Send us a note!

God can feel silent at the exact moment you need Him most. We start with that hard, familiar question, “Where’d you go, God?” and we don’t rush past it. Instead, we follow it straight into Scripture and into Jesus’ own words from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If you’ve ever felt lonely, overlooked, or spiritually numb while still trying to do the right thing, you’ll recognize yourself here.

Pastor Carl walks through Isaiah 49 and shows how God speaks courage into suffering long before the breakthrough arrives. We talk about Jesus as the Servant of the Lord who stayed, suffered, and served when He had every right to walk away. That’s not only the foundation of our salvation, it’s also a model for Christian endurance through doubt, pressure, and pain. Along the way we explore God’s promises of restoration, the theme of captives being brought out of darkness, and why hope grows when we lift our eyes beyond what’s right in front of us.

Then the comfort turns personal: God answers the fear of being forgotten with a stronger-than-instinct picture of a mother and child and a line that cuts through despair, “I’ve inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” We connect that to the nail scars of the cross, because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a vague encouragement, it’s proof paid for in full. If the news cycle has you convinced chaos wins, Isaiah points us toward God’s coming kingdom, a new heaven and a new earth, and the steady mercy of a Redeemer who never let go.

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s struggling, and leave a review so more people can find the show. And if you’re near Waynesville, North Carolina, come worship with us at The Mountain Cross.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

Jesus could have chosen comfort. He could have walked away from suffering with every right to say, “I don’t deserve this.” Instead, he stayed, served, and obeyed and that single choice changes everything about how we understand salvation, purpose, and perseverance.

We open Isaiah 49 with a stunning announcement to the “coastlands,” a worldwide call that pushes the promise of God far beyond one city or one nation. From there, we sit with the mystery at the center of Christianity: the Messiah is called from the womb. God becomes man. The eternal Word steps into our skin, speaks with the sharpness of truth, and lives the life we were meant to live: submitted to the Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit. If you’ve ever wondered whether God actually understands human pressure, weakness, and grief, this passage answers with a person, not a theory.

Then we get painfully practical. Psalm 127 confronts the exhausting cycle of striving, building, and proving, only to realize we may be working “for God” while missing God. Pastor Carl talks about discouragement, delayed fruit, and the temptation to judge everything by what we can see right now. The turning point is learning to look at the big picture the way Jesus does, praying, “Not my will, but yours be done,” and trusting that real reward is with the Lord.

We also explore Isaiah’s promise that the Servant becomes “a light to the Gentiles,” bringing salvation to the ends of the earth, and we look ahead to restoration hope that steadies anxious hearts in a chaotic culture. 

Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend who feels worn down, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

Peace, profit, and prosperity are words we throw around casually, but Isaiah 48 forces us to define them the way God does. We sit with Pastor Carl as he walks through this chapter and starts at the uncomfortable beginning: we are born into sin, and we should not be shocked when our world acts like it. That truth does not produce coldness, it should produce compassion and urgency, because people do not need shame without hope, they need the gospel that brings forgiveness and a changed heart through Jesus Christ.

From there, the message turns to a stunning reason God keeps working with stubborn people: “for My name’s sake.” Israel faces discipline and even captivity, yet God promises he will not destroy them, and Pastor Carl connects that same mercy to the Church. We talk about the “furnace of affliction,” how hardship can refine rather than crush, and why God’s patience is meant to lead us back to repentance. Along the way we look up at creation, the stars that obey their Maker, and we hear the call to assemble and listen, both in personal Bible reading and in gathering with the body of Christ.

Isaiah 48 also reaches forward to history and to Jesus: Babylon, Cyrus, return from exile, and even a glimpse of the Trinity in the Old Testament as “the Lord God and His Spirit” send the Savior. The invitation lands where weary hearts live, the rest Christ promises, and the practical fruit of faith in action: a strong work ethic, real service, and a kind of “profit” that blesses others. 

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find this teaching through Isaiah.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

The moment you realize you’re wrong is a crossroads. You can humble yourself and concede, or you can double down and “die on that hill” even when the truth is staring you in the face. We start there, because Pastor Carl’s message in Isaiah 48 exposes how easily we do this with God, keeping the vocabulary of faith while resisting the obedience of faith.

We read Isaiah’s words to Israel, a people proud of their spiritual heritage, quick to say “the Lord lives,” and yet unwilling to walk in truth and righteousness. From that foundation we ask hard questions about Christian hypocrisy today: what happens when the church looks more like the world than like Jesus, and why does that wreck our witness? We talk about repentance, idolatry, and the modern ways we “lean on God” for blessings without surrender, giving credit to anything else when God moves.

Jeremiah’s call to return brings both warning and hope. The gospel doesn’t work by yelling at sinners to stop sinning; it works by Jesus changing hearts through forgiveness, truth, and new life. And even when we’ve been stubborn, God restrains judgment for His name’s sake, refining His people through affliction so His glory isn’t handed to another.

If you want a Bible teaching on Isaiah 48, spiritual renewal, repentance, and what real faith looks like in the church in America, press play, then share it with someone who needs an honest reset. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what you’re wrestling with right now.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

What if the “easy way” is quietly discipling your heart away from God? We start with a blunt question that refuses to stay theoretical: what are you willing to trade for success, comfort, influence, or security. The world sells shortcuts as harmless upgrades, but we keep coming back to the same concern a Christian can’t ignore: when the offer looks great, what does it cost spiritually?

Pastor Carl then leads us through Isaiah 47, where Babylon appears like a pristine queen, admired and desired, yet destined to be uncovered and brought low. The language is vivid: veils removed, shame exposed, popularity gone. We talk about the Lord as Redeemer, the One who pays the sin debt to buy back His people, and also the One who holds nations and individuals accountable when pride and cruelty take over.

From there, the passage feels uncomfortably modern. The “I am” lie shows up in our urge to control our own destiny, curate an image, and demand life on our terms. We also address spiritual warfare head on, contrasting the Holy Spirit with counterfeit power through enchantments, sorcery, and deceptive spirits that promise pleasure and security for a time, then destroy. The thread tying it all together is repentance: turning back to God before warped wisdom and self rule become calamity.

We close with a prayer for God to come as a purifying fire, and a reminder from Isaiah to look past today’s chaos toward God’s promises of a new heaven and a new earth. 

If this message helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

Idols always make big promises and then demand you carry them. That’s the blunt picture Pastor Carl pulls from Isaiah 46, where Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, and the so-called gods of Babylon end up strapped to beasts like dead weight. We ask a question that hits close to home: how do we get so far from righteousness? The answer isn’t usually one dramatic moment, but a slow drift powered by one simple move, believing a lie that our way is better than God’s.

From there, the tone shifts from warning to comfort. God says He has carried His people from birth, from the womb, all the way to gray hairs. That contrast is the heart of the message: false gods cannot answer, cannot move, cannot save, but the living God bears us, delivers us, and proves His truth by declaring the end from the beginning. We also talk about prophecy and history, including the mention of Cyrus and how God’s counsel stands no matter what kingdoms rise and fall.

Isaiah 47 widens the lens to Babylon as a proud queen whose beauty gets uncovered, exposing cruelty, pride, and spiritual deception. The passage challenges modern confidence in pleasure, security, and self-rule and traces it back to the oldest temptation of all: acting like we are in control of our own destiny. If you feel like a spiritual exile, this message brings hope that salvation is near, as near as a prayer, because Jesus Christ has already made the way.

Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so more listeners can find Come On Up. What “idol” tends to sneak into your life when you’re tired or stressed?

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

The world can repeat a message so often that it starts to feel like truth, even when it’s hollow. We slow down and ask a sharper question: can you actually recognize God’s voice when everything else is competing for your trust? From the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina, Pastor Carl opens Isaiah 45 to show why God never speaks darkness, never manipulates, and never lies, and why that matters when the “spirit of this age” keeps offering counterfeit hope.

We talk through the jarring images Isaiah uses to humble us: potsherds arguing on the floor, clay questioning the potter, and a human heart that wants to correct its own Creator. Then we face a surprising storyline where God calls and directs Cyrus, an unlikely pagan ruler, to accomplish His plan. That’s not a footnote, it’s a challenge to our assumptions about control, obedience, and who God is allowed to use.

The message turns toward salvation and the future, where nations ultimately recognize there is no other God. Isaiah’s invitation is simple and sweeping: “Look to Me and be saved.” We connect that promise to Jesus on the cross and to Philippians 2, where every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, either as worship or as judgment.

Listen, reflect, and share this with someone who feels pulled by a hundred voices right now. If it helps you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what helps you discern truth when life gets loud.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

A prophecy that calls a future king by name is either a lucky guess or a direct collision with the God who stands outside of time. We walk through Isaiah 45 where the Lord speaks to Cyrus about opened doors, subdued nations, and a purpose Cyrus doesn’t even understand yet. That timeline matters, because it pushes the “God is doing nothing” fear out of the driver’s seat and replaces it with a harder, steadier truth: God is working, even when history looks like chaos.

Then we jump to Daniel 5 for one of the most chilling scenes in the Old Testament. Belshazzar throws a feast, desecrates what is holy, and mocks God with a show of power, until a hand writes judgment on the wall. Daniel interprets the message and Babylon falls that very night, not by brute force, but through an unexpected entryway and gates left open, echoing Isaiah’s words about doors and bronze barriers. Prophecy and history snap together, and we’re left asking why God would use a pagan ruler at all.

We also slow down on Isaiah 45:7, “I make peace and create calamity,” and clarify what it does and does not mean. God is holy, God is just, and God is not the author of sin, yet His sovereignty still reaches over light and darkness, empires and exiles, consequences and redemption. The teaching turns personal with a simple prayer for righteousness to “rain down” on us, and a warning not to strive with our Maker like clay arguing with the potter.

Subscribe for more Bible teaching through Isaiah, share this with someone wrestling with the problem of evil and God’s sovereignty, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

A carved idol can’t save anyone but we keep asking our handmade comforts to do God’s job. Pastor Carl continues in Isaiah 44, where the Lord mocks the logic of idolatry: someone burns half a piece of wood to warm up and cook dinner, then turns the rest into a “god” and prays for deliverance. It’s darkly funny until we realize how close it is to our own lives, where money, control, politics, success, and approval can become functional idols we trust more than the living God.

We also talk about the way truth gets rejected one choice at a time. Isaiah describes people who cannot see what’s obvious because their hearts are hardened, and Pastor Carl connects that to Pharaoh’s story: persistent resistance can reach a point where a person no longer wants to hear God and eventually cannot hear Him. That’s why this message keeps circling back to a hard question: what happens when we keep saying, “I don’t want to listen, I’m going to believe what I want”?

From there we move to Jesus’ warning in Matthew 12 about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, explained as rejecting the Spirit’s witness about Jesus and the gospel. The Holy Spirit reveals our need, shows us who Christ is, and presses the moment of decision: repent and trust the Savior, or dismiss the truth and cling to the lie in our right hand. Along the way, we highlight God’s sovereignty in prophecy, including Cyrus being named long before his rise, and we end with hope that looks past today’s chaos toward God’s promised kingdom.

If this challenged you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more teaching through Isaiah, and leave a review so others can find the show. What “idol” do you feel most tempted to trust this week?

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Send us a note!

You can feel like you’re failing and still be called “upright” by God. That’s the tension Isaiah 44 refuses to let us ignore, and it’s where Pastor Carl spends time: God names His people Jeshuram, “the upright one,” even while they’re stumbling, threatened by judgment, and surrounded by counterfeit hopes. That isn’t denial of sin, it’s grace rooted in God’s choice, God’s redemption, and God’s power to finish what He starts.

We trace a straight line from “In the beginning, God” to a very present struggle: when life gets dark or confusing, we tend to shrink God down to human limits. Isaiah pushes back with a big view of the Lord as the One outside time who can declare what is coming because He’s already there. That’s why “do not fear” is not wishful thinking; it’s a rational response to God’s sovereignty and goodness.

The message also gets intensely practical: spiritual dryness is real, and God answers it with living water and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We connect Isaiah’s promise to Psalm 1’s picture of a tree planted by streams and to Joel’s prophecy echoed in Acts, a reminder that God’s Spirit empowers obedience, endurance, and hope even in seasons that feel like exile.

Then Isaiah turns blunt and even darkly funny, exposing idolatry as a dead end: the same wood used to cook dinner becomes a “god” someone begs to deliver them. It’s a warning for every generation about worshiping what we build, protect, and depend on for identity, power, or security. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

What makes a Calvary Chapel a Calvary Chapel. Join Pastor Carl as he goes through one of the Calvary Chapel Distinctives on The Mountain Cross Minute.

The 20th anniversary of Facing the Giants, Monday September 14 - 6:30PM at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com.