Calvary Chapel North Phoenix

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

Bob Claycamp was born in Oregon into the Christian home of Elmer and Alta Claycamp. He and his older sister, Bev, were raised to believe that God existed and loved each person, and that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.

But as Bob entered his teen years, he began to stray from these Biblical values established at home, and progressively entered the world of rock bands, drugs and immorality.

When Bob was a sophomore in high school, his mother died of cancer. This further drove him to find what was the true meaning of life.  He opened his mind to the occult and the paranormal, and his drug use increased.

A few times he almost killed himself in his quest to find answers.  But after graduating from high school, he met a few Christian young people who were very zealous for Christ.  They attended a black Pentecostal church in N.E. Portland.  Since they were renting rooms in the big three story house the rock band had rented, this put the gospel of Jesus Christ right in his face night and day.  After weeks and weeks of debate and discussion, the Holy Spirit began to draw him into a saving relationship with Jesus.  He and his high school sweetheart, Jeanne, prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.  Things in their life started changing immediately.

An elderly white-haired saddle maker named Nick Gray introduced himself to Bob and Jeanne one Sunday night at church and began to disciple them in the Scriptures.  He told them about a youth ministry that had recently moved up to Eugene, Oregon from a church in California (Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa), and took them down to meet this group.  From this point on this youth group (Shiloh Youth Revival Centers) became the greenhouse for Bob and Jeanne’s Christian growth and ministry.

Bob and Jeanne married at age 18 in the beginning of 1970 and lived in several of the dormitory-style Christian youth houses that were springing up all over the country.  This was the beginning of an eight and a half year involvement in Shiloh.  Then in 1973 they moved out to the main Study Center in Dexter, Oregon where Bob became one of the teachers of the foundational Bible School for the youth ministry.

In 1978 Shiloh closed down.  Bob and Jeanne and their two sons, Micah and Jesse, moved to Arizona.  After about three years selling insurance, and a third child later (Christopher), Bob began pastoring a small group of believers (1981) in the north part of Phoenix, which became known as Calvary Chapel North Phoenix.  Since this church began, fourteen churches and ministries have been planted, and many worship leaders raised up and sent out.  Truly this has been entirely by the grace of God and the obedience of the many brethren that have been members of our church.

You can e-mail Pastor Bob if you have any questions.