You’ve Got it All December 30, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus, writing
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In “You’ve Got it All” S5 / E36 of I Took a Right Turn: For the last time we want to announce the new segment of the Podcast that will start in 2026, “A Miracle Moment.” In this new segment, they’ll share some of the many miracles we’ve witnessed in our more than forty years of ministry. We also invite everyone to send us your miracle stories. Everyone who does will receive one of Robert’s books. We’re very excited about this new segment because we feel God has guided us into this expansion of the Podcast Ministry. Just go to itookarightturn.com and use the message system to submit. Beginning this podcast, we comment on current events in the Promised Land including the weather. This week we open our musical segment with One More Mountain to Climb an old song sung in revivals for many years. Then we share a song that holds a special place in the hearts of many Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, next is a song that speaks to many who face the tests and trials of this life Got Any Rivers. We finish the music with another of our homegrown songs: Be Ready. Opening God’s holy Word, we examine at I Corinthians 1:7-9 where Paul tells us that we have all we’ll ever need to follow God. Robert then reads another poem from his second book of poetry, Floating Through Time, “Changes Two.” Each episode this season includes a poem from this book.
The text of these readings is posted the day after the release of each episode at www.itookarighturn.com All of Robert’s more than forty books are available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible through Amazon. We also invite everyone to visit our online art store, The Pair a Docs Shop where we offer our original paintings, prints and merchandise.
What is Christmas Without Christ? December 25, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christmas, Faith, god, Jesus
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What have Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, It’s a Wonderful Life, roasting chestnuts, hippos, hula hoops, and barking dogs to do with Christmas?
They may bring warmth to our hearts. They may bring a smile to our lips. Or they may make us groan. Whatever they do to each of us what they all have in common is that they’re glued to Christmas like barnacles to the hull of the good ship lollipop. They’re the accumulated cultural baggage that increasingly obscures the real meaning of a revolutionary blessed event under the camouflage of a socially acceptable winter break.
The ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCPBSNPR Cartel tells us constantly that we now live in a post-Christian America. They exalt in proclaiming the end of Christ’s dominant influence on Western Civilization. As a result, we’ve descended from a city on a hill to a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Our elites call evil good and good evil.
Ever since the nine black-robed masters of America decreed back in 1962 that God was expelled from school we’ve witnessed the steady degradation of our society. The coarseness and vulgarity we’re deluged with on a daily basis was unknown in earlier days. What we call prime time entertainment was once known as pornography. What were abominations and generally accepted as perversions have become the norm while believing them to be against God’s Word is now considered some type of mental disorder. The cabal of self-appointed paragons of pomposity that masquerade as educators, politicians, and journalists cap their war against God when they glory in the right of self-interest to sacrifice the lives of the innocent and demand that the government not only endorse it but subsidize it.
As a natural outgrowth of the city of man’s war against God that defines America’s progressive culture comes the war against Christmas.
Back in the dream time we used to go to Christmas programs at our children’s schools and listen to the little darlings sing The First Noel, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and O Come O Come Emmanuel. Now we listen to them sing songs in foreign languages or do beautiful arrangements of sounds that don’t even have a meaning intermixed with a few songs about winter, snow, or maybe animals. It may all be Woke but it sure doesn’t have anything to do with the reason for the season.
Just in case all the tinsel and the twinkling lights have blinded us to what that reason is let me elaborate.
Christmas is all about Jesus the Christ born as a human so that he could bear the sins of the world, die a substitutionary death in our place, rise triumphantly from the grave and ascend into heaven so that we who believe can live in and through Him. That’s what it’s all about. Christmas must be linked to Easter to have any meaning. I’ve met people who never realized that the Jesus in the manger on Christmas was the same Jesus who hung on the cross on Good Friday. I did not meet them in the jungles of some remote island but in America with a church on every corner. This is a clear case of Santa with a coke in his hand winning the advertising debate over the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It may all be Woke but it sure doesn’t have anything to do with the reason for the season.
What is Christmas without Christ? It’s a worldly hedonistic overly commercialized gift giving/receiving orgasm perpetrated by humanity’s enemy to keep us from knowing that Christ came to set us free, to reconcile us to God, and to make a way for us to live as a new creation in a new creation.
Not to be Grinch, let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Let’s enjoy our family and friends. Let’s celebrate our traditions as we remember Jesus is the reason for the season. Let’s wake up and smell the frankincense and myrrh for without Christ in Christmas all we have is “mas.”
Why Did He Come? December 23, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christmas, Faith, Jesus, writing
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In “Why Did He Come?” S5 / E35 of I Took a Right Turn: First up is a discussion of current events in the Promised Land including the weather report. The songs we share are made to fit the season, Christmas all the way: Go Tell it on the Mountain an African American spiritual song and Christmas carol which was derived from oral traditions. It was first printed in an early-1900s compilation of African American folk songs. Another song that’s a staple of Christmas was originally in Latin known as “Adeste Fideles,” the earliest printed version is in a book dating to 1751. In 1841, it was first translated into English as “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Our final cover song expresses the uniqueness of Jesus, There is None Like You. We finish up the musical portion of the Podcast with one of our home-grown songs. As a song writer I always wanted to write a Christmas song. God finally answered my prayers this year and wouldn’t you know it He answered it with a song that fits perfectly into my style as a song writer, A Hymn for Him. Turning to the Bible, we look at John 4:14 and II Corinthians 5:19 wherein Paul speaks to us about why Jesus came and what that advent really means. Robert then reads another poem from his second book of poetry, Floating Through Time, “It’s a Bridge.” Each episode this season includes a poem from this book. We continue to announce the new segment of the Podcast staring in 2026, “A Miracle Moment.” In this new segment, they’ll share some of the many miracles we’ve witnessed in our more than forty years of ministry. We also invite everyone to send us your miracle stories. Everyone who does will receive one of Robert’s books. We’re very excited about this new segment because we feel God has guided us into this expansion of the Podcast Ministry. Just go to itookarightturn.com and use the message system to submit.
The text of these readings is posted the day after the release of each episode at www.itookarighturn.com All of Robert’s more than forty books are available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible through Amazon. We also invite everyone to visit our online art store, The Pair a Docs Shop where we offer our original paintings, prints and merchandise.
Now What Do We Do? December 9, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: books, Faith, god, Jesus, poetry
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In “Now What Do We Do?” S5 / E33 of I Took a Right Turn: We once again share an announcement about a new segment of the Podcast which will start in 2026, “A Miracle Moment.” In this new segment, they’ll share some of the many miracles we’ve witnessed in our more than forty years of ministry. We also invite everyone to send us your miracle stories. Everyone who does will receive one of Robert’s books. We’re very excited about this new segment because we feel God has guided us into this expansion of the Podcast Ministry. Just go to itookarightturn.com and use the message system to submit. We move on to current events in the Promised Land. Next, we move on to a few songs we pray will be a blessing to all who listen: Holy Holy Holy an old hymn that has lifted the spirits of countless believers through the years. Next, we share another song that’s inspired believers through the years: Thou Art Worthy, and then we offer up a song that we first learned back in the great Catholic Charismatic Revival prayer groups: We Exalt Thee. Finishing the musical portion of the Podcast with a homegrown song: I Know Jesus Loves Me. Opening the Bible, we turn to Acts 2:22-23, 37-39 where we receive some real-world advice about how to live. Robert then reads another poem from his second book of poetry, Floating Through Time, “Watch Our Words.” Each episode this season includes a poem from this book.
The text of these readings is posted the day after the release of each episode at www.itookarighturn.com All of Robert’s more than forty books are available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible through Amazon. We also invite everyone to visit our online art store, The Pair a Docs Shop where we offer our original paintings, prints and merchandise.
Is Thanksgiving All About Receiving? November 27, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Faith, god, Jesus, Thanksgiving
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In millions of homes throughout America families and friends join to together to celebrate a cherished holiday, Thanksgiving. In countless homes people go through various types of rituals and traditions including taking time to share what they’re thankful for. If we listen to those often hastily prepared statements, we’ll find the vast majority of them refer to what’s been received.
“I’m thankful for my family.” “I’m thankful for health.” “I’m thankful for peace, prosperity, safety, security, a home, a car, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, etc.”
It’s good to give thanks for all we’ve received. It’s even better to give thanks for the Giver and to recognize that it’s all a gift.
The greatest gift of all is Jesus. God gave Him to us as our Savior. It’s through His stripes we’re healed. It’s through Him making Himself poor that we became rich. And it’s through the indwelling Spirit of God that we have access into the wisdom of the ages. And that wisdom teaches us that it’s better to give than receive.
So, this Thanksgiving as we share what we’re thankful for perhaps we should be thankful for all the opportunities we have to give. The Word of God tells us plainly, “If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.” In another place it says, “Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way.”
All around us a world in need of God stumbles through the inky void of uncertainty not knowing why bad things happen to good people, why the evil seem to triumph over the good, or where they’re going when they die. And we have the answer. His name is Jesus.
So how do we share what isn’t just good news but the best news ever with the lost and broken around us?
It isn’t by trying to shove a Bible down their throat. It isn’t by beating them up with doctrines they don’t know repeated in religious speak. It isn’t by trying to scare them to death with stories of what will happen when they die. When we use these time-tested mistakes while trying to share the most beautiful truth in the world, that Jesus came to bring us life, our success rate is perfectly expressed by my favorite band, Casting Crowns, “Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth becomes so hard to see. The world is on their way to You, but they’re tripping over me.”
It’s not about who we are it’s about who He is. It isn’t about what we’ve done it’s about what He did. And it isn’t about what we get it’s about what we give.
I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! May the Lord bless you and keep you may He make His face shine upon you. As we gather with our loved ones on a day set aside for giving thanks instead of offering a litany of what we’ve received let’s give thanks for opportunities to give.
All of Dr. Owens’ more than forty books are available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible through Amazon. Check out the Podcast I Took a Right Turn straight from the Promised Land.
Understanding the Bible November 25, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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“Understanding the Bible” S5 / E31 of I Took a Right Turn: Starts out sharing again about a new segment to the Podcast which will start in 2026, “A Miracle Moment.” In this new segment, they’ll share some of the many miracles we’ve witnessed in our more than forty years of ministry. We also invite everyone to send us your miracle stories. Everyone who does will receive one of Robert’s books. Just go to WWW.itookarightturn.com and use the message system to submit. Following this we share some of what is going on presently in the Promised Land. Next, we play some songs that glorify God and speak of His action in our lives: He Touched Me a timeless classic by Bill and Gloria Gaither. Following this we share a song that addresses God’s very nature and how it impacts us: The Goodness of God, and then we share a song that has touched uncounted people through the years: Farther Along. And finally, a brand-new home-grown song, one that is played here for the first time: The Shortest Prayer I Know. Opening God’s Word, we dive into Acts 17:1-3 where we learn how to understand the Word of God. Robert then reads another poem from his second book of poetry, Floating Through Time, “Here Today Gone Today.” Each episode this season includes a poem from this book.
The text of these readings is posted the day after the release of each episode at www.itookarighturn.com All of Robert’s more than forty books are available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible through Amazon. We also invite everyone to visit our online art store, The Pair a Docs Shop where we offer our original paintings, prints and merchandise.
God Plays No Favorites November 18, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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In “God Plays No Favorites” S5 / E30 of I Took a Right Turn: Robert and Rosalie start out sharing about a new segment to the Podcast which will start in 2026, “A Miracle Moment.” In this new segment, they’ll share some of the many miracles they’ve witnessed in their more than forty years of ministry. They also invite anyone and everyone to send them miracle stories. And everyone who does will receive one of Robert’s books. Just go to the website WWW.itookarightturn.com and use the message system to submit. This announcement is followed by some rousing songs that make the heart praise God: Put Your Hand in The Hand a song that has sparked outpourings of God’s Spirit in many worship services. Then comes a song that speaks of what we find when we turn to Christ: Just a Little Talk with Jesus, and next they share a newer song by Ray Botz: The Anchor Holds. And finally, one of our home-grown songs: Jesus the Lord. Looking into God’s Word, we turn to Acts 10:34-36 where we learn that we’re all on an equal footing with God, we’re all His creations and He loves us all. Robert then reads another poem from his second book of poetry, Floating Through Time, “Revelation Reveals it All.” Each episode this season includes a poem from this book.
The text of these readings is posted the day after the release of each episode at www.itookarighturn.com All of Robert’s more than forty books are available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible through Amazon. We also invite everyone to visit our online art store, The Pair a Docs Shop where we offer our original paintings, prints and merchandise.
What’s All This ‘In Christ’ Business All About? December 4, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Faith, god, Jesus, Salvation
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Sometimes we born-again believers talk in such a closed-circuit Christianese dialect that baby believers, old line denominational members, let alone your everyday garden variety sinner has no idea what we’re talking about. We throw around words that carry massive meaning to us but sound like in-crowd jargon to those hearing them from the outside.
Propitiation, justification, and salvation are all words that trip up nonbelievers as they tiptoe around the cross. Then there are phrases we think say it all but, leave those we want to reach scratching their heads and standing off instead of kneeling down. Phrases such as: substitutionary death, pleading the blood, I’m born-again, I’m Filled with the Holy Ghost, and here’s one that throws them all, in Christ.
A dictionary will help with the words. The phrases usually take a little time in fellowship with others to sort out and understand. I can’t try to explain them all here, but I will try to address one of the most cryptic phrases to the uninitiated, in Christ.
“In Him.” This is a major theme of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and of the whole New Testament. It’s a central teaching and a foundational truth. If for some reason this sounds strange to your ears or is a new concept study to show yourself approved.[1] We should follow the example of some early believers who upon hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”[2]
We can’t allow our development as believers to be the responsibility of anyone else. Yes, it’s good and advisable to have teachers and mentors; however, we can’t rely on them alone. In his letter to the Philippians Paul told them to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”[3] and this is advice that we should also take to heart.
This major theme echoes through the New Testament: we are “in” Christ. Thousands of years after it was first presented to humanity it continues to ricochet through this verse into our spirit. The born-again believer resonates like a tuning fork to this life-giving message. The message, “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,”[4] floods down the corridors of time like an avalanche of hope.
The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ is the living parable of love for all to see.
The birth[5] of Jesus[6] set forth in scripture, is a graphic portrayal of prophecy[7] fulfilled.[8] The Incarnation is the union of deity and humanity. It was divine love’s invasion into the realm of human selfishness. That which had been foretold for millennia finally arrived. Or as the author of Hebrews tells us, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.”[9]
This invasion wasn’t by an army of angels though it could’ve been. It wasn’t by raising up Israel to conquer the world and imposing belief in the One True God by force though that could’ve happened. Instead this invasion took the form of a tiny, defenseless Baby born in a manger on the poor side of town.
His parents called Him Jesus and His name has filled hearts and souls of humanity with songs and praise ever since. The love brought by God through this one birth has given hope to the defeated, healing to the sick, liberty to those in bondage, and salvation to all who confess Him as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead.[10]
All this is based upon the finished work of Christ. This finished work is the ultimate revelation of divine love. Jesus gave His life freely in place of ours.[11] He voluntarily became sin in our place so that we could become the very righteousness of God.[12]
And we become that righteousness when we claim our place as a part of the body of Christ, the church so that when we stand before God He doesn’t see our sins and our shortcomings, instead He sees the absolute righteousness of His own Son. This is how we can stand before a holy God with no sense of shame, guilt, or inadequacy.
The New Testament describes this well, “The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one-part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one-part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.”[13]
And this is what we mean by being “in” Christ. We have accepted our place as a member, or part of Christ’s mystical body: the church. It is no longer we who live but Christ lives in us and through us. And now that we know, let’s go forth and be all that God has called us to be, let’s allow Christ to live in us as we live in Him. Let’s allow Him to reach through us and minister to a world in need.
[1] II Timothy 2:15
[2] Acts 17:10-11 NKJV
[3] Philippians 2:12 NKJV
[4] John 3:16 NKJV
[5] Matthew 1:18-25
[6] Luke 2:1-20
[7] Isaiah 7:14
[8] Luke 1:35
[9] Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV
[10] Romans 10:9
[11] John 10:18
[12] II Corinthians 5:21
[13] I Corinthians 12 NKJV
We are accepted November 27, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Everyone from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint needs the grace of God. Everyone who wanders through the veil of tears that is this fallen world is tested, tried, and assaulted by our adversary, the prince of the power of the air,[1] who goes about like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour.[2] Our fallen body and soul are open to him and his minions. And if that isn’t bad enough our own sinful desires lure us into trap after trap.[3]
Surrounded and attacked by all this it seems natural that we would cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”[4]
There is an answer to this cry. We don’t stand alone before the heavenly court of justice. If we did not even one of us would deserve anything except eternal damnation and separation from God. Instead of standing alone in the withering judgement fire “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”[5] and the fire of His presence becomes for us the life-giving warmth of His love.
We need to praise the glory of God’s grace, His unmerited favor because, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[6] We may have been the worst of sinners. We may have cursed God and persecuted His people but once we turn from the darkness to the light, once we embrace Him and are born again all that changes. We change and the world around us changes.
Peter sums it up well when he says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.[7]”
The author of Hebrews goes into even greater detail showing how the eternal sacrifice of Christ is superior to the shadow sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 1And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”[8]
This is the description of our present state. We are accepted. We have entered our inheritance. Today we “see in a mirror, dimly,”[9] but once this perishable has been swallowed and replaced by imperishable,[10] we shall see “face to face.”[11] For “Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”[12]
[1] Ephesians 2:2
[2] I Peter 5:8
[3] James 1:14-16
[4] Romans 7:24 NKJV
[5] I John 2:1 NKJV
[6] Romans 5:8 NKJV
[7] II Peter 2:9-10 NKJV
[8] Hebrews 9:12-15 NKJV
[9] I Corinthians 13:12 NKJV
[10] I Corinthians 15:53-54
[11] I Corinthians 13:12 NKJV
[12] Ibid.
The Paradox of Free Will November 20, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Faith, Free will, god, Jesus
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How can we possibly believe in free will since Christians believe in His Omniscience God knows everything we’ll do in advance, and we also believe He has a plan for our lives before we’re born? So where is the free will?
God has perfect foreknowledge. This means He knows the end from the beginning and thus He knows what everyone will do in the future and what any individual will do in any given situation. God has a complete plan for everyone’s life. He knew how He wanted the universe to end before He created it and so He had a plan for every action needed to reach that end before the foundation of the world.
If God wants a particular thing to happen, He knows who will choose to do it, when they will choose to do it, and under what circumstances they will choose to do it. However, just because God already knows what choices we will make this in no way removes our free will.
You see God is outside our space time continuum. He is ever always in the now of eternity. And in this bubble, we call reality we are the ones making the choices.
One example might be to think about our own foreknowledge of History. We know how World War One ended. If we could go back in time to July of 1914 the fact that we already know how the War will end would not force anyone to do anything. Our knowing that the assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria would knock over the first domino ending only with the Treaty of Versailles wouldn’t stop Gavrilo Princip from shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
God created us with free choice. That’s why He told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the trees in the center of the garden. He told them not to do it, but He wouldn’t have said “Don’t do it,” if they couldn’t do it if they chose to. Free choice means not only that we can choose to ignore God’s commands it also means we can freely choose to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead and so be saved.
It all hinges on free choice. God is looking for children who choose to love and follow Him, not robots who have no choice.
God’s knowing what we will freely choose doesn’t mean that we are in any way forced to make that choice. You can choose to believe this or not.
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 