In 1991, the aggrieved person in our story and his wife were the first couple to be baptized in the waters of their province. At that time, the nearest church where they attended services was about 100 kilometers away until they had their own in their own place. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost gave him reasons to study the Word of God with diligence and to be God's witness. He resigned from his job for an apparent reason, not knowing that it was God's leading for him to be a local missionary and a tribal missionary in 1998 to the adjacent province. From 1998-2000, he ministered to new converts of the pioneering church, offering his whole life to the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their evangelistic strategy was to pioneer a church and to hand it over to an ordained pastor when the church had been established. Then, he would moved to another place to start a new one. From 2000-2002, he started two churches in the tribal communities. In 2002, he had to go back home for two reasons: his health deteriorated and his father was bed ridden.
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The Deplorable Condition of a Lost World (Romans 1:28-32)
Commonly, those people who are most proud, know least; for they do not know themselves. Hence come envy, strife, railings, evil-surmisings, disputes that are all subtlety, and of no solidity, between men of corrupt and carnal minds, ignorant of the truth and its sanctifying power, and seeking their worldly advantage. People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking. And so they do what they should not do. They are filled with every kind of sin, evil, greed, and hatred. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying, and thinking the worst things about each other. They gossip and say evil things about each other. They hate God. They are rude, proud, and brag about themselves. They invent ways of doing evil. They don't obey their parents, they are foolish, they don't keep their promises, and they show no kindness or mercy to others. They know God's law says that anyone who lives like that should die. But they not only continue to do these things themselves, but they also encourage others who do them. Description of Haters (Proverbs 16) 1 Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. 2 Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good. 4 God made everything with a place and purpose; even the wicked are included—but for judgment. 5 God can't stomach arrogance or pretense; believe me, he'll put those upstarts in their place. 8 Far better to be right and poor than to be wrong and rich. 10 A good leader motivates, doesn't mislead, doesn't exploit. 14 An intemperate leader wreaks havoc in lives; you're smart to stay clear of someone like that. 18 First pride, then the crash—the bigger the ego, the harder the fall. 19 It's better to live humbly among the poor than to live it up among the rich and famous. 25 There's a way that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell. 27 Mean people spread mean gossip; their words smart and burn. 28 Troublemakers start fights; gossips break up friendships. 29 Calloused climbers betray their very own friends; they'd stab their own grandmothers in the back. 30 A shifty eye betrays an evil intention; a clenched jaw signals trouble ahead. What Is the Godly Way to Do? (1 Peter 3:16-17) But answer them in a gentle way with respect. Keep your conscience clear. Then people will see the good way you live as followers of Christ, and those who say bad things about you will be ashamed of what they said. It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong. Yes, it is better if that is what God wants. On 29-Sep-2012, at 9:00 in the morning after my two-hour exercise around the town, I happened to meet one of my high school batch mates. I bade her a smile as my expression of respect. She said, "Oy, ano? Kumusta! Di ba ikaw ay nag-aabroad?” I replied, “Yes”, thinking that she really knew me. She continued, "Di ba ikaw si Meo na nagbabarko?" I corrected her, "Oo, nag-aabroad nga ako pero hindi nagbabarko at hindi ako si Meo." She seemed embarrassed but continued to ask me again, "Erlan? Ikaw ba si Erlan?" I replied to her with a smile, "Hindi ako si Erlan. Manager iyon ng China Bank." She then fired me more guesses, "Noel? Manuel? Ay naku! Tumatanda na nga talaga ako."
It’s funny! Almost a year, we met each other and talked at the High School Alumni Homecoming. Few days ago, we were chatting in Facebook. Why didn’t she just ask my identity instead of guessing? When I finally revealed to her that I was the one who wished to receive old copies of high school paper for republishing in the new website, she finally recognized me. When Jesus said, "Come and eat," none of the followers would ask him, "Who are you?" They knew He was the Lord (John 21:12). In another occasion, Jesus asked them, "What do people say about the Son of Man?" The disciples answered, "Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah or Jeremiah or some other prophet." Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Peter spoke up, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:13-16; MESSI'AH, Christ, the anointed; the Savior of the world). There are many Oddy’s on earth, many Radito’s, Estela’s and Nelson’s. But I believe that the identity of a person is not by knowing the name but rather by knowing “what he is” and “what his objectives in life are,” thus making the difference. I'm not talking about the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 or Republic Act No. 10175. I'm quoting here God's principle relating to freedom, as written in Galatians 5:13-23 (ERV) as the best rule in social networking sites as well as in the community.
My brothers and sisters, God chose you to be free. But don't use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful selves. Instead, serve each other with love. The whole law is made complete in this one command: "Love your neighbor the same as you love yourself." If you continue hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other. So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self wants. The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don't do what you really want to do. But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law. The wrong things the sinful self does are clear:
But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person's life is
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not (2 Corinthians 4:1). From the filthiness of this world and from the power of sin, God saw us in His mercy, took us out and redeemed us through Christ our Lord. We are not worthy, nevertheless we become His chosen people, a group of royal priests. We are a holy nation, people who belong to God. He chose us to tell about the wonderful things He has done. He brought us out of the darkness of sin into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). In the past, we were full of darkness, but now we are full of light in the Lord. So, let’s live like children who belong to the light. This light produces every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. Let’s try to learn what pleases the Lord (Ephesians 5:8-10). We are the light that shines for the world to see. We are like a city built on a hill that cannot be hidden. We don't hide a lamp under a bowl. We put it on a lampstand. Then the light shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, we should be a light for other people. Let’s live so that they will see the good things we do, giving glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). Now, we have a ministry, the gospel which is the power of God to save. We give to people what we’ve received in God’s mercy. And though we sacrifice our life, our time, our effort, and our money, we cannot be equal and we cannot compare it to God. With this, we are not ashamed to be His witnesses; we are excited about serving Him! I mean that we should use every opportunity we have for doing good, because these are evil times. Let’s learn what the Lord wants us to do (Ephesians 5:16-17). Let’s do our best to be the kind of person God will accept, and let’s give ourselves to Him, being workers who have no reason to be ashamed of His work, as we apply the true teaching in the right way (2 Timothy 2:15). So I beg you, brothers and sisters, because of the great mercy God has shown us, let’s offer our lives as a living sacrifice to Him: an offering that is only for God and pleasing to Him. Considering what He has done, it is only right that we should worship him in this way (Romans 12:1). But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 4:2). We will no longer be like babies. We will not be people who are always changing like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to deceive us, those who make clever plans and use every kind of trick to fool others into following the wrong way. No, we will speak the truth with love. We will grow to be like Christ in every way (Ephesians 4:14-15). There is more beyond Acts 2:38! There is more joy after repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus and infilling of the Holy Ghost! We devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs are being done, not by the apostles only because Jesus assured us that whoever believes in Him will do the same things He has done and we will do even greater things than He has done (Acts 2:42-43; John 14:12). What a wonderful promise, isn’t it? Weary days are gone! Idle times are over! God’s mercy saw us and we grow in faith. We’ve learned enough from the past. We cease to judge one another and to punish them that are already hurt. We’ve evaded committing sexual sins, or doing evil things, or selfishly wanting more and more. We stop fooling others with words that are not true. We don’t have anything to do with them (Ephesians 5:5-7). Church splits are already in history books; it’s over now and we move on. We’ve invaded ourselves through the power of His Spirit, making us a new man (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). We have a better reason to follow, namely, the reason of hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). A man has told me his story. Since the 1950’s in the Philippines, many denominations have explored the interior of the mountains of Mindoro to reach out for the mangyans. They have settled many headquarters for this purpose. Many non-government agencies have doubled their effort to preserve their culture and to protect their rights. Many politics joined in hand for their selfish motives of increasing their votes. The eyes of Mangyans were opened to a different gospel; they were awakened to live according to the lives of missionaries, to have faith in God according to their faith, to go to church as they were, to be baptized in their mode of baptism and in the names they used to believe. Very few have taught them the gospel that Peter preached in the Day of Pentecost, as written in Acts 2:38, even as Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and Romans 5:1-5. The gospel has been hid and their minds blinded. The wailing of their souls awakened this man. How can the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine upon them? So, God put a burning desire in this man to bring the mangyans in Mindoro to the true light of the gospel. It consumed his whole being, flowed in his veins, and occupied his mind and spirit. There was a gleaming light of hope that flashed through the crack on the thick wall of darkness when a missionary effort was brought out in the summer of 2000, after a year of birth pains. There was hope! There was joy! A glorious day to praise the Lord! Running up and down the gloomy and rugged mountain or crawling on the muddy ground was not a big deal when you witness the remission of sins and the infilling of the Holy Ghost; the angels also desire to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12); there is joy before the angels of God (Luke 15:10). But it was not long enough, until this man was succumbed into sickness. Another man succeeded him but only to find that the work would be continued by another group because of church split. Sadly, the church building was washed away by a flash flood. The successor continued the work of the Lord in a Visayan island. His assistant went abroad to work for a living. Since then, many other denominations claimed the right to reach out for the mangyans. Most of them enjoyed the cold flow of water from the water falls instead of having unspeakable joy in the Holy Ghost. Most of their feelings bloated because of prestige from commencing a missionary work, forgetting that they preached not themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord (2 Corinthians 4:5), forgetting that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:7). Another group of mangyans was reached in the summer of 2001. It was a ten-hour trek following a river from the lowland town to the mountains. One-time preaching on salvation was sufficient to touch their humble hearts. On the following day, twenty-eight mangyans with contrite spirit did not forbid themselves to be baptized in water in the precious name of Jesus. That was the first and the last time he saw them because his health didn’t allow him to continue. He heard that believers received the Holy Ghost and began to speak in new tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The promise of God never failed to them that believed, even mangyans. A pastor succeeded him but it didn’t continue that long because he returned to the Lord. His assistant resorted to working for a living instead. Now, eleven years have passed and the man in this story has not received any more news. There are many things to be done. There are many souls to be reached in this big area. “There is such a big harvest of people to bring in. But there are only few workers to help harvest them” (Luke 10:2a). “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15). “We all know that God owns the harvest. Let’s ask Him to send more workers to help bring in His harvest” (Luke 10:2b). A comment went like this, "Many of you continue to throw words around cheaply. I guess that's all one can do when one has no original thought." He was referring to quoting of Bible verses on the Facebook wall without real intention of explaining them to readers.
In general, Christian believers understand that every word of God is true (2 Samuel 7:28), very pure(Psalm 119:140), truth (Psalm 119:151), perfect, sure (Psalm 19:7),right (Psalm 19:8), true and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:9). The Scriptures are basically clear and can readily be understood by the readers or hearers. Through the Holy Spirit that is truthful and teaches everything (1 John 2:27), anyone can understand it and can obey it by himself alone without having anybody interpret it. The Holy Scriptures can make anyone wise enough to have faith in Christ Jesus and be saved, and do all kinds of good deeds (2 Timothy 3:15-17). However, not every statement is simple or its meaning is obvious. Some part is hard to understand; some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy themselves by twisting what is stated in the scriptures (2 Peter 3:16). God is expecting our best to study His word with diligence in order for us us to present ourselves to Him as approved ones, workers who have no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). We always need to be ready to answer everyone who asks us to explain about the hope we have in a gentle way with respect, with our conscience clear, in order that the people will see the good way we live as followers of Christ, and those who say bad things about us will be ashamed of what they said (1 Peter 3:15-16). As some parts of the scriptures are hard to understand, quoting of Bible verses on the Facebook wall may do no benefit at all. When the Holy Spirit came on us, we are given the power to be His witnesses to tell people everywhere about Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). It is important that we tell everyone God's message, being ready at all times to do whatever is needed. We must tell people what they need to do, to tell them when they are doing wrong, and encourage them with great patience and careful teaching (2 Timothy 4:2). If we don't warn them and tell them to change their lives, those evil people will die because they sinned. But God will make us responsible for their deaths (Ezekiel 33:8). How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them, if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear, unless someone tells them? And how can anyone tell them without being sent by the Lord? The Scriptures say it is a beautiful sight to see even the feet of someone coming to preach the good news (Romans 10:14-15). So, next time you wanted to quote a Bible verse on your Facebook wall, get some audience and explain about the hope you have in Jesus Christ in a gentle and respectful way, with clear conscience. Pray for them. If somebody likes or comments, follow him/her up with great patience and careful teaching. We're the Message In addition, Christian living is living for Christ, being partakers of His sufferings, not proven by merely quoting the Word of God in social networking sites, but by living the Word. "Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. TEACH BELIEVERS WITH YOUR LIFE: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching" (1 Timothy 4:11-13). "Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news" (Philippians 1:27). "God’s Word becomes alive as we place it into action. Only by applying it to all aspects of life do we truly understand the Word of God" (David K. Bernard in Message of Romans, pp 16-17). Our lives should echo the Master’s Word all over the place. The news of our faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore--we’re the message! |
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