the Ronyak's blog

Is a Calvinist Missionary an Oxy[MORON]?

2010-07-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

What do most people think of when they hear the word Calvinist? "Frozen-Chosen" maybe? They typically do NOT think of missionaries or evangelists. It has been my experience that most peoples' understanding of Calvinism is not Calvinism at all, but hyper-Calvinism. I am going to embark on explaining the difference between these two ideologies and why true Calvinistic doctrine should compel us towards mission, not away from it.

First of all, what are the primary doctrines of Calvinism? There are five points: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the saints (the acronym TULIP helps me remember them). The first point is the most foundational. Each of the remaining points hinge off of the reality that we are dead in our sins, not merely sick. Ephesians 2:1-3 makes it clear, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Who is Paul addressing? The saints in Ephesus (1:1) who were once dead in their sins. What does dead mean here? It means dead. We often hear analogies like you're bobbing in the water, just about to drown and God throws out a life preserver; all you have to do is grab ahold of it to be saved from death. The problem with this analogy and ones like it is that we aren't fighting for our lives, we are already dead. We are already at the bottom of the ocean. Dead people can't reach out and grab anything. They are dead!

This idea of spiritual deadness doesn't begin here in the New Testament. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3, man was doomed to have sinful hearts from birth. You hear it said all the time, you don't have to teach a child to sin. That's because they were born with a sinful nature! In Romans 5 , Paul expounds on the fact that in Adam, all man has sinned. He was our representative and since he failed, we failed. We have what's called an imputed sin nature. In Genesis 6 starting in verse 5, we read "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." But things are different now, right? Since God judged the whole earth with the flood and killed off everybody except for Noah, this is no longer true, right? Wrong. After the flood God reaffirms that "the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21). Romans 3:10-12 doesn't give us any more credit than Genesis - "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Do you hear the universality and the depth of our depravity? No one does good! No one is capable of doing good! Dead people can't do good! Isn't coming to God in faith a good thing? If people are incapable of doing good, then how can they come to God in faith?

That is the key to this whole discussion. Dead people can't choose God. They have to be made alive spiritually (regeneration or being born-again) to even have the inclination to choose God. Otherwise, they will go on living in their sin completely on the own accord, by their own will. So what has to happen for someone to be inclined to repent from their sins and believe in the gospel? They must be born again. In John 3:3 Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." He continues in verse 6-8, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you here its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." The Spirit of God clearly initiates regeneration. This leads into the second point of Calvinism: Unconditional Election.

Ephesians 1:4-6 "Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved."

Since dead men can't do good and therefore can't choose God, regeneration (being made spiritually alive) is necessary for anyone to be saved. The Spirit initiates regeneration, therefore, God initiates salvation in those whom He has chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Listen to John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." Do you know what the word "draws" means in the greek? It literally means to drag! How great the Father's love for us that He would bring us to Himself even as we are holding on so tightly to the sin that entangles us!

So back to defining Unconditional Election, it is simply the notion that God has chosen some before the foundation of the world to be saved. This was necessary for any of us to be saved. Had God not chosen some of us to be saved, no one would have chosen Him. He did not choose us based upon anything that we were going to be or do. It was completely based upon God's will (John 1:12-13). Now to the question, God gives all people the ability to choose Him. Well, all people would have to be regenerated then as we have seen. So if you want to suggest that there are regenerate people who reject God and ultimately spend eternity in hell, you have some theological issues of your own! Romans 8:29-30 sheds some light on the efficacy of God's election. "For those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified." It is an unbreakable chain from God's knowing us before we were, to our glorification. It is important to note here that the foreknowledge that is spoken of here is NOT God looking into the future to see who would choose Him and who wouldn't. This simply is not what foreknowledge means. Another important note is the idea of calling. There are two different types of calling: general and specific. The general call is the proclamation of the gospel to all peoples. The specific calling is the drawing of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. It is the efficacious calling. The calling that is spoken of here is the specific calling. It is regeneration.

I am not going to discuss the last three points of Calvinism. I am in deep enough to begin distinguishing between Calvinism and hyper-Calvinism so I will leave it up to you to study Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. I recommend a book by R.C. Sproul called Chosen by God.

So then the logical question is, if God has elected those who will believe, why be a missionary? This is the hyper-Calvinist thinking - and the thinking that most people have towards Calvinists. God will work out His plan of salvation for the elect so we don't have to worry about mission or evangelism. We'll just stay in our holy huddles and wait for God to save His elect. Is this what you think as a Calvinist? Or, is this what you think about Calvinists? Let me explain why both of you are wrong in your thinking.

There is a key component to God's plan of salvation that hyper-Calvinists have missed. God has chosen in His will to use the saints in His process of saving people. There are a few texts that we need to look at. The first is James 1:18, "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation." What is crucial to see here is that the means by which the Holy Spirit (who is God) draws and regenerates is the word of truth. The preaching of the gospel is the means by which God draws people unto Himself. When the gospel is preached (remember we called that the general call), the Holy Spirit awakens those whom God has chosen with a specific call that leads to salvation. The specific call happens when a general call is given. That is what James is saying here. Can you see already the need for missionaries? If the specific call is contingent upon the general call, then mission is still the responsibility of the saints.

The clearest text that I can show this in is Romans 10:13-17, "For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' But how are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!' But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?' So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." People must hear the gospel to be saved. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. The gospel must be preached for the Holy Spirit to regenerate the hearer, that the hearer may repent and believe the gospel. I am fully convinced that those who die having never heard the gospel are going to hell. Why? Because they have sinned against a holy God and have not called upon the name of Jesus to be saved. Doesn't this add even an urgency to mission?

Not only does this understanding of salvation demand urgency on our part, but it gives us hope that our labor will not be in vein. Could God say this if He hadn't predestined some to believe: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb..." We read this in Revelation 7:9. It is the consummation of redemptive history. People from every tribe, peoples and language worshipping Jesus in heaven. How could God accomplish this without electing some from every tribe, peoples and language? We know God is true and His word is true. For Him to be able to say this before it happens means He must have predestined those from every tribe, peoples and language. How then does Calvinistic theology give us hope in mission? God will do the hard work. It is our job to go and preach the gospel. This is the task that He has given us. But God does the transforming work. And since He has promised people from every tribe, peoples and language, we can be sure that every unreached people group that missionaries go to reach, will be reached before Jesus comes back. Their work will not be in vein. I hope that you see how the logic flows. Calvinistic doctrine should give us the hope and strength that we need to give up our lives to preaching the gospel to those who have never heard.

I understand that I did not spend the necessary time to try to convince you to become a Calvinist if you are not already. I understand too that some of you who are Calvinists don't like to be called Calvinists for various reasons. I'm just using the name to classify our understanding of salvation. You can call it whatever you want. What I want you to see is how you can be a Calvinist and a missionary - and how it (in my opinion) is extremely biblical. It is not an oxymoron. Our drive in mission, no matter where you lie should be that God receives maximum glory from all peoples in the worship of His Son, Jesus. They have to hear about Him to believe in Him. Let's go and tell them, huh?

To be completely honest, since I have embraced these doctrines, my view of God has only increased. The idea that God saves people for His own glory, wow! He is that good that He knows that if we live to worship Him, we will be filled with inexpressible joy that nothing else can match, wow! The idea that I had nothing to do with my own salvation, and He gets all the glory and credit, wow! He is so big, so amazing, and so far above us. Let's just end this little blog with worship. Go and read Psalm 96!

For the nations,

Scott

The Gospel in Oral Cultures

2010-05-18T04:48:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks I have been learning about Chronological Bible Teaching or the Story Telling approach to teaching oral culture people the Bible. I have been challenged in various ways through learning this methodology. The first way is that I am not a natural story teller. I don’t really pay enough attention in life to tell a detailed story and draw conclusions from it. This I’m working on. For class, I told the story of Abraham and Isaac on the mountain in Moriah. I actually used a coffee table and plastic butter knife for props to illustrate the story (very foreign to me). It got me thinking about Scripture in a way that I hadn’t thought about it before. We are such a literate culture that we dissect every word of Scripture and want to know what the original Greek or Hebrew text says so that we know that we understand everything the way that God intended us to. This is great - if you’re a highly literate culture like ours and have access to things like www.blueletterbible.com and other resources. But even with the level of detail we go into (we meaning highly literate cultures) we have so many differing understandings of Scripture...

This got me thinking about if people needed to be literate to be saved by Jesus and worship God. I think that we would all agree that people don’t need to be able to read to be saved, right? What if people are deaf and blind, can they be saved? I think again, we would all agree that even deaf and blind people can be saved, right? This got me thinking about exactly what information is necessary to be saved.

I guess the short of what I am learning is this - Before, I used to get discouraged that Scripture had some hidden meaning that could only be found by understanding a “magical” greek word that “really” means this...when in reality the heartbeat of Scripture can be understood even by the simplest person. The intention of this method is to start with Creation and end at the Cross (eventually with the believers covering Acts-Revelation). The Cross does not make any sense if people do not understand that God is our Maker, our Creator who made us perfect in his image. Then he gave the first man one rule that he broke. And now we have all sinned against God and he demands payment for our transgressions. The whole Old Testament points to a substitute - a redeemer who will pay for sins once and for all. When the people hear stories like Abraham and Isaac or the Passover where God provided a substitutional sacrifice, they begin to anticipate a perfect substitute to come. God has painted His Son all through the walls of the Old Testament, and without this foundation, again the Cross doesn’t make sense.

People hear stories and remember them. 75% of the people of the world are oral learners. How are we going to teach them in a way that they are familiar with and can understand? By preaching a perfect five point sermon? Or by telling them stories that are historically accurate and painting a Biblical picture of who God is. Stories that draw out a point, maybe two that lead the listeners to understand some truth about God. Do the stories need to be word for word? You decide. I’m convince that we can be biblically and historically accurate while telling stories that are not word for word (being careful though to preserve the facts that God has given us in His word).

My worldview and presuppositions are constantly being challenged as I am exposed more and more to the foreign mission context. I praise God for that because I had no idea at all about anything...really. God has taught me much and challenged me much since I’ve been here. I’m sure that some of you will have questions about these ideas...they may sound like I am down playing the importance of Scripture or Hermeneutics. I’m not. I’m merely suggesting that taking our western way of teaching and transplanting it to the jungle won’t work. We need to become like them in an effort to win some...sound familiar?

Let me know what you think - theronyaks@yahoo.com

Why Should You Care About the Nations?

2010-03-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

There are an estimated 2.74 billion people in the world who have no access to the gospel. They have no access to the hope of forgiveness and salvation. They have no knowledge of Jesus, the Son of God who came to restore sinners back to a right relationship with God so they can worship and adore Him. No hope. Does that stir your heart at all? These are real people; mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers entering a Christless eternity. How can we ignore this? What excuse is big enough to ignore these people as they cry out for hope? In this blog, we are going to look into Scripture seeking the heart of God regarding the nations. It shouldn’t take long for us to see that God’s heart beats for His glory among the nations. Among the many reasons that we as Christians should care about the nations, we will look at just three: because God cares, because God has a plan, and because You are a part of God’s plan.

We should care about the nations because God cares.

In fact, God cares a lot about the nations, more than we can even fathom. God cares so much, that He sent His only Son Jesus to die for the sins of the nations. For all man has sinned against God and no man can stand before Him in judgement as all have broken his law. Therefore, since we are completely hopeless in restoring our relationship with God on our own, He chose to provide a propitiation to make salvation effective for His people. And we know that from Scripture, His people includes representatives from every nation, and tribe, and tongue and people (Rev 5:9, 7:9). So the gospel is designed to be proclaimed to all peoples on earth so that representatives from every nation will be purchased by the blood of the Lamb and respond with faith and repentance. God’s love is not limited to one people group or country or nation, but God’s love has been shown through the cross to people from every nation on earth! Since God cares this much to provide His own Son’s death as a ransom, shouldn’t we be a reflection of God’s heart to the world?

We should care about the nations because God has a plan.

As we read through Scripture, it’s hard to miss the fact the God already has a plan to redeem people from every nation. As we saw in Revelation 5:9, there will be representatives from every nation on earth who will be in heaven. So when and where was this plan established? Two-thousand years ago Jesus‘ last words before ascending into heaven were:

“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.” (Acts 1:8, NASB)

Jesus gives us clear insight into the heart of God: we will be His witnesses to the remotest part of the earth. A 2000 year old plan would certainly be a well established plan. Even so, let’s look further back into the Scriptures 3000 years ago. David wrote Psalm 96 in which we see clearly God’s heart for the nations.

“Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all peoples.” (Psalm 96:1-3, NASB)

Again, we see clearly God’s desire for His glory in salvation among all nations and peoples. Let’s look even further back to Abraham. This is about 4000 years ago. God made a unilateral promise to Abraham that we can find five times in the book of Genesis. God says to Abraham:

“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall you name be called Abram, But you name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Gen 17:4-5, NASB)

Living in New Testament times, we have the advantage of being able to understand the Old Testament in light of the New Testament writings. In Galatians we read about the fulfilling of the Abrahamic as the gospel being received by the Gentiles (indicating the nations).

“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” (Gal 3:8-9, NASB)

A 4000 year old plan would be a very established plan, no doubt. But God’s plan for the nations is much older than even that. God’s plan for the nations has actually been established before the foundations of the earth! Before Jesus came to earth, before the establishment of Israel, before the fall of man, even before creation; God had a plan to save the nations. Remembering that there are representatives from every nation on earth, read Rev 13:8 and 21:24-27. From these passages we learn that the book of life of the Lamb who was slain was written before the foundations of the earth (13:8) and in it stores the names of all those who will be saved (21:24-27). We can conclude then since there are people from every nation who will be saved and the names of those are written in the book of the Lamb who was slain and that this book was written before the foundations of the world, that God has had the nations on his heart from before the earth was created. Shouldn’t we reflect God’s heart to the world?

We should care about the nations because we are a part of God’s plan.

How does God go about executing his plan for the nations? Through Christian witness. Through you. God has chosen to use the preaching of the gospel through Christians as the normal means by which He gathers His elect from the nations. We know the gospel message is critical in salvation. James 1:18 says, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth...” The gospel message is the means by which people are brought forth. The Holy Spirit is active in this process by regenerating those who God will save and illuminating the gospel message to result in faith and repentance. The missionary Paul lays this out straight-forward in his letter to the Roman church:

“How will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’ However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, ‘Lord who has believed our report?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:14-17, NASB)

How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? God has chosen to use the preaching of the gospel as the normative means by which people are saved. Can you believe that our God is so good to let us be a part of drawing sinners to Himself? We get to be on the front lines of spiritual warfare and get to see God awaken the dead unto salvation. What greater thing can we live for than to see God glorified by people from every tribe, tongue and nation? All we do is preach the gospel and then we get to watch the Holy Spirit work. We should thank God that He has chosen to use us to accomplish His purpose.

How will God use you to accomplish the gathering of the elect from every nation? Will you be the preacher? Will you go to the front lines and preach? Or will you send those who will go preach? By neglecting either of these two roles, you are neglecting to reflect the heart of God. In other words, you are being disobedient to God. God is passionate about gathering His people. God is worthy to receive worship from all all people, and one day all will worship Him. But first, He has His elect from all nations on earth who need to be preached to so that they can worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. What will your role be? How will God use you?

"And the Gates of Hades will not Overpower it."

2010-02-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

From February 7th thru 14th, 19 guys from America set out to serve the Haitian people by providing food and medical care. We had secured 50,000 meals through Kids against Hunger and had a doctor, two EMT’s and a pharmacist on the team to head up the medical clinic. Our main objective was to minister to both their physical and spiritual needs, to the glory of God. Our cry to the people was, “We know you are hurting, and so we wanted to bring you food and medicine. But eventually, it’ll be gone. We want to leave you with something eternal, something everlasting; hope of an eternity with our Heavenly Father. A place of no suffering or pain. A place of glory.” We often lose sight in our wealthy condition that heaven is something to be longed for. Let me tell you, these people are longing for it. They are living on the streets either because their home has been destroyed or because they are too afraid to sleep inside. Most of them have lost family members or friends. Most of them don’t know how they are going to eat tomorrow. There is no running water, no electricity. In terms of comfort, they sleep on the ground under tarps. I would like to ask many of the prosperity “non-gospel” preachers if their problem is lack of faith...

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1:6-7

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” 1 Peter 4:12-13

No, prosperity “non-gospel” preacher, it is not a lack of faith that has caused this suffering, it is a test for the believers in Haiti. It is an opportunity to respond to a trial with rejoicing, praise, glory, and honor. So how is the church doing in Haiti? Are they walking around with glum faces? Are they cursing God? Are they asking, “Why God, why?” I’ll let the pictures explain for themselves.

The church in Haiti is alive and well friends. They worship with a charisma that is unmatched. In the midst of death, poverty, witchcraft, political corruption - the church of God is lifting up the name of the Lord.

“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD!”

My heart was stirred and encouraged. I felt a bit of shame toward my attitude towards God and the church. I want you to imagine if everything that you have is taken away. Would you say, “blessed be the name of the Lord?” Sometimes I wonder if I would. Thankfully the Bible tells me that God would give me the strength that I need to overcome all trials and tribulations in the moment. Praise God for that.

With regard to the logistics of the trip, God showed up and provided exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever have asked or imagined. It was told to us that never has food made it through a Haitian port as fast as we were able to obtain it. Two of our team members, Alex Sisson and Jeremy Sanders spear-headed the operation. They had to bounce between several government workers over the course of a few days and over two cities separated by at least a few hours. God certainly blessed their persistence. We were also blessed by Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Port Marc by letting us stay at their compound a few nights and providing flat bed trucks to help unload the food from the port. They even sent several people to help load. Again, I was so encouraged to see the body of Christ working together to glorify our head, Jesus. We distributed all the boxed food that we could carry from Port Marc in our 5 SUV’s (about 37,000 meals) and the rest were going to be distributed by YWAM in an area that has not received any aid since the earthquake.

The medical team saw hundreds of patients over three days and the prescription medicine that we had left over was donated to a local hospital. After the people were seen by the doctor, we were able to share the gospel with many of them. Speaking through a translator, I was able to share the gospel with many, many people. I forgot to mention that we were working out of a local church building there, which became very beneficial. There were several people that professed to place their faith in Jesus and repent of their sins. I was able to then encourage them to pray to God directly as if He was their friend. They did not need anybody else to pray for them as if that were the agent of salvation. I encouraged them to begin to fellowship with the church body we were functioning out of. This way, they could be baptized and discipled right out of the local church we were working out of. God had all of this already planned out! It was so amazing. There were several other guys on the team that got involved with evangelism. We even encouraged the local deacons and elders to evangelize their own people. I was also given the opportunity to preach at an evening service. Starting with creation, I explained the fall of man and the need for a savior. I used the redemptive analogy of the fig leaves and the animal skins. I then took them to the cross and the resurrection of Jesus and the reason why there is no other way to be reconciled to God. The more times I preach the gospel, the more I love doing it. It truly is a privileged to be a minister of the gospel. This picture is a picture of a young boy praying to God for the forgiveness of his sins. When he looked up at me after he prayed, he had tears streaming from his eyes...a moment I will never, ever forget.

I came away from the trip with a renewed perspective: God is everything, I am nothing. Pray for the church in Haiti. Pray for the nation of Haiti. Pray for salvation and deliverance. Pray that you would worship with the same zeal that Haitian church does. To God be the glory.

A Christian's Response to Post-Modernism

2010-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

I am a Christian. More than that, I love Jesus. Christian was a name given to early followers of Jesus which meant “little Christ.” They were imitators of Jesus. That’s what I want to be too. Let me start by explaining why I want to be an imitator of Jesus.

The Bible says that humanity is in a desperate state. We are all dead...spiritually speaking. We have offended a Holy God. We have sinned against Him. Listen to how it is explained in Genesis.

“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).

Or how about Romans 3:10-18 and 23.

“There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips...”

Keep reading if you’d like. Verse 23 kind of sums it all up: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

One last verse (to really drive home how “good” we are), Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in your trespasses, and sins.”

I hate to break it to you, but if you think that humans are naturally good, you are wrong. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, we have been cursed. We no longer do what we were created to do - glorify God (remember we were created in the image of God). So what does that mean? It means that every human deserves God’s wrath. He set the standard (because He’s God and He can do that), and we broke it. All humanity deserves the wrath of God.

So can we do our best to be good people to try to appease God’s wrath? Most religions teach this as the way back to God. Just do your best and hope that God will forgive you when you mess up. There really is no assurance whether or not you will go to heaven - only that which you create with the “I’m better than Hitler or Hussain” mentality. Unfortunately the Bible says that “a man is not justified by the works of the Law...” (Gal. 2:16a) and “we may be justified...not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal. 2:16b). We are dead in our sins and our works do nothing towards justifying us in the sight of God. But there’s good news...

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved...” (Eph. 2:4-5).

How about that as a response from God? Pretty awesome huh? He is merciful, He is loving, He can raise the dead! Which is great news because we are dead!

Listen now to Galatians again (the parts that I intentionally left out above). “a man is not justified by the works of the Law BUT THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS...that we may be justified BY FAITH IN CHRIST and not by the works of the Law...” (Gal. 2:16).

What was impossible for man to accomplish, God did by sending Jesus to die on the cross. Listen to Romans 3 again, verses 22-25:

“even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.”

What does it mean that Jesus was a propitiation in His blood? It means that Jesus bore God’s wrath for sin upon Himself as He was forsaken by God and died on the cross. He is my wrath-bearer. Since I received this truth by faith, I can no longer be condemned by God because Jesus was condemned for me. It is righteous of God to forgive me only because Jesus has already paid the debt, absorbed the wrath, and became a curse for me. And Jesus rose from the dead three days later to prove God’s satisfaction of His sacrifice. Which means - “it is finished.” There is no other sacrifice for sins. There is no other way to be forgiven. That’s why Jesus can say, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6).

So I am a Christian because, as Ephesians 2 says, God made me alive.

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Now post-modern thinking will say, that is your truth - but there is more than one truth. It is not loving to say to others that what they believe is wrong, and what you believe is right. Your truth is fine for you as long as it doesn’t offend or disrespect another person.

I want to address that as simply as I can. I am going to use plain logic. This logic doesn’t just apply to “religious philosophies,” but to everything in life. It’s called the law of non-contradictions. It is a simple law that people are abandoning in this post-modern era. If I say Jesus is the only way to heaven and somebody else says Jesus is not the only way to heaven, we have two contradicting statements. They are opposite to one another. Simple logic states that both cannot be true at the same time, in the same context. Either both are wrong, or one of them is wrong. But they both cannot be true, at the same time. I don’t think that you need to be a Christian to believe this. It’s very simple. If we abandon this simple logic we are heading somewhere very scary. Take for example, a murderer. He kills 11 people and is caught red-handed. He stands before a jury and says “I didn’t do it”. And the jury says, “If that’s your truth, then you’re free to go.” The problem is - it is not the truth. There is a truth that exists. He did do it, that’s the truth. Another example; you see a kid punch your child on the playground. What right do you have to tell the other kid that what he did was wrong? You don’t want to impose your standards on him, do you? That would be disrespectful, wouldn’t it? Let’s not be so quick to throw out this simple reality of truth in order to preserve diversity. Diversity is a very good thing. God actually has created us with a lot of different qualities and gifts. But diversity does not mean we abandon truth.

Another problem with post-modern thinking is that it is self-contradicting. What I mean by this is that it makes an absolute claim that there is no absolute truth...it’s self-contradicting. It, in a sense, is just setting up another system of beliefs, that if you don’t agree, you are wrong - the very thing it is trying to prevent.

If you take post-modernism to its extreme, you can read these words and make them mean whatever you want. The truth is, I have written each one of these words to portray exactly what I want to say. And I hope, that as you read this, you will try to understand what I am writing, not whatever you want the words to mean. Think about it, if there is not one truth, you can literally take each one of these words and make them mean whatever you want. But the essence of truth is that each word does have a meaning and that you can understand what I am writing because each word has a meaning. Now you may say that a lot of words have several meanings, and that is true. But in context, you know exactly what my intention is for each word.

My main concern in this article is that we are abandoning reason. Can I truly believe something if I don’t disagree with the opposite? Please just think about that. Can I truly believe something if I don’t disagree with the opposite? I tell people about Jesus because I love them. I believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God. Since I REALLY believe that, how unloving would it be for me to NOT tell people and to just let them die without at least hearing about the hope in Jesus? Regardless of whether I am right or wrong, do you at least see the logic in it? I don’t disrespect people who are Muslim, or Jewish, or Hindu, or Buddhist, or animistic. I love them. And because I love them, I want to tell them the good news that I shared in the first half of this article. God has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, and His name is Jesus.

Standing for truth,

Scott

Just a Plain 'Ole Update

2009-09-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well we are back in Ohio. What a busy few weeks we are coming off of. Graduation - Three day drive with the two kids - Visiting family in Cleveland...Now we are finally getting settled in Columbus at our friends Dave and Caressa. I am excited for this season. We are going to be doing a lot of networking. Hopefully God will provide a solid support base as we prepare to leave for Papua New Guinea in August of 2010. I made contact today with a few churches from the Acts 29 network. I am SUPER excited about this. If you don’t know what Acts 29 is, check it out:

http://www.acts29network.org/.

It’s a network of reformed church plants. Right up our alley! I am excited to see how the Lord uses these different churches to hopefully launch us into PNG. I just sent out our August newsletter today. If you did not receive it via email, that means that I don’t have your email address. So if you are interested in receiving our updates and emails, please send your email address to theronyaks@yahoo.com.

Thanks for keeping up!

Love,

Scott

Thoughts on Some Verses About God

2009-07-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who know me, you know that it’s really easy for me to tell lots of jokes and say funny things, so it would be really much more natural for me to blog about something humorous (such as eating free chick-fil-a today...twice...or about the hundreds of ants we found on our bedroom floor the other night, and the list goes on). But I find that far too often I’m distracted by the things of the world and neglect to focus in on and share what’s going on in my heart. Perhaps it’s not so much that I’m distracted but it’s that I prefer to be comfortable and I suppose the right way to describe it is that I prefer not to be vulnerable. So I hope to encourage myself and some of y’all with a few things that God has been teaching me over the past few weeks. I say encourage myself because while I know we’re in a really neat stage of life, I feel like there has been temptation to be discouraged, overwhelmed, and burdened by things in life also.

Lamentations 3:22-24. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ “

That’s really encouraging. I have thought on and prayed through this verse many times in the last few weeks, and I don’t really know what led me to it. I think maybe listening to Grace’s Bible verses dvd “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” got me started. I read an excerpt from a John Piper book about that verse in Matthew 6 and it also referenced Lamemtations 3. God gives us grace and mercy to meet whatever faces us each and every day. So tonight, I don’t need to worry about how in the world I’m going to meet the troubles of tomorrow. I just need to have faith that God’s mercies are new every morning and that He will be my supply.

Ephesians 1:4-6. “..even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

I don’t really presume to understand this because I know I don’t and won’t ever grasp the depths of the sovereignty of God until I’m in heaven. But it’s pretty incredible to think about the fact that before the foundation of the world, God already knew that I would be His follower and He in fact predestined it. I just started reading The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul and he spends the first chapter discussing God who created the world out of nothing. Nothing! What does that mean? What is nothing? If we think of something, then it’s not nothing. So we don’t even know what to describe nothing as (except he said that “nothing” is what his junior high son said he did in school every day. Haha.). But God created the universe “in the beginning” out of “nothing”. And yet, before that, we were chosen to be adopted as a son or daughter of God. I don’t really get that. But I know that I can be encouraged that I believe in a God who is so incomprehensible, so indescribable, so far beyond anything that I can even imagine...and also so loving, so gracious, and so merciful that He sent Jesus to bear my sins in his body on the tree, that I might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). That’s really amazing. It is my prayer that God would move in our hearts to understand more and more the depths of these truths and that would lead us to more worship. I want to be able to say with my whole heart that the primary reason we are going to do overseas missions is because I want to see Jesus worshipped by every tribe and tongue and nation and that nothing would give me greater joy. But I don’t really truly get that--I’m just being honest. I mean, it makes logical sense in my head and sometimes I think I get some glimpses of really knowing that in my heart, but I need to pray that God would just open the eyes of my heart to see more and more of His glory and that would drive me to desire all peoples everywhere to get it too!

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?‘ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?‘ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36).

Thanks for reading. I’m not much of a writer, but perhaps God will grow me through an occasional blog and that He will use it to draw my heart closer to Him. And maybe He’ll use it to encourage your heart also! On another note, we have to send our computer in to get fixed because something (I believe the audio jack, if I’m correct) doesn’t work. So we won’t be able to update the website in the next few weeks. So in case you’re hoping for more, you’ll just have to patiently wait. Thanks to everyone who has supported us in so many different ways over the last 7 months. We love you all so much and are so appreciative!

For the glory of Christ,

Kate

God' Sovereignty - Our Source of Hope

2009-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Things have been crazy here in Texas. That’s for sure. We are working hard to get out support letters, emails, etc. We have sent out probably 70 some info packets to five or six different states. We have had very little response so far. We aren’t really discouraged about this so much. We definitely believe that God is sovereign over all creation and that all the money in the world belongs to Him. If He has called us, He will provide what we need to do what He has called us to do. We believe that! It does take considerable time to print and put together each package though so we are trying to not to use all our time preparing these.

Our house is the other deal. We had a potential buyer that we were praying and praying that they would buy it. They didn’t. This is where I was tempted to doubt God. And I did. But not for long. I know that God has a plan. I know that. I and trust that. Our mortgage is paid until the end of July. We don’t have the money to pay for it after that. God knows that if something is going to happen, He has to do it. The world would say that there is no way in this market our house will sell. I want so badly for God to show his supreme power and sovereignty by selling the house. I would love for our families to see God do that. He can do it!

The whole situation has been so humbling for Kate and I. We live in Texas. We can’t do anything at all about the situation. We are so dependent on our friends and family to take care of things for us. I don’t know if y’all know just how thankful we are for you. All of you. Whether you have cleaned or painted or weeded or cut the grass or prayed or whatever - we are so thankful for you.

So that’s that. School has been great. This week we have been studying some of the central doctrines of Roman Catholicism. It’s been very interesting. If you don’t know us, we are Protestants. We believe in justification by grace alone through faith alone. We believe that Jesus’ work on the cross was an efficacious, finished work.

The other two families on our team have been gone for a few weeks now and we are looking forward to their return so that we can continue team building. They have been off raising support and visiting family. November 12 is the cutoff date for having our support raised to go to PNG in January of 2010. If we do not have our support by then, our departure will be delayed until August. We know that God will provide in His timing. Till next time.

Love,

Scott

The Gospel in Oral Cultures

2009-06-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Let me know what you think - theronyaks@yahoo.com

A Tribute to 104 Hale Ct.

2009-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

In November, 2008 we decided to rent our home out to some people. We had tried to sell it for many many months, and felt like this was a way that the Lord was providing for us to move to Texas (which it was). Well, 6 months later, the people are gone and it kind of smells. Due to some unfortunate miscommunication issues, our renters felt like we were kicking them out (which we weren’t) and they stopped paying rent. So we had to evict them. We’ve never evicted anyone before. It has been an interesting experience, especially dealing with it from Texas. So we decided to make a “tribute to 104 Hale Ct.” page on our blog to...well...tribute 104 Hale Ct.

We’ll begin the tribute with some pictures. This is our old house. Actually, it is our house still. We still own it. Does anyone want to buy it? Or does anyone want to buy it for their father for Father’s Day next weekend? Or, does anyone want to rent it? It will be clean, painted, and hopefully smoke free. Which brings me to the serious part of our tribute....

We have many wonderful friends and family who are spearheading the “ronyak house debacle of 2009” campaign. First up, Caressa Crandall, who we like to call our project manager/financial planner. We have about $341 to work with, and she’s managing it all wonderfully. She is also in charge of “airing out” the house, if you will, to rid it of what some may say is a musty smoke smell. Next up, Ryan and Trish Westenbarger, who are faithfully rallying troops to clean. And by troops, I believe that is the Thursday night lifegroup. Thanks guys! Also participating in the effort is the Heilshorn crew of Westerville (Amy, Karen, and Christen), and Kate McComb. They are painting this Tuesday. Again, thank you so much! And rounding out our team is my wonderful sister Kim and boyfriend Jorge (not that Trish isn’t wonderful...she is too). They picked up cigarette butts tonight, weeded the front flower beds, and cut the front grass. Then it rained on them and they went home. Their help is oh so much appreciated! (See pictures to the below). But really, we’re so thankful for all of you reading this. Many of you have supported us faithfully over these last 6 months in so many different ways, and we are so grateful. Your encouragement is wonderful, and we love you very much. And if you are our old renters, who stumbled upon this page, we love you too.

Good old 104 hale ct. has been a fun home for Tabby and Kramer to live in (see below), for Grace to be bounced on a ball in for hours and hours and hours (see below again), and for the Gillespi-yaks to have a fun year in also (one more pic. below). Who wouldn’t want to buy this house?! Pray for us, that someone would buy it and that through it we would trust God and not be anxious or fretful. We want to believe that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

New Website

2009-06-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new website! We hope that people who are interested in our ministry can use this site to learn more about us and our organization. Check back regularly for thoughts, reflections, stories, and future travels (maybe some random funny pictures too). We want to say thank you to everybody who is currently supporting us through prayer and/or financially. Your encouragement is such a blessing and very often needed! We sincerely thank God for you!