Our venue for today was the
regular meeting place of the congregation that meets in central Cebu City, the
LYUM Building on the 12th floor. To get there, one takes the
elevator to the 11th floor and climbs a staircase that leads to the
top floor. That is what we did in the morning. It was a mild day in Cebu and
the room was well air-conditioned, too much so for many in the audience. So, we
turned off the units in the back two-thirds of the room and left one on for the
front part of the room. I remained very comfortable all day.
The first lesson was “The
Uniqueness of the Holy Scriptures” from 2 Timothy 3:14-17. The lesson focused
on the “inspiration” of the Scripture and it must be our sole standard for
teaching and practice. We also emphasized that the Scriptures can be understood
and cannot be changed.
After a short break, we then
studied what characteristics a life has when one is “Living for the Will of
God” (1 Pet. 4:1-4). We noted that it will entail suffering for what is right,
abstaining from sin (with emphasis of the sins mentioned in the text),
exemplifying a clear difference from the world and obeying the gospel. We
introduced some fundamental points about what it means to “obey the gospel.”
That took us to the time for our lunch break which was not a very long break.
Jonathan Carino then gave a
lesson on distinguishing between the dispensations of history in how God dealt
with man. He gave special attention to the Scripture’s teaching that we are not
under the Old Law, but under the gospel of Christ today. He made various
applications with regard to those who seek justification for their religious
practice today by going to the Mosaic Law.
The last lesson for the day
was “Salvation and the Seed, the Word of God” from 1 Peter 1:22-25. We noted
that the power is in the seed to produce according to its kind. So, if we want
the salvation given by God, we must go to the right seed – the gospel of
Christ. The thoughts and feelings of man are not the standard, but that which
God directs of us in His word. We finished with a short summation of the steps
of salvation for the alien sinner and how we must obey all that God says on the
subject, not just part of it.
We left time for a short
Question / Answer session, but there were none. Two of those present were
Pentecostals. Another was a denominational preacher of some Evangelical group.
Another was from a Catholic background. All of these seemed very interested and
were turning to the passages to study the Bible teaching. I hope and pray they
will return tomorrow. There was also a man who had previously left the Baptist
Church to obey the gospel, but fell away and returned to denominationalism. He
has recently received his Doctorate of Divinity after a grand total of 5 days
in the program! Yes, degree mills are alive and well over here as well.
At the conclusion of the
day’s study, we went down the flight of stairs to get to the elevator on the 11th
floor and ride it down to the ground floor. As many of you know, going down
stairs is the hardest part to me as my hip problem makes climbing stairs much
easier than going down the stairs. So, I was glad to get to the 11th
floor… until I realized that the elevator was not working! Descending the 12
flights of stairs took a long time and was extremely painful, but they assured
me the elevator would be fully functional tomorrow. I hope and pray that they
are correct!
