Gospel Meeting at Toran, Aparri - March 23

A great invitation from brother Jun Miranda to have a gospel meeting in his congregation was a great opportunity again to share the gospel. It is about 2 hours travel from here in Tuguegarao. We arrived in the area about nine in the morning.

The first speaker was brother Jerome Forelo who preached to us about "Why I need to be saved now?". We are just a man, and we all have sinned according to the bible, and so we are destined to go to hell. But we are very thankful that God gave His only begotten son. If we want to go to heaven, we need to follow what Jesus said and be obedient to the gospel, and it should be now. We do not know what might happen tomorrow, we need to be ready always.

The Second speaker was brother Jay Gumpad and he preached about "Masters". He showed the relationship between the master and the servant from both our life here on earth and with God.

I(Mark) preached as the third speaker and I am encouraged to share to them a lesson from brother Steven Deaton's sermon on their website. It is entitled "3rd option". I read these before and I made additions that would properly fit our nature here in the Philippines. There is a good place which is called Heaven and a very bad place which is Hell. We are going to hell because of our sins, and we are the one's who are choosing to go there. We are not saying that we want to be there, but if we live in darkness, it is like forcing our self to go to hell, and it is a place where there is severe pain that cannot be cured, it will be day and night and until eternity. But we can go to heaven by the blood of Christ. As christians, we already choose the path that leads to heaven because it is a place where there is real joy. In these world, we might find good pleasures, but it is only temporary, but in heaven, their will be no more pain, nor death, nor sorrow and crying because there will be joy, comfort and health. for all eternity. I choose to go to heaven and I want to be there on the last day, and I pray that all of us will be there. 

The fourth speaker was brother Rody Gumpad who preached about "Why Many will not be saved?". Many are serving God but according to Matthew 7:21-23, God never knew them because they are not doing what the will of the Father is. There is only one church, but they are trying to established churches of their own, Jesus said He is the head of the church, but many are trying to take His place, and so on. Many are called but few will be chosen.

In the afternoon, the first speaker was brother Jun Gumpad who shared about "Satan's Plan". There are many devices Satan is planning for him to destroy our relationship to God and it is working with those who are going back to the world like Demas.

The second speaker was brother Gerald Ganela, who also showed an encouraging lesson like the others. It is about "God wants you to be happy". God wants us to be happy in every ways we can imagine . But with the joys we are experiencing, all should be offered unto Him.

Then finally, the last speaker was brother Rody again. He preached about "The so great salvation". He showed the destination of man. Will it be in heaven of will it be in hell?

We sung the invitation song after the preaching and we are happy to see five(5) precious souls ready to confess their faith. We baptized them after the confession and it might be the first time you see how we did it. We used a large amount of water as the bible says but the tank we use might bother you. The converts were in the tank and was immersed from head to toe and that should not be a problem because it does not contradict to what the bible is saying.

More images in the Gospel Meeting: Pictures in the Gospel Meeting

Activities from March 19-25

March 19, we are invited by the newly baptized sister, Celia Lim, to have a bible study in her house. Brother Jimmy Battung and Elijah Sikat, as their cousins, help them understand the truth and they decided to be baptized last March 16. She and her daughter is now attending the services here at Metro Tuguegarao and we are happy to be with them in worship. Her family was known in the whole city because of how materially bless they are. Her husband already died and was a friend of bro. Rody before. Sister Celia invited many of her friends in her house to listen also to the studies. Brother Rody shared  two topics, first was  "Get Ready for the judgment" and "The original Members of the Church of Christ". The reaction from the listeners are very good because of good reactions when they hear something they know and also to the things they thought is right but in the bible it is not like the denomination where they are member of. Some questions where raise after the study and that only shows they listen very well and is interested in the topics discussed. Hope and pray that all of them will one day be our brethren also.

March 20, in our preachers bible study, we now moved to the next part of our lesson in Revelation which is "The Seven Personages" in Rev. 12:1-14:20. We focus on the Radiant Woman in 12:1-6, the War in heaven in 12:7-12, The Sea and Land Beasts in 13:1-8, The Lamb in Zion in 12:1-5 and The Proclamations of Judgment in 14:6-20.

March 21, in our midweek service, a wonderful and encouraging lesson from Psalm 138 was taught by brother Jerome. The main focus of the lesson is on how thankful and how God hears the prayers of all the faithful.

March 22, I preached in the radio program in the morning and it is entitled "You are not the judge". I choose to preached this because man choose to find their own ways of salvation and are not listening to what Jesus is telling us. 

In the afternoon, brother Jay invited me to go to Minagbag and visit the brethren. We first met bro. John and sister Janice. John was fixing his hand tractor that he is using in the field. We talk to him about those brethren whom we might visit. He is the trusted brother whom you can count when in comes to the church growth just like brother Lino whom I am with in Palca. I am very thankful that we have those kinds of brethren in the church. We tried to visit brother Sonny in his house but unluckily, he is not their and we just heard from the neighbor that he is in the field. The bad thing is, even on Sunday, he is working in the field and really scheduled a whole day work there but not on other days. Hope and pray that he will realized what he is doing is all a mistake and will come back to the church. The next place we visit was in brother Rene's house, but again, we failed to see him, we have no idea why he is no longer attending the worship because no one is around even in the neighborhood. We went home with prayers on our head and hope someday they will realized that without Christ, we are nothing even when we gain every material things in these world.

March 23, Gospel Meeting at Toran, Aparri. Please click on the link for the information: Toran Gospel Meeting

March 25, in our Lord's day here in Tuguegarao, bro. Jun taught in our bible study with the topic " Sin of Man Playing God", we are not like God but we are only a man that have a lot of limitations while God is all powerful. In the sermon, brother Rody preached to us about "Remember Lord Jesus", that we gave everything, even His life, for us all to have salvation from our sins.

In the afternoon, at Palca, I preached to them about "What should we choose?" because today, many choose to live in darkness than in the light. We need to choose whom we want to serve, how we live, and where we want to go for eternity.

Activities from March 8-18

March 8, I preached in the radio program about "Right Gospel and Right Church". It is a continuation of the lesson I also preached in the radio before about "The Right Savior and the Right God". I first heard of this topic that was preached by brother Ron Halbrook during our lectureships the last time he was here. It is a good topic because it will really awaken those who are following the things they thought they knew the truth.

March 10, I should be going to Palca for home visitation again but friday night, brother Lino Quines, a brother at Palca calls on the phone and told me that many of them are working in the field right now because it is already time of harvest and if we will go to houses, we will not see anyone home. It is the only work of the people on that village that's why they will take the opportunity to do it before rain comes again.

March 11, in our service here at Metro Tuguegarao, I taught in the young peoples class that brother Jerome is doing when he is with us. Brother Rody, Jun and Jerome are in Mindoro at that time so I take his position in teaching them. I shared to them about "Marriage as a Big step". A good lesson that talks about what to look for a partner in life and the problems that may occur in marriage. Brother Jay taught in the bible study but it is the same time as the young peoples class so I didn't attend that part. In the sermon, brother Robert Rances, one of our elder, preached about "Blessings behind every condition". The lessons shows that in every conditions that God asked us to do, there is always a reward behind it.

In the afternoon at Palca, I preached to them about "Time to love and a time to hate". We should love God will everything and hate every false way.

March 13, we are still in the part of the "Seven Trumphets". It is really hard to study everything in the book of Revelation but with the unity of all of us, slowly, we are getting the point and the things we need to use to answer the doctrines of denominations.

March 14, in our midweek service, brother Reneboy taught to us about "Search the Truth". He started from the creation of man in God's image, followed by the devil's work in the world and the church that Jesus built.

March 13-17, I am working with all the videos that bro. Rody and his group recorded when they are in there preaching trip in Mindoro and Bulacan. It is about six videos and I need to edit everything that we could use in our TV program. It took me lot of working hours just to finished it and I am happy that when they played it in TV, it really looks nice and hopefully help many viewers understand the lessons.

March 18, in our service, brother Jun taught in our bible study about "The Rock and the Sand" on Matthew 7:21-27. A lesson showing that we need to build our foundation upon the rock which is Christ and not on the sand as the foolish man did with building his house. In the sermon, bro. Rody preached about "The Mosaical Period". He is showing that we are no longer living in that period and we are in the Christian age. In the audience was the presence also of the newly baptized brethren, they are Sister Celia Lim who is very well known here in Tuguegarao because of how wealthy they are together with her family and friends. Thanks to the effort of bro. Jimmy Battung who shared the gospel to them. Hopefully they will be worshiping with us every Sunday and please pray also for them.

In the afternoon, I preached the last part of the series of lesson on Different Seasons in Palca. The last was "Time of war and a time of peace". We, as christians are always at war with the invisible enemy which is the devil and we need to take the whole armor of God to have a good defense against his attacks. And we have peace after the battle in the nest life that God will give to all those who successfully fought the good fight of faith.

February 29 to March 7 activities

February 29, in our midweek service, we continued on studying the book of Psalm wherein we are now on the 135th. We have no electricity for the whole day and even when we started the Bible Study there are no lights. We started early while the sun is still there and we stayed in front of the house of bro. Rody. We arranged some chairs and continued on the midweek service. The focus of the psalm where bro. Florendo Respicio taught is all about the gods of man and made good points on focusing on the right God.

March 1 & 2, I worked on the videos that will be played in our TV program here in Tuguegarao. I thanked God that He gave me the ability to work with these things. I finished Information Technology and I am using it for the glory of God.

March 3, I went again to Palca to visit the brethren who are seldom attending the worships. I first encounter Melvin Lamigo when I arrived. We had a little talk, and he told me that he wanted to go back to the church but he is ashamed. I read to him passages that would help him realized that their is nothing to be ashamed of if you want to return to God. If we will be ashamed, Jesus will do the same for us. He admitted that he have many vices and that is a good thing, showing repentance. The next was the family of sister Fermina and her daughter Hazel with bro. Junior(they are all very faithful brethren). We have a good sharing of God's word and also offered prayers for those brethren who are lukewarm and are sick at the moment.

March 4, in our Lord's day here at Tuguegarao, bro. Jun taught in our Bible Study about "What are you worth?" that we all have a value and especially to God, that He gave His only begotten Son to pay our debts on the cross and we have the remission of sins. In the sermon, bro. Rody preached "God has spoken" speaking to us about the dispensations in the Bible, where we are and what we need to follow.

In the afternoon, I invited bro. Denis Yuson to come with me in Palca. He preached to us about "Children of God" sharing the first three verses of the book of Jude. After his preaching, I also shared some good thoughts in the bible explaining to all of christians that we can do all things with Christ with us.

March 6, we continued on studying the book of Revelation. We again examined the Seven trumpets that can be read in Revelation 8:6-11:19. We didn't finish it the last time so we continued with it. The trumpets means warning and many things pertaining the provision of God to His people.

March 7, in our midweek service, we studied "Psalm 136" that bro. Efren Respicio shared. The main theme of the psalm is "The Lord's mercy endures forever" that we can read over and over in the whole part of the psalm. The love of God cannot me measured because of its greatness.

Calendar of Activities for February 2012