The Catholic and the, oh boy, Pentecostal

TJ and I hit the streets on a nice wintry day to share truth to a dying world.   There were not a lot of people out put God providentially put the right people in our path to talk to.  We gave out some tracts to warm up and then stopped to talk to two men smoking pipes.  I actually love the smell of tobacco pipes, it reminds me of the old days when all the hunters and trappers smoked pipes.  Anyway, I started off with a card trick and then gave them a tract and told them that it explained the gospel.  I asked if they were Christians and they said they were Catholic.  I asked if they have ever been told what it took to get to heaven and they told me a complicated story of works and left out Jesus.  One kid was one of the nicest, most intelligent Catholic I have ever witnessed to and it was a pleasure openly discussing the deep things of God with him on snow covered street.  We talked about everything for a half hour.  I just kept asking him questions at first in order that he would dig himself a hole.  He did.  I explained the purpose that Jesus died for and that doing good and works can't save and if they could then why did Jesus come and die.  We talked about imputed verses infused righteousness.  The biggest problems was when I asked them how much they read the bible.  They never read it much.  I asked if it was sufficient and infallible.  They didn't believe it was and said it was hard to understand that is why they rely on priests.  I made it clear that no man can get to heaven without Christ and that doing good works to get to heaven or continue to earn heaven is un-biblical.  I told them to trust in the Scriptures instead of men and challenged him to read the bible.  It was a great conversation.

We then went back to the library and TJ tried to share the gospel with some kids standing outside.  They told TJ that they were going to Hell and then the youngest kid cussed out TJ and said they had to go because there mom just pulled up.

We met a man in the parking lot and I gave him and his wife tracts and said it was the gospel.  I asked if they were Christians and the man said of course because he has been a preacher for 25 years or something but not in a church just by himself.  He liked to talk and with a little spurring he went on and on.  The more he talked the more we saw how messed up his theology was.  The man said he was a Pentecostal and immediately told us that he raised 5 people from the dead.  It is funny how the Pentecostals are the only ones that ever "raise people from the dead."  Now I understand that our Sovereign God can and does raise people from the dead but it seems to me that if every Pentecostal actually raised all these people from the dead then mathematically there would be 1 out of every 3 people in the US that have been raised from the dead. 

As he went on it got much more weird.  He told us about the world that existed before this one and that Buddhists and Confucianist's were going to heaven without Jesus because they were peace makers and on and on, more bazaar.  TJ argued a bit but I was trying to break free from this crazy man.  A weird way to end the night but good.  We praise God for the opportunities.

Missionary challenge: Contextualization

Contextualization is important when sharing the gospel to other cultures.  There are dangers of going way to far with it and dangers of not doing it at all, which is what you will see in the video.  It is so important to understand the culture and language before sharing the gospel and our American slang should be avoided at all costs.  This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a while but sadly it is how many missionaries are preaching in the field.  I got this from my friend's blog "The Johnsons' Journeys"  Enjoy.

Provision through Faith alone

As we have said, we are not raising our support for our work in the field by they typical means that missionaries use, which is calling churches and asking to present their ministry and then asking them to support them financially. We are simply praying that our Sovereign God will raise up individuals and churches that will live sacrificially and support us. We don't tell our needs or ask for money, we just wait on the Lord to provide through obedient Christians. Men throughout time have did this same thing, men like George Muller, C.T. Studd, Hudson Taylor and present day men like Paul Washer and Heart Cry. I was very much encouraged and our dependence on God alone was confirmed when I read what just happened with Heart Cry. They told no one their needs but prayed and God raised up one single person to support 40 of their missionaries. Here is the story:
Upon returning from the 10/40 window, the staff at HeartCry set themselves to praying for an advance. There were forty missionaries who were approved and ready, but the funds were needed. We kept the matter concealed among us and made our requests known to God. After two months of feeble praying and little faith, the Lord has done it! One family in the U.S., who desires to remain anonymous, contacted HeartCry with the burden to live the faith they professed, and to know the joy of disinterest in and sacrifice of self. Without any communication between us, they had been praying about supporting missionaries in India with the exact amount that was needed to support the forty new missionaries! Praise the Lord! God has moved them to support the whole group of men! We will soon be traveling to India to make the final preparations for this new advance.

We are looking forward to writing to you all about how our miraculous, Sovereign God, supplied all our support for us without us ever asking men or telling our needs. We trust in God to provide through the people that He wants to give the privilege of sacrificing.

Our big announcement

We are moving to Peru to sacrifice everything we have in us for the glory of the gospel of Christ.  Below is our first announcement letter:

Hello everyone. Finally we can officially announce what God is doing in our lives. As you know ever since God has saved me I have had a passion for sharing the Gospel with everyone, but the last few years God has been calling me to extend my calling to the nations. God has given me an increased burden for foreign missions and has confirmed it inwardly, outwardly through people and providence, and through the Scriptures. Through the providence of God I met a man named Tim Killillay, now one of my best friends, at a conference in Cleveland , Ohio who was raising support to move to Peru as a career missionary. Over the last few years we spent time together sharing the gospel and laboring in the ministry together and found we were very like-minded in almost everything and had the same philosophy on foreign missions, theology, and evangelism. This summer Tim spent two weeks with us for the purpose of preaching and evangelism efforts in Montana . At the end of the two weeks God confirmed to both of us that we and our families would be working together for the sake of the gospel in Peru as life-time missionaries.
For the month after Tim left, God did so much in our lives that we sit daily in amazement of Him. He confirmed our calling in so many ways including giving my wife Kim, not only peace about this move but an excitement about living in Peru . Everything is now falling into place including homeschooling the kids, teaching the family Spanish, going through the checklist of the many things that must be completed before we leave. God has even raised up other obedient Christians to give us some of the support we will need in the foreign mission field. We are going to the mission field by faith, trusting in God to raise up obedient Christians and churches that are willing to sacrifice at home so we can sacrifice in the field. By God’s providence we were directed to a missionary clearing house called Central Missionary Clearinghouse who will handle all of the administrative work. These people are true servants and take no money from us at all but rely on faith to supply their needs. CMC is supporting, through administration, around 372 families. At this time, more than 3800 churches are utilizing the services of CMC. We are being sent out by our home church, Wolf Creek Baptist Church as well as Fellowship Baptist Church in Sydney , MT , Westside Baptist Church in Great Falls , MT and North Range Baptist Church in Colorado . These 4 churches will make up our mission board and we will be held accountable to them.
God willing, we will first move to Costa Rica in August if everything falls into place or December of 2011 for a year of language school. Where we are going in Peru there is not much English so learning the language is essential to survive. After language school we will move to Peru in the area surrounding Cuzco to start our lives and work with a solid, biblical Peruvian church. We have been in contact with a friend of ours named Walter Gammara, who is a Peruvian pastor. He is 28 years old and on fire for God. He will serve to help us get ingrained into the culture and learn the language specifics and government. In return we will work with him teaching, preaching and doing evangelism. He is so excited we are coming to work with him. We communicate by email in Spanish. He does not know any English and Spanish is his second language. He speaks Quechua as his first, which is the native language of Peru and most people in the high Andes speak it. I hope to learn Quechua after Spanish to preach to villages that you can only hike to that sit at 13,000 feet in elevation. After we get settled in and ingrained into the new culture, the Peruvians, Tim and I will travel to some of the unreached regions that have no church of any kind to evangelize and, God willing, plant a biblical church. Our vision is to help teach, preach and evangelize these unreached areas in hope that as the church is established God will save Peruvians and raise up Peruvians into teaching and preaching roles. Our goal is to see indigenous people trained and sustaining their own biblical churches by the grace and for the glory of God. Another major part of our ministry will be teaching the historical biblical truth and sound doctrine to the Peruvians as God saves them and calls them into their roles.
As we are in the process of getting rid of all our material possessions besides a couple suitcases each, we have so much joy and peace in storing up our treasures in heaven instead of earth. We thank God for the privilege to count the cost of following Jesus Christ and for enabling us to give every ounce of ourselves for the sake of the gospel and glory of God among the nations.
We ask you to pray for us as we labor in Peru . We also challenge you to die to yourself and live for Christ by sacrificing yourself by either going into the foreign mission field to proclaim the glory of Christ or by sacrificing all you have at home so you can send those who go to the foreign mission field. Whether going or sending, we all have the same high calling to be involved in the great commission. Both going and sending are equally high callings and both are needed and used by God as the means to fulfill His end of gathering His people among the nations and glorifying His name.
Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
(1 Chronicles 16:23-26)
For more information about us and our ministry you can go to our blog: To the ends of the earth… Peru . Our blog will be frequently updated to track our progress and experiences as we labor for Christ. Sign up on the blog to be updated by email or send us an email and we will add you to the blog update list.
If you have questions you can contact us by phone at 406-235-9061 or by email at scott_doherty@hotmail.com. We will write a more personal and private newsletter frequently so If you want to be added to our mailing list, send us an email and we will add you.

Our church also has information about us and our mission to Peru at: Wolf Creek Baptist
May you be blessed by the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord and to Him be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.