God has spoken...

The book of Hebrews opens with the following declaration:

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.  (Heb 1:1-2)

When we read the Old Testament it is clear that we are reading the Word of God, speaking to us through various people and circumstances. Starting with the book of Genesis we read the simple, majestic tale of creation and the flood. Then follows the straightforward narrative of the patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Then comes the thundering of the Law, followed by the sweet singing of the Psalmist, the exalted beauty of the prophets, and the homespun wisdom of the Proverbs. 

Next is the delicate tenderness of the Song of Solomon, then the marvelous mysteries of the prophetic writings, as Ezekiel and Daniel. All of it is rich and powerful, but it is incomplete. It never brings us to a point of closure. There is no ending.  After Malachi the narrative simply stops.

But when we open the pages of the New Testament and read the four-fold picture of Jesus Christ, we find that all the Old Testament merges into one voice; the voice of the Son, Jesus Christ. The words and the truth by which God spoke in the Old Testament are merged into one complete discourse in His Son Jesus Christ.  Therefore, God's word to man has been fully uttered in the person of His Son. There is nothing more to be said. Jesus Christ is God's final word to man. Jesus Christ is supreme!

Join us Sunday as we begin to unravel the message of Hebrews, the supremacy of Jesus Christ!

Till the whole world hears...

Pastor Clay

Upper Room - TONIGHT!

Just wanted to remind everyone that our monthly Upper Room worship/prayer/communion service is tonight!  There are a lot of things to pray for...

• The upcoming Kids Fun Day
• The upcoming Women's Conference
• The launch of our Holy Grounds outreach ministry

...greater things are yet to come!

Pastor Clay

Introduction to Hebrews

The book of Hebrews has many messages:  It is a book of evaluation, examination, exhortation, expectation, and exaltation!  It was written by an unknown author in the early first century, most likely before 70 AD. The purpose seems to have been to encourage Christians, and Hebrew Christians specifically, to stand fast in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

This second generation of Christians, with whom the writer of Hebrews identifies, were under significant stress during that time period.  They were persecuted by the Romans, the Jewish religious leaders, and even their families.   Those Christians may well have been tempted to return to their old life, simply in order to exist in peace. Jewish converts may have been under particular pressure, as they would have been shunned by their Jewish family and friends.  They may have “looked back” to Judaism, and been tempted to return to it.

But the problem with looking back is that while doing so you cannot move forward!  If we as Christians look back to our old life (and we tend to only remember the “good times!”), our spiritual life can come to a standstill, and we even run the risk of going backwards.  So the writer of Hebrews exhorts these discouraged Christians, along with Christians today, to continue to be strong with Jesus in light of the complete superiority of who He is and what He has done for them, and for us. 

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Heb 13:20-21

Join us this Sunday as we open this powerful, sometimes misunderstood, book of the bible.


... till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay

Giving in action

Last week we talked about our tithing and our giving.  We looked at the examples in the bible about the firstborn, and the firstfruits, and how God tells us to bring them into the house of the Lord.  We learned that everything that comes into our lives is a result of the blessings of God, and when we give Him our tithe, our ‘firstfruit,’ we are acknowledging that fact. We are saying “God I understand that you have blessed me, and I am going to be obedient to give you the firstfruit from my wages.”  It is, in effect, an act of worship.  And God responds by promising us a blessing, that our needs will be met, that He will cover our lives!

We also talked about giving, and how our giving is over and above the tithe. That’s why giving is optional! But God promises us that if we give, He will “make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor 9:8)

Well this Sunday we are going to put our faith into action.  In the last several months we have had an increase in the number of requests for financial help.  These are not strangers, but people in our church.  Due to the number of requests, our Benevolence fund is tapped out!

So this Sunday we are going to take up an special offering – a gift for the saints in our body. The verses preceding 2 Cor 9:6-8 give the setting:

2 Cor 9:1-5
There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we-not to say anything about you-would be ashamed of having been so confident.  So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given. (NIV)

Now remember, the gift is over and above the tithe.  Think about it, if a person reduces their tithe to give a gift, its like the old adage “robbing Peter to pay Paul”. 

If you cannot give, then please DON’T!  Really!  But pray that the Lord would bless you, and provide you with the means to give.  And if He does, then give!

2 Cor 9:6-8
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

See you Sunday!

Go and Tell

Ever wonder why it is when we have a cookout, 100 people will show up to eat and fellowship, but when we have an outreach, we’re lucky to get 5?  I know what you’re thinking, “Uh oh, here it comes, the pastoral whipping!”

Actually not. Rather than be negative about a low turnout at an outreach, I would rather explore the reasons that many of us shy away from situations where we are called to share our faith in God.  Could it be that we don’t’ care?  I don’t think so.  When I think of our fellowship, I know we all have a genuine heart to reach the lost with the message of the gospel.  We do care about people. I doubt any of us want people to go to hell. 

I believe that there may be several things in play:

Reason #1
Sometimes we get busy with our lives, and we don’t think about the fact that there are people all around us that will end up in hell if someone doesn’t tell them about Jesus.

Reason #2
We are not sure how to go about being effective witnesses for Christ in our everyday lives.  We don’t know how to be missional in our lives.

Being missional simply means we are living our lives with the purpose of sharing the gospel message of Jesus Christ to those around us. It means understanding that every Christian has been sent by Jesus into our communities and the surrounding culture for the sake of the King and His kingdom. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

Being effective witnesses for Jesus Christ is not as hard as you think, it simply requires some focus on our part.  It requires that we become aware of people and their needs.  It requires that we take specific steps to build relationships with people.  And it requires that we have an understanding of our faith so that we can share it with confidence.

Join us Sunday as we conclude our Essentials Series with “Go and Tell – Becoming Missional in our lives”

...till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay

Providing for the bride

I mentioned on Sunday that I had to cut a lot of material from my message, and one of the things that I cut was an illustration that I think helps us see our tithe from God’s perspective.

Imagine you are a rich man, a billionaire, you went away for a long period, and you left ten stewards to take care of your wife.  You made arrangements for each steward to receive $10,000 per month, and you instructed each one of them to provide $1000 a month to your wife so that she would be taken care of.

After a year or so, you call your wife and ask her, “How are things going dear?  Are you getting your monthly provision?”  She then proceeds to tell you that five of the men have been faithfully giving $1000 per month, two of the men have been giving her $3000 per month, two of the men give are giving her $100 per month, and one of them has given nothing. What would your response be?  I’ll tell you what I would do:

• The men giving her $1000 per month - I would thank them for their faithfulness, and I would continue with our arrangement.
• The men giving her only $100 per month – there is no way I would continue giving them a $10,000 per month allotment.  I would reduce their allotment to $1000 per month, with instructions to continue giving my wife $100 per month.
• The man that is giving nothing – I would discontinue our arrangement.
• But the men that were giving my wife $3000 per month – Seeing that they have such a heart for taking care of my wife, I would take the allotment that I took from the other men, and give it to them. I would increase their allotment!

How does this relate to us?  The church is the bride of Christ (Eph 5), and God has instructed us, as faithful stewards, to provide for His bride with the provision that He has given to us.

Think about that:  God trusts us to take care of His bride!

Pastor Clay

Show me your statement...

This coming Sunday we will be talking about everyone’s favorite topic:  Tithing and Giving.  Yes I am being facetious, tithing and giving is probably not our favorite topic, but it could be said that money is a topic that people think about… a lot.  We could say it’s the most popular topic!

When the topic of money comes up, its usually in the context of us not having enough of it.  We could all use a little more.  Someone once asked Nelson Rockefeller how much money was enough, and he responded “just a little more.”

But in reality, the issue is not how much money we have, but "what does God want to teach us about money?"

Did you know that there are over 500 verses in the bible that deal with prayer, over 500 verses that deal with faith, but there are over 2000 verses that deal with the subject of money and possessions?  Jesus talked about money in sixteen of His thirty-eight parables.  Clearly, from the bible's standpoint, there is something that God wants us to understand about His principles concerning money and possessions.

Why?   Perhaps it is because money is a test of our faith and our priorities. You see, money is something that is near and dear to us;  we need it to live; we use it to buy stuff that we need, and stuff that we want.  So the way we manage our money can tell us a lot about what we consider to be important.  The is an old adage:  Show me your checkbook, and I’ll show you your priorities. I suppose today it would be “look at your online account statement…!

I certainly don’t want to look at anyone’s account statement, but perhaps we should ask ourselves:  What would my account statement say about my priorities?  What would it say about my faith?

Everybody worships something

Its true,  everyone worships something: The atheist worships at the alter of truth;  the scientist worships at the alter of knowledge; the businessman worships his money.  We all have something in our live that we live for, the question is do you know what you worship?

For the Christian, we know whom we worship: We worship the living God, who created the heavens and the earth, and who calls us by His name into a glorious inheritance!

Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him. Isa 43:7

Join us Sunday morning at Calvary Chapel, 9 & 11 am, as we explore worship, and why it's important to us.

Pastor Clay

Why should we worship God?

Worship.  The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship – meaning to give worth to something.  When we as Christians ‘worship’ God, we are putting action and meaning to our belief that God is worthy of our worship.  But the worthiness of God goes way beyond how we might apply worth to other things in our lives. A house or a car has worth, but we wouldn’t worship our house simply because of the value that it holds. 

So we should consider:  What makes God worthy of our worship?  Its an honest question that we should not be afraid to ask, because God has an answer. A big answer.

Think about this:  God is a being that has existed since eternity past, that is a long time! He spoke the universe into existence, a space so big that even with our most powerful radio telescopes, that can look hundreds of trillions of miles out, we cannot see the end of it.  That is big.  He not only spoke the universe into existence, with it’s billions of galaxies and trillions of stars and planets; He formed this little rock that we live on.  He formed it in such a perfect way, and hung it in the perfect spot in our little solar system, that it would be habitable for life.  He created it to have a self-sustaining atmospheric and ecological systems that would perpetuate live as we know it.

But He didn’t just create this reality for us and then walk away, He has made Himself known to us, since the beginning of time, that we might know Him and have a relationship with Him. That is pretty awesome when you think about it, that a God this big and powerful would care about us that way.  That He would greatly desire to have a relationship with us, even calling us His children.

To me that’s pretty exciting!  To me our God us a great God!  And I don’t know about you, but that is why I worship Him.

A few weeks ago I watched Louie Giglio talk about how great God is, and I thought you would enjoy it too.

Lioue Giglio - How Great is Our God


Titled from Eric Lee on Vimeo.