Finding Peace Amid Chaos October 16, 2024

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Rudyard Kipling in If, which I believe is the best poem ever written begins, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” setting the stage for a recitation for the human qualities needed to rise above worldly circumstances.  These are the types of mature actions and reactions visible when the shifting tides of daily life don’t toss us about like a piece of driftwood in the surf.  Maturity provides stability and confidence not shaken by the ebb and flow of change marking the boundaries of life.  

Reading these traits often exposes the arrested development of those of us who may have grown up but have failed to mature. 

This poem illuminates human wisdom as brilliantly as a bright light on a dark night reveals all within its circle of radiance.  It’s a work of brilliance by a man who was more than a journeyman wordsmith, a true master of the English language.  And like other works of genius, it exposes timeless truth that can change the life of anyone who assimilates its message and lives out its guidance.  Other works such as How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, or The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John Maxwell are examples of this wisdom that can help us mature into successful people in a world filled with more obstacles than opportunities. 

However, while wisdom, if it’s accepted and acted upon can help us succeed and prosper it cannot by itself bring us to the peace which passes all understanding.[1]  Happiness is the world’s substitute for joy causing immature people to waste their lives tickling themselves to death for a smile.  In the same way the tranquility flowing from success and prosperity is the world’s substitute for peace.  True peace can only come from God for humanity needs peace with God to have peace within themselves. 

You see when humanity decided to follow Satan instead of God, we immediately found an unbridgeable gulf between us and God.[2]  This left a God shaped hole in our hearts and nothing can fill it except the God who created us.  On our own we can’t think our way to God.  We can’t follow enough rules, laws, or pious regulations to reach God.  Someone had to pay the price for all the sin from Adam to eternity and no one could do it except an eternal being.   

We were guilty and in need of a mediator, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”[3]  In the court of heaven, we needed an attorney to represent us before the throne of justice, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”[4]  You see He has paid the price and is ever ready to show the proof of His sacrifice since, “He solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s.”[5] 

Jesus pointed the way to peace with God. Telling us, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

Salvation is easy for, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”[6]  Having done that it flows from the reborn spirit with in us that we will follow Him, doing the works that He did as He leads us into all peace.[7]  And in His living word He gives the formula for peace, “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.”[8] 

There is an ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”  In America today we find ourselves in the most interesting of times.  So as the endless election winds down to its inevitable conclusion, whether we face the resistance, riots, and impeachment that will greet a Trump victory or the shabby world of Progressive authoritarianism devolving from a Biden win, don’t let it steal your peace.   

As He prepared to pay the ultimate price to ransom our lives Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”[9]  And no matter how confusing, challenging, or frustrating it may become remember Jesus also said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”[10] 

Let us bear up under these interesting times knowing that our faith in Christ makes us not just followers of God but children of God, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”[11]   

Don’t be discouraged, instead hang on to your faith.  Don’t forget that the blinding lights and roaring furry of this crisis is but a blink of the eye for, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”[12]   And, “we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times; the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”[13] 

Keep the faith.  Keep the peace.  We shall overcome. 

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[1] Philippians 4:7

[2] Luke 16:22-26 NKJV

[3] I Timothy 2:5 NKJV

[4] I John. 2:1 NKJV

[5] I John. 2:1-2 MSG

[6] Romans 10:9 NKJV

[7] John 14:12

[8] Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

[9] John 14:27 NKJV

[10] John 16:33 NKJV

[11] Romans 8:17 NKJV

[12] II Peter 3:8 NKJV

[13] II Corinthians 4:17 MSG

Believe it Confess it Receive it Live it October 9, 2024

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Here’s one of those fifty cent words we Christians throw around, Omniscient. In other words, God is all knowing.  Since He’s the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last He knows the end from the beginning and everything in between.   

All of which brings forward a question that’s a mystery often presented as a conundrum some people pose as a veiled attack against the reality of God. 

They ask, “If God knows everything doesn’t that mean He knew Adam would fall even before He created him in the first place?  So why do we make a big deal about God making a way for salvation when He created man to fail?”  Some even compare this to the fireman who starts a fire then calls in the alarm so that he can become a hero for putting it out. 

The biblical answer for this is found in Paul’s rendition of the story of Pharaoh hardening his heart against God found in Romans chapter nine: 

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.  Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 

You will say to me then,

Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”[1] 

That’s it.  “Does not the potter have power over the clay?” Remember what we were originally “God formed man of the dust of the ground.”[2]  Adam was nothing but a clay mannequin until God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”[3] It was only  after this that “man became a living being.”[4] 

We are the clay.  He is the potter. And the fact that He made one “for honor and another for dishonor”[5] is none of our concern.  It is the fact that He made a way for the dishonorable to become honorable is what this is all about. 

The first work of God for our salvation was His decision that He would make a way for us to become not only reconciled to Him but become His children.  This is not based on anything we’ve done, will do, or could ever do.  It is not because of any good which is in us.  It is based solely on the love of God. 

This truth gives us perfect security and assurance in our transitory world of sin.  For the love of God never fails, never wavers, and is always everywhere dependable, reliable, and ever present.  What can the world do to us when we’re safe and secure in the love of God? 

Paul expressed this  perfectly in his letter to the Romans, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[6] 

Though all may be saved not all will be.  All of us were born in sin.  We carry embedded in our fallen bodies the burden of Adam’s original sin.  Then along the way we all contribute to that sin burden ourselves.  All these sins were paid for at the cross.  All of us can have Adam’s sin as well as every sin we have ever or will ever commit washed away by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice however, not all will avail themselves of this glorious gift. 

Look at it this way; if I purchase a brand-new car and I offer it to you.  If you accept the gift, it’s your car.  But if you refuse to accept it, it may have been purchased for you, it may be waiting right there in your driveway, but if you don’t accept the gift, it isn’t yours. 

From the first moment that we confess Christ as our Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead we’ve walked in the kingdom of God.  Our steps may still be visible in the natural world, but we’re walking in the Spirit.  Before that, Satan held the title deed to our lives.  We were born into the line of the first Adam, sold in sin and separated from God.  But, once we’re born-again we stand in the line of Christ, the last Adam. [7]

God places us in His family, and He has work for us to do.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”[8]  

And since He has work for us to do, He has prepared us for that work.  Every gift, every talent, every opportunity we have has been strategically placed in us and in our lives to help us fulfill the mission God has for us.  He doesn’t send us on to the battle without equipping us for the fight[9].  We aren’t some kind of busted up, raggedy sinner who just barely scraped in by the skin of our teeth.  No!  We’re the born-again children of God bought with the precious blood of Christ.[10]  In Him we are the righteousness of God.[11] 

We’re washed in the blood of the Lamb[12] who takes away the sins of the world.[13]  Believe it.  Confess it.  Receive it.  Live it.  We not only stand blameless before God our Father we stand redeemed and holy in the love of Christ, children of God received before the throne not as one who lived a wasted life of sin,[14] but instead as one who is set right, accepted, and honored as a member of the Body of Christ, a living stone in the temple of God.   

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[1] Romans 9

[2] Genesis 2:7

[3] IBID.

[4] IBID.

[5] Romans 9:21

[6] Romans 8:38-39

[7] I Corinthians 15:45

[8] Ephesians 2:10

[9] Ephesians 6:10-18

[10] I Peter 1:17-19

[11] II Corinthians 5:21

[12] Revelation 7:14

[13] John 1:29

[14] Luke 15:11-32

All That Really Matters October 2, 2024

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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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^[1] 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 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.”^[2] 

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.^[3] 

The price was a sinless sacrifice, the good for the bad.^[4]  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.^[5]  Jesus led all those who had died waiting for this deliverance out of Satan’s grasp^[6] and emerged on the third day with the keys to death and hell.^[7] 

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 twice-born children of the Most High God on a pilgrimage here with a mission^[8] to share their experience to be witnesses.^[9] 

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?  The bad news impacts us more than we can ever impact it. 

It’s like a joke making the rounds: 

An English asks an Amish fellow, “Why isn’t the COVID rampaging through your communities?”  The Amish fellow says without hesitation, “Because we don’t have any TVs.” 

The TVs, radios, magazines, and papers may carry the news, but only the Bible has the Good News.  It all comes down to choices: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”^[10]  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.^[11]  That’s it.  Do that and we have joined God’s family.  Then we can pour ourselves into His Word so that its 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.”^[12] 

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[1] 1 Peter 2:11-12

[2] Genesis 1:31

[3] Genesis 3

[4] Isaiah 53:1-5

[5] Colossians 2:15

[6] Ephesians 4:8

[7] Revelation 1:17-18

[8] I Peter 2:11-12

[9] Acts 1:1-11

[10][10] Joshua 24:15

[11] Romans 10:9

[12][12] Hymnal.net, accessed 5-15-21, https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/645