Italy

Thursday afternoon, Lucio Stanisci and I sat down in North Hills California as he told me about his work in Italy.  Less than .01% of the 70 million population is what we call Evangelical Christian.  That is, most of the country claims Catholicism while holding to things quite contrary to the gospel of Jesus the Messiah as presented in scripture.....but that will be dealt with in another post.

Friday evening, my family accepted an invitation from Lucio to attend an open house for friends and family of their ministry.  It was a wonderful evening hearing how the Lord is preparing men at the seminary to go to Italy, the "missionary graveyard" as it's called, to preach the clear gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's called the missionary graveyard because most missionaries leave Italy within 5 years never to return.  The gospel message is what Christ did on the cross, that He completely saves man, to those who believe and submit their lives to Him, and that good works play no part in salvation.  Good works are a result of salvation like turning the car on is a result of having gas in the tank.  But turning the car on (good works) does not put gas in the tank as Catholicism claims.  Catholicism says that we are saved by faith and justified by works, which is a heretical doctrine according to scripture.

There is a dire need in Italy for solid churches and a great need for men to be trained in the exegetical study of God's word.  That simply means that a man can look at the grammar, the context and the historical setting of a passage (among a few other things) and determine what the writer meant to convey to the original audience.  This sounds basic, that a person could read the Bible and understand what is means, but that very notion is under severe attack here in the USA as well as abroad.  "That's your interpretation", "what does the Bible mean to you?" are common ways this ideology is used.

Lucio and another missionary named Massimo Mollica are called to preach and teach the word of God, to plant Biblical churches and to train the indigenous leadership to shepherd their own sheep.  What a fun evening it was!  Tears were shed by some of the Italians that night as they dreamed the gospel will be once again spread to their people.

Lucio explains the situation much better than I.  Want to meet Lucio?  Watch this clip.  http://www.gty.org/Resources/Videos/Story01

Want to meet Massimo?  Click here:  http://www.gracechurch.org/mollica

May the Word of the Lord go forth.
(Oh yah, two more days of Gladiator Greek!!!!)