There’s Power in the Blood September 4, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Owens, Jesus’ sacrifice, power in the blood, price of sin, propitiation, Salvation, the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus
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Long before I was born-again into the reality of my life in Christ someone once told me they could never become a Christian because it was a butcher’s block religion based on a human sacrifice and drenched in blood. At the time I was in the seeker phase on my way to becoming an atheist and this sounded about right. I knew from my parental enforced childhood study of Christianity at a Sunday school and catechism class they used for weekend childcare that Christians referred to Christ’s death on the cross as a sacrifice: they believed they were drinking His blood during communion, and they sang songs like, “There’s Power in the Blood.”
Now that I live each day seeking to be used of God in and through Jesus Christ, I’ve come to realize there’s some basic truth to this butcher’s block talk minus the negative spin. Blood is an important part of Christianity. And there is power in the blood of Jesus.
When He was instructing Moses in the revelation of the Jewish shadow of things to come God put it this way, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” In the New Testament the writer of Hebrews explains it this way, “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
When Adam chose to follow his wife into disobedience instead of rebuking the Devil and throwing him out of the Garden God’s warning to them concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die” came to pass. True, Adam lived another 930 years physically but he died spiritually the moment he disobeyed God. Then everyone descended from Adam was born after his likeness with a spirit alienated from God and in bondage to the Devil.
God could have waved His hand and made everything as it was but that would not be just and God is a just God. He created Adam as the overseer of His creation and only subject to Himself. Man chose to listen to the Devil and follow him instead. In other words, God gave the title-deed to creation to man and man gave it to the Devil.
Just imagine if I bought a new car and gave it to you. It is now your car. I bought it for you. I wanted you to have it and enjoy it. But then you decide to give it to someone else. You sign the title over to them. Now who owns the car? I bought the car for you. I wanted you to have it. But now that you’ve given it to someone else it’s legally their car. If I was to take it back and once again give it to you, would that be fair? Would that be just?
That’s the situation God faced after our betrayal. For the sake of justice a price had to be paid for man’s sin of disobedience. That price is what God foreshadowed through the sacrifice of a lamb without blemish. A spotless sacrifice whose blood when applied to the door posts of the Israelite homes caused the angel of death to Passover.
When John the Baptist looked at Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb that takes away the sins of the world” he announced to the world that the final sacrifice had begun. The old plan for covering sins was passing away and a new plan was beginning. The writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament was speaking to the Jews trying to explain to them how the sacrifice of Jesus did away with their millennia old tradition of animal sacrifices. This explanation as presented in The Message covers the ground very well:
But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.
Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus’ death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.
Even the first plan required a death to set it in motion. After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God’s “will”—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries. And then he attested its validity with the words, “This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God.” He did the same thing with the place of worship and its furniture. Moses said to the people, “This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you.” Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That’s why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.
That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.
Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.
Because of that sacrifice we can now pick up the keys, the car is ours again. Jesus paid the price and purchased it back for us. Paul said it clearly in the New Testament book of Romans, “This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God ‘Jesus is my Master’ embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not ‘doing’ anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: God has set everything right between him and me!’”
The best advice I can give is: devour God’s Word and let it lead you into all truth. So if anyone ever says to you, “I could never become a Christian because it’s a butcher’s block religion based on a human sacrifice and drenched in blood” you can answer them confidently, “That’s exactly why I had to become a Christian because you see, there’s power in the blood.”
An old song has it nailed:
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Sing it. Say it. Believe it. Live it. And watch that power give you the life God designed for you.
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
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event September 3, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.add a comment
When:
Friday Sept 6 5 PM – 9 PM
Saturday Sept 7 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday Sept 8 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
Hawkeye Downs
4400 6th St SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
Dr. Owens has five new titles published this year.
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All fifteen 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. Four books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, and Drain the Swamp. Four 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), and America Won the Vietnam War! A book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years, and a book designed to strengthen and encourage Christians called Faith. All of these books are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at Amazon
Stand Up for Americans Who Stand Up for America August 27, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Uncategorized.Tags: 9-11, 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Dr. Robert Owens, VCF
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On July 29, 2019 President Donald J. Trump signed into law a permanent authorization of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). This fund provides financial support for families who lost their loved ones as a result of the September 11 attacks.
The VCF was initially created in 2001 and ran through 2004. It was revived in 2011 and went into law in 2015, but it only gave victims the opportunity to make claims until 2020. The new bill signed by the president allows victims to make claims until 2090.
During its first four years, the fund gave out $7 billion to the families of more than 2,880 people who died and to 2,680 people who were injured in the 9/11 attacks. When it was reactivated in 2011, it expanded eligibility and allotted $2.775 billion. The fund was set to end in 2016, but in 2015, Congress and President Obama allowed for the bill to continue another five years, until 2020, with another $4.6 billion. That left the VCF with a total of $7.375 billion. As of May 31, more than $5.174 billion has been given out to 22,500 victims of the attacks.
However, more than 40,000 people have applied to the VCF, which covers illnesses potentially related to being at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, or Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the attacks. There are about 21,000 claims pending. Officials estimated it would take another $5 billion to pay pending claims and the claims that officials anticipate will be submitted before the fund’s previous December 2020 deadline.
VCF’s Special Master Rupa Bhattacharyya said, “The plain fact is that we are expending the available funds more quickly than assumed, and there are many more claims than anticipated.” She added, “A total of 835 awards have been reduced as of May 31.” The Justice Department said in February that the fund is being depleted and that benefit payments are being cut by up to 70 percent.
Realizing that the periodic Congressional haggling over funds for VCF was causing added stress to the victims and their families President Trump’s new bill appropriates such funds as may be necessary to pay all approved claims. The new bill also allows claimants to be paid what was reduced from their initial amount and remove the cap on noneconomic damages in specific circumstances.
More than 100 Americans who were personally affected by the devastation of the September 11 attacks joined President Trump at the Rose Garden signing ceremony. These individuals included first responders, survivors, and family members of victims.
In his speech President Trumps said, “Today, we come together as one nation to support our September 11th heroes, to care for their families, and to renew our eternal vow: Never, Ever Forget. Our nation owes each of you a profound debt that no words or deeds will ever repay. But there is something we can do. We can and we will keep our nation’s promise to you.” Honoring those who honor us with their sacrifice and service President Trump continued, “To every 9/11 hero, you poured out your heart, your sweat, your soul, and everything you had for your country. You went back day after day and night after night to save lives and return the fallen to their families, to rebuild and recover, and to show the entire world that nothing will ever break America’s spirit. They fought to rescue every person trapped in the rubble, and then searched for months to find the remains of the fallen. The love and loyalty of our 9/11 responders knew no bounds.”
In the years since we were attacked more than 2,000 first responders and survivors have passed away from illnesses directly related to the toxic fallout from those attacks. Even today, thousands more are battling health problems stemming from that day in American history. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund will now provide them with permanent support.
In an age when people who kneel for our national anthem and burn our flag are called heroes by many including the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media, President Trump continued to stand up for Americans who stand up for America when he made the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund permanent.
May God pour out His blessings upon the surviving victims of 9/11, their families, and the families of the fallen. May God bless President Trump for leading us in honoring their sacrifices. And may God bless the United States of America.
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
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event August 23, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.add a comment
When:
Saturday August 24 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday August 25 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
5900 Aurora Ave
Des Moines, IA 50322
He has five new titles published this year.
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All fifteen 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. Four books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, and Drain the Swamp. Four 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), and America Won the Vietnam War! A book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years, and a book designed to strengthen and encourage Christians called Faith. All of these books are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at Amazon
Shadows Dancing On A Wall August 20, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Christ our sacrifice, Dr. Robert Owens, Plato, the Passover Lamb, The Republic
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The idea that everything came out of nothing is an assault upon reason. Since creation is often presented this way as a straw-man argument by the opponents of faith, many thinking people fall for this siren song of secularism.
But that isn’t what the Bible presents. In the beginning, in Genesis we’re told that God called all things in this physical reality into being out of nothing physical. This reality did not exist before God willed it to be here. God said, “Let there be,” and there is.
But this doesn’t mean that everything came out of nothing. In the letter to the Hebrews Paul put it this way, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” It was God’s word and His faith in His word that created everything. And it’s God’s faith that sustains all that we see.
Ponder for a moment the incredibly complex relationship between the physical reality and our perception of it. The computer screen you’re reading this article on is made up of more empty space than matter. As is the table or desk it’s sitting on. As are you and I. From the dark matter and dark energy that scientists theorize makes up the vast majority of the Space-time continuum to the sub-atomic world which goes as far in as the stellar expanse goes out this physical reality is actually tiny bits of matter held together by invisible forces.
Accepting ourselves as the center of the universe because that’s the only point of observation each of us has we look at our macro view of the micro world and see solid things and we accept that this is the totality of reality. However, that’s only how we perceive things. That’s not what they really are. All matter is enveloped in emptiness powered by energy and the fabric of creation is sustained by faith.
Long before modern science revealed the mirage of solid matter or the inability of perception to account for an expanding universe without a preponderance of dark everything, one of the greatest of secular thinkers aptly described the shifting sands upon which our understanding rests.
In his book The Republic Plato used the allegory of the cave to explain the relationship between perception and reality. His story goes like this; prisoners are chained in a cave, only able to look forward at the shadows on the wall. The shadows they see are real to them, but in reality the shadows are just the shadows of real objects in the room and shadows of the prisoners themselves being projected on the cave wall from a fire behind them. The sounds they hear and images they see are real to them, even though they are unaware of the true source. The allegory of the cave is a theory put forward by Plato, concerning human perception. Plato claimed that knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion and that, in order to have real knowledge, we must gain it through philosophical reasoning.
Thus even those who knew nothing of God could see that what we see is not all there is and that what we do see is more a representation of what it is than what it appears to be. However, the wisdom of the wise is foolishness to God and the wisdom of God is foolishness to the wise.
The problem with this thinking past the shadows is that we can’t reason our way to God. He’s outside the bounds of our reality, the source and summit of that reality and therefore, beyond anything we can think or imagine. If He didn’t reveal Himself we could no more reason what He’s like than an ant could reason its way to man.
God used an allegory to teach the Israelites about the death-defeating life-giving nature of the Messiah’s mission.
Since the days when the Jews were slaves in Egypt the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb has been the symbol and the purchase of redemption. Originally Moses ordered the Jews to sacrifice the Passover Lamb and then apply the blood to the door posts of their homes. Seeing the blood of the sacrifice the Angel of Death passed over God’s chosen people. For more than a thousand years the Jews sacrificed the Passover Lamb every year to cover their sins never knowing this was a shadow of things to come.
Christ’s ministry was first announced to a fallen world when John the Baptist said, “Behold the lamb that takes away the sins of the world.” And from that moment on His life brought the true form of reality out of the shadow.
Following the command of Moses as interpreted by the elders every year each Jewish family chose a lamb and took it into their home to live with the family for five days. During this time they examined the lamb for blemishes. Only after it was found to be perfect could it become the Passover Lamb. Then the lamb was sacrificed and the blood poured out on the altar of God to cover the sins of the people.
Jesus, the Lamb of God entered Jerusalem on the same day that the lambs entered the homes of the Jews. For five days He was examined by the Chief Priests, the Scribes, and the Pharisees. After He was found to be without guilt they were forced to bring in false witnesses. Than on the fifth day; the Day of Preparation just as the Jews were sacrificing the Passover Lamb the light of revelation pierced the darkness of a fallen world as thousand year old shadows took on flesh and blood for when Christ was nailed to the cross the shadow became real.
At the time of Christ’s death and resurrection even His Apostles didn’t understand what it was all about. They scattered and hid fearing they would be the next to go. It was only after they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost that they boldly proclaimed the Gospel. It was only then that they finally grasped that Jesus came to fulfill the scriptures, to make the shadows real.
We may ask ourselves, “How did they miss it?” But just as the proof is in the pudding so faith is in the living. Do we live consistently in a way that reveals our grasp of God’s revelation? Or do we judge our acceptance with God by how well we’re doing? Do we live each day in the full knowledge that we’ve become eternally acceptable to God only by our faith in Christ? Our ability to walk boldly into our Daddy’s throne room must never be measured by how good we are. If it is we can never enter.
People say that hind sight is 20/20. Yet we all know those who fail to learn the lessons of History are doomed to repeat it, and all around us we watch as History repeats itself over and over. We who’ve confessed Jesus as Lord and who believe in our heart God raised Him from the dead have the benefit of revelation. We’re given insight into the shadows which still lie over this vale of tears like a fog. We can see the forms which to those without Christ are nothing more than shadows dancing on the wall of a cave.
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
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event August 19, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.add a comment
When:
Saturday August 24 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday August 25 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
5900 Aurora Ave
Des Moines, IA 50322
He has five new titles published this year.
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All fifteen 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. Four books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, and Drain the Swamp. Four 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), and America Won the Vietnam War! A book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years, and a book designed to strengthen and encourage Christians called Faith. All of these books are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at Amazon
Trump Works For US August 13, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Ivanka Trump, opportunities for training, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Pledge to America’s Workers, training programs
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While the Theater of the Absurd that is the modern American political scene tries to turn the “swing and a miss” collusion conspiracy into a do-over in the best Congress money can buy, President Donald Trump continues to go quietly about his business of making America great again.
One year ago this past July President Trump inaugurated the Pledge to America’s Workers. This is a program lead by his daughter and Advisor to the President, Ivanka. As the number of job openings soars and the unemployment rate plummets to a near-50-year low, American wages, after hitting a decade long plateau, are starting to rise. That’s great news. But it comes with a daunting challenge. With the tightening labor market American companies are struggling to find enough workers with the right skill sets to fill the open jobs.
And that’s where the Pledge to America’s Workers comes in. Last summer, President Trump inaugurated a new approach in an effort to bring more Americans off welfare rolls and unemployment. He wants to see them reintegrated into the labor force. To do this the President issued a challenge for businesses. He asked them to actively create more opportunities for meaningful career training. He asked that these new opportunities be available for students and workers of all ages.
At a recent meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House to mark the first anniversary of the program Ivanka Trump said “Over the last year, more than 300 businesses and organizations, large and small, have signed our Pledge to America’s Workers, and today we celebrate reaching over 12 million pledges.” Also at this meeting the National Association of Manufacturers announced they’ll become the latest organization to meet the President’s challenge. The members of the Association include American manufacturing giants such as Caterpillar and Boeing. With this addition another 1.2 million blue-collar workers will have a chance to enhance their skills under President Trump’s Pledge to America’s Workers initiative.
Pointing to the expanding program and what it is doing to help every American benefit from the expanding economic boom Ms. Trump said, “Every single pledge is a commitment to the promise of an individual and his or her potential. We are changing the conversation on workforce development, so we can prepare for the jobs of today and tomorrow.”
Thanks to President Trump for 12+ million commitments for meaningful career training and counting! He’s working for US.
Let’s talk about what’s right with America.
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
Lead Me Not Into Temptation August 8, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: defeat sin, Dr. Robert Owens, Jesus saves, resist temptation, Salvation, the Gospel
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This line from the model prayer Jesus taught us something the Apostle James also points out, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God;’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” Or, as it says in the Message, “Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, ‘God is trying to trip me up.’ God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust.”
It’s us and only us who choose to sin, to turn our backs on the good and embrace evil. “Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.”
Just like everyone else who’s wandered this earth since the fall of man I struggle with temptation. It matters little that I know these struggles come from my own lust. I still have a battle on my hands. And just like everyone else I can stand strong against most temptations but I do have those sins which so easily ensnare me in their web of momentary pleasure and future guilt. These are the things I struggle with. Anyone who’s honest with themselves will admit they have the same situation.
Recently after a service I had a man asked for counsel about this very thing. All I could do is all I can ever do; share my witness.
When I’m faced with the temptation to fall into my pet sins, which I face on a daily basis, I admit I’m not strong enough to resist the temptation. These sins have years, decades even of practice in enticing me to wander from God’s path of obedience. My own lusts have their spiritual hands on all the right levers to pull me away. How can I resist? Who’ll save me from myself?
Christ has come to set us free and when He sets us free we’re free indeed. I know that’s what the word says. But how do I get in on all this freedom when I’ve spent so much of my life as a willing slave to these sins?
The first step is to admit my inability to resist the sin. And to realize that these thorns in my flesh are there to protect me from pride and to shape me into what the Lord intends me to be. It’s the act of surrender, of admitting my inability to resist that makes a way. You see when I get to the end of my rope if I give up my struggle and ask Jesus to use His strength to resist the temptation for me I can walk unscathed through the fires of my lust. When I’m weak then I’m strong because Christ’s strength is perfected in weakness.
We’ll never be tempted by more than we can endure and in every temptation there’s a way of escape. This is one of the many promises we can hang on to when we face our pet sins across the gulf of temptation. Think of how the Lord himself resisted temptation in the wilderness. He used the Word of God to rebuke Satan.
In the same way we need to have the Word of God in us if we want to have the strength to admit our weakness so we can find His strength.
Walking with God can sound and feel like walking backwards to anyone steeped in the wisdom of the world. For the wisdom of God is foolishness to the wise of this world. Just as the weakness of a sinner becomes the strength of the saint as hand in hand with the Man who stilled the sea we give it all to Jesus so He can give it back to us.
Those who seek to keep their lives lose them and those who give their lives away keep them for all eternity.
So how do we resist temptation? We trust Jesus to do it for us since every sin was paid for at the cross. Accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. And you will be saved. That isn’t pie in the sky. That isn’t a hollow promise for the great by-an-by. That is a constant reality for the here and now.
So when those pesky old sins reach up and try to drag us down remember we aren’t out here all alone. Once we’ve given ourselves to God in and through Jesus it’s no longer just us facing these struggles it’s Christ within us the hope of Glory.
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
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event August 5, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.add a comment
When:
Friday August 9 4 PM – 9 PM
Saturday August 10 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday August 11 9 AM – 4PM
Where:
Warren County Fairgrounds
1400 W 2nd Ave
Indianola, IA 50125
He has five new titles published this year.
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All ten 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. Four books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, Then Came Trump, and Drain the Swamp. Four 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), and America Won the Vietnam War! A book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years, and a book designed to strengthen and encourage Christians called Faith. All of these books are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
All of Dr. Owens’ books are available in paperback and kindle at Amazon
The Two Witnesses Who Helped Change My Life July 30, 2019
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: born again, depression, despair, Dr. Robert Owens, Jesus saves, Salvation, the Gospel, the joy of the Lord, two witnesses
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If it’s my way or the high way I choose the High Way; God’s way. You see I tried my way and it led to depression, despair, and loneliness. The best I could figure out is if this is all there is let’s roll out the barrels and have a party. My life before Christ was like the meaningless forever party at The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe in Douglas Adam’s iconic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The band plays on, the people careen through life in a mad dash to nowhere, everyone is laughing, smiling, miserable, and heading toward oblivion.
In the doomed life without Christ people mistake happiness and laughter for joy, and waste their lives trying to tickle themselves to death.
So after thirty wasted years sacrificed on an altar of senseless, self-indulgent, self-destructive tickling I chose the High Way. I chose to make Jesus the Lord of my life because I believe in my heart God has raised Him from the dead. I came to believe Jesus offered Himself up as a sinless sacrifice to pay the price of not just my sin but of everyone’s sin. I came to understand that the wall of separation caused by sin between humanity and God was broken down and we can all be united with Him. I embraced the truth that we can become His children. We no longer are strangers but members of His family welcome to walk boldly into our Daddy’s throne room.
Have you ever felt as if there’s no hope? Don’t be fooled by the god of this world. There is hope. Have you ever felt like you were too far gone, too wrong to ever be right again? Don’t be fooled by the confusing systems of laws that litter this world, or by gnawing feelings of guilt. We can be right with God.
Christ told us to take His light to the world and in our finite wisdom we constantly attempt to build lamps. They may provide light but it’s not His light. The bewildering mazes of religious laws are paths built by men. The feelings of guilt that inform us we have a consciousness of sin are themselves pinpricks and poundings delivered by God to prod us into the way, His way, the High Way. They don’t mean we’re lost forever. It’s just the opposite. They mean God hasn’t given up on us yet.
And if God hasn’t given up on us why should we give up on God?
Happiness can be affected by what we had for dinner last night. Did it taste good? Did it sit well or did it give us indigestion? Happiness can be impacted by whether or not we’re rich or poor, sick or healthy or any combination of things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Laughter can be a mask to hide the tears.
But joy is something else again. Joy is rooted in our relationship with God, and since the world didn’t give it to us the world can’t take it away. That’s why it’s called the joy that passes all understanding.
This God given joy is a powerful life changing thing.
Seeing this joy in action when I was an unbeliever is one of the things that eventually convinced me the Bible was true, salvation was real, and I could have it if I wanted it.
When I was at the depth of my unbelief, calling myself an atheist and a hater of all things godly I witnessed people live through the birth of a very special child. One whose physical challenges led to a short life among us but a life having a major impact on at least one life I know of: mine. His parents loved that child. They praised God for that child. They gave all they had to care for that child. And when that child passed leaving them physically, emotionally, and financially drained they held a celebration to praise God for blessing them in such a great way.
I can remember thinking they were crazy. I shook my head and wondered how anyone could be so different from everyone else I’d ever known. I didn’t know it at the time but I was a witness to people living out the reality of a passage from the book of Job who was the greatest of all the people of the East.
After Job lost everything; his home, his children, and all his wealth he was struck with painful boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. While sitting in the midst of the ashes of his life he took a broken piece of pottery to scrape off the scabs his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” which is what the world was screaming at the two followers of Christ with their family disrupted, their finances destroyed, and their child dead. These born-again believers said with their actions to the world what Job replied to his wife, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”
Years later as I reflected upon whether or not it was possible to live for God in a fallen world the memory of those two saints, Judy and Harry, praising God for blessings in the middle of what the fallen world saw as a curse I knew it was possible. Now after forty years of walking with my hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the sea I know it from personal experience.
Choose God and accept His gift of salvation not for what we’ve done but because of what Jesus did. He paid the price for our lifetime membership in the family of God, but we still may have to pay some dues down here. If we trust in Him when the wind and the waves smash against us we’ll stand like a house built on a rock. If we choose to give our lives to God in Jesus we get them back again better and brighter than we could ever imagine. If we instead try to keep our lives for ourselves we lose everything, and when the wind and the waves smash against us we’ll crumble like a house built upon the sand.
We never know who’s watching. We never know what someone else may see. So let’s quit tickling ourselves to death, find the joy of the Lord which is our strength and let the joy, joy, joy of the Lord down in our souls and watch our lives become the witness He’s called us to be.
Thank you Judy and Harry for being two witnesses who helped change my life. I praise God for you both, and I love you with the love of the Lord.
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
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 