Our schedule for today was in the Mambaling district of Cebu City with the Southside church where Jun Apatan labors. Several other brethren that preach in the Cebu City area were also there and it was good to see all of them. If an exact count of the attendance was taken, I was not told, but my estimate is that 50 to 60 were present. Most were in a small room that was “air conditioned” while a small group remained outside to hear the messages by a sound system. Even though the air conditioner could not keep up with the number present within the small space, it did cut the heat and I am thankful for that fact, because I had to do all of the preaching on this very hot day.
In the morning, I preached about 3 hours giving two lessons: “The Inspiration of God” and “Salvation & Saul.” After the lunch break, I preached for another 3 hours on “Identifying the NT Church” and “Grace, Faith & Obedience.” Immediately after the last lesson, we had a question and answer session. The only one wanting to ask questions was a young man who preaches in a Pentecostal Church. His main point was to ask if we had historical documents that would prove that the local church in Mambaling could trace its origin back to the original church in the New Testament. I noted that the power was in the seed according to God’s word, and that when we abided simply with the seed of the word, it would produce the same result as it did in NT times. After he continued to exist on some historical document, I asked him if I could produce an historical document, how could he have confidence in that document since it would depend on the word of man. We then talked about the fact that our faith must be in God’s word, not the words of man. The rest of the audience was very satisfied that the message was very clear.
When Jun Apatan extended the invitation of the Lord, six came to be baptized: a man and his wife, a boy about twelve years old, and three young ladies ranging from mid-teens to about 20 years of age. It was a very good day and we are thankful to God for the power of His word!
For those interested, I will try to upload a video of the singing in Cebuano on my FaceBook page.
