Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:27:34 -0700WeeblySun, 09 Nov 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen4449104​Good morning beloved, this morning we will take a small break from the book of Mark this week and be studying a passage from the book of Romans.

My prayer is that we will all be encouraged today to grow in our
relationship with the Lord. May we be given understanding of His word to perceive the depth that God took towards our relationship with Him.

May we see it as our “debt” our due diligence to grow in our depth in our
relationship with Him. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

​Romans 8:12-13

In His Service,
Pastor Jimmy]]>Sun, 18 May 2025 07:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen8613039Beloved, a couple of weeks ago we studied how Jesus has authority over nature. Jesus displayed this when he told the wind and the sea to calm down and immediately it did. Today, we learn that Jesus also has authority over demons. It is important to remember this because sometimes, in our thinking and living, we equate Satan with Jesus. Nothing could be further from the truth.
 
Beloved, we know that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and that Satan is a fallen angel. As God, Jesus has attributes such as being omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Satan, being a created being, is not all-powerful, can only be in one place at a time and does not know everything. Hence, as a created being, Satan is limited while Jesus is unlimited.
 
May we remember what 1 John 4:4 says, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
 
Blessings,
Pastor Joe
]]>Sun, 09 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen8151838​Beloved, I remember years ago, early in my walk with the Lord that a fellow member of the Bible Study that I attended Friday nights told me that he had committed blasphemy against the holy Spirit. Hence, because of this he believed that he had no chance of ever going to heaven. He was doomed.
 
Well, fortunately for him, his theology was wrong. As one Bible Scholar once said, “If you think you have committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, you haven’t.” Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has to do with accusing Jesus Christ of being demon-possessed instead of Spirit-filled. This particular type of blasphemy cannot be duplicated today in the same manner as in Jesus’ day. 
 
The unpardonable sin today is the state of continued unbelief. The Spirit currently convicts the unsaved world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). To resist that conviction and willfully remain unrepentant is to “blaspheme” the Spirit. Let us pray for those with a hard heart that the Lord will soften their hearts and bring them to Himself!
 
In Him,
Pastor Joe
]]>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen5581276Beloved, it was CS Lewis who popularized the argument that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Lord. But, as Kyle Barton has shown, he didn’t invent it.
 
In the mid-nineteenth century the Scottish Christian preacher “Rabbi” John Duncan (1796-1870) formulated what he called a “trilemma.” In Colloquia Peripatetica (p. 109) we see Duncan’s argument from 1859-1860: Christ either [1] deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or [2] He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or [3] He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable.
 
Also, in 1936, Watchman Nee made a similar argument in his book, Normal Christian Faith. A person who claims to be God must belong to one of three categories: First, if he claims to be God and yet in fact is not, he has to be a madman or a lunatic.
Second, if he is neither God nor a lunatic, he has to be a liar, deceiving others by his lie. Third, if he is neither of these, he must be God. You can only choose one of the three possibilities.
 
Beloved, was Jesus “out of His mind?” Let’s look at today’s study and find out!
 
In Him,
Pastor Joe
]]>Sun, 23 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen4020370​Beloved, once again we see the Pharisees out against Jesus. Here, they accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath
by healing a man on the Sabbath. Apparently, according to them, it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. Was
it?

Jesus responded by asking them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” They remained silent. Note that with His question is it lawful, Jesus is directing these legalists back to the
Mosaic Law, the Word of God! Jesus asks them a question not because they did not know, but because they did know the answer. They knew His question had to be answered “to do good and to save life.”

The phrasing of the question implies that failure to do good was to do harm! They knew that on a Sabbath one
who is able to do good or to save a life and yet refuses to do so is guilty of evil. His logic is that healing this man
would be doing good and not to heal him would be evil.
 
In His Strong Name-
Pastor Joe]]>Sun, 09 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen7950567Beloved, it was Pastor Chuck Smith who when describing the new work of Calvary Chapel used Mark 2:22 saying, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” Pastor Chuck said that Calvary Chapel was a new work of the Spirit led by the Lord.
 
In like manner the Lord wants to do a new work in our hearts. There may be areas of our heart or lives that have gone from rote to rut to rot. The Lord wants to dig out those areas and help us to start afresh in His power and Spirit. May we allow Him to take us further down the road spiritually always looking to grow in grace!
 
Blessings-
Pastor Joe ​]]>Sun, 02 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen6151236Beloved, it was Pastor Chuck Smith who when describing the new work of Calvary Chapel used Mark 2:22 saying, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” Pastor Chuck said that Calvary Chapel was a new work of the Spirit led by the Lord.
 
In like manner the Lord wants to do a new work in our hearts. There may be areas of our heart or lives that have gone from rote to rut to rot. The Lord wants to dig out those areas and help us to start afresh in His power and Spirit. May we allow Him to take us further down the road spiritually always looking to grow in grace!
 
Blessings-
Pastor Joe ​]]>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 14:48:01 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen9762188Pastor Joe and Sheila are out this Sunday, visiting family. As you may know his beloved sister went to be with the Lord, please keep him and the family in prayer. 
It is also their marriage anniversary! So we truly do as Romans 12:15 instructs: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 

In his stead Yuri and Wendy Kvachenko will be sharing on the work that the Lord has been doing and is continuing in their Missionary Field, as well as future plans and ministry opportunities to come. 

We pray you will be blessed and encouraged in your walk, life and ministry through their testimony.

In His Service,
Jimmy Rosas

​]]>Sun, 19 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen7433551Beloved, good friends are a treasure from the Lord. Combine good friends with a loving and powerful Savior and you have an incredible combination. This is what happened when friends of the paralytic brought him to Jesus. Jesus not only healed the man but when He saw their faith, He more importantly forgave the man his sins.​

Beloved, Jesus has the power and the authority to heal, restore and forgive us of our sins. Not only does He have the authority to do this, but He also has the will to do this. Jesus wants to forgive us, cleanse us and restore us.
 Maybe you have an impossible situation in your life. Take it to Jesus. Let us witness His power at work in you and through you!

In His Strong Name-
Pastor Joe

]]>Sun, 12 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.gracecalvarychapel.org/pastors-pen/pastors-pen4978126Beloved, we know that nothing is impossible to God. Luke 1:36–37 says, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.”
 
Yes, God can do anything He wishes to do, but God will not do things that would be against His holy will or contradictory to His purposes. He can commit no sinful act, for example, for He is completely holy, and sinning is not in His character.
 
This is why the leper came to Jesus asking Him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” The leper knew that Jesus could do the impossible, but would He? The leper found out that Jesus was willing and that his healing here on earth was part of God’s will for his life.
 
Beloved, you may be facing an impossible situation. Only God can perform the miracle that you need. Ask Him. Say, “If you will…” Then leave the answer up to the Lord. Whatever the answer, He always wants what is best for us.
 
Blessings-
​Pastor Joe
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