Salvation Prepared in the Presence of All Peoples

Luke 2:25-33

“And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

‘Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,

According to Your word;

For my eyes have seen Your salvation,

Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES,
And the glory of Your people Israel.’

And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him."

(for the full story read Luke 2.) :)

What an amazing passage. This part of Jesus’ life takes place about forty days after His birth. This man named Simeon is righteous and devout. He was looking for the consolation of Israel, the comfort of Israel. The comfort of Israel is the Messiah. He was told that he would see the Messiah before He died. Mary and Joseph came to Jerusalem about forty days after Jesus was born to offer Him to the Lord and to offer sacrifices for purification according to the Law. Simeon was also in the temple because the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. Simeon took Jesus into His arms. Can you imagine how he felt? He was holding the Comforter of Israel. He blessed God. He had seen God’s Salvation. What is amazing about what Simeon says is in verses 31-32. HE says I have seen Your Salvation “which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6), And the glory of your people Israel.” Simeon knew that the Messiah had come not only for the Salvation of Israel but also to save the Gentiles. Way back when Jesus was around forty days old it was known by this man that He was to be the Savior of the whole world. How amazing is that?!! God who came in the humble form of a baby was to be the Savior of the World. He wouldn’t be one who fought bravely with the sword or a mighty General to defeat the Romans at the present time. His Salvation would be greater than that. It would last for eternity. It would be Salvation from sin, hell and separation from Him for all eternity. A Salvation that would last for all of eternity. A Salvation for all the peoples of the earth. The only way He could bring about this Salvation was to die on a cross. To pay the penalty of the world’s sins with his blood, the blood of the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice. But the greatest part is that the story does not end in death but in the fact the Jesus Christ rose from the grave to show that He conquered sin and death for all time. This great plan of Salvation is played out in the rest of the book of Luke what an exciting story. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus. We get to celebrate not only at Christmas time but all the time. Let us give Him all the glory now and forever not only at Christmas time, or at Easter, or Thanksgiving but all the time, every day. He has given us the greatest gift, Salvation to all men. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, in the form of a baby to become the Savior of the whole world. Thank You, Father, for this great gift of Salvation to all men. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Here Am I

Here is a poem that I found in Nigeria. I have no idea who wrote it but I really like it. This is the prayer of my heart.



Here am I, Lord, Make me ready

Mold me use me Lord, May I give what I have

My testimonies, my prayers, my love

May I go into the world with the Good News, Lord

I am willing, I am ready

Here am I, Lord, send me.

Good deeds are not for Salvation so why should we do them? Part 1

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.” Titus 2:11-15 (NASB)
Paul in this passage is talking to Titus. There are two things that we see here in these first couple of verses. First, God’s grace appeared bringing salvation to all men. Not just the Jews or the Gentiles but to ALL mankind. Second, God’s grace appeared instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. God’s grace appeared instructing us, it appeared telling us what we need to do. Teaching us to DENY ungodliness and worldly desires. To deny, means to refuse to acknowledge. We are to not even acknowledge ungodliness and worldly desires. We are to have no part with them. We are to deny them access to our lives. We are to reject them. Paul then goes on to say that Gods’ grace appeared instructing us to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the past age? Or the future age? No, the present age! This means we cannot say I will deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live a sensible, righteous, godly life tomorrow or sometime in the future. We are to live a sensible, righteous, godly life NOW, in the present age. While living this life we are to be looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Jesus came to this earth as a humble lowly servant that was when the grace of God appeared. Now we are looking for the appearing of the glory of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is our great God and Savior! He gave Himself for us for two reasons. To redeem us from part of our lawless deeds or a few of our lawless deeds? No! He came to redeem us from EVERY lawless deed! He also came to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, ZEALOUS for good deeds. I love that word zealous. Zealous means passionate, fanatical, fervent, keen, and enthusiastic. Every time I read that word zealous it gets me excited. We are to be zealous for good deeds. We are to be passionate, enthusiastic about doing good deeds. It’s not sitting waiting for an opportunity to do a good deed to come around, but it is looking for opportunities to do a good deed so that Christ can shine through what you are doing. We should be zealous for good deeds so that Christ is shown through them. Not for your own glory but for Christ’s glory. This verse reminds me of one of my favorite verses. Matthew 5:16 says “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” What is our light? Christ is our light. John 1:4-5 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” We are to let Christ shine in our lives, therefore when we are zealous for good deeds, people will see Christ in us and we will have more opportunities to share Him with others both with our mouths and with our actions. Being zealous for good deeds is a lifestyle as is all of this passage.
Brothers and sisters this is to be our lifestyle. We are to deny ungodliness and worldly desires right now. We are to live sensible, righteous, godly lives right now, not tomorrow. We are to be looking for the blessed hope and appearing of our God and Savior, Christ Jesus. We are to be looking for this one who redeemed us and purified us. We are to be Zealous for good deeds, so that we can show our God and Savior, Jesus Christ to this lost and dying world.
Paul tells Titus at the end of this chapter, “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
*This has been posted but as I have gotten into this subject more and more I have decided to write more on this. So that is why it is called part 1. I am planning and hoping for a part two or at least another draft of this note including everything that I am finding. This subject has been something I have been learning about lately. I hope you all enjoy what the Lord has shown me.

Alimo's Legacy by Shana Kerttula

Everyone has a heart full of love, not all will share it. Everyone has a sense of right and wrong, not all will listen to it. Everyone can see wrong, but few have the courage change. Everyone has a story, But who will listen. I have a story to tell but it’s not my own. A story of Neglect, a story of love, a story of grief, a story of joy. In 1979 a missionary woman named Esther Nordman was going to a conference in a village. She saw something out of the corner of her eye. At first glance it looked like a dead animal, left lying on the ground. She looked closer. It was not an animal nor was it dead, it was a small child. Esther went back home and brought back her husband Leslie to see the child. She was unbathed, naked and half starved. The couple asked around as to who her parents were. It turns out the father had died and the mother suffered of a mental disability. The family was happy to give the child to the Nordmans. They took her home bathed her, cut her hair, fed her, and poured all the love they could into her. Her name was Alimo. She was severely disabled both physically and mentally. Alimo was very happy, for a time. The couple tried to adopt her but they were unable before they had to returned to the United States. So Esther and Leslie had to leave their dear child and return home. They left her in the care of the CMML mission. The mission hired a nanny to care for her. The Nanny gave Alimo only two jobs. 1. Keep clean. 2. Not to eat anything that was not given to her to eat. So Alimo spent hours sitting quietly not allowed to play because she might get dirty, and fed very little. At this time Caroline Gross was in the United States burying her beloved husband, Paul Gross. She then came back to Nigeria. One Sunday Alimo’s nanny asked for ride to church. Mom Gross having a car at the time agreed to drive her. When Mom Gross arrived to pick her up the Nanny came out alone. She asked where Alimo was. The nanny replied that she was inside. When asked if Alimo was alone the Nanny said no someone was taking care of her. As Mom Gross drove her to church she couldn’t rid herself of the feeling that something wasn’t right. So she left everyone at church and went back to check on Alimo. As she walked into the room she saw Alimo, Alone, Quietly sitting on the bed. Across the room sat a basket of candy. Even though Alimo was very hungry she had not touched a single one of them. She had been so well trained, yet so very neglected. Mom Gross took her home, loved her, and devoted much of her time to Alimo. She decided to adopt Alimo, but when she went to adopt her she found out that Alimo had already been adopted. That she’d have to get permission from the Nordmans. They gladly consented to have Mom Gross adopt her. She ended up adopting Alimo in Nigeria but not in the United States because of some stipulations about the amount of time that she would have to spend in the USA, that she would not be able to fulfill. So when she traveled she got Alimo visa’s and brought along people to care for her while they were in the States. Mom Gross took in more children, caring for them, and loving them. Pretty soon the full time care became too much. The Doctor told her she couldn’t do it anymore. So Mary Edeh, one of the girls who had cared for Alimo while in the USA, packed everyone and everything up and moved them to Otutulu. This is where Mary’s Brother Daniel and his wife Esther lived. So they all lived in a house at the bottom of the hill. Soon they outgrew the house and built a bigger building. Over the years this became known as Ministry of Mercy Orphanage. Mom Gross had to return to the States for a bit of time. On this particular trip she left Alimo home. Alimo got very sick. She was taken to the hospital in Ika. Upon her arrival they performed a surgery on her. Mom Gross returned to more grief. On May 6, 2000 Alimo went home to be with her Lord and Savior. She was twenty-six years old. Loved and missed by many. To this day Alimo’s legacy lives on. I see it as I walk the halls, hear the joyful squeals, and feel the little body’s crowd around for a hug. As listened to this story, and later wrote it out, I was struck by how through it all I could see how God worked in everything. He had a plan. He was never surprised. God has a plan for every life. His greatest plan for us was sending His Son into the world to die on the cross to save us from eternal separation from God in Hell. Trust Him with your life He knows everything about you and what’s best for you!

The Gospel Speech in Comm 110 at Montana State University

As I heard my teacher say, “Thank you Julie, TJ you’re up next.” My heart started pounding words were stuck in my throat. I praying Lord help me. The week before I had been praying about what I should do for my persuasive speech at school at the beginning of the year I had decided on doing a gospel message. As the weeks had gone on it look almost impossible to do it. I turned it over and over in my mind. Then I thought well maybe the reliability of the Bible would be a better subject. Two weeks before the speech I started to prepare it but I felt the gospel needed to be given still. I wrestled with it and finally one night I had this dream about it. Now I am not the type of person who would normally say this dream said this so this is what God wants,but I woke up early in the morning after having a dream about my speech. I wrote down everything that I could remember saying. That is when I decided to go back to the subject of the gospel. I still had one thing left though what was I to do for opposition? There are so many sides to the opposition or is there? That night I slept well, so well if fact I had another dream. Now two dreams about the same speech in a row, that is kind of crazy. This time I got my opposition. Works vs. Christ. I realized that most religions are based on works. So that was my opposition. I had everything ready for the outline. The night before the speech I started to write it. Everything fit so perfectly together. I was so excited about it. I would be able to give the gospel to twenty people in public on the MSU campus. As everything came together I thanked the Lord that I was not trying to do it on my own. I was thankful that He was there guiding me to do what He wanted me to do. As I kept going on I thought that I might not have enough sources for my citation but when I finished I had a bunch of sources. I was absolutely amazed how the Lord worked everything out. I was a little worried about the time limit because we had 10 minutes and if we went over it was cut off, right at ten minutes. When I practiced it, I got a 9:45 time on it. As I finished up the last of it, I thanked the Lord for such a wonderful speech. I had asked many people to pray for me. They did pray for me. As I asked more and more people to pray for me it seemed like the people praying for me grew in numbers more and more. The comment from some of the people was “TJ you have a lot of courage in doing that. I don’t think I could ever do that.” The next day seemed like the longest morning ever. I had one class in the morning then a two hour wait for the speech. I couldn’t sit still I had to move. I kept wondering and preparing for the worst. I thought “me have a lot of courage? I feel so scared. I feel like I may not be able to go through with this. What will my class think?” Then it hit me. This was not about me, it is about God. It’s about giving the gospel out no matter what the cost, not matter if man thinks of me as a loser or it he thinks I am weird. To be thought of in this way is such a small cost compared to people giving their lives up for Christ. (Which is not a cost at all in my eyes, because you get to be with the Savior. I think you get what I am getting at though.)The worst thing that could happen is that I get a failing grade for that speech, in which I still pass the class, so that’s not a big deal. Then another thought came to me. I am not alone. What do I have to be afraid of? All they can say is words against me. The Lord is with me. I prayed for strength to give this speech. When I went to class I got there early so as to get the spot I wanted but I had also prayed that I would be able to get the spot my Lord wanted me to get. That spot was second to last. As people came in and set up to speak, I prayed for them to have softened hearts and to receive the gospel. As people went through and got done with their speeches I thought “Wow, she is being very critical on their speeches.” Every single one of them was given something that was wrong with their speeches. I thought “O boy I am going to get it.” She is going to stop me right in the middle and I won’t be able to finish. I kept praying. Then it was my time. I heard my teacher say “Thank you Julie, TJ you’re up next.” I was ready for the worst. The Lord was on my side. I was ready and very nervous. As I started setting everything up a peace came over me. I felt confident and ready to do what the Lord had for me to do. At the beginning before everything started I handed out 15 gospels of John to the class. (Fifteen, because the other five had decided to skip class.) One of the guys pipes up. “Wow this is a gospel of John. That’s awesome!!!” I had to laugh because I was totally not expecting that from that kid. After telling them to stick it in their pocket or in their backpack, I silently asked the Lord to speak through me. Right then, I was ready to go. I went through the first part talking about several religions and how they rely on works. There is a kid from Saudi Arabia in my class who is a Muslim and as I talked about Muslims he nodded his head in agreement, that this is what a Muslim had to do to get to heaven. Briefly I talked about some of the main religions. Then I went into the law and then that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Everyone listen and I could see that some of them were convicted. The Lord was there with me. I am amazed at how when we try to do things in our own power we struggle but when the Lord is giving us the words to say it is amazing. As I finished up I was praising the Lord in my heart and bracing myself for the worst. My teacher asked two people to critique me. As I waited for their critique I was waiting to be stoned with text books or something. It’s funny because both of the people that critiqued me liked the speech and how it was done. The comment was that you have a lot of guts to get up and do that here. All I can do is give the glory to God because if it was in my own power I would have never been able to do it. The crazy part about it was that the two people the critiqued me said they didn’t know what to say to work on next time I spoke. Next the critiquing went on to my teacher. I braced myself a second time. Her comment was that it was well put together and that I was able to cover the subject very well in the time period I had. She said she really enjoyed it. I was so relieved. Although there were several hostile looks from the rest of the crowd, I did not care because I was praising the Lord for everything that had happened that day. You might say well then the story is over and I really enjoyed it. Well it’s not over yet. I got my grade a week later. I was expecting a low grade even though my teacher liked it but when I looked at it I was astonished. It was way higher than I ever expected it to be. It was a 91.25%. An “A” in speech class is hard to get. Again I praised the Lord. That’s sounds like a good end to this story doesn’t it but if I were to end there I would not be giving you a complete account of the whole story. The Wednesday after the speech we had our lecture for speech class. I usually sit with some of the kids in my recitation so I sat down where I normally sit and got a cold glare from one of the girls and one of the guys started swearing at me randomly.(This is normal to me because that’s what I get on the street most of the time.) Then class started. The lecture was on Ethics and Morals. The comment my professor (different person from my recitation teacher) made was that there should never be a religious speech in the class. He had no idea I had already done my speech. As he went on he was very hostile to Christianity. He told us there was no place for those things in speech class. The guy started swearing and making fun of me and glaring at me and so did the girl. I ignored them. Finally the class was over. Praise the Lord that I was able to do my speech before my professor did that lecture. Persecution comes in many different ways. I have no idea if this is the end of the story but if there is more to write about there will be a part 2 to this story. All the glory for this goes to God. He gave me the opportunity and was with me the whole time. I hope that this is an encouragement to all especially to those who are in college to stand up boldly for their faith when the opportunity arises and to share the gospel with all even when we don’t feel like we have the courage to. What an awesome God we have that we have been given this great message to share with other people.

What is Your Excuse?

“But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”

 (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)

Examine everything carefully. Make sure what you are looking at is in accordance with what the Bible says. The second part of verse twenty-one says hold fast to what is good. In Mark 10:18 Jesus says, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.’” Jesus is not saying that He is not God here but instead He is testing the man to see what he will say to this statement. If we are to hold fast to what is good then we need to hold fast God for He is good. Continuing on into verse twenty-two. “abstain from every form of evil.” Notice it says abstain from some forms of evil. Other forms are ok. NO!!! It says to abstain from EVERY form of evil. These days evil comes in ways that seem to be camouflaged to many people. They do not know what is good because they have not been taught the Bible. They have been given fluffy sermons that make you feel good inside and make you laugh and you might remember a story from it but is that all you take away from it? It leaves you lacking anything to hold fast to.

How do you intimately know God if you are not taught from the scriptures? If they do not know what is good then they cannot tell what is evil. Therefore, they cannot abstain from evil. Everything has become grey to them. We must get to know God in order to know what good is because no one is good but God.

Where are you oh Christians who are Godly? Where are you who are boldly proclaiming the gospel? Are you ashamed that you will not even speak out for what is good? You are not godly because you do not really know God. You are not bold because you do not have faith that God can help you. You are ashamed because you think someone might think you are strange for standing up for what is good. Should not the gospel be on our hearts and minds all day long so that it is on the tip of our tongue just waiting to come out? Should we not be ready to give an answer to show what we believe? Are you so ashamed of your Savior that you will not tell about Him? You should be ashamed that you are NOT proclaiming Christ to all people.

Are you, oh Christian, making excuses for not telling of your Savior, for not living a godly life, for not following Christ as you should? What excuse is good enough? There is no excuse, oh Christian. There is no excuse for you. None for you to give for not following Christ. None for you to give for not living a godly life. None for you to give for not telling of your Savior. There is NO EXCUSE!!! Come now, oh Christian, let us get to know God, let us spend time with Him. Let us tell of His Son, the Savior of this world. Let us boldly tell of Him and His great Sacrifice for us. Let us live a life like Daniel lived so that no one will be able to find anything wrong against us. Let is follow after Christ. Let us, oh Christian, live a Holy and godly life. No more excuses. Today is the day that the revival starts within our hearts and our minds. Today is the Day that we boldly stand for Christ. If God is for us who can stand against us?

God's Timing

The other day I was thinking about some things that were heavy on my heart. One of them being the desire to be back in Nigeria right now. I was asking myself, “Why am I here at MSU? Why I am not in Nigeria?” I was reading a poem that I had written in the back of my Bible and as I read it something stuck out to me. It said, “Here I am Lord, make me ready, mold me, use me Lord.” I realized the purpose of why I was here is so the Lord can make me ready. So He can mold me and use me for His purpose. I realized that my mission is here right now. I was talking to a Christian brother about it and I was greatly encouraged by what he told me. It was something I had never thought of before. He said, “Don't forget that even while He is preparing YOU, He's also preparing the season and people who will be a critical to the success of the mission He sends you here to accomplish.” Even now as He is preparing me, He is also preparing the people. That is such an encouraging statement. The Lord’s time is always the best. My mission is to be at MSU and do what the Lord has laid on my heart to do, EVANGELISM!!! The Lord has prepared the people here for me, that’s why I am here. Even now He has prepared everything for me in the future. Once again it come down to patience and waiting on the Lord’s will for the next step of my life. There is a purpose for everything. Praise the Lord that He is in control of everything. He is making me ready and making the people I am to minister to ready to hear the gospel in His perfect timing.

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Shining Reflection

Darkness surrounds, a Shroud of darkness, Lights where are you? Are you shining? I can’t see you. Why? You look just like everyone else. Your light has dimmed. You say well it’s ok to go do this or that just once. God wants me to enjoy life so it’s ok. I can ask for forgiveness later. As you keep on willfully sinning your light grows dimmer and dimmer. Until it is nothing but a small flicker or until it is hidden from sight. Oh Christians where is your light? Is it dim or shining brightly? Is it covered? Do you say I don’t want anyone to judge me because I am a Christian? I just want to be normal. If you hide your light then all you are is a good person. But if you let your light shine then you are portraying Christ. I love the song by Salvador called “Shine”. The Chorus goes like this:

Lord let me shine, shine like the moon
A reflection of You in all that I do
Lord let me be a light for Your truth
Light of the world, I wanna be used to shine for You

Is this the prayer of our hearts or do we want to reflect the world instead? Who is it that we want to reflect? Also think about this sometimes we reflect Christ only when we meet with the church. The rest of the week we reflect the world. Do you want to be a reflection of Christ in all that you do or only part of what you do? Shine Christians shine. If you shine you never know who will be there that will take your example and shine with you. A good friend of mine put this on his facebook status.

“ ‘where are the reinforcements?" "we're it...’ -Blackhawk Down
Who are you expecting to be the reinforcements................ you're it...”

This is an interesting statement. So true. We should not expect reinforcements from man but we have the best reinforcement in the universe. If God is for us who can stand against us. I met a man the other day. He was passing out Gideon Bibles. I stopped and talked to him and encouraged him before class. Just by him standing there doing that he was an encouragement to me. When you see someone who has a Christian t-shirt on or is praying with someone or sharing the gospel with someone, stop and thank them and encourage them. We are in this together but it is a lonely road sometimes. It seems like there is no one shining for Christ anywhere. I have seen some very interesting things happen because I stopped and talked to a Christian or someone stopped and talked to me and encouraged me. Just thanking them for shining for Christ really makes a difference. Praise the Lord that we can reflect him as lights shining. Praise the Lord that we have such a great gift of eternal life to share with others. Let us reflect Christ and share what He has done for us on the Cross.

What Pi isn’t correct in the Bible?!!!

While we were doing Evangelism at the Fair I met three Atheists. When I told them that I would give them a hundred dollars if they could prove the Bible scientific or historically inaccurate one of them piped up and said the Bible calculates Pi inaccurately. I told him Pi is never in the Bible. He went on to explain himself, trying to tell me how it was inaccurate and that the Bible implies it. He couldn’t give me a reference. He was just trying to get me off the subject of salvation. They were attacking the Bible so that is why I made them the offer. They walked off thinking that I had been made to question my faith and trust in the Bible. They did not have any interest in the things of God. After talking with them I wanted to know if what they said was true, knowing in my heart that it wasn’t but wanting to know what they were talking about so I could answer them. I asked a few people what they thought and then looked on the internet for an answer. On the internet I found that most people said the Hebrews rounded Pi to the number three. Actually if we look into the passage that these people use we will find Pi a lot more accurate than most people think. The passage we are looking at is in 1 Kings 7:23, 26. Most people only look at verse 23 and that is why they think that the Hebrews rounded Pi. Here are the two verses.
1 Kings 7:23 Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference.
1 Kings 7:26 It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths.

Watch as we do the Math.
Our equation is Circumference=Pi x Diameter.
C=Pi(D)

First I want to convert everything to inches.
1 cubit= 18in
D=10x18=180 in.
C=30x18=540 in.

When we look at verse 26 we see that it is a handbreadth thick.
1 handbreadth= 4 in.

Let’s insert values into our equation. We subtract the thickness of the bowl from the diameter.

540in=pi(180in- 2handbreadths)
540in=pi(180in-2(4in))
540in=pi(180in-8in)
540in=pi(172in)
540in/172in= pi
pi=3.1395348837

Now you tell me how accurate the Hebrew’s were with pi. We can see that Pi is very accurate in the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word and God’s Word is truth. When we look at Math and Science we are to take the all facts and make a conclusion from it, not take the answer we want and read it into the facts. I hope that you all might be able to use this if and when this attack on the Bible arises. How wonderful God’s Word is and what a wonderful God is our God. There is no argument that can stand against it. There is no historical or scientific inaccuracy in it. Praise the Lord for giving us His Word.

Evangelism Adventures in Helena July 2, 2010

Friday I decided to go out and do some evangelism. I asked a few people if they wanted to come but they were busy so I went by myself for a few hrs. During that time many seeds were planted. I was able to talk to many different people. There was one man named Nathan who was in front of a bar and when I gave him and his buddy a tract they wanted to talk to me. So they asked me to sit with them in front of the bar. His buddy was all over the place talking about different things and wouldn’t let me talk or let me explain the gospel. Nathan told him to shutup several times but he wouldn’t listen. Nathan’s buddy said that he could show me a passage that said that it was alright to drink. He took me to Proverbs 31. This guy was drunk and he was quoting to me Proverbs 31 in the KJV. I was startled that he would be able to do that. Right after he quoted it he asked a guy passing by if he wanted a beer and so he took him in to get a beer. That left me with Nathan. He asked me why God would take his mother away from him when she was only 56 yrs old. He said that his mother was the only person he had in his life. He said that He knew his mother was in heaven because she always told them that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and that if they believed in Him they would have eternal life. He knew the gospel but he said that he couldn’t stop blaming God for taking his mother. I told him that God has a plan for him that there was a reason I was here talking to him. I told him that his mother was in heaven if she believed that and that if he believed that he would see her again someday. I told him that he needed to trust in Jesus and that He would help him through all the pain of losing his mother. He was near tears. He kept saying I know. I asked him if I could pray for him and right there in front of that bar I prayed for him. He appreciated that I prayed for him right there. He said that he needed to think about trusting Christ more. Please pray for Nathan. He is so very close to coming to Christ and he is trying to forget the pain by drinking.
I talk with a bunch of people and most of them were trying to deal with the death of someone.
There was a group of three kids that I stopped and I thought I had talked to them before because they looked familiar but I had not. So I was able to explain the gospel to them and when asked where they were going when they died, they had a scared look in their eyes. They promised to read the tracts and to think about what I said.
I met several kids that were telling me to get off the streets and stop trying to push my religion on them. One guy told me that the Bible was full of errors and flaws and when asked to name one he said the whole thing. I told him to prove it he said that I should prove that it is accurate because I was the one that approached him. All he wanted to do was argue so I moved on. Later on when talking to another group of kids he came past and told them I was lying and to get away from me. They left quickly. I thought that he was going to follow me around but he left quickly also.
I met some ladies sitting on a bench and when I gave them tracts they said they were Christians. I asked them what the gospel was and they gave it to me and then encouraged me to keep handing out tracts.
I was about ready to meet up with some other guys for evangelism.(Kenny, Mike P. and Brent) I was standing in front of my car and this guy comes down the sidewalk and so I decide to give him a tract. He turns out to be a mystic, reincarnated and a Jew. Don’t ask me how those go together but he also said that there is no such thing as a Messiah even in the future. He says that reincarnation will happen until everyone becomes a cow. He says that only the Hebrew writings are true. The Protestants have flawed the OT scriptures. The servant or messiah is never mentioned in Isaiah in the Hebrew. He wouldn’t listen to me because I was using an English Bible. He said that I could not disprove it because I didn’t have any proof and that he had studied it for years in this life and other lives. Yeah kind of crazy. I broke off the conversation because all he wanted to do was argue. As a parting gift he plucked a rose from a nearby bush and gave it to me as a sign of the Messiah. The guys left me and went down the walking mall. I went after them handing out tracts along the way. I met a guy from Senegal along the way. Then I finally caught up with the guys from there we went back down the walking mall handing out tracts along the way. I stopped at a table of kids outside one of the ice cream shops and asked if they had gotten one of these. They all said no but one. One of them said Yes, I have gotten so many that I don’t need any more. Just leave me alone. It turned out to be one of my co-workers (she was kidding) and I had shared the gospel with her at work. We had given her tracts last summer and a couple weeks ago I gave her a tract. You can call her B. God is after her. He wants her that’s why I keep running into her on the street. Pray for her that she will give her life to Christ.
We got to the library and decided to go back down to the movie theater so we walked there on the way we stopped at hill park and Brent and Kenny had a long conversation with two girls and a guy that had told me to stop pushing my religion on him. Mike and I went on to the movie theater. They were right in the middle of movies so there was no one around. We decided to go back to Hill park. Mike was able to give the gospel to a few kids.
We went down the hill to another park called Women’s park. There was something going on under the band canopy. As we got closer we saw it was tango dancers. Not wanting to get rope in anything like that we decided to go see some people sitting at a table. We approached them and asked them if they wanted something to read. Two of them told us to go away and one of them started cussing us and telling us that he was going to beat us up if we didn’t leave his table alone. We said we would leave. Then one of them told us to never bring that “stuff” back to the park. (That’s politely put compared to what he really said.) He said He would punch me and beat me if I showed him that gospel tract again. HE asked me if I wanted to fight him. I said “You can punch me but I won’t fight you.” Mike and I were both scared. I told the guy that these tracts are not just “stuff”. Suddenly he took a step toward me. I took a step back and said that we were going. He said “no wait. Your right it’s not ‘stuff’.” He told us that he couldn’t hurt us if he wanted to. We were under God’s protection and there was no way he could even touch us to hurt us. He told us he was Ed Hume. He told us that he was a Marine Chaplin and that he had been wounded in battle. He showed us his license and then told us his story. His wife had died and so he had taken up vodka to forget it. When he was 16 he had been shot in a bar fight and while in the hospital Nicky Cruz and David Wilkerson came to him and told him he needed to go to teen challenge and so that is where he went and when he gave up his life for Christ. He told us that he loved Jesus and he believed with all his heart that Jesus died on the cross for his sins and rose again but he couldn’t stop blaming God for taking his wife. He was crying at the end. He knew his Bible. Brent and Kenny joined us and he tried to run them off but he wanted gospel tracts so we called them back. We gave him gospel tracts. He wanted to read them. We gave him a New Testament. He told us to keep passing out tracts and that if anyone gave us a hard time them to tell him and he would take care of them. Then he gave us all hugs. Praise the Lord for an opportunity to talk to him. Pray for Ed. Pray that God would comfort him and that he would give all his anger to the Lord to take care of. Praise the Lord for protecting us.
We went back to the cars and handed tracts out on the way back. On the way salvaging gospel tracts from nearby garbage cans. :D
Praise the Lord for seeds planted and pray for all of these people in Helena. They need salvation.

Alive @ 5 Evangelism and Wisdom

There was a lady the other day that came up to me while we were doing evangelism. I gave her a tract and she wanted me to sing her petition for a certain bill. She asked me your pro-life, and then told me that I should sign it. I asked her about it and she asked me if I knew that 1 out of 4 children were in poverty in America. I replied by asking her if she knew how many were in poverty in Nigeria. She responded that she did not know. I told her that by American standards 4/4 were in poverty. Then I realized where she was going with it. She was not Pro-life, she was pro-choice. She was trying to stop poverty by trying to make a bill for women to have abortions. It disgusted me so much that I told her that I knew exactly how to stop the problem of poverty of children. I told her that she should make it illegal to have sex outside of marriage. She was flabbergast and asked me so you have never had sex outside of marriage. I told her nope. She said I can’t believe this, I have never met anyone that has not and she asked me why. I told her because I was a follower of Christ and the Bible tells us not to. She told me that she knew lots of Christians and they had sex outside of marriage. She told me she couldn’t talk to me and started to walk away and then she came back. I was very saddened about what she told me but I knew that this woman needed Christ desperately. I went on to ask her if she thought she was a good person and asked where she was going to go when she died. She said she was going to heaven and that she was a good person. I went through the Ten Commandments with her. When I asked her if she had lied she told me NO never and I told her I think you are lying to me right now and she admitted that she was right away. Then I asked her if she had ever stolen anything. She said yeah when I was a kid. I asked her if she had ever taken the Lords name in vain and right there and then she took the Lords name in vain four or five times in one sentence. I think she thought it would shock me, but it didn’t and I went on and asked if she had disobeyed her parents and she said yes. Then I told her that everyone sins and that because of that all of us deserve to go to hell. She said ok so all of us are going to hell then so why do I have to worry. I told her that we didn’t all have to go to hell. She tried to argue with me and tell me that was what I just said. I asked her to hold on and let me finish. She tried to walk away again and said that she couldn’t talk to me but she came right back and said ok continue. So I told her about Jesus Christ and how he died on the cross. I talked about God’s love for us and how He sent His son and asked her how she would feel if she had to give up her son and she told me she had already had 3 abortions and she would give up her child again without a problem. I told her about what Christ had done for her in dying on the cross and that if she believed in Jesus Christ that she would be saved. She told me she believed in Jesus Christ. I gave her Romans 10:9-10 and told her if she confesses with her mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in her heart that God raise Him from the dead then she shall be saved. She told me to stop judging her. That she had already believed when she was a little girl. I said, Really? I couldn’t tell. You just took the Lord’s name in vain and you broke almost all of the commandments that I named while I was standing here. She told me “oh so Christians are supposed to have a certain light in their eyes so that you can see they are Christians.” I never said anything about it. At that time my buddy Scott had finished up his conversation and was walking over and she said once again that she couldn’t talk to me and started to walk away but came back again. Scott came over and took over the conversation. The lady told us that she believed that Jesus was just a man and that he didn’t die on the cross that it was a fairy tale. She said that the Bible was not totally accurate and had a lot of errors in it and that she could not believe it and we again told her about Christ and what He had done for her. She told us I can’t even talk to you one last time and walked away for good. It was a sad conversation but she heard the gospel and I hope that she will come to Christ. If she did imagine what a change that would be and her friends would notice it.

This story of my evangelistic events brought some things to mind and if you will bear with me I will explain later on in the paper.

I have been reading in Proverbs lately and ever since I went to Africa and saw one of the men there that has so much wisdom I have wanted to have wisdom and knowledge for what to do in different situations. So I decided to start by reading Proverbs. So here are some of my thoughts. Proverbs 1:7. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom and instruction." Fearing the LORD is the beginning of Knowledge. What does that mean? What does it really mean to fear the LORD. In Proverbs 8:13 it tells us. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride, arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate." It lists several things there but also if we look at Proverbs 6:16-19 we see what the LORD hates. Six of them He hates and the last one is an abomination. 1) Haughty eyes 2) A lying tongue 3) hands that shed innocent blood 4) A heart that devises wicked plans 5) A feet that rapidly run to evil 6) A false witness that utters lies. And 7) One who spreads strife among brothers.

As Christians if we fear the LORD we are to hate evil. In our society I see that we don't embrace it but we don't hate it. Ex: I was told the other day while out doing evangelism that almost every "Christian" that this lady had met had sex before they were married (Story above). Now we could argue that those people probably were not Christians but also there are some that I know that are Christians and they had fallen into sin. If Christians really hated evil if they hated the things the LORD hates then we would see people that feared the LORD. If we fear the LORD then we have the beginning of Knowledge. There was a man that once said that if he had 100 young men that the only thing they feared was sin they could take over the world with the gospel. Do we really fear the LORD? Do we hate evil? It saddens my heart to hear that people claim to be Christians and are sinning as if they have a license to sin. It’s ok to sin because God will forgive me. But in reality if we fear the LORD we should hate evil. I see that our nation does not fear the LORD, the Mighty God, the Giver of Life and Breath. To say that it’s ok God will forgive me, so I can sin all I want is to say I don’t fear the LORD and I don’t hate evil. Read Proverbs 3:32-35. We see how God treats those who do not fear Him or hate evil. Desire to be upright, Fear the Lord and hate evil.

Home is Where the Heart Is.

A phrase that we see at many people’s house. Let’s think about that for a second or two. We see that and we say wow yeah my heart is in such and such a place on this earth so that is where home is. Yes my physical home is in Montana but let’s look at this phrase from a different aspect. As a Christian our home is in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:8. IS that where our heart is? Is our heart in heaven? Are we thinking about heaven and what a wonderful place it will be? When I was in Bible College there were a few guys that I was very impressed with. They would always talk about heaven and what a glorious day it would be. They were looking forward to heaven they wanted to go to heaven they were ready to go home in an instant and they were excited about going home. There heart was in heaven and still is. It was something that was so cool to see and I said to myself that is what I want to be like. I want my heart to be in heaven. I want to be thinking about how great it will be when we finally go home and see our Lord face to face. It will be a beautiful day. We should be anxious and patient at the same time. I can’t wait to go but I am waiting on the Lord to come and take me there. In the mean time we should be laboring to bring as many people with us to heaven. If our mind is set on things above and our heart is also there then our thoughts should be on our Lord who is coming soon. He is coming sooner then we know. Another thought occurred to me as I was thinking about this there were several people that had died in the last two weeks from the retirement home I worked at and some that were fairly young. I asked myself again if I was doing all I could to tell others about Jesus Christ before He comes or before they died. We have become satisfied with sitting in our chairs and saying “actions speak louder than words”. “They will be able to tell I am a Christian by my actions” but the sad thing is that every day I meet people that say they are Christians but you could not tell that they are Christians by their actions. They have filthy language, they act just like the world, they have compromised their walk with Christ or they have not truly believed in Him. Most have been told say this prayer and you will be saved. There is no repentance in them they are still in the old man. They have not shed the old man to put on the new man. They believe Christ was a man but they do not believe in Him. They do not know what He did for them. They don’t care. They use God as someone who can get them out of hard situations and forget about Him the rest of the time. Going back to the phrase” actions speak louder than words”. In some instances that is true but that should not be the whole of it. That is where most people stop. “Actions speak louder than words so I will just show people Christ through my actions.” The problem is that in the Great commission by our Lord, He tell us to “preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) Actions are not enough to bring people to Christ. It is actions and words that bring people to Christ. We must also preach the gospel to them. Sometimes words are louder then actions. We are scared to tell others about Christ. We are scared what they might think about us. Why does it matter what they think about us? We are Christians. Sometimes we are even afraid we might lose a better opportunity to talk to them later on. The Lord is in control of everything. He will use what we say for His good because it is not us that bring them to Christ but it is God that brings them. So Go, preach the gospel our home is not here on earth it is in heaven and heart should be there also. Our Lord is coming back soon. Are we preparing for His coming, Are we preaching the gospel? Many have not heard. Go and preach the gospel, looking towards our Home in heaven. Someday soon all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will be there. Sooner than you think.

Update from Helena, MT June 5

Hello everyone, It has been a while since I have written. We are safely back home and recuperated and ready to go. The Lord has been working in our lives and our passion to go back to Nigeria has not died. But we are not just sitting here doing nothing. This last Monday I was able to go out and do street evangelism with my friends Scott and Jeremy. It was rainy but I think that you have the best conversations when it is raining or snowing. It was just like that then too. We walked around and passed out tracts and then we went up past the movie theater to a park where Scott was able to talk to two people who did not know the gospel. While he was doing that I went back down to the movie theater and caught a big group of people coming in. Scott finished up and we went on to hill park. There was a group of kids I hadn’t met yet. Scott knew some of them. He talked to a group of them and I went over to another group that was playing hacky sack and asked if I could join. As we played I asked them about the gospel. One kid, an Atheist, told me that it was impossible that the Bible was true and that there was no God and that we were all god and a part of god,(Therefore not a true Atheist) and kept talking so that I couldn’t get a word in edgewise and then he said he was tired of listening to this and left with all but one of his friends. I had to smile because I didn’t even get to say anything really, he was talking almost the whole time. I turned to the other kid and started talking to him about the gospel. He was very receptive. In the end he gave me his e-mail address and I hope to be able to meet with him again. I went p the hill and met a Christian girl and her non-Christian boyfriend. The girl thought it was cool that I was out telling people about Jesus the guy just rolled his eyes and said they had to go. Farther up the hill I questioned two young ladies about the gospel. They were students from Carroll College and they thought they would just turn into particles floating in space when they died. They wanted to know the gospel and then they decided that they didn’t want to know it but said they would read the tracts. On the way back to the car we didn’t meet anyone. Pray for these people that we met that the Lord would do a work in their lives that they might come to know Him. The rest of this week I have been working a part time job. Please pray that I would find a more full time job or another part time job in the evening or night. The Lord is so good.

Response to those who think Jesus is not God

Dear Mr.Pastor,
First of all I would like to ask you, “What does it mean to be a Christian?”
Second I would like to define who God is. God is made up of three entities God the Father, Jesus Christ (God the Son) and the Holy Spirit. This is what we call the trinity or the tri-unity. Although this word is never used in the Bible we see that there are three entities that make up God.
Third, one of the rules for understanding the Bible is that Scripture interprets Scripture. Another is to look at the context.

[1 John 4.15]
You say that Jesus is “the Son of the ONE God”. First of all it does not say “the One God”. It says the Son of God. This verse in 1 John 4:15 can also read that Jesus is God the Son.

John 10.36
If you look at the whole passage you can see that in John 10:30 that Jesus claims that He and the Father are one or another definition for the greek word is “a unity”. If Jesus claims to be one with the Father but then it says that He is the Son of God how can that be? The only answer is that Jesus Christ is both God and man. He is Son of God and part of the trinity Otherwise your claim says that the Bible contradicts itself.

(1 Cor 8.4,6)
You have neglected the last part of these verses. “When Paul says that there is one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, he does not mean that the Lord Jesus Christ is not God. Rather he simply indicates the respective roles which these two Persons of the Godhead fulfilled in creation and in redemption.” (Believers Bible Commentary)
If you are saying that God can only be used of the Father then you have to say that “Lord” always refers to Jesus. What about when it says Lord in the Old Testament.
If Jesus was just a man he could not have been perfect.

He learned to obey the Father day by day. He went through the same things you and I went through, the same temptations but He remained perfect through them. He came to earth perfect, He did not deserve to have the sins of the whole world laid on Him but He willingly took them on Himself so that we could have a perfect stand before God. I don’t believe that He came to earth knowing how to do everything. He had to learn how to walk and talk. He had to learn how to read. It didn’t just come instantly. He had to learn to obey the Fathers will because there was temptation not to.
If you had studied Greek translation of this verse you would know that this translation of the word “perfect” is an unfortunate translation. The word here should be “complete” instead of perfect. Jesus was always perfect. He had to suffer and that is what made Him the complete sacrifice for our sins. Without His suffering there would have been no sacrifice and without a sacrifice there would have been no salvation and no Christianity. If you must insist on using the word “perfect” then you can still say He is the perfect sacrifice for all time. (Hebrews 1-13) How I get this is because it talks about Him being the author of eternal Salvation later on in the verse and before it talks about His suffering. In between His suffering and the authorship was His death, the sacrifice of His life.

Now if you are saying this you are saying that Jesus was just a man. If Jesus was Just a man then we should all give up Christianity. There is no way that Jesus Christ could be sinless. You see in the Old Testament the Sacrifice for a sin offering had to be unblemished and spotless. If Jesus was just a man and not God, He could not have been unblemished and spotless. Jesus Christ is the second Adam. The first Adam had the chance to be perfect but he messed it up and sinned. Jesus Christ was perfect and through His perfection He was able to be the perfect, complete sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath. These verses are talking about Jesus coming down to earth as a man. Jesus Christ gave up His glory in heaven and came humbly to earth as a man because God the Father wanted to show His love for us by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins.


This man, Colin Brown, needs to study his Bible a little more. Let’s look at the Beginning.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Who is the OUR speaking of here? It has to either be more than one God or there has to be more than one being that makes up God.
If Mr. Brown had looked farther down in His study of John 1 He would have seen verse 14. But first I want to look at verse 2. HE was in the beginning with God. Who is HE? The Word is HE. If you say that the He is God you are saying that God was in the beginning with God. It doesn’t make sense. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Apart from HIM nothing has been created. Now in Verse 14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word became flesh. The Word was in the beginning with God and was God. If the Word was with God and was God and then the Word became flesh there is no explanation but that the Word is the pre-incarnate Christ. This proves that Jesus Christ is God. The Word dwelt among us and we saw His glory. The glory of the Only Begotten from the Father. This proves that Jesus Christ was both God and man.

If the Word was not a living being (but only a Word or Thought), then that Word / Thought was called God. You have just defied a Word and called it God.

If we are talking about the deity of Christ then let’s look at Colossians 2:9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,”. Try to explain away that one. Jesus Christ fully God and fully man. I know that it is hard to understand and even I cannot understand it fully. It is just like thinking of eternity. It will go on and on forever. There is no way to explain it. There are many things that we cannot explain. We would like to try to explain them away and understand everything.

John 5:18 “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” The Jews wanted to kill Jesus because He was making Himself equal with God. Jesus claimed that He was equal with God. The only way this could happen is if He was part of the Godhead.

These verses say that Jesus is God.
Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
Hebrews 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
These verses make the claim and the Greek connects God and Savior into one person -- Jesus Christ.
Consider Revelation 22:13 along with Isaiah 41:4; 44:6-8; 48:11-12.
Jesus Christ is talking in Revelation 22. If you decide to overlook these things then you are picking and choosing what scriptures make up your stand. You are not looking at scripture as a whole. You are only taking what you want, what fits your view. You are not letting your view be fit by what is in scripture.
Sir I have already found the truth. The truth is that Jesus Christ, both fully God and fully man, died on the cross for my sins, was buried and rose again to show that He had conquered sin and death. If one puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ they shall be saved. If they don’t they will be damned in Hell for eternity. You deny that Jesus Christ is God then there is no way to heaven for you because there is no way that He could save us unless He was perfect. If you refuse to believe this what are you going to do about John 10:30? Are you going to Say that Jesus is a liar? If He is a liar then He is also a sinner and therefore cannot be the perfect sacrifice and cannot take away the sins of the world. If He is a liar then there is no hope of salvation because there was no perfect sacrifice. If Jesus was lying then there is no Christianity. Just something for you to think about.

Also if you want to learn more listen to the message The Triune God and look at the study notes at this website. http://cbf.thelivingword.us/Messages/StudyDays/TheologyProper/TheologyProper.html
Scott has posted the verses for you to look at and if you cannot accept them to be true then you are saying that the Bible contradicts itself and therefore you cannot be a Christian.
I have presented my stand. I have showed you what God’s Word says. If you have questions I would be happy to answer them.
T.J. Kerttula

As I Am Over the Ocean and Over the Sea

As I am over the Ocean and over the Sea
I want to bring you back with me
To a land that is foreign to both you and I
To a land that needs love from a new supply
To a land that needs Jesus as the Christ
And all that His love has given for a price
That we might have compassion and strength
To carry the load of the sleeping saints
That have died in the jungle giving all their life
To the work that has given hope to many lives
To the work that has given hope to many lives
As I am over the ocean and over the sea
This what I pray for you and me

Let Your Light Shine

I was thinking about a discussion we had on Monday night it was very interesting. It was on Matthew 5:26. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the Father who is in heaven.
Your light is not your works. It is how you do your work. If you are going it with a cheerful heart and do the best you can do then you are letting your light shine through you. If your work is glorifying to God then your light is shining but if you grumble and complain then your light is not shining in you. If your work is glorifying to God then it is worthy to be glorified. Notice all the glory goes to God the Father who is in heaven. It is not glory to yourself it is glory to God. If you work for God’s glory then God will get the glory. What an amazing verse to think on. So let us glorify God in our work because He deserves all the glory for saving us from our sins.

What?!! You don't have to go to a different country to be a missionary???!!!

I find it amusing when people say that to be a missionary one must go to different lands or cross cultural borders. I whole heartedly disagree with that. I will explain why in a bit first I want you to look at three passages.
Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Mar 16:15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Act 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

The word missionary is never found in the NASB, NKJV, ESV, or NIV. So where did it comes from. Our Lord Jesus entrusted us with a mission or a charge to preach the gospel. That is how we now get the word missionary which literally means one who carries out a mission. If one is a missionary of Jesus Christ, then he must carry out the mission of preaching the gospel. I would say that anyone, who preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ whether in the US or any other country is a missionary.
Looking back up that these verses we have to assume that not all of these things happen all at once. First we go. Go doesn’t necessarily mean to go a different country, or different State or even a different city. To be a missionary you don’t have to cross cultural boundaries or go to distant lands. It just means to go out wherever you are to preach the gospel. To go where the Lord as put you at that time of your life. If you think about it someone had to stay in Jerusalem and share the gospel with the Jews. We see that there was a Church in Jerusalem. How did that start unless someone was preaching the gospel there?

Go where? Into all the world, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth. Many people think that go means to go to Africa or to South America or to anywhere but the US. The fact of the matter is that although many people in the US say they are Christians they have no idea what the gospel is. The US is in need of missionaries as much as many other countries. All of you that preach the gospel here in the US are missionaries as well as those that preach it in other countries. We must GO. We must preach the gospel to the world. Those that come to Christ are baptized and taught to observe everything our Lord commanded. Why should or would the Lord send you to a different country to preach the gospel, if you are not preaching the gospel where you are at now. Everyone that preaches the gospel is a missionary. No matter where you are in this world, that is where the Lord has put you and you need to go and preach the gospel. Those people need to hear the gospel to. So as fellow missionaries let us all go out and preach the gospel in the towns, cities, and countries where the Lord has put us for the time being. Let us be missionaries where we are at and if the Lord works out opportunities to go other places them let us go to other places.

January Evangelism Part 1

I haven’t written a note on the evangelism going on around Helena so I decided that it was time to update everyone. Just about every week I go out sometime to do evangelism. All of those time have been very good times. Although the work has been going on for a long time here we have not talked to most of Helena and the surrounding area.  When people see that it is a “religious thing” they either throw the tracts away or they give them back. My heart goes out to all of those people. A couple of weeks ago I walked up to this African American and gave him a tract and he said is this a religious thing or something. I said yes. He said so If I were to point a gun to your head right now and tell you to deny Christ what would you say. I simple said “NO”. He asked why would you say that. I said I know where I am going when I die. He said Praise God, Your ready to go right now. That is a good thing brother. I was just testing you. He said with a big smile on his face. That is the first time I have ever had a believer do anything like that to me.

On Saturday we went out and again met people that say that they believe in Jesus Christ but they do not know what the gospel is. As I was talking to a kid I asked him what the gospel is. He said it was in the Bible, the first 4 books of the Bible. I then asked him what the word gospel meant. He didn’t know. He guessed it was an account of something. I told him it is the Good News. Then I asked him what the Good news was. He didn’t know. I asked him why he called himself a Christian. He said because the people at the church he went to said to pray this prayer and then you are a Christian.  Oh what a deception. It makes me want to weep for those that are being led astray by these people. They are no better than the Catholics, who believe that good works get them to heaven.  I got to share the gospel with this young man. He told me that it made sense to him more than what the people at the church he was going to said. It seemed to be a day full of people from this same church. As we went on, we met some kids in front of the movie theater. They were also people that went to this church.  There were 4 kids and all but one of them was goofing around the whole time. As I was talking to them about the Ten Commandments one of them pipes up and asks aren’t you TJ. I said yeah not really knowing who this girl was.  I kept going and gave them the gospel and they told me that that’s what they believed. I then asked them if they were living a life that God would want them to live. All of them said no. I said why not. They told me that they didn’t need to because Jesus had forgiven them already so they could sin and still be forgiven. I told them you know as far as I am concerned I can’t tell that you are different from the world and the Bible tells us that we are to be in the world but not of the world. They were kind of like whatever and started goofing around again. That’s when it hit me. The girl that asked me if my name was TJ is one of the girls that went to Frontier Bible camp when she was younger.  She had heard the gospel but still did not know it. I talked to them for a little bit longer about random things and then said good bye.  It has made an aching in my gut that this church is leading people astray. I only wish there was something that I could do about it. The only thing right now is to keep proclaiming the gospel and praying for those people that we would be able to proclaim the gospel to more of them. Remember just because they say they are a Christian doesn’t mean that they are saved. The Lord is working. Pray for all of us here in Helena. That is the latest in the Helena Evangelism. For more stories from one of the guys I go with. Go to http://2alltheworld.blogspot.com