Summons Radio

You're listening to Summons, the daily radio ministry of Terry Gray, senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Sun City in El Paso Texas. Summons is a gathering of God’s people via the airwaves to study the Word of God. We gather to worship. We gather to be equipped for ministry. We gather to reach the world for Christ. Just as God's chosen people knew how to respond depending on the tone of the shofar, so...

Are some sins worse than others? When we think of the broad spectrum of sin, we naturally separate them into levels of severity. While it’s true that some sins have more severe earthly consequences than others, all sins have one consequence in common: they separate us from God. In today’s message, Pastor Terry takes a look at one particular sin that Jesus classifies as worse than the rest. What do...

The fact that someone is in a position of leadership in the church is not always an indicator of spiritual or doctrinal soundness. Often times they are well intentioned, but they mislead the flock because they themselves have been deceived. In today’s message, Pastor Terry reminds us that Jesus continued on, steadfast in His mission, despite the condemnation of the religious leaders. If we are fol...

Family members are supposed to be the people you can count on even in your worst moments. The rest of the world may think you’re crazy, but relatives should love and support you through thick and thin. As we continue to study the book of Mark, we catch a glimpse of the skepticism that Jesus’ family harbored against Him. As Pastor Terry warns us in today’s message, we can expect the same as we foll...

When we feel like we have to do this life on our own, like God is far away, we couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus is present with us every moment of every day. Everywhere we go, even the darkest places, Jesus walks with us. He is aware of our thoughts and feelings even if we neglect to acknowledge Him. As Pastor Terry challenges us in today’s message, as we live the life of a disciple, we need to make...

Sometimes when we contemplate making disciples, we may evaluate the potential of the individuals we are considering. Sadly, there may be times we even write off people as hopeless. In today’s message, Pastor Terry examines Jesus’ process for picking His disciples. Jesus spent hours in prayer, seeking His Father’s guidance, and yet He still picked Judas, who would go on to betray Him to death. If J...

During the Christmas season, we usually feel like we’re being pulled a hundred different directions. In our effort to keep up with the chaos, we easily lose sight of the reason for the season. This special day celebrates the coming of our Messiah! His birth was long awaited. Creation itself was building to that moment. God took on flesh as part of a mind-boggling plan to bring salvation to mankind...

Christmas can be a crazy time of year. We may look at our calendars and feel instantly overwhelmed over everything that needs done. The parties, the get-togethers, the shopping, the traveling, the cooking, the list goes on and on… We rush around, and before we know it, it’s December 26th, and we’re ready to crash. In today’s message, Pastor Terry challenges us to slow down in the middle of that ru...

God did not create the law as restrictive or punitive tool to use against humanity. He created laws as a gift for man. The Sabbath, for example, was designed to meet man’s innate need for rest and communion with God. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, as well as their predecessors, had turned things around and were serving the law, instead of allowing the law to benefit them and their relationsh...

The Pharisees worshipped their traditions and interpretations of Scripture over God. Their religious piety replaced any semblance of a relationship with God. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law of Moses, but He shirked the religious laws that men had created. These laws were based on earning God’s approval through work, rather than glorifying God for His goodness and provision. As Pastor Terry warns...

As Christians, shouldn’t we be walking around with our heads bowed in serious contemplation all the time? There’s no place for smiling when the world is so full of sin, right? From outward appearances, that’s the way many believers are living. There’s no feasting in their life, only fasting. Their lives are devoid of joy. In today’s message, Pastor Terry reminds us that we should be filled with jo...

All of God’s Scriptural commands were given for His glory and our good. Satan loves to find ways to turn them around and use them to tear down Gods’ children. He sows seeds of confusion and discord as believers try to decipher and apply those commands in their lives. As Pastor Terry points out, these disagreements certainly warrant discussion, coupled with prayer, but we need to remember the point...

Many of us may look at our lives and question why God would ever want to use us. Maybe we have a colorful past… or even a colorful present. Maybe we can’t pinpoint any one particular skill that seems useful in spreading the Kingdom of God. Perhaps we carry a less than positive reputation. We may even figure that God is better off without us on His team. As Pastor Terry explains in today’s message,...

If you want to start a movement, you probably want the best and the brightest to assist you, right? You want people that will have mass appeal. Levi, or Matthew as we commonly know him, was not that guy. He was despised. He would have been considered a traitor by many of his Jewish peers. He worked for the Roman government to basically steal money from his own people. Yet, as Pastor Terry explains...

God’s greatest miracle is one that no one can see. He takes hearts that are broken, separate from Him, oppressed by sin and destined for eternal death, and He restores them to a state of perfect righteousness. As Pastor Terry examines Mark’s account of Jesus healing the paralytic, we are reminded that our physical needs are trivial and temporary compared to our spiritual needs. Our bodies will pas...

When we contemplate mankind’s greatest need, we may come up with a laundry list of potential candidates. World hunger? A cure for cancer? A way to slow the aging process? While all of those may be worthwhile causes, they do not represent our greatest need. As Pastor Terry points out in today’s message, crowds would gather to receive physical healing from Jesus, and would leave with something much...

Sin and its consequences can make us feel dirty. Sometimes it’s manifested in physical illness, other times in emotional or mental instability. Satan will try to convince us that God wants nothing to do with us; that our sin is greater than even His love can overcome. But, as Pastor Terry examines Mark’s account of Jesus healing the leper, we find a beautiful example of how extreme God’s love and...

How should we approach God for healing? Should we boldly demand healing in the name of Jesus? Or hesitantly request healing if God is able? In today’s message, Pastor Terry will examine the encounter between Jesus and a leper. This man approached Jesus with confidence in His ability to heal, yet humbly acknowledging that it was up to God whether to heal or not. Jesus took compassion on him and mad...

Spending time with God should never be about fulfilling an obligation or meeting a quota. Quality over quantity, as they say. The more time the better, but 5 minutes of authentic heartfelt prayer will be much more effective than an hour of heartless recitation. As Pastor Terry explains in today’s message, we may be able to fool other people, but big words don’t impress God. He desires for us to be...

One would think that Jesus, being fully God and fully human, wouldn’t have needed prayer as much as the rest of us. I mean, He was God after all! Yet, as Pastor Terry leads us through today’s passage, he points out that Jesus made prayer a major priority in His day. He started the day spending intimate, one on one time with His Father. We have the unfathomable privilege of spending time at the fee...

In today’s message, Pastor Terry challenges us to examine the nature of our relationship with Christ. Do we wait until we have a need to run to Him? We should run to Him in those moments; He wants us to. In fact, He sometimes allows those circumstances in order to draw our attention to Him; but our relationship with Him can be so much more than that. He desires for us to seek Him when things are g...

We are in the midst of a massive, unseen spiritual battle. We experience the effects of it every day, usually without our awareness. Satan has tried his hardest to convince us that it’s crazy to believe in such things. But, as Pastor Terry reminds us in today’s message, Jesus confronted these forces of evil head on. He didn’t ignore their existence. When we allow Jesus to come into our hearts, He...

There is a common misconception that Jesus possessed a quiet, passive energy. That He tiptoed around trying to avoid offending or hurting anyone’s feelings. Jesus was, and is, loving. But He loves and teaches with astounding authority. As Pastor Terry continues to lead us through Mark, we see how Jesus confronted crowds, leaders, demons and even Satan himself with an authority that was given to Hi...

ll of us have been called by Jesus. We may look at the lives of the disciples with dread, fearing that if we follow Jesus, it’s going to require leaving jobs and family to go to the far corners of the earth spreading His Gospel. For some, this is a reality; but, as Pastor Terry encourages us in today’s message, many of us are called to follow Him right where we are. We can be His witnesses in our...

What does it take to make it on “Team Jesus”? Surely you need to be wealthy or highly educated… or at least possess some useful skill or talent? Well, as Pastor Terry will explain in today’s message, the apostles didn’t tick any of those boxes. They were very common, ordinary men. They were weak-minded and constantly struggled to understand the profound message that Jesus bore. Yet, they were Jesu...