I apologize that a few others did not blog tonight. We has a technical difficulty with the site that was beyond our control but is now fixed, but seeing that it is now 1:15am, I am hoping everyone else is asleep.

For those that like pictures, there are more posted here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065842&id=1508080875

Pastor and I we able to be with 32 Hungarian children today to be able to share with them the 4 parts of the gospel and to challenge them to not be ashamed as Paul writes in Romans 1:16.

So what are the 4 parts of the gospel?

Four Parts of the Gospel

1. YOU ARE A SINNER
   1. The Verse:
      1. Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
         1. When the Bible says, “All have sinned,” it means we have all broken God’s law.  All of us have sinned and fallen short of the standard God has set.  We have lied, cheated, and broken the Ten Commandments in thought and deed.
   2. The Illustration:
      1. The Rock
         1. Many people do not view themselves as sinners because they feel they are not that sinful.  “After all, I have never murdered anyone and I try to live a good moral life.”  We can feel “good” only when we compare ourselves to someone else who is not as good as we are.  However, the Bible says we fall short of God’s standard, not other people’s!
         2. Suppose each one of us were to pick up a rock, and I say to you, “We’ll throw our rocks and hit the North Pole.”  You might throw further than I, or I might throw further than you; and Mother Teresa might throw further than both of us, but none of us would hit the North Pole.  We would all come short. God has set a standard of righteousness that He expects every one of us to meet. While we may be more righteous compared to someone else, we are all sinful people, and no matter how religiously we live or how good we are, we cannot meet God’s standard.
         3. When we break a human law and we get caught, we have to pay a penalty, such as a traffic fine or a jail term.  What then is the penalty for breaking God’s laws?
2. THE PENALTY OF SIN IS DEATH
   1. The Verse:
      1. Romans 6:23:  “For the wages of sin is death.”
         1. Not just physical death, for this death is later defined in the Bible as the “second death,” or “spiritual death,” which is separation from God forever in hell.   One may think this sounds somewhat harsh: How could a supposedly loving and merciful God send someone to hell who may be doing the best he can?   Besides the fact that none of us really do the best we can, we must understand that the Bible teaches that God is not only perfectly loving but is also perfectly just and perfectly righteous.  And a perfectly holy God cannot express one character quality at the expense of another.  For example, God cannot express His love in a way that would at the same time violate or compromise His justice.  Were God to do that even one time, he would no longer be a perfectly just God. Let me illustrate.
   2. The Illustration:
      1. The Judge
         1. Recently a San Diego newspaper  contained a story that implied a judge may get impeached for “fixing” his son’s parking fines.  Why couldn’t the judge still sit in judgment over bigger and more serious lawbreakers?  (This is what people expect God to do – overlook “parking fine” sinners and only judge the  “major leaguers.”)  The judge cannot do this, for even in the human judiciary system we recognize that if the judge violates the standard of justice he is obligated to uphold, he has no right to judge anyone else by that same standard.In a similar way, if God were to say to even one “parking fine” sinner, “You are free to go,” He would have no basis to send Adolph Hitler or even Satan himself to hell.  If even imperfect sinful man recognizes this by impeaching a judge, how much less can a perfectly holy God do what imperfect, sinful man won’t even do?  Would the Creator have a lower standard of morality than the creature?   God cannot grade on a “curve” and still be a perfectly righteous God; the penalty for sin must be paid.
   3. Transition:
      1. One could say that God had a problem, for God created man and loved man, but  man rebelled against Him.  We are a fallen race and God cannot overlook sin.   But the good news is that God found a way to solve the problem.
3. CHRIST DIED FOR YOU
   1. The Verse:
      1. Romans 5:8:   “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
   2. The Illustration:
      1. The Judge II
         1. Let’s go back to the story of the judge who was impeached.  Let’s say that as the son stands before the judgment seat, the judge brings down the gavel and pronounces the verdict: “Guilty; the penalty is a $100 fine.”  But then an amazing thing happens.  The judge takes off his robe, walks down the stairs of his judgment seat, and stands with his son.  He turns to his own judgment bar and pays the $100 fine.  Then he walks back up the stairs and puts his robe back on.  Now if he were to do that, would the young man be free to go?  Yes, he would.  And would the judge have been impeached? Again, no, for he did not violate his justice because the penalty was paid. The San Diego judge could have paid the penalty in the place of his son and actually solved the problem.  In the same way, no matter how much God loved man, he had to bring down the gavel and say, “The penalty of sin is death.”  But He loved us so much that the Judge Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, came down and paid the penalty for us so we don’t have to pay it.  Christ died in your place as your substitute!
         2. There is one thing that God requires in order for you to get what Christ did on the cross applied to you personally.  The Bible says
4. YOU CAN BE SAVED THROUGH FAITH 
   1. The Verse:
      1. Ephesians 2:8,9:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works,  that no one should boast.”
         1. Faith in Christ saves from sin.  Works we do for God cannot save from sin, because works do not pay the penalty for sin.  It is not what I do for God that saves; it is what God has done for me.
         2. There are two elements to saving faith.
            1. Faith or belief means to accept something as true:  You must accept as true that Christ is the Son of God, that He died for your sins on the cross, was buried, and was raised from the dead just as the Bible says.  But just mentally assenting to the historical facts of the Gospel is not saving faith;  there is one other element.
            2. Faith or belief also means to trust or rely on someone for something. You must trust and rely on Christ alone as your only way to heaven. You must believe that Christ died for all of your sins – past, present, and future – and trust in Him, not your goodness, religious works, or anything else.

Sorry for the length of the post but I thought the content to be worthy of sharing.

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For those of us type A planners, Romania can be a challenge because it is such a fluid culture. It often becomes stressful when things do not go as smoothly as you planned them to be, but even the apostle Paul dealt with things being different that he had planned. If everything in ministry always went smoothly, Paul would not have had to written books like 1 Corinthians.

I was reminded tonight as I was talking to Keith what Dr. York once told me during my preaching class. He said that if I went to the pulpit with a full manuscript then I needed to answer for myself if the reason was because I was more worried about embarrassing or dishonoring myself rather than lifting up the word of God.

I think the same thing can be said in this culture of Romania. As a mission team, we cannot afford to allow Satan a foothold which is what happens when we begin to sweat the details so much that the ministry begins to be sacrificed. As the team continues to do a great job during the VBS, help me to be flexible, Lord help my wife continue to lead well, and overflow all of our hearts with both grace and com passion for each other and for the people of Romania. In Jesus’ Name…

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This will be very short as I am blogging from my iPhone and others are waiting to blog also. I am enjoying the wonderful time here! Today was our first day of VBS with the children from the villages and it was awesome. Although there is a language barrier, there are universal signs and body language that allows us to communicate – the waving, high-fives, of course the smile, and the nods of approval. We went to worship service in Baia Mare tonight and it was great – so nice to worship God with other brothers and sisters in Christ! I was very touched when we all sang the Alleluia chorus.

For Adam – I love you forever!
For Austin – I love you berry much!

Can’t wait to get back and share more with everyone in person!

Valerie

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“Salug.” This is one of the ways to say hello but is also goodbye in Romania. I have finally got the time to blog which will be my first time ever to this kind of thing.

First of all, Romania is a very beautiful country. We started VBS today and we had around sixty-eight kids. Our theme for this week is creation and we acted out the first two chapters of Genesis. We taught a song to the kids (don’t really know the name), then a group of Romanian kids sung a few songs. After which, we had small groups and crafts.

I am very glad that I can be flexible for we had to change our plans – again 🙂 – so we had recreation before lunch. Then we went back to our place of rest to change clothes for service at a local church. From there, we went to Buenissimo – an ice cream shop/restaurant. I would compare it to Edy’s or Blue Bunny ice cream.

Hmmm…. stay tune for the next update…

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This is a bistro that serves awesome ice cream that we all went to after the service tonight. I’m not big on rasberry but it is great especially after the heat in the service.

Everyone did great and John and Cathy both gave his testimony.

I’m blogging from my phone so I’ll post more later.

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Most who know me know that I am a night owl and dread mornings, but I find that when I am away from home I am still a night owl, but mornings are actually really easy. I was awake about an hour before my alarm this morning, the sun was shining and it is already hot and muggy, but I am looking forward to the day and the new challenges it will bring.

I was thankful to read the blogs from Cori Beth and Joey since pastor and I are not with the rest of the team it helps to keep up with what they are involved in. This morning we are preaching at the camp and then again tonight. Pray that hearts will be broken for the gospel as this morning at breakfast we observed many in the streets of Baia Mare who were wandering the streets in need of salvation. This is why I am up early, because their is an urgency here for the gospel, but there is also an urgency back home in the states, probably even more so because we have cleverly disguised Christianity with religion and many are just as lost as those we witnessed this morning on the street, perhaps more so.

It is my prayer that we do not lose sight of this when we leave here. It is so easy to find the lost in a culture dominated by years of communism and Greek Orthodoxy, but may the Lord grant us the wisdom to seek out the religious in the states who are hiding amongst us with just as much a false sense of salvation as those who blatantly oppose the gospel. May we be ever vigilant in our efforts to see Jesus’ name made famous in both the US and Romania, but also in the rest of the world. (Acts 1:8)

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