Stories of deliverance

An old woman, Leonila Butlay, was suffering from blindness for 40 years, had skin diseases and the spirit of witchcraft.  We prayed over this woman and she was healed!  Praise the Lord, all of her pain and her blindness is now gone!

Brother Danilo Versusa, 27 years old, was bound with many vices: wine, smoking and drugs for 12 years.   Often times he was controlled by these things and found lying along the street.   After I (Pastor Jesus Carso Jr.) prayed for him and counseled him to accept the Lord Jesus as his savior, he gave his life to Jesus!  At the present time he and his family are serving the Lord with gladness.  He has been a new convert for almost a year and is serving the Lord and his family!

In our ministry to the indigenous children, Feed the Hungry program, some of the parents have gotten saved.   One of them is a widow woman, a former Moslem, who was convicted by the Word of God and accepted the Lord as her  savior. Below is a picture from our Feed the Hungry Program:

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Words from Pastor Carso:

    "When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, He based the enduring validity of His words and work on what we call the "pantechnicon" promise.  This is a promise that encompasses all things, that cannot be superceded.   Jesus said, 'Surely I am with you always, to the end of the age.' (Matthew 28:20). the word 'always' is an adverb that comes from a Greek phrase 'pasas tes hemeras' or literally means 'the whole of every day'.  Jesus promised that not one second of any day will be without His presence.  A presence that wherever we may be or in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, He is there as Immanuel (Matthew 1:23), the Mighty God who is with us.

Jesus would, 60 years later, declare to John on the isle of Patmos, that He was the 'Alpha and Omega' (Revelation 1:8): the One who is at the beginning of time and at its climax, simultaneously.  All at once!  Whatever we will face in the future, He is already there, waiting for us.  He is there as the One who has designed our times and all our circumstances with the intent that we will be conformed to His likeness and prepared for eternal communion with Him.

As Christians we face no uncertain future, He is there now, as He is with us in each second of each day.   This assures us of the leading of His Spirit and the ultimate victory of the Word we preach and teach to those who have been chosen by Him in Eternity (Ephesians 1:4). The message we preach will find lodging in hearts that He has called (John 6:44, 65) for He is the divine initiator of all aspects of salvation.  We have been given the great privilege of being one of the means through which His eternal call goes forth to those He will enlighten by the Word proclaimed.

God Bless,   Pastor Jesus Carso, Jr.

Words from Pastor Wilma,

To meet the needs of a hurting world, the Church must respond with compassion and stop being too busy to care. That is the wake-up call from the Church of the Firstborn Ministries Asst. Pastor, Pastor Wilma T. Carso, who told a gathering of Christians at this year's Pastor's conference, that compassion forces us to relate to people and their problems.

"Compassion may well be the entrance to culture,'' she told audiences at both believers and different denomination. "It involves a depth of passion, which forces us to act. It makes us get our hands dirty."

"It doesn't need consent to our creeds before it acts, it doesn't trade orthodoxy for attention and it is prepared to allow people to benefit without believing first," she added. "But it drives us to teach, feed, and heal."

She said a church's Sunday notices often revealed if it is motivated by compassion or if it is too bogged down in its own internal affairs.

She stressed that when God showed up in the Bible it was always in response to a perceived need and Christians should do likewise. It's the pathway to effective witness. Wilma, quoted Pastor Jake Carso words, the Church of the Firstborn Ministry's president, who once said: "You have to give people what they know they need in order to give them what they don't know they need."  Wilma preached from Matthew 20:29-34 when Jesus responded to the emphatic cries of two blind men as he left Jericho . Jesus asked them "What do you want me to do for you?" revealing that he never made assumptions about people but gave them the opportunity to express their needs. His ministry was typified by questions as much as by anything else.

When the blind men told him they wanted their sight Jesus responded despite the fact that it cut into his
programmed and delayed his journey to Jerusalem and the Cross.

"There is a pragmatism about God's involvement with the world we would do well to take seriously in our 21st century witness," stressed Wilma. "Compassion makes us put aside our own schedule to reach out and touch people's lives."

She added that Jesus only ever cried twice in the Bible but it was never associated with compassion. "Compassion doesn't make us cry, it makes us act!" Wilma urged.

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Jesus A. Carso, Jr.

P.O. Box 0661

Cagayan de Oro City 9000

Mindanao, Philippines

Email: carsoj@yahoo.com