TILL HE COMES Blog

Below is a support letter I sent out to people on our mailing list.  

Dear Friends and Family,

We are writing to let you know of our latest joy—we are expecting our fourth little girl! No, Wendy is not pregnant. We are adopting from Guatemala. Due to the current process of adopting from Guatemala, we are hoping to bring Arianna home in mid to late 2008. Since we will get her when she is between six to nine months old, she will probably be born this spring, which means her biological mother has only recently discovered that she is pregnant.

You may be wondering why we are adopting from Guatemala at this time with all the upheaval going on in their government and since we already have three girls. The simple answer is that we are following God’s leading in our lives. Wendy and I have always wanted to adopt, and about three years ago, we started looking around for options. Through a series of circumstances (“tiny miracles”), it became clear that we should adopt from Guatemala. Factors such as the duration of the required trips, our annual income, the desperate needs of the children there, and our love for Guatemalan culture were factors in our decision.

The children of Guatemala are living in desperate despair and a nightmare of devastating poverty. Many are simply surviving off of other people’s trash, while some turn to crime. Girls especially are vulnerable to the sex trade and abusive situations. As in many countries in the world, girls are considered by family members to be less worthy of life and respect than are boys.

To make matters worse, Guatemala’s economic and health care system leaves mothers with no option but to give up their babies. Many children are abandoned in the garbage dumps or jungles while others are simply left on the streets to die.

God has put it on our hearts to make a difference in the life of one of these Guatemalan children, and we are thrilled about this call. Our conviction is that adoption is one way we can live out our call as Christians to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Jesus said that he who “receives a little child in my name receives me” (Matthew 18:5). This doesn’t mean all are called to adopt a child into their homes. There are so many ways to respond to these callings of God. But at this time, we feel God is calling us to respond in this tangible way. We all know that children are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3), and we cannot wait to receive our fourth gift from the Lord.

We began the process about four months ago by looking for an adoption agency. All God’s Children International stood out above the rest because they have an orphanage in Guatemala that is not your typical orphanage. They care for each child as it were their own (see www.hannahshopeguatemala.org)

Once we had an agency, we began the paperwork and have now completed our dossier and home study. As hard as this process has been, we still feel the hardest thing has been to realize that we can only bring home one child…for now. But great joy was found in the fact that $5000 of the cost goes to help all the children in the orphanage.

Because of the long paperwork process, and the way things can quickly go haywire, we ask you to pray with us and for us during these next few months. With your prayers, we can all be involved in bringing Arianna home. This is one way you can make a difference in a child’s life that might otherwise have been left in the jungle to die.

To help you pray for us, we have enclosed a prayer card to put on your fridge, in your Bible, or tape to your bathroom mirror so that you can remember us and join with us in this journey God has blessed us with. Once you’ve finished this letter and found the prayer card, we ask that you read and pray through the prayer card right away. We believe your prayers will be heard and honored by a loving God who is the strong defender of the fatherless and will take up their case (Proverbs 23:11).

As you have probably guessed, the process is not free. It will cost us somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000 to adopt from Guatemala. Yes, we cringed too. But then God allowed us to see it from His perspective. First, He owns everything, and makes what He owns available to us for our use when we do what He asks. Second, how can we put a price on the life of a child? Third, it is when we are weakest that God steps in to show His strength so that He might be glorified (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

When we began the process, we did not know where the money would come from, for we definitely didn’t have it! What we were doing seemed foolish, especially on a Seminary budget. But in that first month after we stepped out in faith, God gave us peace about using all of the money we were saving to help pay for a move after Jeremy’s graduation. Then Jeremy got an unexpected bonus at work and we were also able to obtain an interest free loan. All of this added up to the $16,000 we needed to keep the adoption process going. Where God guides, He provides. He is so good! We now need $7,000 in the next two weeks to continue in the process.

God has also allowed us to be accepted into a tax-deductible program called Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries which will allow our friends and family to join with us in this grand adventure of saving a life. See the instructions at the end of this letter to learn how you can help.

We ask you to prayerfully consider being part of bringing our sweet Arianna home. If God leads you to give in this direction, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries. This money will be used toward Adoption expenses, and you will receive a tax receipt for your gift. The Kingdom Kids staff is available to you Mon-Fri, 9:30-4:00 (Pacific) at (509) 465-3520 to answer questions if you have them. You may also e-mail them at ministry@kingdomkidsadoption.org. Their website is www.kingdomkidsadoption.org

If you do feel led to help in this way, we wish to deeply thank you, and let you know that your reward is in heaven and your memory is in our hearts. Whether you can help financially, prayerfully, or both, we ask that you do so expectantly and expediently.

Please call or e-mail us with any questions you may have regarding our situation. We’d love to share more with you about this adventure we find ourselves in.

Perhaps upon reading this, you want to learn more about adopting a child yourself. Praise God! Let us know, because we have some DVD’s from our adoption Agency, All God’s Children International, we would love to send to you. This DVD shows the dire plight of children worldwide and introduces some of the various ways we can help these orphans. This video will challenge and change you forever.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20).

Eagerly Awaiting Arianna,

Jeremy and Wendy Myers
(972) 659-9302
jmyers@tillhecomes.org

TO GIVE:
If you decide to assist us in our fundraising and wish to make a credit card donation, call Kingdom Kids at 877-465-3520. Let them know that this is for the fundraising efforts of Jeremy and Wendy Myers.

To make a donation by check, please DO NOT include our names anywhere on the check. IRS regulations do not allow for a tax-deductible donation to have any name other than the tax-exempt organization written on the check. PLEASE ENCLOSE a note with your check indicating your desire that your donation be used toward the adoption expenses of Jeremy and Wendy Myers.

Send checks with notes to:

Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministry
1417 North Lincoln Street
Spokane, WA 99201

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There is a tendency in many Christian circles to think that if a particular theological viewpoint can quote a lot of Scripture, it must be right. For example, in a recent book defending the Five Points of Calvinism (by David Steele and Curtis Thomas), the authors seem to think that if they just quote Scripture, they have proved their point. For each of the five points, they provide a theological explanation for the point, and then “prove” it by citing numerous pages of Scriptural proof-texts, without ever attempting an explanation of those texts. In the debate about three years ago between Bob Wilkin and James White, Dr. White used almost his entire opening statement to simply read Bible verses. The implication was that to prove Calvinism, all you have to do is read the Bible, and anybody is not a Calvinist, hasn’t read Scripture.

I call this shotgun hermeneutics. Those who use this tactic try to “blow you away” by the sheer number of verses they can quote which they feel proves their point. When you try to explain one or two of them to show that you are aware of these passages but have a different understanding, they will focus on all the other passages they quoted which you did not explain.

In my discussions, the dialogue generally goes like this:

Calvinist: My view is right because of Passages A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J. If you would simply read and believe the Bible, you would agree with what God has said.

Calvinist: I’ll be praying for your soul that you would repent from your darkness and be brought into the light!

If you have ever tried to discuss theology with someone who holds strongly to a particular system of theology, you know that this is how many of these discussions go.

Recently, I have noticed this tactic being used by some who disagree with me on various other issues. In their blogs and articles, they seem to imply that I have not read the Bible, and that if I did, I would see the truth of their position. They argue that when they read Scripture to me, I am silenced by the weight of Biblical evidence. When I attempt explanations of one or two passages they quoted, they say that my interpretation cannot be correct because of so many other Biblical passages which say something different, and furthermore, nobody they have ever read holds to my interpretation. Then I get called a heretic.

Shotgun hermeneutics and name calling is no way to proceed in theological discussion. To really get somewhere in theological debate, we must pick one passage at a time, and stick to it, camp upon it, walk around it, and work through it. Then, hopefully, we will arrive at two or three possible interpretations. Only then can we go to a second passage.

We do the same thing with passages A-Z. When all is done, we go back and reconsider all the evidence. You discard all interpretations that contradict other interpretations. Hopefully, you are left with only one possible interpretation. If not, you go back and try to decide which of the remaining views is the best.

This is the approach I used about 15 years ago to leave Calvinism. In the early 90’s, I was a five-point, hyper-Calvinistic, Lordship Salvationist. Then, a good friend challenged my thinking on James 2:14-26. I camped on that passage for a few months. I saw that my friend’s interpretation was one possible understanding. However, I wanted to reject that view, because of “all the other passages which contradicted it.” But he said, “That’s one option. Or maybe you are wrong on your understanding of all those passages too, and you need to study each one individually.” So that’s what I did. It took me about ten years, at the end of which time, every single point of Calvinism had fallen for me. I still read books and articles by Calvinists and those who disagree with my views. Why? Because if I am wrong in my understanding of a particular passage, I want to know. I hope you do too.

So don’t practice shotgun hermeneutics. Such a practice is not beneficial since all it does is take aim at other people’s heads in an effort to blow them away.

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I want to thank all of you who helped out with the adoption process in Guatemala and made calls to your State Senators and Representative.

As of Monday, 70 members of the House of Representatives, and 28 members of the Senate had signed the Guatemala 5000 Initiative, asking Guatemala to allow in process adoptions to continue. This is wonderful! Thank you and Praise the Lord!

Also, in response to all the calls and e-mails sent to govenment officials in Guatemala, President Berger announced his intention to allow all adoptions that are “in process” by December 31 to continue through to completion. While we are currently not sure what “in process” means, at least all the 4000+ Guatemalan children who have already been referred will be able to be adopted rather than be abandoned.

At this point, Wendy and I are going to continue forward with adopting from Guatemala, but will probably not have a referral by December 31 (unless there is a miracle, which we are praying for!). So we will probably have to adopt under the new procedures which will be enforced sometime in early 2008. We don’t yet know what these will be.

The exciting news is that Hannah’s Hope Guatemala, which is the orphanage of All God’s Children International (our Adoption Agency), is currently going through the process of becoming accredited by the social service division of Guatemala. This is a new regulation for all homes that wish to be involved in the adoption process once the new law is final. The staff in Guatemala is doing everything necessary to be compliant with Hague and the new adoption law. If and when we begin to see changes with the adoption laws, they will be ready.

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How do you define “busy”?

Here’s mine: You know you are busy when you catch yourself making a list for all the things you need to make lists for:

Make a list of things I need to do for the adoption process.
Make a list of things I need to do for my Thesis.
Make a list of homework projects that are coming due soon.
Make a list of high priority projects at work.
Make a list of things I need to do around the house and to the car to keep everything working.
Make a list of edits and changes that need to be done to the website.
Make a list of things to do to keep from going crazy.

How about you? How do you know when you’ve taken on too much? Weigh in on the comments below…

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There are only three ways you can spend money. You can spend money on mission, on life, and on yourself. Churches only have two. The trick is determining which is which.

Spending money on mission is spending money that accomplishes our God-given mission on earth. Ultimately, our mission is to make disciples (Matt 28:19-20) which includes everything from serving unbelievers so they are drawn to Christ and saving Christians so they become more like Christ. It involves both developing relationships with unbelievers, and maintaining relationships with believers.

In your life, this may take the form of having families over for dinner, helping out financially with your neighbor’s medical bills, adopting children, buying and reading books that help you understand Scripture or culture, supporting evangelistic ministries, or sending money to support well drillers in Africa. Churches can do these things as well. But a church might also spend money on programs, buildings, or Audio-Visual equiment if it will help them accomplish their mission better.

The second way to spend money is on life. One of the reasons God has given us life is simply to enjoy life. This is our “secondary” mission. The book of Ecclesiastes shows this. Life is a blessing from God and is to be enjoyed and lived to the full. If this means going on vacations with your family, and buying a coffee at Starbucks, and going to see 3:10 to Yuma, then enjoy! I am not sure that churches can spend their money this way, since when a church spends money on “life” they are spending it on “church life” which is actually discipleship. If a church buys and runs a coffee shop, the purpose might be that they can develop relationships with the community, and have a place for small groups. This is mission. So a church doesn’t really have this category.

The third category we can spend money on is self. This is the tricky one, becuase if we are not careful, we can think that we are spending money on mission or life, when in reality, we are spending it selfishly on ourselves. Some people’s houses, for example, are not really for “mission” (despite the good intentions to have people over), and are way too big and expensive for life (Does someone really need 5000 sq. ft. and marble counters to have a safe and enjoyable home for your kids?). It’s the same with cars. Is a Hummer really what is needed to help cart the neighbor kids to soccer practice, or would a caravan do fine? I’m not judging anybody who has these things…maybe they really do need them for their mission to reach out to the “upper crust” but if so, my question is “How’s that mission going?”

It’s the same for churches. Do we really need a $30 million building that sits empty most of the week? If the culture you are in won’t listen to you unless you have the giant building, then maybe it is money well spent. But on the other hand, maybe big buildings and expensive programs and high-power technology are the result of other motives. I’m not saying that buildings and high tech sound systmes are sinful. It may be just as sinful to not have such things, if our mission demands it. Buildings or a lack of buildings must help us accomplish our mission.

Of course, we must watch out for self-deception. Benny Hinn spends $112,000 per month on a personal jet, owns a $10 million, 7,000 sqft. home, and when traveling, gets hotel rooms for $10,800 per night. Why? Hinn said something to the effect that ministry is stressful, and such things help him accomplish his mission more effectively. Even Hinn is convinced that he needs to spend money on these things so he can accomplish what God has called him to do.

Every person and every church needs to take a long, hard look at how they spend money, and ask themselves: Is this for mission, for life, or for self? Anything that is for self could be used better elsewhere.

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Some days I think I’m going crazy. It’s 12:11am and I’m just now beginning my homework. It’s been this way all week. With a wife and three kids, working toward adopting a fourth child, full time school, full time work, speaking engagements, and writing, I just don’t have enough time. I need to be Hiro from Heroes.

Please pray for me, that we make it through this year!

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I got the following from the Secret Diary of Rick Warren, which is a blog by a fake Rick Warren. The following is funny because it’s true.

Imagine what your office would be like if everyone had a job like a Pastor:

1. When your work day was over their would be a cassette tape or CD available of everything you just finished for sale in the lobby

2. If your co-workers got sick they would expect you to stop by and pray with them, then act surprised you did come by and proceed to tell you that they look terrible and their hair hasn’t been washed.

3. Your wife would feel pressure from others that she should be doing things related to your job and be happy about it.

4. Your weekend would consist of something like a Tuesday and then a Thursday. Forget ’bout Holidays.

5. Instead of an expense account – every time you need to buy something more than $200 – you would be required to ask a group of people for permission, then justify why you need it.

6. You must remember what stories you told people – so you don’t use the same story over again.

7. Outside of the office your co-workers get flustered when you see them drinking alcohol or doing something they think you might not approve of.

8. Most of your meetings would happen at night in the basement.

9. You would have to stand up and gently remind your co-workers that it was part of their calling to give money to the organization – so it can continue to grow and fulfill its mission.

10. Most of your co-workers think you really only work an hour a week.

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I was able to attend two panel discussions today at the Free Grace Alliance National Conference. On one of them, I had to be there since I was a panel member.

The panel which I only attended was related to the issues of assurance, eternal security, and justification. The basic question was “Does a person have to know that what they get from Jesus can never be lost in order to receive it?” Of the three panelists, I heard one, Tim Nichols, give a clear answer “Yes” and the other two were a little more evasive. This was not really their fault since many of the questions from the audience were not really on topic. Some questions were related to the death and resurrection of Jesus, or the deity of Jesus, and other things. The last question, however, was very revealing. It was “If you are witnessing to an unsaved person, and you want to tell them how to be saved, what would you say?”

1. Dave Anderson answered first with two words: “Free Grace.” I’m not sure what he meant by that.

2. George Meisinger said that he tells as much of the gospel as he can to the person in the time he has. If it’s on an airplane, he is able to tell them lots more than if he is sharing with someone on their deathbed. I don’t remember quite how he answered the question.

3. Tim Nichols answered similarly to George Meisinger, but emphasized that the message we share with unbelievers must come from the Gospel of John.

The second panel discussion I attended was the one I spoke on. It was was whether a person had to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus in order to be born again. The following are terribly poor summaries of the views presented:

1. Ken Wilson basically said “Yes. We don’t believe in Jesus for everlasting life, but we have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who takes away our sins.” I’m not sure who in Christendom (including Catholics) doesn’t believe this, but maybe I misunderstood him.

2. Tim Nichols basically argued that since nobody would ever dream of not presenting the death and resurrection, the question doesn’t really matter. This is true. Sometimes, Satan’s greatest ploy is to get us talking about theology rather than living out the theology we do know.

3. Larry Moyer basically said “Yes, because the death and resurrection is central to the Gospel, and we must always share the Gospel when telling people about Jesus.”

4. Tom Stegall argued similarly to Larry Moyer, but more emphatically.

5. I certainly do believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus are central to the Gospel, and that without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no Gospel. All the truths of the Gospel (of which there are dozens-if not hundreds) are for the purpose of getting a person to believe in Jesus and so receive everlasting life. So I always present the death and resurrection of Jesus when I witness to people. So I argued similarly to Tim Nichols–that it’s a mute point.

However, I did point out that we do have examples of people in Scripture who believed in Jesus and received everlasting life, but did not know about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and even when presented with these truths, did not believe them (cf. Matt 16:31-32; Mark 9:31-32; Luke 9:44-45; 18:31-34; 24:19-26; John 20:9, 24-30). There may be some examples from Acts and the Epistles as well, but it’s almost 2 am, and I’m tired. But just one example: One reason Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15 is to persuade and convince the Corinthian believers about the resurrection of Jesus. It sounds like some of them had believed in the resurrection, but had turned away from it, but there apparently were others who had heard about the resurrection, but denied it as fiction. Paul is correcting these believers in Corinth about this.

So apparently, there are people who believe in Jesus, and lots of correct things about Him, but don’t have all their theological ducks in a row, but who are still considered by Biblical authors to be regenerate. I think it is possible there are people in the same category today. I may have talked with one a few weeks ago, which I mentioned in a previous post.

Due to the number of panelists, and the limited time, only one question from the audience was asked, and that one had nothing to do with the questions that I had come up with which I hoped to receive answers to. So I still don’t know how Tom Stegall would answer those questions. I refuse to speculate how he might answer them, because if there is anything more dangerous that theological speculation, it is theological speculation about someone else’s theology.

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I am on a panel discussion tomorrow night at the National Conference of the Free Grace Alliance. The panel discussion is related to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and whether a person needs to know and believe these historical facts in order to be born again.

I am presenting the view that while the death and resurrection of Jesus was necessary for justification to be possible, belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus is not what grants a person eternal life. A person simply needs to believe in Jesus for eternal life to be given it by God. I have written on this in the past. Certainly, the death and resurrection of Jesus are central to the Gospel, but since there is so much Biblical information that is part of the Gospel, one does not have to believe the entire Gospel to be justified. There is a difference between the mechanism of justification (the death and resurrection of Jesus, along with a myriad of other things) and the message of eternal life (believe in Jesus for it). In other words, there is a difference between the Gospel information, and the Gospel invitation.

I agreed to be on this panel for three reasons. First, I want people to be clear in evangelism. If we have a muddled message, all we do is erect barriers which keep people from believing in Jesus for eternal life. The death and resurrection of Jesus are definitely part of what we share in evangelism, but we tell them these things to convince and persuade them to believe in Jesus for eternal life, not because they get eternal life by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s a nuance, but a very important one. After all, there are many who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, but don’t believe in Him for eternal life.

Second, I know there are a lot of people who are trying to understand the various positions, and I hope to let them hear my position from me rather than from those out there who don’t understand my position but continue to write pejorative and negative things about me. It’s always best when researching a matter to go to the source.

Third, I see no logical or Biblical consistency in the view of those who are taking the opposing view. Clearly, they think their view is logical and Biblical or they wouldn’t hold it. I am not exactly trying to persuade them to my view, but I do want to try to understand their view. Toward that end, here are the questions I hope to have answered:

If a person must believe in the death of resurrection of Jesus, is it sufficient to believe in the historical facts of these events, or does a person also have to believe in substitutionary atonement?

If a person believes that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, and rose again from the dead, but don’t believe that by faith in Jesus they have life that can never be lost, are they justified? (E.g., They say things like “Jesus did his 99%, but I must do my 1%” or “I’m saved now, but if I sin later, I won’t be saved any more” or “I accepted the gift of eternal life, but I can give it back if I don’t abide.”)

In all of my study of the other view, I have yet to read an attempt to answer these questions. Others have noticed this same thing, and we receive daily e-mails and phone calls from people saying they are prayerfully supporting Bob Wilkin, myself, and the ministry of Grace Evangelical Society as we continue to present the offer of eternal life to all who believe in Jesus for it.

Here is one such e-mail:

Jeremy,

By way of introduction, we have been with GES almost since its beginning and had been proclaiming the free grace gospel message for 25 years before that. We were instrumental in formatting the first several years of GES Journal articles for the website and have printed and distributed several thousand pages of GES articles to many pastors and Christian leaders in our area. In other words, we support what you are doing.

We have been keeping up with the ongoing issue of what constitutes the gospel message and are grieved about the possible damage to the cause of Christ that might ensue. We also have supported the ministry at Duluth for quite some time and distributed much of their literature.

I believe that your article, “The Gospel Is More Than “Faith Alone In Christ Alone,” was excellent and it even helped me to “connect the dots” in some of my study on the subject. The open letter on the Duluth website refers to, among other things, this article and mentions two points of disagreement. These comments appeared to me to be a bit pejorative as there was no attempt at biblical refutation or even explanation of the context of your statements.

In addition to the significant biblical evidence that you gave for your position (a position which should be either accepted or proved wrong biblically), is one point that has come up in my study and that I have not seen mentioned anywhere. It is as follows: In 1st Corinthians 15, we find the classic definition of the gospel which includes the death, burial, resurrection of Christ, and probably the contents of the next few verses. Per verse 15 we see that the resurrection is necessary for our justification, but does not say that belief in it is necessary. Verse 12 and following shows that some of the Corinthian believers did not believe in the resurrection and reiterates the deleterious ramifications of this error. This epistle is written to the Church at Corinth (1:2; 1:7 et al). Did these believers who already have eternal life then lose their salvation? Did the awareness of their lack then show that they were not true believers in the first place? Or were they eternally saved, carnal believers, who needed to know and apply these resurrection facts so that they may be saved in the sanctification sense and enjoy the resurrection life during their earthly pilgrimage? The first two options are not implied in the context and are disqualified by other scripture. Something similar to the last seems to be more on target.

Unless you are already way ahead of me on this it might be beneficial to also develop this point. No reply to this note is expected as I realize that you have a heavy schedule.

We continue to pray. Keep up the good work (1 Cor. 15:58)

This is an excellent observation by this man, and should be developed further. I also want to point out that Peter and the apostles did not believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus until after He died and rose again (cf. Matt 16:20-23; Mark 9:31-32; Luke 9:44-45; 18:31-34; 24:19-26; John 20:9, 24-30). Does this then mean that they were not justified until they believed in the death and resurrection?

I’ll give an update on how things went after the conference.

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In a previous post, I presented a theoretical plan for solving the world’s water crisis. Todd Phillips said that $10 billion could solve the world’s water crisis. I proposed a way for churches to come up with that money by “taxing” themselves 1/3 of what their property taxes would be if they were paying property taxes. We could get the $10 Billion in one year.

Now, Todd Rhoades, over at Monday Morning Insight has got me thinking about another way churches can do this. He writes that according to a recent study, churches in America spent $8.1 Billion on sound and video equipment last year.

So we can either give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to every thirsty person on planet earth, or we can have state-of-the-art sound and video projection equipment in our chuches. It’s an easy choice. After all, to really be in touch with Jesus, we’ve got to “feel” the music and have our eyes massaged by the swirling lights on the screen.

Of course, I’m in the same sinking ship, but on a smaller scale. I bought an mp3 player (a cheapo $30 job) last month, and purchased a few songs off iTunes. Jesus might be asking what I did with the $40 He gave me, but if He is, I can’t hear Him, becuase somehow, I got water in my ears.

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