CCA Hawaii Conference / Pastor Teachings
Don McClure Teaches at CCA Hawaii Conference
Story by Jim Culhane
Photos by Tom Price
Follow Calvary Chapel Magazine as we publish summaries of pastors’ teachings at the CCA Pastors, Leaders, & Church Workers Conference held in August 2021 at Calvary Chapel Honolulu, HI. Click here to learn more about the conference.
This installment features Calvary Chapel Pastor Don McClure, who with his wife Jean founded Calvary Way ministries, a teaching ministry reaching across the world. Don is also the administrator of the Calvary Chapel Association. Here, he teaches on Psalm 19, describing David’s love for God’s Law and the power and beauty of the heavens—applying spiritual lessons we can learn from the psalmist’s words.
Women signal the beginning of a worship session with the distinctive sounds of shofars, or rams’ horns, at the CCA Pastors, Leaders, & Church Workers Conference held in August 2021 at Calvary Chapel Honolulu, HI.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1
After Pastor Don read Psalm 19:1-6 aloud, he pointed out two things that had a huge impact on David’s life. The first was the Law of the Lord, meaning the parts of the Old Testament that existed at that time. David was apparently a great scholar of that book, but he had another volume he studied as well: nature—and in this case, the heavens. Don explained, “He would look at it, seems like he had this way of being able to contrast, evaluate, put together the Word and the heavens or nature in ways that they complemented, contrasted, compared with one another, and spoke volumes in the illustration of one and the other.” David painted with a very broad stroke. The heavens have this incredible capacity to instruct. They are particularly rich in spiritual analogy.
The heavens speak endlessly, continuously declaring with unending sound that is never interrupted. Israel witnessed some wonderful declarations of God’s glory that would pass: The miracle of the river opened and closed; the heavens opened with quail, then stopped; the rock opened, gushed water, and then ceased.
Calvary Chapel Pastor Don McClure, founder of Calvary Way ministries, a teaching ministry reaching across the world, teaches at the conference. He teaches on Psalm 19, describing David’s love for God’s Law and the power and beauty of the heavens—applying spiritual lessons we can learn from the psalmist’s words. Don is also the administrator of the Calvary Chapel Association.
Don emphasized, “David needed no rock, he needed no river to open. He needed no ‘some miracle here’ that said, ‘God’s still alive, God’s still with me.’ He had the unending declaration far greater than any individual miracle that so many need. All David had to do was look up.” David wasn’t desperate for so much. So many people look for guidance, stability, hope, and encouragement, but David would say, “If you need to know the grandness of God, the infinity of God, look to the heavens. To know of the wisdom of God and the balance of nature, look at the constellations. To see the fidelity of God, the consistency of God, look at the regularity of the planets. If you want to have a right concept of who God is, of His power, glory, majesty, just look at the forces of the sky.”
Reuben Burke leads worship during the Hawaii conference.
David as a shepherd boy had the Law of God and the opportunity to gaze up at night. These were inseparable in so many ways to David. He looked at the intelligence behind it, the planning, the consistency, its predictability, and the presiding nature of God the Creator who just set it there.
On one hand, you have the immensity, the immeasurable expanse of who knows how many billions of lightyears of things that go on and on and on, down to the minutest of details. Look at the littlest detail of a flower. The same hand that flung the stars into the night could come down to the most beautiful, simple thing and preside over it as well. Our teeny, tiny planet—you can’t even find it in the expanse of creation, let alone us on it. Incredible detail: It’s infinite, and yet it’s finite in capacity to hear and see it.
Fellowship was a critical aspect of the conference. Bill Stonebraker (left), senior pastor of CC Honolulu, enjoys a one-on-one conversation with Steve Santos (right), pastor of Calvary Westside Maui, HI. The conference offered opportunities for the pastors of the Hawaiian Calvary Chapels to joyfully reunite and rekindle friendships.
Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. Psalm 19:2
This verse shows a contrast between day and night. At night, we learn far more from the stars than we do from the sun and sky during the day. At night we can see the 88 constellations and see endlessly. Don pondered, “So too, spiritually, during the day, the good times, we just go with what we have to do today. But at night, the dark times, the difficult times, times of trial and testing, times of waiting on the Lord, just trying to get through the night, begging for light to once again shine upon us. During these times we learn far more. We require both to live effectively.”
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Stars guided the navigators. People in daytime didn’t necessarily know where they were, but at night the navigators listened to the stars and knew. During the millennia, Noah’s flood changed the earth; weather changed things, but the stars have never changed since the time of Adam.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. … Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19:9b, 11
“The sea of life would be an absolute shipwreck one after another of the divine storms of life, but the person with guidance makes it through the storms,” asserted Pastor Don. “Sometimes I feel like the richest person in the world. God saved me from myself so many times.” Our knowledge of ourselves is like the 10% of an iceberg exposed above water.
Women, dressed in traditional Hawaiian garb, worship. The conference provided many opportunities to praise the Lord.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Psalm 19:13a
David talked about perhaps the most powerful and common sin. Without guidance from God, the guidance is from human direction, opinion, and fallen humanity. How easily we are taken down by things not based on the eternal.
Don read through all 14 verses, concluding with the last: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14)
Michelle Markwith worships in a hula alongside CC Honolulu’s Hawaiian ensemble, aptly known as “The Hawaiians”.
Calvary Way ministries, founded by Don and Jean McClure, seeks to proclaim God’s message in all its fullness, reaching across the world. Visit their website at calvaryway.com.
Watch Don McClure's teaching in its entirety at: Don McClure / CCA Hawaii Conference
Follow summaries of pastors' teachings at CCA Hawaii Conference:
Ron Hindt, senior pastor of Calvary Houston, TX
Bud Stonebraker, senior pastor of South Shore Christian Fellowship, Waimanalo, HI
Jeff Johnson, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Downey, CA
Jack Abeelen, senior pastor of Morningstar Christian Chapel, Whittier, CA
Tony Clark, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Newport News, VA
Lloyd Pulley, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Old Bridge, NJ
Bryan Parish, lead pastor of Mission Calvary in Mission Viejo, CA
Ed Taylor, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Aurora, CO
Stay tuned for more teaching summaries in upcoming days.
Mark your calendar for the 2022 CCA Hawaii Conference: August 19-21 at Calvary Chapel Honolulu
(To learn more about Calvary Chapel University, visit their website or read our past coverage on the school)
All verses above are quoted from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
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