Pastor’s corner
Welcome to Calvary Chapel, Shadow Mountain. My name is Lonnie Biggs. I am the pastor of a beautiful work God is doing here in Pahrump, Nevada.
I'm originally from Oklahoma where I grew up in a Christian home with Christian parents, even the blessing of Christian grandparents on both sides of the family as well.
It was always a given that Christmas was more about Jesus than Santa Claus and that Easter was about a cross and empty tomb more so than chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs. Not to say that I didn't start every Easter morning with those very items.
While in 7th grade, living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I attended a Billy Graham movie. As a result, I asked Jesus into my heart. However, adolescence, combined with peer pressure and the social life of a teenager, caused me to turn my eyes away from the Lord rather quickly.
If not for God's patience and mercy, I doubt you would be reading these words right now.
In my twenties, I left Oklahoma and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter.
Years earlier, while celebrating spring break at Padre Island, S Texas, I came very close to drowning. Looking back on that day, as the riptide took me further from my board and the shore, I found myself shaking my fist at God through clenched teeth, demanding that He save me, which I, at that time, believed to be His only job.
2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Fast-forward several years into the future: A beautiful southern California evening, driving down Ocean Park Blvd., heading west toward PCH, the ocean shimmered gold as it held the sun's last moments of the day. As I looked upon God's amazing artistry, a thought came to me.
Today, if I was caught in a riptide, would I shake my fist at God demanding that He save me, or would I just let the ocean take me peacefully into that good night?
I knew that my life was nothing like the life Jesus died for me to live.
I had been exploiting God's grace and mercy for my personal gain. Furthermore, I expected everything of Him yet offered nothing of myself.
I know how that rings of "works," but I believe the fruit of one's born again life with God is proportional to the understanding and gratitude one holds for Jesus' finished work at the Cross.
History is filled with the testimonies of the saints who forsook all for that Cross.
Everything changed in my life that day as the scales fell, so to speak, from my eyes.
My testimony doesn't end with “and they all lived happily ever after.” At least not yet.
Sinners and saints alike will experience tearful pains and difficulties in this thing called life.
However, God has been and will continue to be faithful to His Word and His promise that we truly can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, because truly, His mercies are new every day.
The expression “sell your soul for rock and roll” took on a sobering new meaning in my life.
I left LA and was contemplating Nashville or Austin when I found myself in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I began attending Calvary Chapel of Las Vegas in 1983. The Word of God came alive as it was taught verse by verse, line upon line. Singing prayers and praises through worship to Jesus was a kind of music I had never known. Unlike the U2 song, I did find what I was looking for.
The rest is history. I met the girl of my dreams, the love of my life, my precious gift from God, and we were married in 1987. We have two beautiful daughters, a wonderful son-in-law and two beautiful granddaughters. I was ordained in 1991 by pastor John Michaels of Calvary Chapel Spring Valley, where I had previously been serving as a worship leader and elder. God has been true to His Word in providing us with everything we need for life and godliness through Jesus Christ.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. Pastor Lonnie.