweep in a Republican Congress. This Republican majority won’t be diverted or perverted by the likes of Paul Ryan and they’ll work diligently with President Trump to deliver the wall and other promises designed to keep America great.
Though the Democrats, the Deep State, and their Media publicists continue to try and manufacture a recession just before the election the economy will finish the year strong with the Trump Bump carrying us into a new decade.
President Trump will complete his first term as the first president since Carter to finish his first term with out taking us into a new war.
In the 2020 election President Trump will receive the highest percentage of Black and Hispanic votes of any Republican since FDR.
Unless there is a forum devised to take the process out of the hands of the highly partisan supposedly nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates President Trump will skip these opportunities for the democrats who pretend to be journalists to tip the scales in their candidate’s favor with unfair questions, characterizations, and inuendo.
The stock market will follow the impeachment show. If it looks like the President will be removed it will fall if it looks like he will be exonerated it will rise.
Same thing with the election. Trump winning = stock market goes up. Trump losing = stock market goes down.
If the neo-cons and democrats manage to manufacture a war Trump can’t avoid or if they succeed in sinking the economy, all bets are off and Venezuela here we come.
China will continue to swallow Africa, stamp out freedom in Hong Kong, intimidate Taiwan, sign a major treaty with the Philippians, accelerate their defense build-up, launch more probes to the moon, and violate every trade deal they sign with the USA.
Putin will orchestrate the reunification of Russia and Belarus opening the door for him to remain in the presidency beyond the end of his second second term.
Brexit is a done deal. After which Britain will sign a new trade treaty with the USA as it rebuilds its links with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
Italy will swing back to the right.
Hungary and Poland will continue to turn away from the centralizing bureaucrats in Brussels.
The climate cult will continue to chatter away while the world spins on as usual.
Sweden’s society will buckle under the weight of EU mandated refugee resettlement.
Great Britain will face increasing calls for both Scottish independence and the unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.
Catalonia will continue its efforts to break free of Spain.
Libya will degenerate into a full-blown civil war with outside powers fighting a proxy war for control of its oil.
Japan will begin a major re-armament campaign.
The declining purchase of Fed T-Bills by foreigners means that the Fed’s monetization of our ever-increasing debt will accelerate in 2020.
Marijuana will become legal in several more states.
The United Methodist Church will split over gay marriage and the ordination of homosexuals.
The Roman Catholic Church will be wracked by scandals at the highest levels of the Vatican.
Today is tomorrow’s yesterday and it’s all now to God. So no matter what happens in the coming year if we hold on to Him we’ll eventually trade this transitory here for an eternity there.
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 Reason for the Reason December 16, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Christmas, Dr. Robert Owens, Frosty the Snowman, Its’s a Wonderful Life, Jesus is the reason for the season, the Grinch stole Christmas
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Frosty the Snowman asked Rudolph the Reindeer, “Do you think Christmas is too commercialized?” The Elf on the Shelf interjected, “Is the Pope Catholic?” Santa put down his milk and cookies and added, “Ho, Ho, Ho.”
As loyal media mavens of 21st Century America pop culture our perceptions of the Christmas season have been shaped as much by George running down the main street of Bedford Falls and Scrooge buying the biggest goose in town as by anything in the Bible. We spend our time driving the kids around to see the lights, decorating the tree, and shopping with precious little time left to even mention Jesus or the significance of His birth.
Seeking shelter from a crass and crude culture degenerating from indifference to outright hostility to God many of us retreat into a warm and fuzzy Currier and Ives Norman Rockwell bubble of accepted Christmas traditions based more in a Dr. Seuss Disney media than reality. To ward off the black Friday commercialism that consumes us, we duck behind the “Jesus is the reason for the season,” mantra. As if this alone was enough to lead us not into temptation.
As we hide behind our little Jesus catch phrase with the pious feelings, even this fleeting mention of the Name of Jesus inspires, and we should ask ourselves how often this spiritual sleight of hand gives us an opportunity to share the reality of Christmas. Or has it merely become the Christian version of the oft repeated insincerely asked “Hi, how are you?” catch phrase of Xmas? Is it time we admit this verbal deflection is more about making us feel like we’re doing something to combat the conquest of Christmas by the grasping spirit of conspicuous consumption by making a dent in the cacophony of crass commercialism?
The enemy can’t defeat God. He cannot overcome God’s plan and he can’t snatch us out of God’s hand. Just as in the garden when he confused Eve and led her down the primrose path to perdition, the enemy’s power is based on deception. Afflicted with spiritual ADD most of us careen from one shiny object to the next while falling for fads, trooping after trends and hypnotized by the next new thing. The accuser of mankind has never missed a church service, and his favorite disguise after an angel of light is the puffed-up rituals, ceremonies, and displays of the sideshow religion he pedals in place of the simple gospel.
Peddled by hucksters who prey upon the potatoes who grow so comfortably on our couches, the glitzy glamour and heartwarming familiarity of cultural Christmas might have more spirituality than a Grinch stealing presents but not nearly as much as Linus sharing biblical truth.
So, the next time we use our “Jesus is the reason for the season” shield to deflect the hooey and hype seeking to drown the most miraculous birth in History let’s prayerfully project the reason more than the season. Just in case we’ve missed it here’s the reason for the reason:
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2019 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
Trump Remembers the Forgotten December 10, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, jobs report, record unemployment, The forgotten man, Trump Bump, Trump economy, Trump policies
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Not so long ago Washington all but gave up on our country’s blue-collar workers. They washed their hands of those in the supposedly outdated manufacturing and energy sectors. The message the perpetually re-elected and their bureaucratic “experts” tried to sell us through their media megaphone was that with the rise of globalization these industries were hopelessly in decline. According to them for the vast portions of the country they contemptuously call the “Rust Belt,” there was nothing anyone could ever do to change that.
Mocking then-candidate Donald Trump’s pledge to bring these jobs back President Obama asked, “What magic wand do you have?” It turns out no magic wand was necessary. All we needed is a President willing to fight for the forgotten workers across America with policies that put U.S. industry first instead of ones that sold us out to the globalists.
Beginning as soon as he entered the Oval Office President Trump turned the accepted wisdom of the inside-the-Beltway Deep State on its head. Instead of going along to get along the populist president repudiated the globalist agenda of the Bush-Clinton-Obama triumvirate.
He cast aside the downward trajectory of managed decline and adopted a policy agenda that’s made life easier for America’s working people and the small businesses that employ the majority of them. He passed the biggest employer and worker tax cuts in a generation. He mandated deregulation across the board. And defying the naysayers he’s negotiated new trade deals that have one goal in mind; make America great again by putting the interests of America first.
These bold moves have helped drive the unemployment rate to a 50-year low. And according to Investor’s Business Daily the Trump economy is creating factory jobs ten times faster than under the Obama administration. Blue-collar jobs are surging for the first time in decades. Since President Trump’s inauguration 523,000 manufacturing jobs have been added. Compare that with the 287,000 created during President Obama’s final three years in office.
In August, 2019 while touring Shell’s new Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex President Trump sought to explain that it’s a new dawn for American energy and manufacturing. In his remarks he said, “With your help, we’re not only unleashing American energy we’re restoring the glory of American manufacturing, and we are reclaiming our noble heritage as a nation of builders again. The critics expected you to stay on the sidelines, silence your voices, and surrender the future of our nation.”
In December of 2018 the Wall Street Journal reported, “The U.S. became a net exporter of oil and refined fuels last week for the first time in decades, a symbolic milestone that would have seemed unthinkable just 10 years ago.” Today America is the largest crude oil producer in the world. Until the Trump Bump none of this was considered possible. Now the world is filled with possibilities.
On August 19, 2019 while speaking at the Detroit Economic Club Vice President Mike Pence said “Wages are rising at the fastest pace in more than a decade. And maybe most important of all to the President and me: that wages are rising fastest for blue-collar working Americans. The forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2019 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
