Life brings us so many situations that sometimes we try to do things on our own.  Instead of letting go, we hold on to them.  We look for refuge through relationships, friends and other means of satisfaction.  Yet God tells us throughout the Scriptures, "Come to me, I will be your refuge." Join us  we take a look at a simple message that we may have heard so many times, yet a message that needs to be continually spoken, reminding us of Gods faithfulness....as long as he is our refuge. Spoken at Big Valley Christian High School.  Oct. 26, 2012     His call.  His gift you.  Your purpose.  Irrevocable.

Spoken at Big Valley Christian High School, join us as we take a look at sin, forgivness and a marriage proposal for you and me! His call.  His gift for you.  Your purpose. Irrevocable.

This week begins the final leg to the White House as the Party conventions begin.   I usually do not write about politics, yet this cycle I speak as a watchman.   A watchman was one who stood guard on the tower of the wall surrounding the city.   If the guard saw the enemy coming over the horizon he would call the alarm to warn everyone to grab their arms.   As servants of the Lord we have a responsibility to cry out to a culture, even when we do not want to.   It goes against the norm.   It goes against complacency.   You are ridiculed.   You are called a fanatical or religious wacko.   You are called out of touch.    I do not profess to have some power to see the future.   I do not proclaim to be a psychic!    So take this or leave it!   I write this as one who is taking a step back, looking at culture and asking the Lord, what is going on?  Why has our culture and way of life seem upside down.  I b...

How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win                                                        -G.K. Chesterton Jeremiah was locked up in prison. He had been speaking on God's behalf, yet the king did not like what he heard, and threw him in prison. While in prison Jeremiah prays and brings before God his need. Yet in Chapter 33 we see the following words...'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' In the midst of Jeremiah's woes, God said 'Call me and I will answer you!' God does not stop there though.....'I will tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know!'  Let that sink in!  So many times we try to do t...

What song consumes your mind?   When you wake up…what tune plays in your head?   When you lay down to go to sleep and the quietness of the room begins to be filled with a melody…what song begins to fill the emptiness?   Music has such an influence in our lives.   From the beginning of time we see God give the gift of music.   In Genesis 4:20-22 it reads, “Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes . Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of [ bronze and iron.”               The gift of music is powerful and such a blessing to our lives.   It expresses feelings.   Joy.   Pain. Anger. Love.   The emotions that can be stirred by one song can lift us up and make the day memorable!   Whenever I hear L...

Why worship?   We do it every Sunday or the gathering of the believers.   We enter church.   The music plays.   Pastor comes up for announcement.   Offering and then special number.   Pastor speaks.   Close in prayer, go home.   Sound familiar?   In recent years I have stepped back in service or my high school chapel to watch people.   My heart breaks as I see arms folded.   Hands in pockets.   Lips barely moving as to show, “I’m singing, but I do not want anybody to hear me”.   Talking to neighbors.   Not engaged.   I’m not talking about style of worship.   I’m not talking about a tingly feeling that comes and go’s.   I’m not talking about lights off and the candles lit.   I’m not even talking about the “go to a station, draw a picture and let God know how you feel” moment! I’m talking about attitude.   Worship IS important, not only in church, but in your personal life!   And that my ...

Matthew 4:8-11   Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”  Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him." Connecting with God is perhaps the most important outcome facilitated by churches. Most people (66%) feel they have had “a real and personal connection” with God while attending church. However, that means one-third of those who have attended a church in the past have never felt God’s presence while in a congregational setting. Also, when asked about frequency, most of those who have attended church describe these encounters as rare. One-third of all adults in the country report connecting with God at least monthly (35%) via a congregational setting. Among those who attend church ev...

After thirty years of ministry Paul was in the process of passing the baton to the likes of Timothy. Paul’s instruction to Timothy was not only based on the importance of running a church. Throughout 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, Paul is reminding Timothy of his worldview, that with which he had been equipped earlier as he served as a travel companion/disciple. “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them great numbers of teachers to say wh...

A student goes out and interviews a stranger on the street, “How do you see human beings?” For the last ten years I have been assigning this project I have heard so many answers to this question. I have heard the science guy compare human life to that of a machine destined, to one day find themselves as a super human being! I heard a young man say that human life was a higher evolved animal with the sole purpose to procreate. In the midst of these various worldviews when the Christian is asked the same question, we get the same answer, “Created in the image of God.” Yet what does that mean? Emil Brunner explains it this way in his book, Man in Revolt: A Christian Anthropology. Brunner uses the Bible as his foundation to come up with two senses of the image of God. This includes the formal image which distinguishes man from an animal. In the formal image, man is able to have free choice and be rational. So the formal image may say that when God created Adam and Eve (mankind) they were h...

Peter was asked this question, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15, NIV) Peter’s answer defined Jesus. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Those few words have turned a culture upside down. Peter’s answer set the stage for a debate that has lasted for centuries. Today the challenge is more evident as culture tries to take the divinity out of Christ and make him into an ordinary man who happened to be holy. The answer brings us to fork in the road, either Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah or he is not. The church must rise up and provide an answer in this age of information, for if we do not, someone will deconstruct the very figure of Jesus Christ. What a great opportunity we have to share the hope of Christ. We live in a time where everything is relative, even in the areas of faith. The doors of opportunity are opening and if we do not have the answer to the “why’s” and the “what’s”, we will miss that chance to be used by God. Our culture cries for all religio...

In Christian Theology, Millard J. Erickson defines inerrancy in the following manner,” inerrancy of Scripture is the doctrine that the Bible is fully truthful in all its teachings” (Erickson pg 247) The key words I would like to focus on are “truthful in all its teachings”. One of the main arguments of our postmodern culture is the claim that the Bible is full of contradictions or mistakes. When the content of their claims is further studied, we find that the accusations fall pretty short. An example of that would be the use of names in the culture of biblical times and the rounding of numbers as described in chapter eleven on pg. 261. Could the Bible contain written mistakes, such as misspelled words? It’s possible. Could the Scriptures contain simular accounts of the same event as described by the witness? It’s possible. Yet we must ask ourselves the question, who is the focus of the Gospel? As a body of believers, Jesus is the focus, not inerrancy. Even though inerrancy is important...

The journal article, JESUS RESSURECTION AND CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM: AN APOLOGETIC by Gary R. Habermas, deals with a pivotal point in Christian theology, and that is the claim of the resurrection of Jesus. In a quote used by Habermas he states, “Christianity stands or fails with the reality of the raising of Jesus from the dead by God.”1 G. Bornkamm is also used to stress the importance of this event. He states, “ there would be no gospel, not one account, no letter in the NT, no faith, no church, no worship, no prayer in Christendom to this day without the message of the resurrection of Christ. . . ."2 The content of the thesis is to look at contemporary approaches to the resurrection and ask ourselves, can they be apologetically answered as a historical event? Habermas writes, “…the major theme of this essay is to point out how the resurrection can be historically demonstrated even by such skeptical standards of investigation.3 Habermas builds his case by laying down a claim ...

COMING THIS FEBRUARY! Irrevocable Call is turning 2 years old! To kick off the celebration we are kicking it off with..... ....The Evantrepreneur! Calling all entrepreneurs!!!!! A blog dedicated to Christian entrepreneurs impacting the marketplace! Faith , Character , and Vision ! Three areas that I believe is the foundation for our businesses as believers. Come and be encouraged! Podcast! Articles of Success! Voices of the Past! Be encouraged by the once a week Shout Outs! Plus a free Boot Camp (watch for details!!) This all starts February 4th @ http://theevantrepreneur.blogspot.com/ Irrevocable Call will continue, yet the emphasis will be to encourage the church worldwide! The focus of Irrevocable Call will be to educate the church to be effective communicators of the claims we make concerning our Savior, Jesus Christ. As an educator, it is my passion for the church to have answers for what they believe in, and that's what Irrevocable Call will dedicate it self to.

For the next couple of weeks I am going to bring you to class with me! For the next eight weeks I want to challenge your mind! As a believer in Christ Jesus living in a relativistic culture, the body of Christ is continuing to be challenged at every level. Yet the body of Christ (the church) is anemic when it comes to providing an answer to the claims that we make concerning the creation of the world, to the validity of Christ and argument of absolute truths. I hope that this series in the next few weeks will challenge you to prepare yourself to have an answer. In the words of Paul, “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers[a] of this world, rather than from Christ.” Colossians 2:8 (NLT) To study systematic theology means bringing us to the text (Scripture)and asking what does the text say concerning a topic of interest, whether it be a social (abortion) or doctrinal issue (is there ...

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” -Maria Robinson On this 100th post I would like to dedicated it to my auntie. Angela was born on January 1, 1925 in Pearsal, Texas to my grandparents Gerardo and Sostenes Limon. She was the second child of six born to my grandparents. In 1930 the family moved to Monterey, Mexico where they resided for a number of years before moving back to the United States in the early 40’s. Angela was my auntie…mi tia. She was 87 years old and died from her disease of dementia that she battled for over five years. Last night was her memorial service and today we bury her. Yet in the midst of sorrow there is joy! First, the joy of knowing that mi tia is with the Lord! Even though she struggled to remember names and faces, she knew how to pray and sing the chorusitos (little hymns) from church. I remember one of the last times that I saw here, she was in the middle stages of her illness and in our con...