Bethany Baptist Church concluded the annual Faith Promise Mission Conference, Sunday afternoon that had begun Wednesday evening. The guest missionaries, Micah and Jillian Dorr, had come from their home in Mexico for the conference. Phillip and Diann Crow of Mansfield, Texas presented music each evening.
Micah gave an overview of his part in the work that his father, Nelson Dorr, began several years ago in a farming valley of western Mexico. Micah teaches in the Bible Institute and acts as associate pastor for that age group. Micah has recently begun working in a village located some forty minutes away toward the mountains. They have been conducting weekly Bible clubs with several children out in a roadside area and have recently gotten some land where they plan to begin meeting.
Micah Dorr brought a message Sunday morning from John 5 about the healing of a certain man beside the pool at Bethesda who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years.
Jesus had said that he had come to seek out and save the lost. Where you spend your time shows your priority. Jesus was most often found among the poor, the blind, the crippled, the helpless, and those regarded as being sinners.
A certain man had lain beside the pool at Bethesda waiting for the moving of the water hoping that he might be the first to dip in the pool and be healed. There were multitudes of afflicted persons also lying there. There are multitudes of hopeless, powerless people in the world with a great void in their lives. Many of them try to fill that void with religion, others put their hope in careers and financial success, and others try to fill the void with alcohol, drugs, and other vices. But they are in a desperately hopeless situation if they must face judgment without Jesus.
How can we make a difference with the multitudes of lost people destined for Hell? We have to focus on one person at a time. Jesus spoke to one certain man and asked him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” When Jesus saw him, he gave him this invitation. Our responsibility is simply to ask, “Would you like to know how to be saved?”
Micah has knocked on many doors in the valley where he lives and asked that question. Many people say “no.” They have something in which they trust. He goes to another door. Sometimes he may knock on 100 doors with no response, but there have been a few who have answered, “yes.” Then the ministry of the Dorrs is to teach the new converts to walk pleasing to the Lord.
When Jesus told the man, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,” the man obeyed and the religious people of that day were offended at him. New Christians need to be taught to walk for the Lord and to be strong to face a world that is offended at their faith in Jesus.
