Posts with the category “lance-ralston”

As we begin that study, it is wise to acknowledge the challenges in studying this book of the Bible. The challenge comes from the very different ways the book has been understood by the Church over th...  Read More

This is a documentary from Pastor Lance about his trip to Saudi Arabia, investigating the possible location of the actual Mount Sinai. He includes an intensive Bible study as well as a tour of the Exo...  Read More

A few well-known Church leaders are mobilizing their churches by saying followers of Jesus must boycott LGBTQIA+ affirming businesses. ...How we ought to live today - that is, in what is likely to be ...  Read More

In Part 1 of Last Days Living we considered if we are indeed living in the “Last Days.” In Part 2 we will look at how Jesus’ Followers ought to live in the days of a world growing increasingly hostile...  Read More

A Follow-up study on the Palm Sunday Message "The Very Day" at Calvary Chapel Oxnard, April 2, 2023...  Read More

I’ve been asked repeatedly by church members on whether or not they ought to get the COVID-19 vaccination. What follows is an attempt to help people decide what course to take. I want to be clear at t...  Read More

Christmas TraditionsA Biblical Perspective on the Celebration of the Birth of ChristEach year many Christians are faced with the decision of what to do about the holidays. Should they celebrate with e...  Read More

IntroductionWhile elections are important and Christians ought to be good stewards with their citizenship, being educated on the candidates and propositions, then voting with Biblical values, we mustn...  Read More

[The following is taken from Barclay's commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians, with editing]There was a letter which preceded 1 Corinthians. According to the Revised Standard Version, in 1 Corinthians 5:9 ...  Read More

Since unifying love is a distinguishing mark of Jesus’ followers, we can expect the adversary to oppose it....  Read More

Luther’s MomentThree and a half years after nailing his ninety-five points of theological departure from Rome, it was Martin Luther’s moment to stand. He stood before the greatest of Europe’s rulers. ...  Read More

We need to take a closer look at what Paul says in Romans 13 and the way the Church has historically understood it before appealing to it as justification for complying with the stay-at-home orders an...  Read More

On Thursday, October 10th in what was billed as CNN’s Equality Town Hall, then-presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke suggested churches and other non-profit organizations ought to lose their tax-exempt...  Read More

There’s a saying, “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” It means an abundance of details can obscure the larger picture they’re all a part of. Such is the case with current events. We’re inundated wit...  Read More

Politics has become the religion of a growing segment of the population.The most rapidly growing demographic in America’s religious landscape is “Nones”; people who identify as holding no religious fa...  Read More

In December of 2016, I wrote a blog post expressing my perspective on the then-recent sundering of the Calvary Chapel movement into CCA and CGN. Many pastors and members of various Calvary Chapel chur...  Read More

At the end of one of the episodes of the TV miniseries Band of Brothers, as Easy Company is marching into the Ardennes Forest for what turns out to be The Battle of the Bulge, the soldiers coming the ...  Read More

The rope was so tight round sixteen-year-old Patricius’ wrists they’d bitten into the flesh. He no longer felt the sting of the saltwater from the wind-tossed waves splashing over the side of the boat...  Read More

I’m about to share something personal. It’s a lesson I learned years ago. I share it because it illustrates what I believe to be a crucial truth. It seems many mature Believers “get stuck” at some poi...  Read More

All we can say for sure is that there was indeed a pastor named Valentine who became a martyr around AD 270. Beyond that, it’s legend and conjecture. But where facts are thin, people feel free to prov...  Read More

25% of Scripture is prophetic, foretelling events before they happen.Jesus rebuked the leaders of His day because they refused to see how He fulfilled prophecy.Just as there were many prophecies that ...  Read More

If you attend Calvary Chapel Oxnard, you may have noticed the posters that just went up. They announce the sermon series on The Christian Life we’ll be doing in 2019.As we continue to work our way boo...  Read More

I decided to run for a seat on the Oxnard City Council in the recent mid-term elections after it became clear that was what God’s Spirit was telling me to do. I have to admit, it’s not what I wanted a...  Read More

While Evangelical Progressives applaud recent cultural changes, those of the Conservative branch are concerned as traditional values are thrown over in favor of the Moral Revolution. What they need to...  Read More

A rash of school shootings has people scratching their heads wondering why. Many locate the problem primarily in America’s love of guns. Each new campus tragedy becomes a rallying point in the call fo...  Read More

The world is again in the grip of yet another realization its ways are bankrupt. The sexual revolution of the 60’s has born more bitter fruit in the ever-growing sexual harassment scandals rocking one...  Read More

The Thomas Fire recently roared to life in the hills near Santa Paula. High winds drove it relentlessly toward Ventura where it burned hundreds of homes, including three of our members and many friend...  Read More

This is an appeal to those attracted to a movement going by several titles, predominantly The Resurgence and Neo-Calvinism. The more traditional title is Reformed Theology. Its popular contemporary pr...  Read More

In Part 1 we took a look at Meticulous or Hard Determinism and the way it casts God as a moral monster. In Part 2 we will consider a couple more troubling doctrines of Calvinism, then turn to consider...  Read More

The State of California recently passed into law what is known as “Physician-assisted suicide.” That is, doctors will no longer be charged with a crime for assisting those who want to end their lives ...  Read More

[What follows is an edited transcript of today’s (August 24, 2017) “the Briefing” with Al Mohler. Not much commentary is needed. Be aware of how far Statism has progressed in the United States.]CBS Ne...  Read More

What goes around, comes around. What’s coming round now is a resurgent liberalism that aims to accommodate Christianity to contemporary society and the moral revolution that’s virtually swept Western ...  Read More

Once again controversy rages over a film. This time, a beloved children’s classic, Beauty & the Beast. Disney Studios live action film “updates” the tale with some, what they consider, socially-consci...  Read More

44 years ago, on Jan. 22, 1973, the US Supreme Court rendered the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand in all 50 States. The companion case to Roe was Doe v. Bolton, which made abortion ...  Read More

[The following is drawn from ideas articulated in the article “The Dilemma of Theistic Determinism” by Gunther Juncker in the Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry, Fall 2015, Volume 12, Number 2]Th...  Read More

Pastor Chuck Smith frequently referred to Ephesians 4 as a transformative passage for his ministry. He’d served for seventeen years as a pastor in a denomination where pastors were urged to be evangel...  Read More

People come and people go. It’s a fact of church life. They come and go for a plethora of reasons. Some of those reasons are good, right, healthy; others, not so much. As a pastor it’s difficult seein...  Read More

The following are thoughts composed on the day after the Nice, France terrorist attack on Bastille Day, July 14th, 2016.It behooves us to resist the axiom spoken by George Santayana, “Those who cannot...  Read More

There’s a lot of talk in both the Evangelical church and increasingly in the secular business world about “servant leadership.” For many years at Calvary Chapel, Gayle Erwin has poignantly taught us t...  Read More

A January, 2014 article in The American Conservative described why some Millennials are leaving Evangelical churches to join more liturgical denominations like Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholicism...  Read More