February 12, 2015th Year of Our Lord

Dear family, friends,& brethren,

Today, February 11, I started catching up on some email, but I may not ever get it all done. I studied my first lesson to start the series tonight on “The Authority of Christ.” There were eight present who regularly attend plus one visitor who saw the ad in the newspaper. He appeared to be in his mid-20’s and was very attentive, turning from passage to passage. My lesson focused on Christ’s authority expressed in Scripture and our visitor understood this concept. During the open forum he said he knew Christ warned about false teachers and, therefore, it was important to check the Scriptures when men teach.

I had covered several passages on baptism and our visitor recounted how he had been taught to “accept Jesus” by the sinner’s prayer, and was baptized six months later, but he could not find the sinner’s prayer in the Bible and felt confused. I pointed out the reason he could not find it is because it is not revealed in the Bible but is a human doctrine. After reviewing several passages on baptism, I offered to study with him during the day and he agreed to come to the house Friday morning. He is obviously searching and we pray he will have an honest heart.

Children sometimes remind us of the simplicity of the gospel. At one point I was explaining the difference between aids and additions. Christ commanded us to sing (Eph. 5:19). A song book aids our singing but does not produce another kind of music, whereas an instrument produces an additional kind of music. I illustrated this by opening a song book and holding it up before the audience. I asked, “Do you hear music when I open a song book?” Timothy (age 5) and Seth (age 3) spontaneously answered, “No!” When I said, “If I play a guitar, would you hear music?” They both answered, “Yes!” Even a child can understand the difference. Christ authorized us to worship him by singing but not by playing instruments.

Thursday has been another good day! I have received news of baptisms and restorations back home at the Hebron Lane church, and I rejoice with the angels of heaven!

Being south of the equator, Australia is having summer weather. The days are pleasant with daytime temperatures in the mid-80’s and the low 70’s at night. Today we took the grandchildren to an ice cream shop where I tried coconut lime sorbet – it was quite good. I also had a Bible lesson with them emphasizing the love of Christ for children and how he taught us to learn from the good hearts of children.

When I was at the Edsa church in Manila a sister approached me to ask my help in locating a church in Brisbane, Australia where her Baptist uncle lives. His Filipino relatives had tried to convert him, and now that he lives in Australia he has continued to study and wants to be baptized into Christ. Today I worked on locating a sound church in Brisbane. Deborah helped me run down some contact information. Then, I emailed it to the sister in Manila and the uncle in Brisbane. We hope to hear some good news soon about him.

Our attendance was 16 tonight including brethren who drove from the Rockhampton church and the Mormon lady we studied with on Tuesday. The subject was Christ’s authority as our Savior and as head of the local church. There were some good follow-up questions during the open forum.

Thank you to all of you who are praying for this effort to save sinners and to edify the saints here in Gladstone!

In Christian love, Ron Halbrook

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