Double Vision

Double Vision?

Coincidence is not a kosher word, or so I’ve been told. This post came together around the time of the 2014 Calvary Chapel Senior Pastors Conference (SPC). It’s the first SPC since Pastor Church Smith moved to his new home. Pioneering, movements, and vision have been on my mind as I’m half way into the seventh year of ministry at Exchange Church. Pastor Chuck didn’t set out to be a pioneer, yet he was, and that’s great. Pastor Chuck didn’t set out to start a movement, yet that happened, and that’s great. Pastor Chuck didn’t set out to have his vision multiplied around the world, yet it was. But is that great? Continue reading

God Invented Sex

Now that I have your attention, this post will be a review of the promotional video for the book, “God and the Gay Christian “ by Matthew Vines. Let me preface this post with this; God loves everyone. Straight, gay, truck driver, politician, alcoholic, rapist, charity worker, Muslim, thief, Hindu, red, yellow, black, white, we are precious in His sight. God loves everyone. He loves everyone equally. He also judges everyone equally. He holds everyone to the same standard. Who sets the standard? God does. This is why, in everything we encounter in life, we have to ask the question, “What does God think about this?” If we find ourselves on the opposite side of something from God, we are wrong and we are the ones that needs to change our position, not God. Nor can we try to redefine what God thinks in order to match what we want to be the standard. That being the case, what does God think about sex? After all, He invented it. Continue reading

A Semi-Brief Response to the Marriage Ruling

This is a reprint of something I wrote for the church as a response to a single judge in Oregon overturning a law voted upon by the majority of Oregonians. The point of the post isn’t judicial activism but rather the Christian response to the issue of gay marriage.

Situations like this remind me of a shell game. You know, the game where you have three shells and underneath one is a pea. You have to guess under which shell the pea is. The one moving the shells is trying to misdirect and confuse the one guessing. Sometimes the same game is played with three cards face down and you have to guess which card is the queen, if you’ll pardon the pun. (People who know me, especially the gay ones, will know that that’s funny, not derogatory.)

Slogans like “We support love” and “equality for all” only serve to misdirect and confuse the heart of the matter. They get us arguing about things and posting things online in such a way that we want to win the argument but end up gaining nothing. It takes our energies away from that which will actually make a difference.

What I’m about to say may shock some. It might even offend, but hear me out. It doesn’t matter if gay marriage is legal or not. Continue reading

John The Baptist Was A Mason!

Now that I have your attention, lemme ‘splain. In Luke 3, as in other gospels, John the Baptist is described as one who is fulfilling what The Lord said through Isaiah;

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”” (Isaiah 40:3–5 NKJV)

Apparently, every Do It Yourself project I do from now on is going to be an object lesson from the Lord. It so happens that we recently started a study through the gospel of Luke at church a few weeks ago. We aren’t in chapter three yet but these words came to mind as I embakred on digging out some grass along our drieway and pouring concrete into a mold that resembles the stones of a pathway. Continue reading

Divine Craftsmanship

The following is a reprint of an article written for calvarychapel.com. There are some great articles over there. I encourage you to subscribe to their RSS feed, Twitter, Facebook, the whole shebang. ~corby

In a world where things are prefabricated and mass produced, craftsmanship is an under-appreciated and, in some cases, a nearly lost art. Here in the Portland, OR area there is a place called Pittock Mansion. It was built in 1914 for the Pittock Family by local craftsmen and artisans using all Northwest materials. There are some incredible examples of craftsmanship in this house. In some parts of the house the flooring is made of curved strips of wood that were steamed and bent into the desired shapes. In 1962, four years after the family had abanonded the house, the Columbus Day Storm did serious damage to the once magnificent building, including some of the curved-wood flooring. When a group of people wanted to restore the structure and turn it into a museum, no one knew how to repair the floor. Well, almost no one. Some of the original craftsman were still alive and still in the area. They were able to repair and restore the floor so that it could be appreciated once again as part of the museum that the house has become.¹

Have you ever thought of yourself as God’s craftsmanship? That’s exactly what the Bible says you are. Continue reading

Corby Stephens