craigtowens

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Again And Again And Again

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/again-and-again-and-again.mp3 I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but I’ve lost count of the number of times that this happens to me. I open up my Bible and begin reading right where I left off the day before, and…

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Not Forsaken

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/not-forsaken.mp3 Although some people are afraid of this, the Bible makes it clear that God doesn’t forsake us. But the Bible also makes it equally as clear that we can forsake God.  Listen to the words God spoke through…

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Joyful Proof

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/joyful-proof.mp3 This whole series of messages is about how God can turn our grief into joy. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most joy-filled event in all of history: the resurrection of Jesus!  At our Good Friday…

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Temporary Sorrow For Eternal Joy

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/temporary-sorrow-for-eternal-joy.mp3 On Sunday we looked at the thought that our grief often comes because our current situation isn’t what we expected it to be. Notice that we say, “what we expected,” as…

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Praying Against Or For Slanderers

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/praying-get-em-prayers.mp3 Quite a few psalms in the Bible are prayers against our attackers. Is that an acceptable prayer for us to still pray today?  The Scriptures I reference in this clip are Psalm 58:6-8; Luke…

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Let Others Have The First Pancakes

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/let-others-have-the-first-pancakes.mp3 If you’re a leader, I have a very interesting challenge for you. I would like to challenge you to let other people eat the first pancakes.  A mark of a godly leader is one who lets…

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Assured Of God’s Favor

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/assured-of-gods-favor.mp3 Esther was unsure if Xerxes would extend favor to her, but God is already extending His favor to you even before you approach Him. He wants to turn your grief into joy.  Let your…

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Turning Pain Into Prayer

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/turning-pain-into-prayer.mp3 Last week we saw how the Israelites in exile had their time of grief—being targeted for annihilation—turned to joy when God granted favor to Queen Esther.  The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles,…

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Links & Quotes

Hey, leaders, let me ask you a simple question: Is your workplace a safe place for people to make mistakes? It should be or else we will be limiting the potential of both our teammates and our whole organization. Greg and I unpack this in greater detail in this episode. I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss…

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The Craig And Greg Show: From The Inside Out

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/episode-101-audio.mp3 Watermelon is a great summer treat. However, sometimes a nice green exterior can hide rotten fruit on the inside. When this happens we don’t say, “Well, at least the outside was nice,” but we throw…

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Firstfruits

     You shall take some of the first of all the produce of the soil which you harvest from the land the Lord your God gives you and put it in a basket, and go to the place [the sanctuary] which the Lord your God has chosen as the abiding place for His Name [and His Presence]. And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days, and say to him, “I give thanks this day to the Lord your…

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Jesus Is Worth More Than Anything

And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish; and as their nets were at the point of breaking, they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and take hold with them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. … And after they had run their boats on shore, they left everything and joined Him as His disciples and sided with His party and…

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When Grief Becomes A Testimony

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/when-grief-becomes-a-testimony.mp3 None of us are strangers to grief—we’ve all experienced this dark place.  The dictionary defines grief three ways: (1) keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; (2)…

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Links & Quotes

Why do Christians lift their hands to God? This is a clip from one of the sermons in our series looking at the worship songs that Israelite pilgrims sang as they ascended to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything. “Civil governments are established by God [Romans 13:1] to…

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Who Is Your Provider?

And [God] humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. … Know also in your [minds and] hearts that, as a man disciplines and instructs his son, so the Lord your God…

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Grief Into Joy

At the end of your rope … down for the count … nothing but gray skies all around … unable to see any light at the end of the long, dark tunnel. Ever been there? The reality is, we all have been there.  But the good news is that we don’t have to stay there!  God is always at work to turn our apparent no-win, dark, hopeless situations into something bright and glorious! He is working in ways that…

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Sincere Love

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.  https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/sincere-love.mp3 The apostle Paul begins a lengthy series of commands for Christians with a simple statement: “Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9).  Let’s define a couple of those key words. “Love” (Greek: agape) is not…