Missionary 2 America

Mission Update – From Today! (Feb 26)

missionary2america — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:10:56 +0000

Hello family and friends,

Since I came to the Honor Academy, I have been growing a lot. I have had God completely re-work my concepts of prayer, worship, and self-discipline. TeenMania’s Honor Academy is, in my opinion, the best place on earth. It is where I grow the most I ever have.

Many of you have supported me in the past, investing significant amounts of money into my life. For that I thank you.

At this point, I need to raise about $3,200 over the next 7 months or so, averaging about $450 a month. Toward this end, I have put together a fundraising strategy. It is called a Calendar fundraiser. The reason why is because everybody picks a day off a calendar, and whatever number is on that day, that’s how much they donate each month. That way, you can pick whatever amount you can afford, and if every day on the calendar is taken, the total adds up to around $450 a month, which happens to be exactly how much I need.

What I ask is that you would simply pick a day – no matter how big or small. If you can only afford $1 a month, I appreciate your donation, and will put forth my full effort to maximize the return on your investment. But if you can afford $20 or even $31 a month, then you can pick that day. Either way, I appreciate you.

I was going to put the picture of the calendar in the email, but my computer won’t do it, so I am going to attach it.

Ryan’s Calendar Fundraiser

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Instructions for how to donate are found under the Donate tab. If you want to be on the distribution list for my newsletter, then email Ryan.Iley@gmail.com and ask!

Mission Update – From Feb 24

missionary2america — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:34:29 +0000

Hello Friends and Family!

The Spring Fasting LTE (Life Transforming Event) was last weekend. Fasting from food started Midnight, Wednesday night, and continued until we had Communion on Sunday morning. We also fasted from talking from Thursday after work until Sunday morning.

You may be wondering why I would voluntarily give up food for three days. That is a completely legitimate question. Jesus does not command us to fast. But the Bible does show us that fasting is a really good way to focus your heart on seeking God. Also, Hebrews 11:6 says, “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” That’s what it is about – sincerely seeking God.

So did it work?

Short answer: YES. But I don’t think you want the short answer. Let me tell you about my weekend.

The purpose of the Fasting LTE is to figure out what your calling is. By calling, I mean the purpose or task that the Lord designed you for. More than that, the purpose of the Fasting LTE is to get the big picture of what God is doing and how you fit into it.

I am called to incite fellowship and enable other people to fulfill their callings. The two really are almost the same thing. You see, there are a lot of people that have giftings in the area of preaching or praying, etc, that don’t really use them. The type of fellowship that I desire to provoke is the deep kind where those types of giftings come out.

An example of what this could look like: I start a fellowship in the side-room of the cafeteria at work, which begins as a Bible Study. It becomes obvious that Phil has a gift of preaching and a real passion for the book of Ephesians, so I start mentoring Phil and let him lead the Bible Study. Later, we find out that Sally has an amazing singing voice, so we turn the CD player down a bit, and have Sally lead worship. After a while, I go work at another company but the fellowship never stops. Repeat.

My vision for this is that the fellowships would duplicate themselves. When they get too big, they split for convenience — or, in other words, when there are too many people to fit at one table in the Cafeteria, sit at two. Around that time (depending on the size of the table), there will be another person ready to take a leadership position. Then, there are two tables — still unified, but doing their own discussion on Ephesians, or whatever book they end up studying.

This is the main part of my calling. I encourage people to do what they already are supposed to do.

Have a wonderful day!

-Ryan

Mission Update – From Feb 10

missionary2america — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:27:33 +0000

Hello family and friends,

I almost done with the recap. Wow does a lot of stuff happen here! Really soon I will send updates about my life right now. Probably next email. FYI, tomorrow the next fasting lte starts, so expect an update about it in a week or so!

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Here at TeenMania, it seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas Break are almost the same thing. That is because there are only two and a half weeks from when I get back to campus after Thanksgiving to when I leave again for Christmas.

Thanksgiving really illustrated to me that I didn’t have virtually any time management skills. Here at TeenMania, 70% of my schedule is determined for me, by responsibilities like class and work. When I got home, I found that without the structure, my self-discipline fell through the floor. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I was seeking God and discovered what needed to change. Then during Christmas break, I put forth effort to change it.

I was partially successful at changing my time-management situation, but not completely. I think there were two problems: 1) In my estimations, I forgot about relationships. 2) I didn’t expect to have several large projects appear in my todo list.

I am not extremely relational. I am working on it – it is a skill I wish to develop, but at first glance, when I see a slot of time, I think of what work I can get done during that time, not who is going to be at the same place that I may want to talk to. Thus, I tend to drop the assignment for the sake of the person, because people are more important. However, what I need to do is plan when I am going to spend time with them, and get the work done during the other time.

As far as the large projects go, over both Thanksgiving and Christmas break I worked on college-related things. First of all, I applied to my college of choice, which required a lot of work (being a perfectionist) writing essays. Second of all, I entered into an essay competition for a scholarship. The question was “How to Solve the Foreclosure Crisis”. This topic obviously takes a lot of thought, and the essay was supposed to be between 1,000 and 2,500 words long. All in all, it took me a long time to do, but I got the essay in several days before its deadline.

Now, I am continuing to work on my time management skills. As you may have noticed, this series of Updates are labeled as “Christmas Break Updates”. I was planning on making that the case, but I am just finishing up now, 2 weeks later. But the point is that I got the time to write this today. I take this as a significant success, and I intend on continuing the tradition.

Mission Update – From Jan 30

missionary2america — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:26:26 +0000

Hello family and friends,

As a continuation of my last email chain:

After ESOAL, there was another LTE (Life Transforming Event) called the Fasting LTE. The Fasting LTE was about three days long, and consisted of a fast from food and communication. The purpose of the Fasting LTE is to seek God, specifically regarding your calling. What is my purpose? Well, there’s a simple answer for that and a complicated answer. The simple answer is that the purpose of life is to glorify God, with the side benefit of enjoying His presence. The complicated answer is different for everyone. How do I fit into God’s plan?

Some are Goers – essentially missionaries. Some are Senders – people who give money so that the Goers can go. Some are Mobilizers – people who equip others with the skills and enthusiasm to fulfill their role. Others are Intercessors – people who pray, and pray, and pray, essentially being a missionary, but at home base.

Everyone has a part to play. Everyone is important. 1 Corinthians 12:20

I am a Sender Mobilizer. That means that my primary purpose is to give sacrificially to fund mission work, and my secondary purpose is to incite people to fulfill their calling. I also believe that I am going to be some level of Intercessor, but that has not been revealed to me yet. My vocation, specifically, is in the area of Computer Science. I am going to be an expert in Technology and I am going to use those skills to help others leverage their time better and more productively.

I hope that by some means I may provoke you to seek the Lord for your specific purpose. Many of you know yours. Many don’t. Look to God, and submit yourself to whatever He wants you to do. While you are waiting, get involved volunteering at your local church. It doesn’t matter where. If, after you persevere for a season, a specific spot just does not fit, then move to another spot. But serve the Lord and open your heart to His call.

Until next time,

Ryan

Mission Update – From Jan 22

missionary2america — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:25:19 +0000

Hello family and friends,

This update/recap was written over Christmas break.

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You haven’t heard from me in a while, but I hopefully that will change, as my communication skills are improving. I have been growing a lot since the last time we talked. I believe I sent an update last right before ESOAL (Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of A Lifetime), so that is where I will start.

ESOAL is an intensive emotional training event that the Honor Academy facilitates. It is several days long and characterized by physical exercise and little to no sleep. The purpose of it is to take you past your emotional limit – way past – so that you can learn to control your emotions. It was fun. Really, it was. It was fun because I CHOSE to be joyful during it. I was wet from the moment it began until about an hour afterwards, and I was cold almost that entire time. I was physically exhausted the entire time, and at one point almost passed out from lack of energy (right before we got to the next meal), but it was fun! Would I do it again? I’m not sure, because it isn’t about whether I would do good, but whether I would learn from it and ultimately whether it would glorify God. If the Lord tells me to, I will. If He tells me not to, I won’t.

ESOAL is about reaching something called BAR – Burial and Resurrection (emotionally speaking). For a reference point, it is my opinion that Sanctification (the process of becoming holy) is actually the process of reaching BAR in every area of life. BAR is simply the state in which you are submitted to the Bible. There two verses that summarize ESOAL:

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Phillipians 4:13
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4

Now the question is, “How has that changed your life?” The truth is that all ESOAL did was accelerate my growth. There were no massive breakthroughs… (Well there was one, but it had to do with Unity, not life in general.) The point is that ESOAL, just like all trials, was a testing ground for what I already knew. It extracted the proper attitude that I had already developed during my Bible time.

After ESOAL I have noticed several differences about myself, all of which stem from perserverance. The biggest change is that now discomfort is no longer something that controls me, but rather a piece of information to consider in making a logical decision of whether or not I will continue. The other main change is that I now know I have control over my emotions. I am joyful because I choose to be joyful, and quite commonly my circumstances agree with my attitude. When they don’t (as happened the other day), I am joyful anyways. When I am not joyful, I go vent my other emotions in prayer, and come out joyful.

BAR is the process of being in submission to the scriptures. That’s it. ESOAL is an easy pressure-cooker to develop such skills quickly. It develops and reveals self-discipline, which can be used to translate knowledge and wisdom into action. Now the only battle is developing the knowledge and wisdom about what one should do. That’s where study comes in – both study of the Word and of other books.

Mission Update – from Jan 20

missionary2america — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:23:54 +0000

Hello Friends and Family,

For many of you, it has been a long time since you heard from me. I am currently attending a one-year program in Texas called the Honor Academy. It is a ministry internship that also has classes for college credit. My ministry placement (job) is in Software Development in the Information Technology department. The purpose of this email and those following is to keep you updated on my progress in personal growth and to share my experiences with you. If you don’t want to receive periodic emails from me, tell me and I will take you off my list. If you know someone who wants to receive these updates, have them email me so I can put them on my list.

My communication skills are one of the largest things God is developing in me while I am here. As evidence, I am going to send four updates in close succession for two reasons. 1) I have a lot of stuff to recap. 2) I don’t think you want a 6 page email!!! I know I don’t have time to read that!

That said, here it comes: This one was written a bit ago, though I didn’t end up sending it.

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Hello, my name is Ryan Iley.

On August 14th I arrived at Teen Mania’s Honor Academy and immediately started the first Life Transforming Event (LTE) of the year, called Gauntlet. Gauntlet is designed to strip the popular culture off of a person, immerse them into the Honor Academy culture, and plunge them into the presence of God. Essentially, each of us was purified as much as is possible in a week’s time, and made fully aware of the one year commitment we were about to make at the end of Gauntlet.

During Gauntlet, God really tore my heart apart in a lot of ways. Most of the things I heard in sessions were things I already knew, but it was different this time. The speakers had the power and authority of God behind them and concluded every message with a call-to-action. In addition, everything we did was wrapped in intense worship.

Although Gauntlet officially ends at the Commitment Banquet, in my mind, its conclusion is when the interns receive their ministry placement. My ministry placement is in Information Technology. I am currently working as a Help Desk Technician, but I hope to eventually develop new software. Whether or not it is God’s will for me to develop software, I know that He will use my talents in computer science to further His Kingdom in this position.

The next LTE is called ESOAL, which stands for Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of A Lifetime. ESOAL is a several-day-long event, during which we role-play as soldiers in boot camp. We don’t know much about what ESOAL really is because it is supposed to be primarily emotionally stretching and if you know what is coming, it doesn’t work as well. However, I do know that it involves a very large amount of physical exercise, and it will not be comfortable. In addition to that, I am doing something called “Bring It”, which means that my experience will be much more stretching than it already would be.

The rule in ESOAL is that you must attempt everything asked of you. For example, if I am only physically capable at this moment of doing 30 push-ups, and they ask me to do 50, I give my 100% and when I get to the 31st one, I try and try and try to do it, but am physically unable. That’s ok. The purpose of ESOAL is NOT to train you physically, but rather to teach you how to give your 100% – and then rely on God for more.

ESOAL is voluntary, and you can stop at any time. However, I intend to finish. I intend to rely on God’s strength and push through everything that comes my way. I will not quit. I will give my 100%. God will give the rest.

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The next update describes how ESOAL went. (it was really good)

God’s blessings to you,

Ryan

Mission Update

missionary2america — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:55:28 +0000

Life has been intense. I wrote this “Mission Update” so I figured I would post it here.

Mission Update

Hello, my name is Ryan Iley.

On August 14^th I arrived at Teen Mania’s Honor Academy and immediately started the first Life Transforming Event (LTE) of the year, called Gauntlet. Gauntlet is designed to strip the popular culture off of a person, immerse them into the Honor Academy culture, and plunge them into the presence of God. Each of us was essentially purified as much as is possible in a week’s time, and made fully aware of the one year commitment we were about to make at the end of Gauntlet.

The rule in ESOAL is that you must attempt everything asked of you. For example, if I am only physically capable at this moment of doing 30 push-ups, and they ask me to do 50, I give my 100% and when I get to the 31^st one, I try and try and try to do it, but am physically unable. That’s ok. The purpose of ESOAL is NOT to train you physically, but rather to teach you how to give your 100% – and then rely on God for more.

I ask for prayer. Please pray that God would break me. I want Him to shatter me so that He can rebuild me into what He wants. Truly, I do. I am not speaking figuratively. He has already broken me in several ways and I want more.

Also, I ask for finances. I have $800 due at the end of this month in order to continue at the Honor Academy. The next month, I believe I have another $800 due. After that, it is $600 a month for almost the rest of the year.

In order for me to continue developing into the Man of God that He is building me into, I need your help: both prayer and money. If you desire to donate, you can do so online at www.honorAcademy.com. Make sure you have a credit card and my ID ready. (My ID# is 251 2199) You can also mail a check made out to Teen Mania Ministries to Ryan Iley, 23425 FM 1995 LOT 101, Lindale TX, 75771.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help.

T. Ryan Iley

August 17, 2009

missionary2america — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:58:29 +0000

Hey y’all!

So it feels like its been about 9 days since last friday… about 3 days per day!

A lot has been going on! Oh, boy is the Lord moving!

Repentance. Worship. JOY. Corporate Exercise (read: boot camp). I even had a prophetic dream last night! That was crazy!

SO yeah! that’s pretty much the way life works: Repent of your sins, Worship the Lord in His holiness, Get insane amounts of joy.. to the point of rolling on the floor laughing, Practice Self-Discipline, get divine revelation… REPEAT!! IE. His Revelation generally includes a bit of His holiness and more repentance follows!

ITS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Serve the Lord! He rewards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Passionate Desire: A message to the ladies.

missionary2america — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:15:00 +0000

To begin, I must declare one simple fact: Ladies, you were designed to reflect the beauty of the Most High God. But sin corrupted and destroyed that. Those of you who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, and serve

Him as Lord have had that beauty restored. It is an internal, indescribably intense beauty that you have, and it is a gift from God.

The following is a message to those of you ladies who know Christ. To those who do not, I am giving you a small peek into what you are missing out on. This is what you were designed for! This is what God wants to

do inside of you! He passionately desires to do this… more than you can comprehend.
Men, to you I must say that there is a very masculine version of this that applies to you. Now to begin…

How passionate is Your desire for us oh God! How intense and radiant is Your love!
Come and listen, ladies, to what the Lord says about you! Come and see that He desires you more than you can imagine!

To reflect the beauty of the Lord
To reflect the beauty of the Lord is no small thing
It is no small thing to reflect the beauty of the One Who invented art, Who painted the galaxies, Who paints the sunrise and the sunset each day!

But more…
The Word says that God created us in His image and likeness!
Get a revelation!
YOU DO REFLECT HIS GLORIOUS BEAUTY

You are more beautiful than the most beautiful thing in nature
You are more glorious than the morning star
The Lord has declared it to be so!
The Lord has declared it to be so!
The Lord has declared YOU to be HIS DAUGHTER!

You are beautiful
You are lovely

The Lord has declared it
The Lord’s Word is TRUTH

Have you ever read the book Song of Songs, or Songs of Solomon? (depending on which version of the Bible you have)
It is a love poem between two newlyweds. It is so intense in its description of love that most people wonder why God put it in the Bible!
READ IT!!!!!

One of the purposes of this book is to describe to you how God feels about YOU!

Let me share two verses with you:

Song of Solomon 4:9 “You have ravished my heart, my treasure, my bride. I am overcome by one glance of your eyes, by a single bead of your necklace.”

Do you know what the word ravish means? It means to steal away with violence. Intense violence.
“You have ravished my heart…”

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?!? THAT IS SO INTENSE!!
That is how God feels about YOU!!!

He calls you His treasure, His bride.
He says that HE, the ALL-POWERFUL GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, is OVERCOME by ONE GLANCE of YOUR eyes!! By a SINGLE bead of YOUR necklace!
He says that you are as beautiful as the Holy city Jerusalem, and as glorious as an army with banners!
He then says, “Look away, for your eyes overcome me!”

This is intense! Let me explain a few things!

You are GOD’S TREASURE. In your relationship with God, YOU ARE THE MOST VALUABLE THING IN THE UNIVERSE! In fact, you are the only thing!
God is so powerful, that He can spend all of His time and energy for all of eternity FOCUSSED COMPLETELY ON YOU. And then He does that with everybody. But my point is HE DOES IT WITH YOU!! HE IS

COMPLETELY FOCUSSED ON YOU!! YOU ARE THE MOST VALUABLE PERSON ON THE ENTIRE PLANET!!!

Now for the “One glance of your eyes, one bead of your necklace” part.

Have you ever tried, even just slightly, to pursue God? You may have completely failed. But have you ever tried even slightly?
That’s a glance at Him.
Have you ever succeeded in doing something ‘good’ just because you wanted to do it for Him?
That’s a bead on the necklace. (kind-of related to ‘bearing fruit’ Matthew 7:17-20)

EVEN JUST ONE OF EITHER OF THESE THINGS OVERCOMES HIM!!
I SAID JUST TRYING TO PURSUE HIM CAUSES HIM TO FEEL SO MUCH INTENSE LOVE IN HIS HEART THAT HE IS OVERCOME WITH LOVE!!!

Now imagine if you STEADFASTLY PURSUE Him. That’s the next verse.

Song of Solomon 6:4-5 “O my beloved, you are as beautiful as the lovely town of Tirzah. Yes, as beautiful as Jerusalem! You are as majestic as an army with banners! Look away, for your eyes overcome me!”

GOD FEELS PURSUED BY YOU, THAT HE FEELS AS IF IT AN ARMY IS MARCHING TOWARDS HIM!!!!
HE GOES SO FAR AS TO TELL YOU TO LOOK AWAY FROM HIM!!

Obviously, God doesn’t want you to turn away from Him. He is trying to fit His feelings into the English language. (A difficult task)
The point: God feels so pursued, that He is having trouble focussing on running the Universe. His heart is so close to the edge of the cliff, so-to-speak, that He is getting really nervous about it. If He allowed Himself

to look any closer to where you are standing, He would be so overwhelmed, He would topple. THE ALMIGHTY GOD WOULD TOPPLE. That’s how intense this love is that we are talking about.

By the way, What do you think heaven is going to be? I have an answer: Once things are wrapped up here on Earth, God gives in to His love. That’s right, He has to resist Himself until then. INTENSE!!

I could go on forever about this, but I think you get the point.

The real question is: “What practical application does this have?”

So if this is how the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE feels about you, and HE HAS DECLARED YOU TO BE HIS DAUGHTER, what does that say about if there is a man who desires you?

Well, first of all, being God’s daughter makes you the PRINCESS OF THE UNIVERSE. The only one who qualifies to pursue a princess is a prince. This man must be God’s son. In other words, this man must follow

Jesus Christ and serve Him as Lord. God must have declared this man to be His son.

Ephesians 5:25-32 describes the role of a husband.

“And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God’s word. He did this to present her to himself

as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually

loving himself when he loves his wife. No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church. And we are his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father

and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.”

To summarize, A husband must:
-Love his wife as Chrst loved the Church
-Be willing to do anything, even give up his own life towards the end of protecting her and leading her closer to holiness through the power of Christ.
-Be exclusively joined to his wife in body, soul and spirit.

If a man is not willing to do these things, he doesn’t qualify to pursue you.
If a man is not already doing everything he can to fulfill the first two, he doesn’t qualify to pursue you.

How can a man lead you towards holiness if he himself isn’t pursuing that. Example: A man is not qualified to pursue you if he does not have the same sexual standards as you. If it would be a daily battle to stay out

of bed, he obviously isn’t leading you to holiness.

Now then, what if this man used to be sexually impure, but now he has repented and is pursuing Christ wholeheartedly? And now, all of a sudden, he wants to date you.
Okay, this is cool. But how do you know this is going to last? You test it. How do you test something like this? Easy.

Say, “I want you to prove to me that you do truly desire to pursue Christ with all of your heart, and you also desire to pursue a relationship with me.” How? He asks, “Come back in a year. Stay pure, stay committed

to Christ, don’t date anyone else. That’s how you prove to me that you are serious. Then I will decide whether or not I want to have a relationship with you in this way.”

Some of you may be wondering if this is fair. If he isn’t willing to wait a year, how can he expect you to spend the rest of your life with him?

And what if he fails? Let him try again.

You are the daughter of the Most High God. You don’t have to “fish at the bottom of the barrel.” It is your job in all of this to guard your heart and keep yourself from getting emotionally involved. You need a clear mind

to hear from God. It is the man’s job to pursue you. And never say yes to someone who isn’t a worthy prince.

The grasses blow around them – A Lament

missionary2america — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:21:13 +0000

The grasses blow around them
The fields shudder
The trees mourn at the sight

Two adulteresses lay beneath the stars
A woman and him who has been hired

Has such a thing been seen before?
Has any seen such a thing?
THAT THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD SHOULD PROSTITUTE THEMSELVES TO IDOLS!

Where is your timidness, oh Church?
And where is your shame?
How is it that the Bride of Christ does seek, and find, and hire idols to worship?

The Lord weeps
The Lord weeps
The Lord weeps and weeps and weeps
For His people have turned away from Him and sought another

There are many lovers – all of them hired
There is money
There is sex
There is self
The list goes on

And the Lord weeps

The Lord weeps

But the Lord shall not weep forever.

The Lord shall rise up
The Lord shall gird His loins with His strength, His arms with power
The Lord shall pick up His sword and send it to devour

When in the past have the people of the Lord left God…
And not been brought back…
But by famine…
And darkness…
And sword…
And disease…
…By the wrath of the Almighty God

The Lord shall pour out His wrath on this nation – you can be assured of that
His people have left and gone astray
His chosen ones have forsaken Him
And He will come in power to retrieve them

He will retrieve them
He will retrieve you.

REPENT, For EVERYONE who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.