Calvary Chapel North Phoenix

As an update to my previous note, we are NOT going to cancel the LIVE feed of our services on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights. We discovered that we were still under contract with Qwest for those T1 lines for a couple of years. The cost of cancelation was not worth it at this time. So we will just continue with what’s already set up. If you have a Mac computer, you cannot view the live service even on Flip4Mac program unless you go to our website through a side Windows OS [those of you with Mac computers understand most of this ]

Pastor Bob Claycamp

Wow! What a year it has been! Here we are at the beginning of a new year. God has been faithful to see us through. It really is important to stop and say, “Thanks!” to Him for His faithfulness.

There are a few changes that will be taking place. Our office hours will go back to Monday through Friday, 9 am – 4:30 pm. My office days will be Tues-Fri., Pastor Jesse’s office days will be Mon-Thurs, Pastor Chris’ office days will be Mon-Thurs noon.

We are looking for more volunteers to help out with landscaping and maintenance of our campus. Also for those of you currently unemployed, may I suggest coming down to the church and just offering to freely serve the Lord in whatever need comes up during the week?

If you would like to be put on the emergency prayer team listserver for 2010 to faithfully pray for urgent needs that arise within our congregation, please send a note to prayer@calvarynorth.com and our host, Dale Peterson, will send you the guidelines.

In our continuing effort to work within the funds given to the work of the Lord here at Calvary, we will need to stop the Live Webcast of our services. The video of the Sunday and Wednesday services will still be available on our website, though, as will the audio of the messages.

The Women’s Bible Study will be starting back up Tuesday, Jan. 12. Jeanne Claycamp will be teaching through the Book of Ruth. The morning study with childcare begins at 9:00 am and the evening study without childcare begins at 6:30 pm. These studies will be held in the Fellowship Hall (Bldg. F).

Beginning Wed. evenings, Jan. 13 (Micah Claycamp’s birthday!), Pastor Jesse will be taking over the service. He is going to start off teaching through the Book of Jonah. Pastor Jesse is also going to be taking over the youth ministry for the next three months and working with other volunteers and leaders to prepare for a future youth pastor.

Don Hodges will be taking over the Men’s ministry and the Men’s study will start back up Thursday, Jan. 14. Dinner will begin at 6:00 pm and the study will start at 7:00 pm. The men will meet in the Fellowship Hall (Bldg. F).

We will be having a “State of the Fellowship” night on Sunday night, Jan. 31, 6:30-7:30 pm. This will be my opportunity to share how the Lord has used our church and the vision for the future. I believe this is more than a ‘business meeting’. It has to do with communicating our purpose and goal as a church in these last days.

We have many more opportunities to serve the Lord and become involved here at Calvary. Home Fellowships, Children’s ministry, Missions, Local outreaches, are just a few of them. Please check our weekly bulletin for more information.

I will be expanding my ministry to include helping out other Calvary pastors around the state this next year. I ask for your prayers as I believe I need to take my many years of ministerial experience and be more available to others in ministry positions. I also will be working on putting into book form the WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? series on 1 Corinthians 13. Also I want to give specially focused studies on marriage, household financial management, and other teachings.

I give thanks to the Lord for all the prayers you have offered up to Him in behalf of our church and for my family personally. May the Lord pour out His grace and mercy upon your lives and show you His love in fresh new ways this coming year!

Pastor Bob Claycamp

I was reading in 2 Corinthians yesterday and came across two verses that stood out to me. As I read them I thought about what is happening in our economy. Believers in Christ are not immune from the fallout of the recession. But our glorious hope is what God wants to do in us and through us in the midst of it all.

Here’s the Scripture:

2 Cor 1:8-9
8 We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

The part that struck me was when Paul said: “But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God…”

When the bottom drops out of our plans, our patterns, our purpose God is right there by means of the Holy Spirit to help us if we will call upon Him.

As a church body, we have families that are doing better than they have in years, and we have families that are ready to fall apart…and all points in between!

It’s easy to just get by and ignore what others are dealing with because “its taken so long to finally get things settled in our own life”.

Being a disciple of Jesus means following Him every day, not visa-versa. When you get up in the morning, ask the Lord to go before you that day. Ask Him to open your eyes to the situations that come across your pathway.

Its not that we ’second-guess’ everything and spiritualize all of it; its just that we all need to bring Him into all that we do on a conscious level throughout the day. Amen?

May the Lord continue to pour out His grace and blessing upon your lives.

CHOOSING TO BE THANKFUL

“in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”        1 Thes. 5:18

In a year that has been full of changes and concerns, we have a daily opportunity to choose thankfulness.  So often our natural tendency is to complain when things don’t go our way.  We can easily harbor bitterness at God or others for not working according to our expectations.

You may have seen chaos in your family, or turmoil in your financial future, or devastation of your hopes and dreams.  How has it effected you?  Is there peace from Jesus guarding your heart through these times, or grudges growing in the depths of your soul?  Are you resting in His will and control, or throwing tantrums over what you can’t control anyway?

In everything we can give thanks simply because God is worthy of our thanks.  Circumstances may be hard, suffering may be our lot, but God is still worthy to be thanked.  Our challenge in difficulties is first a choice of faith.

Will I choose to thank Him for salvation which is secure?  Will I choose to thank Him for riches in heaven that don’t rust away?  Will I choose to thank Him for His love for me?  Will I choose to thank Him for being my Savior from sin and death?

Will I choose to thank Him for His will when I don’t understand it at the time?  Will I choose to thank Him for His past cares, His present faithfulness, and His future promises?

See, when we choose to be thankful today, we aren’t ignoring the pain of the present, we are facing it in the power of God.  A thankful heart finds the Lord in the storms, rests in His care, and chooses to stay close to Him until the storm passes.  He is our refuge and our song!   Thank Him today for His love endures forever!

God bless,

Pastor Jesse Claycamp

Greetings to all of you as you approach the end of the year! May the Lord pour out His grace upon every area of your lives! May He open your eyes to how deep and wide His love is toward you!

There are many challenges facing the families in our society and even in our congregation as we come to the close of 2007. All of the commercial marketing methods and cultural expectations (especially at this season) bring a tremendous demands upon us.

These things can cause us to alter sound thinking and go way beyond what we can really afford. They can really take away from focusing on what this season is truly all about: rejoicing in the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So let me put this additional challenge before all of us: Live simply on purpose. What do I mean by this? Willingly cut back on services and outings that we can live without as an individual or a family.

But there must be a higher purpose that motivates us than just seeing if we can live without these things. There needs to be an inner directive that living more simply will open up avenues of being more sensitive to help out others.

And for the believer in Jesus Christ, they have that special person of the Holy Spirit to give them unique prompting to step forward and offer aid.

Here’s what living simply on purpose might look like for some of you: rather than going out to eat so often, how about limiting those events to one special time a month?

Can you reduce your Starbuck’s intake in half? What about going to the movies less often? Instead rent a classic movie and making a special night at home with popcorn and soda? Take the difference monetarily and set it aside. Ask the Lord to give you direction on where it should go.

Living simply on purpose as a Christian has as its basis this reality: every single thing we have or will ever receive comes ultimately from the hand of God. It is put into our hands by Him as a stewardship.

I would encourage you (if you haven’t already done so) to set up a simple budget of your income and expenses. Give God the firstfruits, and then be faithful to follow those directives by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes God cuts back our resources so that we will turn to Him afresh and renew the reality that all resources come from Him.

Yes, He uses our work, our wisdom, our efforts; but the income and benefits ultimately still all come from His hand.

For the believer in Jesus Christ, living by faith on the promises of God is something we too often buffer ourselves from. But in this uncertain economy, there are going to be new opportunities to be schooled in this discipline of living by faith. And this is where we are going to learn new lessons about His faithfulness.

I would encourage you to sit down in a quiet place and ask God to take control of your finances. Ask Him also to change any of your habits and desires that seem to undercut what He’s trying to do in your life. May He give you the ability to live simply on purpose.

May you be open and ready to share with others who you know are needy. May the Lord be strong in our behalf as individuals, as families and as a church body.

Pastor Bob Claycamp