We had an early start again this morning in order to travel to Bogo, at the north end of Cebu Island. There are some beautiful views of brilliant blue seas and lush mountains along the way, again in the midst of terrible poverty. The trip is supposed to take about 2 hours, but took us almost 3 hours this morning. Traffic was very heavy going through Cebu City and there were several delays along the way due to construction. The road is also very rough requiring very slow speeds for the vast majority of the way. Instead of having time to spare before the start of the lectures, we had to start immediately on arrival.
Gil (pronounce like “hill”) Suico is the one preaching at Bogo. He worked hard to invite numerous visitors and about 65 were present for the studies. Our studies were in the church building which is joined to Gil's house. It is a concrete block structure with numerous gaps and a tin roof. I started out by preaching on “the Inspiration of the Scripture” I had not gotten more than 5 minutes into the lesson when a driving rain hit. The rain on the tin roof with no insulation made a very loud noise which was impossible to speak over, even with a microphone and sound system. So, I stopped for several minutes and we sang two songs while we waited for the rain to pass. After finishing that lesson, I went immediately to a shortened form of “The Salvation of Cornelius” which I knew could be completed before we needed to break for lunch.
After lunch, I preached on “Salvation & Saul.” Since several of the visitors were from Evangelical groups, I took extra time delivering and adding more explanation of the points made. All through the lesson, I emphasized how clear the Bible makes it that Paul was saved by the blood of Christ at the point of water baptism. In order to reinforce that point on the clarity of God’s word, I decided to give a sermon on “Confusing the Issue: The Lawyer’s Problem” from Luke 10. The lawyer asked Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal salvation?” Jesus responded, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” The lawyer gave the right answer which Jesus acknowledged, but the lawyer sought to evade his guilt by confusing the issue. Jesus simple returned to the simplicity of God’s will and showed that all could make proper application of it. We then applied the same principle to read plain teach from God’s word on morality the church, doctrine and other areas where human ideas differ from God’s plain truth.
After the lessons, we had a question and answer session which was very lively. The first question concerned the thief on the cross. Other questions dealt with why all men are not saved if Christ’s blood was given for all men, why women could not preach, and several other topics. We dealt with each question by referring to the Scriptures that answered the query. When the questions ended, Jun Apatan extended the invitation. The lady who had asked about the thief on the cross came to be baptized after seeing the Bible teaching and its application. We praise God again for the power of His truth!
The ride back home was typical Philippine road trip over 2 hours – long periods of fear punctuated with moments of sheer terror. The Lord willing, the lectures tomorrow will be in the Cebu City area.
