Calvary Chapel Pastor's Blog

 Joel 3:20-21 (ESV): 20  But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations. 21  I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion."  Jesus is the original avenger. He declares that not one ounce of blood shed on His behalf will go unpunished. He will avenge those who were struc...

Joel 3:9–10 (ESV): "9  Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. 10  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am a warrior." Fighting God is a losing proposition for He is the reigning, defending, undisp...

Joel 2:32 (ESV): "32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls." There is only one way to heaven. There is only one way to receive the King of glory...

Joel 2:25 (ESV): "25  I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you." God is the God of restoration and peace. He can redeem any situation and make it far better than ever before for He is Almighty! Trust in no one else, look to no one else. ...

Joel 1:19 (ESV): "19  To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field." To whom do you call upon when life happens? Where do you go to find strength and hope amid catastrophe? There is only one source of help in this life, His name is Jesus. Look to Him and no o...

Hosea 14:3 (ESV): "3  Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands." God deserves all the glory and honor in the world except what is done in the flesh. If you accomplish something in the flesh God wants no part of it for it was not His work that accomplished it. Know the d...

Hosea 13:14 (ESV): "14  I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes." God has power over all things including the grave. He "shall" ransom and redeem all who put their faith in His Son from death and the grave. You'...

Hosea 11:8 (ESV): "8  How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender." The love of God is not like any other kind of love man can experience. His love never wanes, never grows cold, never ceases...

Hosea 9:1–2 (ESV): "Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors. 2  Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them." Idolatry is a serious offense to God. He calls it spiritual whoring and pr...

Hosea 6:1–2 (ESV): "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him." The Lord's intent for chastisement is humble repentance. He desires nothing more than for His ...

Hosea 4:6 (ESV): "6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children." There is a huge difference between being illiterate and aliterate. Illiterate means you can't read. Alite...

Hosea 2:6 (ESV): "6  Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths." Christians talk about a hedge of protection often. No one ever mentions that it could be made out of thorns. The reason God protects us in this way is so we don't sabotage ourselves. Sometimes protection ...

Hosea 1:2–3 (ESV): "2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord." 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son." The effectiveness of every minister co...

Daniel 10:12 (ESV): "12 Then he said to me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words." Do you fast while you pray?This is a powerful combination whereby one denies himself for some time for the sake of seeki...

Daniel 9:27 (ESV): "27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."  Christians know the end from the beginning. We are not wonderi...

Daniel 9:20–22 (ESV): "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He ...

Daniel 8:26–27 (ESV): "26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." 27 And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it."Sometimes we ...

Daniel 7:28 (ESV): 28 "Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart."  The rise of worldly kingdoms should remind all Christians that our King will soon return. This matter should be upon our hearts and ought to motivate us to live godly lives tha...

Daniel 6:20–22 (ESV): 20 As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?" 21 Then Daniel said to the king, "O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his ange...

Daniel 6:10 (ESV): "10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously." Prayer is a vital component to keeping your heart souled out to God. I...