1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And every man that hath this hope in Him purifiers himself, even as He is pure.

From February 14th through the Easter Holiday, 18 new believers have been born again in the rural and metro areas of Central Luzon. Today, 6 of those new believers were baptized today. God always keeps His promises: His Word will not return void, and our labors are not in vain.

Keep praying, working and giving. Keep waiting and watching. One day He will come again, and we will be changed!

There are other fruits to enjoy with our brothers and sisters overseas. One of those is a new “rooftop” for the mission church in the picture above.

Please keep praying for my friend and brother, Pastor Eric Hennessey, of River of Life Baptist Church in Cabanatuan City as he slowly recovers from a bout with very serious illness.

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Final thought: Why do people nowadays refuse or deny simple invitations to church? This was a question asked in a facebook group I’m a member of recently. There are a lot of obvious answers, and we as “the church” can point the blame outward in every direction. But we need to understand something very basic and simple about this lost and dying world. It watches us and measures and records everything we do and say. It sees and remembers how we act as opposed to what we teach. And yes, it knows what we teach.

So instead of blaming the world for doing exactly what scriptures say the world is going to do, maybe we should ask ourselves these questions:

Do we, as a church, love the way we’ve been commanded? (John 13:34) If someone took a real, serious, close look inside my church, would he see what I have there and want that for himself?

Is my individual life really set apart? Does it look different from this broken world somehow?

If someone really wanted to change his life, why would he choose Jesus knowing that the only apparent difference between my life and his life is church attendance?

Oh, me.