Brother James Paet picked me up at the hotel and took me to Cavite City for a one-day Gospel Meeting with the BACOOR church. There were several visitors from other congregations in the area, but no non-Christians were present. We had about 50 in attendance. The BACOOR congregation meets in a very nice place that was built by an American brother who returned to the U.S. at the time of the pandemic in 2020 and has not returned. Since there was no preacher for the congregation, the members over time became discouraged and drifted away. James contacted the former members and a few Christians in the area to see if the congregation could be revived. As I understand it, they began the work again only a couple of months ago and this was their first Gospel Meeting.
In the morning session, we started with a lesson of encouragement – “Summarizing a Life of Faithfulness” from 2 Timothy 1:8-12. After that, we took a short break and then considered a lesson on “The Inspiration of Scripture” from 2 Peter 1:16-21. The purpose of both lessons was to strengthen their faith and encourage them to live faithfully to God and His will. After the second lesson we took a lunch break until 1pm.
In afternoon session, we studied a lesson entitled “Salvation & Saul” giving careful examination to the accounts of the conversion of Saul (later called the apostle Paul). We noted that he was not saved by faith only on the Damascus road as commonly taught in the denominational world. In fact, three days after he had believed on the road, Ananias came to him in Damascus and said, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord' (Acts 22:16). So, after believe on the road, Saul was still in his sins which separated him from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). Paul noted very clearly in Romans 6:3-11 that he and the brethren to whom he writes were saved when that were baptized in Christ’s dead, there contacting the blood of Christ, being forgiven of all sin.
We ended our study time with a question and answer period. We had several good questions dealing with the action of baptism, what it means to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the equivalent term of baptizing in the name of Christ, as well as one question regarding baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was a good start to my time of work here in the Philippines and I look forward to another Gospel Meeting tomorrow in Trece Martires City.
It is the very hottest time of the year here in the Philippines. Late March and April are called “the middle of Summer” here and the heat testifies to that fact. I went through 6 bottles of water and 3 Gatorades in our time today! When I was finished, I was drenched from head to toe with sweat! The weather is miserable, but a good miserable as we have the chance to spread the precious gospel to those so willing to hear. Thank you so much to all who have made this opportunity possible.
