calvar y chapel radio Bring Brin ging g the Bib ble home Quarterly • Summer 09 • Issue 11
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS drawing near to God
FOUNDATIONS MATTER
the attributes of God (Part 1)
CHRIST IN BRITAIN church & king
GOD IS GOOD all the time
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Summer 09
F E A T U R E S
Issue 11
04 Close Encounters PASTOR BRIAN BRODERSEN drawing near to God
06 God is Good
PASTOR CHUCK SMITH all the time
10 Changeless Truth
JOSEPH HOLDEN, AUTHOR & EDUCATOR attributes of God (part 1) why good foundations matter
14 Changed Lives PASTOR DREW DAVIS a cause worth the cost
20 Christ in Britain
BRIAN NIXON, AUTHOR & EDUCATOR church & king
26 Word to Women CHERYL BRODERSEN called by name
29 Confidence in God PASTOR RAY BENTLEY His work never fails
D E P A R T M E N T S
30 Churches & Ministries 34 Programme Guide 35 Pastors on Air
Published by: Calvary Chapel Radio PO Box 647 BROMLEY Kent BR1 4WQ Tel: 020 8466 5365 Web: www.calvarychapelradio.co.uk Email: newsletter@calvarychapelradio.co.uk Executive Editor: Brian Brodersen Editor: Karen Robinson Design: Neil Godding Contributors: Chuck Smith, Brian Nixon, Joseph Holden, Cheryl Brodersen, Drew Davis, Romy Godding, Ray Bentley Printed by: T&C Printers 020 8460 8416 Web Design: www.calvarydesign.com
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked “NKJV” are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
To advertise in this publication, please email the editor at: newsletter@calvarychapelradio.co.uk
BRIAN BRODERSEN
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS “ DRAW NEAR TO GOD AND HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU” James 4:8 NKJV
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” These words, inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned by James the brother of Jesus, are really quite amazing if you think about it. God gives us an invitation to draw near to Him and then promises that He will draw near to us.
... HOW DO WE DRAW NEAR TO GOD? Many of us, if we received a personal invitation from the Queen to Buckingham Palace, or from the President of the United States to dine with him at the White House, would do everything in our power to comply with their request. The astounding thing here is that we have received a personal invitation from someone far greater than the President or the Queen, or any other great man or woman of history combined. We have been invited to draw near by God Himself! The question is what does drawing near to God look like practically? Or in other words, how do we draw near to God? We draw near to God when we spend time meditating on His Word. Jesus, as you know, is the living Word of God. As the apostle John tells us:
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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:114 NKJV). We encounter Christ, the living Word, through the Scriptures, which are the written Word.
... LET US MAKE HASTE TO DRAW NEAR. Every time I go to my Bible with a genuine desire to commune with God, I am, in effect, drawing near to God.
Prayer is another way of drawing near to God. As we come to the Lord in prayer, truly desiring to meet with Him, we are drawing near to God.
Praise and worship are also ways of drawing near to God. As we lift our voices in songs of praise and worship, we draw near. Finally, we draw near to God as we come together in those places that have been dedicated to worshipping the Lord and honouring His Word, those places we commonly refer to as the ‘church’. So as the invitation has been extended to each of us with the promise that as we draw near to God, He will draw near to us, let us make haste to draw near.
Pastor Brian Brodersen Brian Brodersen is associate pastor at the founding church of the Calvary Chapel movement and has a vision and heart to see God’s Word restored to the people of Britain. His passion for Britain and the British was ignited during his years pastoring in Central London. He is a of host of Pastor’s Perspective, a Q/A programme broadcast around the world and on Calvary Chapel Radio.
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CHUCK SMITH
GOD IS Truly God is good … Psalm 73:1
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ooner or later, we will each face something we cannot understand. When that happens – when the world around us seems to be falling apart and we feel confused and overwhelmed – it is important to remember this foundational truth: God is good.
Too often, in the midst of pain, we think the opposite. We look around at others who are healthy, strong, and pain-free, and we say, “I have devoted my life to God and I have tried to do the right thing. Why am I suffering? Why are the wicked not suffering? Satan – who always attacks us when we are weak – is right there to join us in challenging God. He tries to shake our faith in God’s goodness and His power by whispering, “If God is so mighty and so good, then why did He allow this to happen to you?” In reading through the psalm, it would appear that the psalmist was going through some sort of painful experience or a physical malady. Like we do at times, he felt weak. But he knew the truth about God. Toward the end of the psalm, he said, “My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).
The way to silence the whining of the flesh and the whispering of the enemy is remind yourself of God’s great love. E Excerpt from Wisdom For Today, a devotional from Genesis to Revelation by Pastor Chuck Smith. To purchase p your own copy make cheque payable to Calvary Chapel Radio for £16 (inc p&p) and send to Calvary Chapel Radio. See page 3 for address.
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S GOOD Remember that God is in control of your life. Remember that He is working all things together for your good.
Father, may we receive Your truth, and may we walk in the light of Your Word as it brings us to the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Teach us to reject Satan’s lies and cling to Your truth. AMEN.
Pastor Chuck Smith Chuck Smith is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and the founder of the Calvary Chapel movement. With an emphasis on biblical exposition, Calvary Chapel has grown from the first gathering of twenty-five individuals in 1965 to encompass a worldwide fellowship today of more than 1200 churches and over 60 Bible colleges.
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CHANGELESS TRUTH GOoD FOUNDATIONS
& Why they matter Attributes of God Part 1
iden Wilson Tozer once summarized the importance of thinking rightly about God when he wrote “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”. The striking feature here is not only found in its powerful declaration of entertaining correct thoughts of God, but that he penned these words as the first sentence, of the first paragraph, of the first chapter of his short call to theological orthodoxy in his Knowledge of the Holy. The statement’s place of priority is significant since Tozer saw the twentiethcentury church slowly losing its grip on the concept of divine majesty, trading it for a much lower and anthropomorphic (human) view of the nature of God. He believed we could map the future of a man, or a movement, based on his, or its, answer to the question, “What comes into our minds when we think about God?” Tozer’s warning is somewhat prophetic since we now see
LDEN EPH& HO JOShor educator aut
within many evvangelical churches and seminaries a moovement away from the traditional und derstanding of God’s attributes.
THE PARADIGM SHIFT Since the rise of higher criticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, aberrant revisionist theories of God’s nature have abounded. Then, in the twentieth-century, American ivy-league universities dedicated to training pastors and Christian ministry workers in the Scriptures, such as Princeton, began to adopt philosophies and theologies foreign to classical Christianity. It became customary to attack the Christian concept of God’s immutability (unchangeableness) and eternality (timelessness) as being a product of the negative influences of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy on Christian theology. In particular, critics marshalled arguments that Plato’s view of the Good and Aristotle’s view of an ‘unmoved mover’ was unnecessarily
“What comes into our minds when we think about God?”
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... if one adopts and incorrect view of God most likely there will be other theological problems down the way. imported into Judaism by the Jewish theologian Philo (20 B.C.-A.D. 40) and into Christianity by the early church fathers during the first through fifth centuries. Chief among these critical works was Adolf von Harnack’s Outlines of the History of Dogma (1961) and his What is Christianity? (1986). Despite the intensifying set of charges against the Christian concept of God in modern times, the arguments were not unknown among the early church fathers. However, what was unknown to them is that the shift away from the classical attributes by prominent evangelical scholars bent on convincing the laity to adopt a more ‘open’ and ‘relational’ view of God was motivated by their desire to make God more like His creation. This was unheard of in the early writings of the Church who claimed, as Origen did, that God was totaliter aliter (i.e. wholly other). Unfortunately, this modern criticism is seen in the movement known as ‘open theism’, led by Clark Pinnock, who describes God as ignorant of the future; in fact, God has made mistakes about His predictions of the future! In this view, God is characterized as changing, temporal and possessing vacillating feelings like us mortals. Instead of offering a God who is above vulnerability, the open God takes risks that could result in his own harm and vulnerability, this,
open theists say, makes God more loving and relational to his creatures. Among other academicians, a trend that is appearing at an alarming rate, discards the classical notions of God’s unchangeableness and timelessness by rejecting outright God’s eternality, immutability, and simplicity (i.e. unity, no parts). For example, if God can change, then He must also be temporal since time is measured by change in the ‘befores’ and ‘afters’. Theologically speaking, the attributes of God serve as the girdle holding all other doctrines together, if you remove one, they all unravel in quick succession, meaning if one adopts an incorrect view of God most likely there will be other theological problems down the way. There is little doubt that today the modern evangelical church finds itself perched on the precipice of a paradigm shift away from the classical attributes of God and towards an anthropomorphic view of the Holy One. What remains to be seen is whether evangelicals will continue to embrace God’s traditional
… Jesus emphasized the importance of genuine worship being inextricably linked to the nature of God. attributes or whether Paul’s warning to “beware” of “philosophy” (Col 2:8) will go unheeded. If we choose to ignore his warning, we run the risk of creating God in our own image.
WORSHIP IS AT STAKE This “new view” of God comes with a price, since the church and her worship cannot rise any higher than her concept of God, and our sanctification into the image of God becomes a curiously human endeavour (2 Pet 1:4). The psalmist made clear that man becomes like the object of his worship (Ps 115:3-8). The very worship of the church is at stake, since Jesus emphasized the importance of genuine worship being inextricably linked to the nature of God. He said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). Oh how instructive these few words are to the church who makes it her goal to worship the Lord! Since Jesus begins by introducing the nature of God as “spirit”, He is emphasizing God’s nature as being the basis, ground and necessary starting point of proper worship. This is further reinforced by the Greek text, which is not readily apparent in the English. The word “spirit” (pneuma) is placed before “God”, thus emphasizing the spiritual nature of God in the worship
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process. Therefore, the essence of God is the plumbline that keeps the believer’s worship on a straight course as well as instructing us about the quality of our worship; it must be “in spirit and truth”. There are not two kinds of worship in view here; rather, it is one kind of worship with two distinct aspects. The first aspect is that worship is “spiritual”, which means it does not depend on material substances, geographical locations, ritualistic forms or the divine nature to consist of anthropomorphic attributes. These things have never transformed the innerperson, and they never will since they only appeal to one part of an individual. Only spiritual worship touches the human heart - and the Lord. The reason for this is simple. Since God is Spirit, and of a completely different order of being than we are, only spiritual worship that offers spiritual things such as love, devotion, loyalty, obedience, mercy, praise and humility will suffice. The second aspect of worshipping God is “truth”. This word is very instructive for us. The early rabbinic scholars of Jesus’ day understood “truth” as ameth, which is spelled with letters drawn from the beginning (alef), middle (mem) and end (taw) of the Hebrew alphabet. To these rabbis, this clearly indicated that truth is the beginning, middle and end of the
spiritual life in God. Since all genuine worship praises God for who He is and what He has done, our worship should be informed, accurate and grounded in a sound view of God’s nature. It is evident that worship in spirit without truth can never provide an anchor to withstand the shifting and subjective winds of mysticism and esotericism. Alternatively, worship in truth without spirit is intellectually cold, hard, and lacks the warmth of true relationship and sincere devotion. Only worship in spirit and truth will offer a balanced approach to the Lord that will never grow old when confronted with the challenges under the sun. Rather, it will increase our capacity to enjoy and honour Him on His terms, and for what and who He is. Anything short of this would be tantamount to sincere idolatry.
we must also be able to correct them in love with truth (1 Pet 3:15; Tit. 1:9-11). Therefore, in Part II we will discuss the orthodox position of several attributes of God which will enable us to detect false doctrine. Then, in Part III we will correct some mistaken ideas of God’s nature commonly encountered within the church and disseminated through some institutions of higher education. One may be persuaded that our discussion is merely an academic or theological pursuit; however, it cannot be since right theology serves as a means to right worship of and relationship to God.
THE WAY FORWARD The best way to detect error has always been to familiarize ourselves with the truth (Jn 8:32). Government agencies have trained their personnel to recognize counterfeit currency by making themselves extremely familiar with the genuine. The same is true regarding the attributes of God. The main difference is that Christians are not content with simply detecting false notions of God
1: A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy: (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1961), 1. 2. See Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 5, 10-11.
Pastor Joseph Holden is Director of Apologetics at Calvary Chapel Bible College and the President of Veritas Evangelical Seminary in Southern California. His mission and heart is to equip the church to defend their faith and reach others outside for Christ.
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CHANGED LIVES
a CAUSE WORTH the COST Pastor Drew Davis, CC Newcastle
Drew Davis and his wife Tammy found that an unexpected change to their honeymoon destination set the course for their new life together in an altogether different direction to the one they had planned. Here Drew shares more.
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f I had to summarize the way in which God called both my wife and me to move to England it would be in the words of Proverbs 16:9 “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps”.
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hile serving at Applegate Christian Fellowship, I was engaged to my now lovely wife Tammy and we were preparing to get married in six months. Our honeymoon tickets to Hawaii had been bought and we had found a small house to rent. Altogether, our plans for the future were coming together quite nicely when it became clear that God’s plan for us was different to our own.
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hortly after booking our honeymoon trip, we bumped into an old friend of ours who had met his American wife in London while travelling in England. As we talked to them about their time in England
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I shared my long-standing desire to retrace Paul’s missionary journeys in Europe. My heart was strangely warmed when they talked about England but I never gave it any real thought until the following church service when the pastor began to share about how you know when God is moving you on into a new season of your life. As we listened, Tammy and I felt the strings of our hearts beginning to be pulled by God and we sensed that a big change of direction was coming our way.
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he following week references to England, uninitiated by us, seemed to be popping up in all of our conversations. Then one of the pastors at church even said he would be praying for us on our honeymoon
My heart was strangely warmed when they talked about England
in England. Although I told him “we have never mentioned going to England”, and “our trip is already booked to Hawaii”, his comment caused us to seriously begin to pray. After asking God if He was leading us to visit England, He spoke out of Genesis 12:1 with the same words that He spoke to Abraham, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you”. I was convinced that God was saying ‘go’, but had no idea of ‘when’. Later, as I read Paul’s exhortation to Timothy in Second Timothy, “do your utmost to come before winter” seemed to jump off the page directly into my heart from God. This freaked me out because summer was just over a month away, yet our wedding was not planned for another six months. After praying more, however, I became convinced that God wanted us to bring our wedding date forward and go to England before winter. So on 5th May I told my soon-to-be-wife Tammy not to be stressed, but that I thought we needed to marry in one month’s time on 6th June. Though she graciously agreed she thought that all the places we could marry would be booked. Miraculously, 6th June turned out to be the only date that was available during the summer and so the date was set.
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he 6th of June came quickly. We were nervous, yet very excited about God’s plans. Though we knew we were heading to England we had
Entering Newcastle for the first time our impressions of the city were much the same as those of John Wesley. no idea ‘where’ in England. Then five minutes before the wedding, in my rented tuxedo I decided to check my mailbox at the church one last time. To my surprise a missionary friend of mine living in Mexico had written saying “if someday you ever decide to take a trip to England would you please go visit my family in Newcastle?” This guy had no idea that we were getting married and planning to go to England, and I knew this was God’s leading and the answer to the ‘where’ in England we were to go.
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o the day after a beautiful and joyous wedding we packed up and headed out to visit family in California and while there we bought a bunch of unneeded backpacking gear for our trip to England. Anyone seeing us would have thought that we were heading to some very distant, remote and uncivilised country with all the gear we had. In spite of that we eventually made it to Newcastleupon-Tyne. When we arrived our hearts were broken by what we saw. Newcastle has a history of drunkenness and immorality that goes back years. John Wesley, (the esteemed preacher and founder of Methodism) had written over two hundred years earlier that there was “so much drunkenness, cursing and swearing, even from the mouths’ of children”
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We knew that this would mean leaving everything … but that God would be with us and that the cost would be worth the cause! such as he had “never witnessed before in such a short time”. “Surely,” Wesley continued in his journal on 27th May 1742, “this place is ripe for Him who came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance”. Entering Newcastle for thie first time our impressions were much the same as those of John Wesley”.
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ne place called ‘The Green’ stood out to us particularly. This is a small grassy area in the very heart of the city where hundreds of youth hang out. As my wife Tammy and I sat on this grassy field and prayed for them our hearts began to break and we began to feel a bit of what Jesus felt when surrounded by so many lost souls. The Scriptures say that Jesus was “moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). We saw a whole field of lost youth, in a city filled with immorality, and we thought to ourselves “the harvest is truly plentiful but the labourers are few”. We sensed God saying this was why He had brought us to England and that He wanted us to be witnesses of His grace in this city. We knew that this would mean leaving everything dear to us - our friends, our family, and our beloved church - but that God would be with us and that the cost would be worth the cause!
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eading back to California, we began to pray. We knew God was calling us to England but we didn’t know when. So every Tuesday for three years we had a prayer meeting at our house and took two more vision trips back to Newcastle with some of our church’s leadership. Finally, the day came when we sensed the Lord saying, “Now separate to me those who I have for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). That was nearly eight years ago when we left the States with our ninemonth old son, and a guy named Josh Schow who was going to lead worship, along with a whole bunch of boxes full of our stuff. The house we had rented over the Internet was a complete dive, and the transition to a new culture wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but God was with us every step of the way. Since then God has opened many doors for us in this city to share His grace with the people here. He’s formed a community of around eighty people from all different walks of life. Several of the youth from ‘The Green’ have given their lives to the Lord and it’s been awesome to be part of God’s plan in seeing His kingdom advanced in this city. I know He’s not done yet, and we are even now in the process of renting a building in the city centre that will house our church and a café to reach out further to the people of
God has opened many doors for us in this city to share His grace… Newcastle. I’m convinced that Tammy and I have learned more by being here than anyone will ever learn from us. To look back and see all of the little ‘God-incidences’ that needed to take place to lead us here reminds me not to overlook God’s activity in all of the ‘little’ things of life - perhaps a letter to a friend today, a short interruption from our kids or even this article I’m writing now. I have a strange sense that God is with us and lovingly leading us more than we can possibly know. To find out more about Calvary Chapel Newcastle visit: www.calvarychapelnewcastle.com or call: 07980 865755
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Christ in Britain
Brian C Nixon author & educator
Church & King
Henry II
AD 1100 - AD D1 1200 200
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In our last issue of Christ in Britain, we took a look at the life and ministry of Anselm, an Italian transplant who not only helped develop a scholarly approach to the Christian faith, but who also helped institute a strong Roman Catholic presence, in England. This Roman Catholic presence pervaded the Middle Ages and meant that the power and influence of the pope vied with, and often superseded, the power and influence of kings and countries. Anselm, however, demonstrated that an Archbishop was able to obtain the pope’s support for particular issues facing a country. But the gift of swaying the pope to side with church-related issues in opposition to the king’s yearnings and wants led, as you can imagine, to problems.
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i yyears after Anselm’s death in ive AD 1114, another issue broke forth around Anselm’s nephew, known as Abbot Anselm. It turned out that Henry I appointed a new archbishop named Ralph d’Escures whose election was not favoured by Rome. The pope, in turn appointed Abbot Anselm as the legate, hoping this appointment would override Henry’s actions but this caused even further distrust between the king and pope. Adding to this, Matilda, the legitimate daughter of Henry I, yearning to see her own son Henry I ascend to the throne, got involved in the act, adding further insult to injury. The internal family squabbles that ensured are too detailed to outline here. Suffice to say, this quarrel between Rome and England lasted for the next twenty years, causing various church enclaves, such as York, Salisbury, Lincoln and others to be drawn into this dispute. By the time Henry I died in AD 1135, some say of food poisoning, the church had seen bribes, political assaults and verbal confrontations pass its way. After a short reign by Stephen of Blios, nephew of Henry I, which resulted in a further confrontation with Matilda, known as ‘the Anarchy’, Henry II became King.
Henry II & Thomas Becket Henry II ruled England from AD 1154 to AD 1189. As mentioned above, he was the grandson of Henry I and the great-grandson of William the Conqueror. He was the first king from the House of Plantagenet, due to his mother’s second marriage to Count of Anjou or Geoffrey Plantagenet. Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine when he was nineteen and together they had eight children. Throughout his reign, as he sought reform, he disposed of nobles that disagreed with his policy. His greatest ‘blight’, however, came with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket.
Thomas Becket Thomas Becket was born around AD 1118 near London and his early life was spent in learning and gentlemanly pursuits. After gaining influence with Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Becket was appointed to several important missions to Rome, giving him prominence as a mediator, and later, as Lord Chancellor. As Lord Chancellor, Becket supported and upheld the king’s views concerning land, taxes, the church and royalty-related issues.
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Thomas Becket k Because of his reputation, King Henry I sent Henry II to live with Thomas Becket, with the expectation that Becket would tutor and lead Henry II in his royal pursuits. This expectation being met, Henry became attached to Becket, even seeing him as a foster father. In AD 1162 Thomas Becket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. At first, he supported Henry II and used their previous relationship to forge strong relations between the church and royalty. However, after an internal struggle by Thomas Becket, which concluded with his decision to become an ascetic, he began to frown upon Henry’s continual distrust of the church. Eventually, a split over land rights occurred between them and during the course of the year that followed a legal battle ensued. Henry, in an attempt to sway Becket and diminish his power and influence
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as archbishop, drew clergy into the fray. By AD 1163, Henry II and Thomas Becket were at loggerheads as Henry sought greater support from other clergy for his political agenda. In an attempt to move forward Henry II and Thomas Becket met a gathering called Clarendon where Becket was asked to sign off on Henry’s agenda. An impasse was reached when Becket, though wanting good relations between king and church in principle, refused to sign the document. By the January of AD 1164, Henry II had issued a series of edicts against Becket and by October of that year Becket was summoned to meet Henry II where he read these indictments of contempt to him. Escaping trial, Becket fled to France where he spent a few years in a Cistercian abbey, from where he petitioned the pope to excommunicate Henry II. The pope, preferring rather to rectify the problem through diplomatic means, after a squabble between Rome and Becket, convened a meeting to rectify the situation. However, in AD 1170, without the permission of Becket or the pope, the Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Salisbury held a coronation for Henry the Young, Henry’s second son. This infuriated the pope, causing him to excommunicate the two bishops and Henry II. What happened after this is of some debate. Apparently, the bishops fled
to Normandy for support and safety. Becket, in turn, used his influence and position to excommunicate other clergy and royals that went against Becket and the church.
hearing the news, Henry II began to justify himself and his actions protesting that he never intended Becket dead. Nevertheless, as a consequence, Henry II was called by the pope to undergo a severe penance at the tomb of the archbishop. In AD 1173, three years after his murder, Becket was canonized by Pope Alexander III and viewed as a martyr and saint by the people of England. His shrine at Canterbury Cathedral remains the object of pilgrims from around England.
Canterbury Cathedral
When Henry II heard this, it is reported that he said out loud, “who will get rid of this priest?”. Being overheard by his knights, it was interpreted as a command and subsequently, four knights; Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh Moreveill, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton made haste in search of Becket. On 29th December, 1170, the knights entered Canterbury Cathedral. According to one eyewitness, Edward Grim, the knights left their weapons by a nearby tree. Then approaching Becket in the church, who was either eating or praying at the time, they asked him to come to Winchester. Becket, so the story goes, refused and so one or two of the knights, retrieving their weapons, then attacked and killed Becket in the cloister in plain sight as he went to vespers. The monks quickly prepared his body for burial but word spread fast of the murder and upon
Until next time, grace and peace be with you. Brian Nixon
Brian C Nixon is a writer, teacher and broadcaster based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has co-hosted the nationally and internationally syndicated Q/A radio programme Pastor’s Perspective with Brian Brodersen and hosted His Channel Live TV.
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RESOURCES
Ministry in today’s world is a mixed bag of many styles, models, and viewpoints. Some ministry models are taken from the business world, while others from current postmodern mind-sets. The question the pastor or Christian worker should ask himself or herself is not, “Do these ministry models work?” but “Are they Biblical?” In essentials in Ministry, pastor and Bible teacher Brian Brodersen takes a much-needed look at the core areas of ministry...
TO RECEIVE YOUR PERSONAL COPY OF ESSENTIALS IN MINISTRY MINISTRY”” BE IN THE FIRST TEN PEOPLE TO WRITE IN: please send your request to: Calvary Chapel Radio, PO Box 647, BROMLEY, Kent BR1 4WQ, and remember to include your name and address.
A Word to Women Called by Name He calls His own sheep by name ... they know His voice John 10:3-4
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ave you ever been desperate for Jesus? Perhaps a profound sense of loneliness, a tragedy, a bout of illness, or the realities of life suddenly made you reach out to Jesus as never before. Mary Magdalene must have had that sense. After Jesus delivered her from a life of demonic possession (Luke 8:2), Mary dedicated her life to serving the Lord. She would accompany Him as He ministered to others. She and other women would provide for the Lord “from their substance”, feeding the Lord, finding lodging, and meeting other practical needs. She was, no doubt, a witness to the multitude of His compassionate works. She was also a witness to His crucifixion. John speaks of Mary being right by the cross as Jesus was dying, then following the body of Jesus to the sepulchre where He was laid. How disillusioned she must have been that Good seemed to be day! Her Saviour was humiliated, condemned, swallowed up in a and crucified by the religious leaders of Israel. gross miscarriage Good seemed to be swallowed up in a gross of justice. The One miscarriage of justice. The One she leaned upon and followed was dead, slain by unscrupulous she leaned upon men, and lay lifeless in a sealed stone cold tomb. … lay lifeless in a After the Passover Sabbath and successive Sabbath, Mary went with some women to the sealed stone cold tomb. Their greatest concern was not the Roman tomb. guards, but the stone that barred them from Jesus.
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She longed for Jesus alone. Arriving in the early morning hour at the tomb, they found the great stone rolled away from the door of the tomb. As they stood agog at the tomb, two men in shining raiment informed them that Jesus was indeed risen and alive. The women with Mary left to inform the disciples. Mary lingered at the tomb. She was desperate for Jesus. No angelic visitation could satisfy her yearning. Neither could her friends’ elation sway her. Longing for Jesus alone, she wept until her sight failed her. “Woman why are you weeping?” came the words from someone in the garden as they approached. Supposing this figure to be the gardener Mary reached out, and gripping him cried, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away”. Precious Mary, willing to bear the body of Jesus all by herself, if only she could yet be near Him. “Mary!” the figure spoke. At the sound of her name, Mary knew it was Jesus that she was grasping and all at once she was filled with immense joy. In John 10, Jesus spoke of knowing His sheep by name. It is not only the way the Good Shepherd knows each name; it is the way Jesus pronounces each name. Mary recognized Him immediately by the way He said her name. It was in the inflection in His voice as he said her name that Mary heard the love, the compassion and the power she knew so well.
When life gives you a bad turn, and it will, get desperate for Jesus. Don’t let anything less satisfy that longing. Wait for Him. Listen for His voice. He will say your name as no one else can.
Cheryl Brodersen
A Bible teacher who loves to explore the treasures of God’s Word. Here, Cheryl highlights some of the timeless truths found in the lives of women in the Word. To hear more of Cheryl’s messages tune in to Gracious Words on Calvary Chapel Radio each Saturday at 12.00 noon and 20.00 pm.
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Your gift from
In the latest addition to it’s hugely successful WOW series, Provident’s WOW Essentials 2 offering assembles twelve of the most well-known and best-loved Christian songs in to one collection. Featuring favourites such as Jar of Clay’s “Flood”, Chris Tomlin’s “How Great Is Our God’ and Aaron Shust’s “My Saviour My God”, this collection has so inspired and impacted believers around the globe that it’s songs have become anthems of our faith today.
To receive your FREE music CD “WOW ESSENTIALS 2” be in the first ten people to write in. Please send your request to: Calvary Chapel Radio, PO Box 647, BROMLEY, Kent BR1 4WQ, and remember to include your name and address.
TOTAL DEVOTION
CONFIDENCE IN GOD ““... ... being bein confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work w in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Phil 1:6
T
his has to be one of the most reassuring verses in the Bible. Paul says that he is confident that God is able to continue the work He has started.
We can’t change ourselves. I wish I had that confidence. I worry – yes, worry, when I know I shouldn’t— that I might mess things up so badly that failure is the only outcome. But you know what? Sometimes failure is the only outcome. Sometimes we just can’t make happen what we want to happen. We can’t change ourselves. We can’t be who we want to be or live up to others’ expectations. It’s maddening—and sometimes depressing. Paul went so far as to cry one day in sheer frustration and spiritual agony: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”( Romans 7:24).
Who? We know Who. Hebrews 12:2 reminds us: “... looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Paul knew Who would never leave him nor forsake him and Who would continue to work in his life.
… until the day we go to heaven, He continues to work in our lives. We can be confident that God, through Jesus Christ, will continue to work out the plan for our lives that He ordained from the foundations of the world. He knows who we are. He knows our weakness and vulnerabilities. He doesn’t want us to ignore those parts of our lives or fear them - He knows what it will take for us to stay close to Him, to know without a doubt, that nothing will ever separate us from His love, and that until the day we go to heaven, He continues to work in our lives.
WHEW! What a relief !
Pastor Ray Bentley Ray Bentley is pastor of Maranatha Chapel in Southern California. A regular contributor on Calvary Chapel Radio, his radio programme Maranatha Radio aims to take ‘the whole Gospel to the whole world’. As well as serving a 6000-weekly congregation, he has in recent years had increased opportunities to preach to the masses in crusades in India, Africa, Bolivia, Australia and Ireland..
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CHURCHES IN FELLOWSHIP WITH CALVARY CHAPEL
“... I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it”. Matt. 16:18b
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ENGLAND Grace Fellowship Ashford John Tanton
Calvary Chapel Hastings Doug Keen
01233 639105 www.gracefellowship.co.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am
01424 422770 www.calvarychapelhastings.co.uk Sunday Service 10.30am
Calvary Chapel Birmingham
Calvary Chapel Spring Valley, Kendal
07838 119297 0121 778 1353 www.calvarychapelbirmingham.co.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am Church on the Way, Bradford Jim King
01274 617737 www.cotw.org.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am & 7.00 pm Calvary Chapel by the Sea, Bridlington Loren Combs
01262 678328 www.calvarybythesea.org.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am Calvary Chapel Cambridge Joey Rozek
07766 540241 www.calvarychapelcambridge.com Sunday Service 10.30 am
Jeff Cuozzo
01539 821397 www.ccspringvalley.co.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am Calvary Chapel King’s Lynn Vincent Proffit
07533 704315 Sunday & Thursday Services 7.00 pm Calvary Chapel Docklands Marshall Alnutt
07903 311650 www.calvarychapeldocklands.co.uk Sunday Service 12.30 pm Calvary Chapel Leatherhead Matt Kottman
01372 200570 www.ccleatherhead.com Sunday Service 10.00 am Calvary Chapel South London
Deal Christian Fellowship
Patrick Pierre-Powell
Bob Forder
07904 039864 www.calvarychapelsouthlondon.org Sunday Service 11.00 am
01304 365226 www.calvarychapeldeal.co.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am Calvary Chapel Exeter Damian Velarde
07765 076592 www.calvaryexeter.co.uk Sunday Morning 11.00 am Calvary Chapel Harrogate Michael Howard
01423 889 638 www.calvarychapelharrogate.com Sunday Service 10.30 am
Calvary Chapel Twickenham Rob Dingman
020 8979 6260 www.calvarychapeltwickenham.com Sunday Service 10.30 am Calvary Chapel Westminster Alwyn Wall
LONDON
Rich Bustraan
020 7828 5520 www.calvarylondon.co.uk Sunday Services 9.00, 11.00 am & 6.00 pm
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Calvary Chapel Mansfield
Calvary Chapel Torbay
Bryce Heard
Laurie Brown
01623 652297 www.calvarychapelmansfield.org.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am
01803 389365 07780 692146 www.calvarychapeltorbay.com Sunday Service 10.30 am
Calvary Chapel Newcastle Drew Davis
Calvary Chapel Warrington
0191 241 2662 www.calvarychapelnewcastle.com Sunday Service 2.00 pm
Mike Hoile
Calvary Chapel Norwich John Brown
Calvary Chapel Woolacombe
01603 259309 www.calvarychapelnorwich.com Sunday Service 10.30 am
Olly Young
Calvary Chapel Fellowship Otley
01271 871027 www.calvarywoolacombe.com Sunday Service 10.30 am
Peter Aspinall
Calvary Chapel York
01943 850092 www3.calvarychapel/otley Sunday Service 10.00 am
Dave Sylvester
Calvary Chapel Oxford Phil Vickery
01904 638777 www.calvaryyork.com Sunday Services 10.30 am & 7.00 pm
01865 864498 www.calvarychapeloxford.org.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am
IRELAND
Calvary Chapel Portsmouth
085144 3595 www.calvarycork.org Sunday Service 11.15 am
Ron Matsen
0239 226 2406 07860 10070 www.calvaryportsmouth.co.uk Sunday Services 10.30 am & 6.30 pm Calvary Chapel Southampton Simon Lawrenson
023 8057 1219 07787 516928 www.calvarychapelsouthampton.co.uk Sunday Service 10.30 am Calvary Chapel Stockport Kirk Crager
0161 286 8258 www.calvarystockport.co.uk Sunday Services 10.30 am & 6.30 pm
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01925 456461 www.calvarychapelwarrington.org Sunday Service 10.30 am
Calvary Chapel Cork Mike Neglia
Crosspoint, Dublin Kevin Fitzgerald
01497 0374 08777 68150 www.crosspoint.ie Sunday Service 10.00 am & 11.45 am Calvary Gailimh Galway Ray Clancy
087970 5855 www.calvarygalway.com Sunday Service 11.30 am
NORTHERN IRELAND Harvest, Ballymena
Calvary Christian Fellowship Motherwell
William Olphert
Dave Simpson
028 2568313 www.harvestni.co.uk Sunday Service 11.00 am
01698 254 848 www.calvarymotherwell.org Sunday Services 11.00 am & 6.30 pm
SCOTLAND Calvary Chapel Ayr Alex Henderson
01292 280034 www.calvaryayr.org.uk Sunday Service 10.00 am Calvary Christian Fellowship Carluke Jim Tatton
01555 772893 www.calvarycarluke.com Sunday Services 11.00 am & 6.30 pm* (*every 3rd Sunday in month) Calvary Chapel Dunfermline Ken Scott
01383 738419 www.calvarydunfermline.org Sunday Services 11.00 am
Calvary Chapel Stirling Stuart Gillespie
O7940 979503 www.calvarystirling.org Sunday Service 6.30 pm
WALES Calvary Chapel Cardiff John Vickery
02920 371327 www.calvarycardiff.com Sunday Service 11.00 am Calvary Chapel Swansea Clint Pickens
01792 641601 www.calvarychapelswansea.com Sunday Services 11.00 am
Dan Starling
0131 660 4535 www.calvarychapeledinburgh.com Sunday Service 11.15 am
CALVARY CHAPEL BIBLE COLLEGES
Calvary Chapel Glasgow
CARDIFF, Wales
Matt McGoldrick
02920 371327 www.calvarycardiff.com
0141 337 1716 www.calvaryglasgow.com Sunday Service 11.00 am Inverness Bible Fellowship
YORK, England
01904 638777 www.calvaryyork.com
Leo Rose
01463 798151 www.biblefellowship.co.uk Sunday Service 11.00 am Calvary Chapel Kilmarnock Tony Kordakis
01563 539813 www.calvarykilmarnock.org Sunday Service 10.30 am
CALVARY CHAPEL RADIO PO Box 647 Bromley Kent BR1 4WQ 0208 466 5365 www.calvarychapelradio.co.uk
MINISTRIES
Calvary Chapel Edinburgh
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PROGRAMME GUIDE MONDAY - FRIDAY 00.00 Walk in the Light with Bil Gallatin 00.30 Searchlight with Jon Courson 01.00 Praise & Worship 02.00 Pastor’s Perspective Repeat 05.00 Answers in Genesis with Ken Ham 05.03 Daily Devotional with Dorothy Bennett 05.15 Words of Life with Bob Caldwell 05.30 Line upon Line with Rob Dingman 06.00 Maranatha Radio with Ray Bentley 06.30 The Word for Today with Chuck Smith 07.00 Back to Basics with Brian Brodersen 07.30 Matters of the Heart with Ken Ortize 08.00 Walk in the Light with Bil Gallatin 08.30 Calvary Chapel Corona with Mike Rodriquez 09.00 Calvary Chapel Oxford with Phil Vickery 09.30 Anchored Deep with Matt Kottman 10.00 Words of Life with Bob Caldwell 10.15 Answers in Genesis with Ken Ham 10.18 Daily Devotional with Dorothy Bennett 10.30 Maranatha Radio with Ray Bentley 11.00 Back to Basics with Brian Brodersen
12.00 Praise & Worship 12.30 Matters of the Heart with Ken Oztize 13.00 The Word for Today with Chuck Smith 13.30 Line upon Line with Rob Dingman 14.00 Calvary Chapel Corona with Mike Rodriquez 14.30 Riches of Grace with John Vickery 15.00 Praise & Worship 17.00 Anchored Deep with Matt Kottman 17.30 Answers in Genesis with Ken Ham 17.33 Daily Devotional with Dorothy Bennett 17.45 Words of Life with Bob Caldwell 18.00 Searchlight with Jon Courson 18.30 Line upon Line with Rob Dingman 19.00 The Word for Today with Chuck Smith 19.34 Walk in the Light with Bil Gallatin 20.00 Pastor’s Perspective 21.00 Matters of the Heart with Ken Ortize 21.30 Maranatha Radio with Ray Bentley 22.00 Back to Basics with Brian Brodersen 22.30 Calvary Chapel Corona with Mike Rodriquez 23.00 Riches of Grace with John Vickery 23.30 Calvary Chapel Oxford with Phil Vickery
11.30 Searchlight with Jon Courson
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
00.00 Praise & Worship
00.00 Praise & Worship
09.00 The Urban Mission Show
08.00 The Word for Today with Chuck Smith
11.00 Front Page Radio with Dan Wooding
11.00 Back to Basics with Brian Brodersen
11.30 Road 2 Reality with KP Yohannan
13.00 Praise & Worship
12.00 Gracious Words with Cheryl Brodersen
16.00 Calvary Chapel South London Various
12.30 The Word for Today with Churck Smith
17.00 Line upon Line with Rob Dingman
13.00 Praise & Worship
18.00 Living Grace with Martyn Lloyd-Jones
16.00 Best of Pastor’s Perspective
19.00 Back to Basics with Brian Brodersen
19.00 Road 2 Reality with KP Yohannan
21.00 Searchlight with Jon Courson
19.30 The Word for Today with Churck Smith 20.00 Gracious Words with Cheryl Brodersen 20.30 Front Page Radio with Dan Wooding 21.00 The Urban Mission Show
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PASTORS AIR PASTORS ONONAIR Ray Bentley Maranatha Radio www.maranathachapel.org
Mike Rodriquez Calvary Chapel Corona www.calvarycorona.org
Brian Brodersen Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa www.backtobasicsradio.com
Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa www.thewordfortoday.org
Bob Caldwell Calvary Chapel Boise www.ccboise.org
John Vickery Calvary Chapel Cardiff www.calvarycardiff.com
Jon Courson Searchlight Ministry www.joncourson.com
Phil Vickery Calvary Chapel Oxford www.calvarychapeloxford.com
Rob Dingman Calvary Chapel Twickenham www.calvarychapeltwickenham.com
Dan Wooding Front Page Radio www.assistnews.net
Bil Gallatin Calvary Chapel Finger Lakes www.ccfingerlakes.org
KP Yohannan Road 2 Reality www.road2reality.org.uk
Ken Ham Answers in Genesis www.answersradio.com Martyn Lloyd-Jones MLJ Recording Trust www.mlj.org.uk
Patrick Pierre-Powell
Robert Prendergast
Efrem Buckle
Calvary Chapel South London www.calvarychapelsouthlondon.org
Women's Ministryy
Matt Kottman Calvary Chapel Leatherhead www.calvarychapelleatherhead.com
Dorothy Bennett Daily Devotional
Ken Ortize Calvary Chapel Spokane www.calvaryspokane.com
Cheryl Brodersen Gracious Words
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