Calvary Chapel Pastor's Blog

Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV): "17  The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." Any parent knows the difficulty of letting a child fail, then disciplining them so that they can learn and be built up. It's a painful endea...

Habakkuk 3:17–19 (ESV): "17  Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18  yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19  God, the Lord, is my str...

Habakkuk 1:5 (ESV): "5 "Look among the nations,and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." God works in ways that astound His creation. He can reconcile the sinner by grace through faith in the perfect life of His Son. He can also use sinful man to bring judgment upon those who reje...

Nahum 3:18–19 (ESV): "18  Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. 19  There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you  clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?"Everyon...

Nahum 1:2–3 (ESV): "2  The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3  The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty." When people refuse to repent God must act with justice. It is what ...

Micah 7:18–19 (ESV): "18  Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. 19  He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of t...

Micah 6:8 (ESV): "8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" To all who are wondering what God desires you to do: He requires just three things of you...to do justly, love kindness and walk humbly. You will be in the center of His wi...

Micah 5:2–3 (ESV): "2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers sha...

Micah 3:4 (ESV): "4 Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil." Sin hinders our prayer life with God. For the believer, when we choose to sin we abandon our relationship with God.It doesn't mean we aren't saved, our reconciliation is through Chr...

Jonah 4:6–8 (ESV): "6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun r...

Jonah 4:1–3 (ESV): But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disas...

Jonah 3:10 (ESV): "10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." The purpose of chastisement is to change. It's not punishment for transgressions but a catalyst that is meant to turn the heart back to God. Often when people have a ch...

Jonah 3:1–2 (ESV): "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." First-time obedience is what we teach our children. We tell them, do it right away, all the way, with a happy heart. That is God's expectation for us as well!Jonah ...

Jonah 1:17–2:2 (ESV): "17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, "I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you hea...

Jonah 1:14–17 (ESV): "14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, "O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you." 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and t...

Jonah 1:1–2 (ESV): "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." Every human being has an invitation to be reconciled to the Father through His Son. Once a person is reconciled to God by grace through faith in Christ ...

Obadiah 3–4 (ESV): "3  The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" 4  Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord." Pride i...

Amos 9:14–15 (ESV): "14  I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 15  I will plant them on their land,  and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have...

Amos 8:11–12 (ESV): 11  "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,  but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they sh...

Amos 7:14–15 (ESV): "14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'" God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. He isn't looki...