Sunday
morning, I again met with the congregation that assembles in the center of the
city. I have come to know this group of saints very well through the years and
appreciate their work in the gospel. They gave me the time for the class and
sermon combined and we used it to study a lesson from 2 Cor. 5:11-15 on how
both the “terror of the Lord” and “the love of Christ” motivate us work in
service of the Lord. We made application of those principles both in our
individual lives and our work collectively as the church. It was great to be
with them again!
After
the services, I returned back to the hotel, fixed my protein shake, finished
packing and took off for the airport. Since I had plenty of time after checking
in, I went to sit at the gate to wait for the flight. Little did I know that my
flight would be delayed by about four hours! Jonathan was supposed to take a
flight later that evening, but my flight was still delayed when he came, so he
switched to join me in the same flight. We finally arrived in Manila and I went
to the hotel where I was able to get some supper about 10pm. After that, I
needed to complete work on charts for the start of the classes on the Epistles
of John and “Fellowship.” I finally was able to get to bed around 3am, but was
awakened at 5:30 with questions about provisions for the classes. I was
surprisingly rested and ready to go!
Our
venue for the classes this week is the place Rody Gumpad secured for the
Edsa-Pasay congregation to have their worship services. It is of the 4th
floor of a main highway with the elevated rail cars passing by very near. The
classes got started today at a little after 8am with the morning time spent in
studying the Epistles of John. We covered introductory matters and then moved
to a textual examination of 1 John 1. Rody Gumpad, who is hosting the classes,
and Lordy Salunga answered questions in their dialect to get the principles
across more clearly in their primary language.
The
afternoon classes began the study of “Fellowship” by studying what the word
means as used of our spiritual association and the spiritual associations it
describes in the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1, the meaning of the
word can be clearly understood by the synonyms used in parallel – it is an
agreement in principle leading to joint or common action in spiritual work. That is seen in
application as we examined “Fellowship” in suffering, in benevolence, in
preaching and in salvation. The next two days will focus on the difference
between the fellowship we are to have and the fellowship that is condemned.
