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By pastorbillwalden
Busyness is a huge hindrance to a devotional life. Social media can become a useless addiction. Bible reading and prayer is a discipline that must be cultivated, but which brings huge eternal rewards both for the one doing them, and potentially to everyone they know.
I am enjoying enjoying people. (Not a typo)
I continue to learn that I don’t need to label people, fix people, or something similar.
If I believe the Gospel in all things, I won’t be ashamed of it, because I will be changed by it. We are not ashamed of things that change us for good.
Romans 1:16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes…
By pastorbillwalden
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa has launched a new website. It can be found here.
It features blog articles by Chuck Smith, Brian Broderson, David Guzik, Ken Sutton, and yours truly.
Also on the site are video and audio clips from Brian Broderson, Greg Laurie, and various teachers.
Finally, there are also commentaries on many books of the Bible by very gifted pastor/teachers.
Drop by for a visit, and leave a comment.
Blessings….
By pastorbillwalden
For friends of Bobby Knight: A memorial service for Bobby will be held on Saturday, February 25, @ 1p.m., @ Cornerstone Ministries. The address is 3305 Linda Vista Avenue. www.cmnv.org
An hors d’oeuvre reception will follow the memorial service. Donations will be accepted by Cornerstone Ministries to defray costs for Bobby’s funeral home expenses.
Please copy and paste of you were a friend of Bobby’s. Thanks.
By pastorbillwalden
Yesterday, on February 12, 2012, Whitney Houston died. She was known and adored by millions. Today, February 13, 2012, Bobby Knight died. He may have been known only by hundreds.
Other than both of them expressing faith in Jesus, their lives could not have been more different.
Bobby was 52 when he passed. He was mentally and physically handicapped. He was strong enough to ride his full sized three wheel bike all over Napa, and he could often be seen pedaling around town.
During Christmas season, Bobby would decorate his three wheel bike, and ride around town. His portable stereo would play Christmas carols, and he was a frequent entry in Christmas and seasonal parades, sometimes receiving recognition and awards for his creativity.
Bobby often called our church office, or would come by. Sometimes he would be asking for financial help, but usually he had spiritual questions. He listened to a lot of Christian radio and watched a lot of Christian T.V. He often asked us about “last days” events, and why there was so much turmoil in the world. The conversations were very repetitive. Sometimes we didn’t have a lot of time to talk to Bobby, but most of the time we did. We were always willing to talk to him. Sometimes we couldn’t, because he was relentless in asking Biblical questions and required a lot of time, but I never regretted one conversation I had with him. It was always “real”, and there was no guile at all in Bobby’s heart. He was seriously concerned with evil in the world, as constantly asked if we were getting closer to the return of Jesus.
We shared Biblical truth with him as much as we could. He carried around a notebook, or papers, with key Biblical phrases and verses. It would help him remember what questions to ask.
Bobby really struggled with understanding the violence in Israel, and around the world. He just could not understand why people treated each other so terribly. It really upset him. Bobby had a tremendously tender heart.
This last Christmas, Bobby watched our Christmas service on TV. He loved the music so much that he made a special trip to the church to ask for a dvd of the music. I am glad to have been able to burn that dvd for him. He was thrilled.
Every conversation would end with Bobby saying the same thing: “I love Jesus, I really do. And I love you guys, and I am praying for you.” I never doubted once that Bobby loved me, and that he had been praying for me.
I know that Bobby must have had a number of people helping him. People who made special clothes to fit him. People who rented a place to him. I know he had a social worker. His brother Richard also helped care for him.
I extend condolences to all who are saddened by Bobby’s passing, and I say thank you for helping Bobby make it in this world. He could not have done it alone.
Bobby had the faith of a child. That was the only kind of faith he could have. His mental capacities were limited. His body was limited. But his heart and faith were huge. I have no doubt, but that Bobby is now wonderfully, comfortably, and fearlessly in the presence of Jesus.
Editor’s Note- Plans for a memorial service are pending. I will post here and on facebook when plans are finalized.
By pastorbillwalden
In the late 70′s, I was singing in club bands. In 1980 I came back to Jesus and sang in a Christian band. It was God’s timing for a mini repeat of the Jesus people movement revival in So Cal and beyond, and I got to be a part of it. 
As a result, all these years later, I was interviewed (along with many other more well known musicians & singers) for a new documentary on the history of Christian rock.
Here is a link to both a trailer of the movie, and a link to support the movie financially if you feel so inclined.
I think that there is much in this documentary that needs to be heard. The producers of this film are good guys that love Jesus.
By pastorbillwalden
A must read by my friend Tim Brown, pastor of Calvary Chapel of Fremont. Click here.
By pastorbillwalden
A music group from Napa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRoKUm3MDIk
By pastorbillwalden
Deuteronomy 4:23, 24 23Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Hebrews 12:22-29 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29For our God is a consuming fire.
AO
It is late, I am am having another one of those frightening moments with God. It is one of those times that we might be afraid to talk about, because people might ask too many questions, and we can’t quite explain ourselves, or we might start talking and have a terribly wonderfully frightening epiphany in front of someone when we’d actually prefer to be alone.
It is far too easy to bump along in the Christian life and not be frightened, shocked, or righteously bothered by God. We have sanitized much of our Christian faith. We have made it predictable, safe, and manageable. We do what we do, we know what needs to be done, we have committed to rightly turning away from some things and turning to others. That’s all well and good.
But every once in a while, God silently shocks me. He privately undoes me. He intimidates me as he holds me in His grace. He reinforces the truth that He is a Jealous God and a Consuming Fire.
AO
He wants more of me. He demands more of me, but doesn’t force me to surrender. And yet, where is this pressure coming from? How can He not be demanding me, and yet so strongly be reminding me that He is a Consuming Fire, and a Jealous God?
Songs about God being jealous for us and being a Consuming Fire should not be sung in major keys or in 6/8. It’s not strong enough. Consuming Fire and Holy Jealousy demands a stronger beat and a demanding melody. Maybe we need some of our “worship” songs that have some holy terror to them. Maybe we need some actual awe in some of our “awesome” worship. Maybe we just need some “awe”, knowing that appropriate worship will follow?
AO
What is more important is that “I” have an awe of this wonderful, terrifying, holy, consuming, jealous God that I’d rather be friends with than be a slave to.
Maybe I am so “comforted” by His grace that I have lost some of the “shock and awe” that Isaiah experienced.
PRAYER- “God, please keep me righteously fearful of you as I rest peacefully in your arms of grace”.
