Calvary Chapel of the Cumberland Valley

09/07/2026

I’ve become increasingly aware of how many Christians live with very little confidence in their salvation. They love the Lord, believe in Christ, and genuinely want to follow Him. Yet somewhere in the back of their minds, there’s a nagging fear: “Am I really saved? What if I’ve sinned too much? What if I haven’t done enough? What if God is disappointed with me? What if I die before I get everything right?”

Sadly, I think some of that fear has been reinforced by the preaching Christians have heard. There is certainly a place for preaching about sin––the Bible does, and we should too. Grace doesn’t make sin unimportant, and the Christian life isn’t a license to live however we please. Scripture repeatedly calls believers to holiness, repentance, obedience, and spiritual growth. But if our preaching leaves genuine believers constantly wondering whether God still accepts them, we’ve missed something very important about the Gospel.

You see, the Gospel is good news. As Paul writes in Romans 5:1: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, notice what Paul says. He doesn’t say that maybe we have peace with God, or that we’ll have peace with God if we perform well enough this week. No. He says we have peace with God. That peace rests on what Jesus has done, not on how well we’ve performed.

One of the great dangers in the Christian life is beginning with grace and then slowly slipping back into works. We know we couldn’t save ourselves, so we trusted Christ. But somewhere along the way, we begin acting as though keeping ourselves saved depends upon us. And the result is exhausting. We start examining every failure and wondering if this was the one that finally caused God to give up on us. We measure our salvation by how spiritual we feel, how well we prayed that week, how consistently we read our Bible, or how successfully we resisted temptation.

But none of those things is the foundation of our salvation––Jesus is!

Hebrews 10:14 says: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

I love the balance in that verse. We’ve been perfected forever, and at the same time we’re being sanctified as Christ continues His work in our lives! In other words, God has already settled our standing before Him through Christ, while He continues working on us. We’re saved people who are still being changed. And sometimes that process is messy. We stumble and struggle. We have days when our faith feels strong and days when it doesn’t. There are sins God is still dealing with in us, and there are areas where we should be much further along than we are. None of that makes sin acceptable. But neither does it mean Christ’s finished work suddenly became unfinished.

John wrote: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). God doesn’t want His children spending their lives wondering whether they belong to Him. He wants us to know. That confidence isn’t arrogance because it isn’t confidence in ourselves––it’s confidence in Christ.

Jesus said of His sheep: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone sn**ch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). That’s an incredibly comforting picture. The security of the sheep ultimately rests in the strength of the Shepherd.

Now this doesn’t mean everyone who once prayed a prayer or walked an aisle should automatically assume they’re saved regardless of what they believe or how they live. Scripture warns about false professions of faith. Genuine salvation produces fruit. A person who has no interest in Christ, no repentance, and no evidence of spiritual life has good reason to examine whether his or her profession is genuine. But there’s a huge difference between examining whether our faith is real and teaching genuine believers to continually question whether Christ’s work is enough.

The church needs to be careful that, in our desire to call people to holiness, we don’t accidentally put them back under a burden Jesus died to remove. When a Christian sins, the answer isn’t to run from God, wondering whether He still wants us. The answer is to run to Him. Because Jesus promises that: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Think about those words: “faithful and just.” Our forgiveness ultimately rests upon God’s faithfulness, not ours.

Yes, the Church should and must preach holiness, and repentance, and warn against sin. The Church should and must call Christians to obedience. But we must also preach grace just as boldly. We must remind believers that “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We must remind them that nothing can “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). We must remind them that “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it” (Philippians 1:6).

Christians shouldn’t leave church every week wondering whether God still loves them. Sometimes they need to leave reminded that their Father does. They need to know that when they stumble, there’s grace; when they’re weak, Christ is strong; and when they fail, they have an Advocate with the Father. When the accusing voice whispers, “Surely God is finished with you now,” they can point again to the cross.

The Gospel doesn’t teach us to find security in how tightly we’re holding onto Jesus. It teaches us to rest in how securely He is holding onto us. And maybe we need to hear that preached a little more often.

09/06/2026

09/01/2026

Recently I read that author, and speaker, Jen Hatmaker no longer believes in a literal hell. In fact, she described letting go of that belief as “the best thing that ever happened” to her faith.

I understand why someone would want that to be true. Hell is one of the hardest doctrines in the Bible. None of us enjoys thinking about eternal judgment. If I could erase hell from the Bible, it would certainly make many conversations easier.

But here’s the problem. I don’t have that authority. Neither does Jen Hatmaker. Neither does any pastor, author, teacher, or denomination. The question isn’t, “What do I wish were true?” The question is, “What has God actually said?”

When you honestly read the Gospels, it’s impossible to escape the fact that Jesus spoke plainly about hell. He warned about “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). He spoke of “everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41). He described a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48). And in Matthew 25:46, He spoke of “everlasting punishment,” using the very same Greek word (aiōnios) which He used for “eternal life.” If one is forever, so is the other.

That doesn’t mean we enjoy the doctrine. But it does mean we submit to it because we trust the One who taught it.

What concerns me even more is that Jen Hatmaker’s newfound view isn’t an isolated example. We’re watching an increasing number of well-known Christian authors and teachers walk away from doctrines that Christians have believed for centuries—not because the Scriptures have changed, but because the culture has.

Hell is offensive. Repentance is offensive. Biblical sexuality is offensive. The exclusivity of Jesus Christ is offensive. The authority of Scripture is offensive. So instead of allowing God’s Word to shape our thinking, many are reshaping Christianity to fit the spirit of the age. And the result is a version of Christianity that’s easier to accept—but it’s also farther removed from what Jesus and the apostles actually taught.

Paul warned Timothy that a day would come when people “will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires... they will heap up for themselves teachers” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Peter warned that false teachers would secretly introduce destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1). Jude urged believers to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

Doesn’t that sound remarkably familiar?

I don’t point this out because I enjoy criticizing people. Honestly, it grieves me. Every time someone with a large platform abandons biblical truth, there are countless people who assume it must be safe to follow. But popularity has never been the measure of truth—Scripture is.

As we move closer to Christ’s return, I believe we should expect to see more of this, not less. The Bible tells us there will be a great falling away. People will increasingly prefer teachers who affirm what they already want to believe rather than those who faithfully teach God’s Word.

Now, that shouldn’t discourage us. It should actually remind us of how important it is to stay rooted in the Scriptures. You see, the church doesn’t need a more culturally acceptable gospel or a redesigned Jesus. What people desperately need is the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth—even when it’s difficult to hear. Because only the truth has the power to save.

And maybe that’s the question each of us needs to leave with: Am I allowing God’s Word to shape what I believe, or am I slowly allowing the world around me to shape the way I read God’s Word?

Because whenever our beliefs begin to align more closely with our culture than with Scripture, the answer isn’t to reinterpret the Bible until it becomes more comfortable. The answer is to allow the Word of God to transform us.

Stay the course my fellow believers.

08/29/2026

When John the Baptist called the people of Israel to repentance, they came to him at the Jordan River confessing their sins and submitting to baptism. And then Jesus came.

Of course, Jesus was unlike everyone else who came to John that day. He had no sins to confess. He had never disobeyed the Father. He had never entertained a sinful thought, spoken a deceitful word, or committed a selfish act. He was the sinless and spotless Son of God.

That’s why John initially resisted baptizing Him, saying: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”—Matthew 3:14

John understood that something about this seemed backward. Jesus didn’t need what John’s baptism represented. John needed what only Jesus could provide.

But Jesus answered: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”—Matthew 3:15

So why would the sinless Son of God step into waters meant for repentant sinners?

Because Jesus had come to identify Himself with the very people He would save. Jesus didn’t stand at a safe distance from fallen humanity. He didn’t remain on the riverbank, separated from all the guilty people who were entering the water. He stepped into the place where sinners stood. Not because He shared their guilt—but because He had come to bear it.

In that sense, His baptism pointed forward to the entire reason He had come. Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would be “numbered with the transgressors” and would bear “the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12). At the Jordan, Jesus willingly stood among sinners. At Calvary, He would willingly die in their place.

Paul explains what that means for us in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This is the heart of the gospel. Jesus didn’t merely come to show us how to become better people. He came to take our place. He entered into our broken world. He took our guilt upon Himself. And at the cross, He endured the judgment that our sins deserved.

Jesus’ baptism reminds us that our Savior isn’t distant or detached from us. He willingly entered into our condition—not by participating in our sin, but by taking responsibility for its penalty. From the waters of the Jordan to the cross of Calvary, Jesus was moving steadily toward the place where He would fully and finally stand in our place.

And because He stood in our place, everyone who places their faith in Him receives a new standing before God. Our sins were placed upon Him, and His righteousness is credited to us. The guilty are forgiven. The condemned are accepted. And those who were once separated from God are brought near and welcomed into His family.

So, when you picture Jesus entering the waters of the Jordan, remember what kind of Savior you have. You have a Savior who didn’t turn away from you because of your sin. He came near. He stepped into your place. And then He went to the cross and accomplished everything necessary to bring you back to God.

That is the wonder of grace.

08/15/2026

Due to the approaching storm system and the potential for flooding rain and strong thunderstorms, we’re postponing tomorrow’s Baptism & Picnic. We’ve rescheduled everything for next Sunday, August 23, after 2nd Service. Both services tomorrow will still be held as usual at 9 & 11 AM.