At the kitchen door (part II)

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Published: Tuesday, 24 December 2019 03:51
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At the kitchen door (part II)

District 6 Association of Pangasinan (DAP)

17th Pastors Thanksgiving

Mc Donald’s – Carmen, Mc Arthur Hiway, Rosales

December 16, 2019 ] (Monday); 9:30 a.m.

 

 

If someone knocks on your door, will you not let him in?

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Last night at 10:27 (P.M.), 15th of December, I was washing the dishes when I heard a faint knock on the kitchen door. As I opened the door, I saw the three (3) neighbour’s cat right at the door. And I am very pretty much sure that it is the spotted orange cat that knocked the door. This cat normally knocks the door when she is hungry. If I opened the kitchen door to a cat, why won’t God open the door when you are right there knocking on His door? (Matt. 7:7)

Anyways, we are now celebrating our 17th Year of Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord! And I may share a bit of its brief history.



Brief history

This is the brief history of 17th District 6 Pastors’ Thanksgiving.

I have been a missionary for the past one year in South East Asia (SEA) in 1990 prior to this pastoral work in the Philippines.

My based then was in Bangkok, Thailand. That country has given me more access to the communists world like in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar where our mission organization is directly focused at.

For a year, I was shuttling all over Malaysia and Singapore at least three (3) times a year. I was then “free-lance” missionary meaning no church or mission organization has formally sent me. I simply heard from God. He called me to do His work and I am certain with that.

After a foreign stint of a year, the Lord called me to come back to the Philippines after over 13 years of long absence because I spent nearly half of my life then working overseas (as OFW). God told me, “Pioneer a church in the Philippines. That will be your license that I have called you.” And I did! Little did I know that I will not only pioneer a church but lead a pastoral movement too.

I came back on December 19, 1990 where military tanks welcomed my arrival. AFP tanks were deployed then in EDSA due to coup e’tat during Corazon Aquino’s presidency. A day after I arrived in Manila I readily came back to my hometown in Carmen, Rosales.

By early 1991, I was visited by Pastor Carlo Benitez and his wife Daisy who proposed us to have a regular Breakfast Fellowship with two others pastors namely Pastor Hidalgo of Assembly of God (AOG) and Pastor Wilfredo Quiruz of Bible Baptist Church. All of us were then based in Carmen, Rosales, Pangasinan.

Our Breakfast Fellowship there expanded in the town proper of Rosales. In 1991 we held Breakfast Meeting with Local Government Units (LGU’s) whose invitation was extended to the Honourable Mayors, Vice Mayors and the members of the Sangguniang Bayan (SB). The Breakfast Meeting was held in Dallas Restaurant at Carmen West, Rosales.

Then followed by Values Formation Council (VFC) based at the home Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame. From there I was able to access other pastors in District 6 consisting of 10 towns with estimated number of 280 evangelical churches. Many of these pastors joined VFC conducting values education to PNP then extending it to schools, barangays, etc.

While the ministry is growing so fast there was a problem then. The problem is that I was freelance pastor.



Freelance

Since my one-year mission stint in Thailand till I came back to the Philippines I had no covering.. That sounds like I am “renegade” soldier of Christ. From there, I prayed for a church covering and looked for a local church that I can be officially ordained as minister.

 

Kuya Dan Balais have been my long-time friend since I came to know the Lord in 1986. We exchange letters while I was still overseas and we talked a lot about missions and the ministries of the Lord. He became my official endorser whom I sought a Personal Covering. So he vouches me to another organizations. When I stayed in the Philippines for good on December, 1990, God led me to seek Kuya Dan’s full-covering until I was officially ordained as CLSF Pastor on August, 1991.

 

 

Dismembering and Ex-communication

Many years back I shunned joining pastoral movement because I have been hurt by other pastors. So I withdrawn myself from there as if I was dismembering myself from the Body of Christ and inflicting my own ex-communication.

Not until I was attending in a big gathering in Puerto Princesa, Palawan and in the middle of the preaching of one among the guest speakers, God’s voice came. The Lord said right there and then in our conversation:

  • Jesus : You have forsaken Me?

  • Peps : How did I forsake You?

  • Jesus : You are no longer serving my Body.

I was kept mum for awhile. My speechless moment provided me a time to reflect, digest God’s rebuke, asked forgiveness and to make up what I have forsaken. Then I repented.



So I rejoined myself again to our town pastoral movement, Association of Rosales Ministries (ARM) and hosted the 1st ever Pastoral Thanksgiving. On the 2nd Year, I renamed it as District 6 Pastoral Thanksgiving to pave way to other pastors in our district until to this very day that we are celebrating our 17th Year Anniversary.

 

In other words, I don’t believe on what they say “independent church.” You can’t be independent. You cannot dismember yourself from the rest of the Body of Christ as well. That won’t be possible. Because we are ONE. You belong just to one head of the Church and He is the Christ and the Church has many body members. You can put your true loyalty and allegiance to your local church or spiritual covering yet without neglecting the Body Members of the Lord Christ to whom you are heavily indebted through His blood and sacrifice.

So the Church is not merely composed of legs or wings just like chicken legs or chicken wings. It has a Head, the Lord Jesus Christ as well as other members of His Body. You cannot serve the head yet neglecting the rest of His body.



555

I had several encounters with these numbers “555” which I would like to share it to you.

  • November 21, 2019; Canyon Woods, Batangas, 7th Palawan Bishops Conference, the word “shemita” is mentioned

  • November 26, 2019; LAIKO right beside Manila Cathedral, PCM (Catholics and Evangelical Bishop), in fact Bishop Leo Alconga is there. “Beginning from 2020-2022 they call it a new beginning, a new threshold.”.

  • December 8, at 12:01 A.M., while washing the dishes, this word came, “Unto us a son is given.” (Isaiah 9:6).

  • December 15, at 10:27 pm while washing the dishes, a faint knock at the kitchen door. When I opened it, I saw the spotted orange cat right at the doorstep literally knocking for food.

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So what would you think the Father in heaven has given us His begotten Son? What does it mean to give? What given is all about?

“Given” in Hebrew “nathan” means “bestow, grant, devoted, dedicated, and consecrated.” It also means “to sell” or “pay wages.”

Knocking at the door is very much Biblical. “Knock and it shall be opened,” the Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Assurance is given unto us that “to him that knocketh it shall be opened,” (verse 8).

 

Knocking in OT

Knocking at the door in the Old Testament speaks of urgency.

 

In Song of Solomon 5:2, the word “knock” in Hebrew “daphaq” (daw-fak) is interpreted as someone who “beat” or one who “drive or press severely.” That word “knock” has such an urgency of the hour.



Knocking in NT

Knocking in the New Testament also speaks of emergency status.

 

The Second Coming of the Lord has such a severe urgency as He comes that Luke, the physician wrote, “knocked they may open unto him immediately,” (Luke 12:36). And in verse 37 it says, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching.” Take note of the word, “watching.”



Christ is knocking

Christ is seen knocking at the church’s doorsteps. Imagine that Christ is not welcome on that church because He is outside the door of that sanctuary of Laodicea.

 

In Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold I stand at the door, and knock.”

Will you be there watching, waiting, hoping with much anticipated fervour should He come right at your door step? Then He continued, “If any man hear my voice and open the door.” And how many of us can hear and recognize the Master’s voice or are we hearing the voice of a stranger that kept Him there outside the door waiting for us recognize what He is saying?


Knocking & 555
The Jews will again celebrates their Jubilee as 555 in from 2019-2020 which they also call Shemitah or Number 555. Shemitah is “Year of Release, Harvest, Opportunity, Travel, Journey, and Change.”



In the 1950

There are many remarkable events concerning the Jews in the year 1950

 

In Jewish history, 1950 is called as “Golden Age” among the Jews. And that was 70 years ago this 2019 till the coming of 2020. Golden Age is when there was a massive years of conversion and return according to Jonathan Sarna. Return means Aliyah in Hebrew referring to the “re- gathering” of the Jews. Re-gathering or Aliyah is the of opposite of diaspora or scattering (of the Jews). After WW II, Judaism thrived in America and the country awarded its Jews insider status. It was a response to wartime horrors and to the post-war threat from ‘godless” Communism Sarna added.

 

Because of the Hitler’s Holocaust, America became too religious that they added the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. And in 1956 it made the phrase, “In God We Trust.” Which is found on coins since the Civil War.

Claire Cox (1961) wrote, “Never has religion been so institutionalized, so conspicuous, so public.” Cox added that “new time religion” had taken shape in America after that gaining the so called “third-faith” alongside with Protestantism and Catholicism.



What happened in 1950?

Why am I asking what happened in 1950 among the Jews? It is because this year is 2019 but to the Jews, their calendar begun in October 2019 at year 2020, the 70th Year.

 

Shemitah is taken from Hebrew “sheviy” means “seventh,” the perfect and complete number when God rested in Genesis 2:1-3. Sheviy means shabbath or rest.

You can relax and God will do the rest. In the Year of Release, you reap even though you are not sowing. It is God who “makes the increase,” (1 Cor. 3:6)

 

The Jews begins their calendar at Rosh Hashana means “head of the year” or “a day of sounding,” also called “Diaspora” or “scattering” starting October 1 followed by Yom Kippur on October 9.

 

So what happened in 1950 in the history of the Jews?

 

January 16, 1950 Belgium, Netherland and Luxemborg recognize Israel. On April 4, 1950, the UN Council approve stature of Jerusalem. April 28, Britain recognizes Israel On July 5, the “Law of Return” is enacted. Law of Return means Aliyah in Jewish which is the opposite of “DIASPORA.” Aliyah also means “the act of going up” referring to the elevated mountain of Jerusalem where the temple is. On November 14, the first nationwide election was held right after her independence. May 19 “Operation Ezra and Nehemiah” was launched to bring the Iraqi Jews back to Israel.

 

When you see this happening, what comes to your mind? Well in Matthew 24:33, “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Why doors are mentioned there in the Second Coming?


So 2020 starting from 1950 is a Year of Release for Israel’s 70th Year? What can we anticipate from there?


How sure am I?

This coming year of May11, 2020, Israel will be celebrating its 70th Year of Independence since United Nations (UN) admitted her independence as its full member on May 11, 1950. Year 2020 minus 1949 is 70 Years.





Triple 5

555 is a triple of the number 5 indicating which amplifies its power. 555 that indicates that a change is coming.

Jesus Christ as 555? Kindly verify it more and have a thorough research of Christ as 555. Jesus Christ numeric code in Hebrew boils down to No. 5 according to the source.

 

555 has great biblical significance like:
⁃ 5 Books of Moses
⁃ 5 loaves of bread
⁃ 5 wise virgins
⁃ 5 wounds
⁃ 5 fingers hand and toes
⁃ 5 extremities
⁃ 5 human senses
⁃ 500 years completion when cross planted in the Philippines since Magellan introduced (Catholic) Christianity in the form of a cross. This anecdote remains popular to many historians, “Philippines is conquered not by the sword but by the cross.”

555 and the canon
The Bible is written in an extended period, and the first biblical writings originated some 1500 years before Christ. It is believed that the first book was ever written, which belongs to the canon of the Bible (the word “canon” is used in theology and signifies the books found in the Bible; “canon” means “law, measure).


Also, the Old Testament was completed some 400 years before Christ. Therefore, the Old Testament was written in the period from 1500 to 400 years before Christ.

The New Testament was created a hundred years after Christ. If we take this whole period, we will soon conclude that the Bible originated in a long period of 1600 years.

Now, when we know all of this, it is clear that this secret book could provide many answers on all interesting questions, but also on those questions that are existential.

These answers may lie in the numerical sequences that we found in the Bible, and today we are looking into number 555.

Triple 555 is feeding

We are now celebrating the 17th Year of Pastoral Thanksgiving in District 6 of Pangasinan. This occasion not merely to give thanks and praise to God, to renew our Christian bond with one another but this event also provides us Meal Fellowship as sort of feeding


A source says that triple number 5 signifies the tendency for giving what the people, or in a sense “feeding” not with just the spiritual food or Word of God in some sense but also literally feeding when food are being served.

Spiritual knowledge
The numbers 555 speak on hunger for spiritual knowledge.

This number “555” is dedicated to those who want to find answers to important life issues.


555 speaks of opportunity

Numbers 555 speaks of opportune time or opportunity. When someone knocks on your door, you don’t know whose the one knocking unless you opened the door. Jesus Christ said, “ Seek, and you will find it! Knock several times, and it will be opened to you “(Matthew 7: 7).

 

Is it a mere coincidence that a cat knocked on our kitchen door on the night of December 15, 2019? Why the same verses in Matthew 7:7-8 came in my mind on that very moment?


555 is discovery
A source said that number 5 in many numerologies and beliefs of all kinds is connected with discovery and courage to “knock on some doors”, even if we are not sure what it behind them.


So it is said numeral 5 is simply half-ten as in the two records of the ten commandments of Moses, or like your two hands or feet -everything that we have in life, as a creational force is divided into five, and as such it should be seen as energies that are able to change and create good. (Recall the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue, thus five on each foot; every personal division could be seen through fives.)



Knocking and the feeding

I didn’t know that “knocking on the door” and “feeding” in the Jewish culture has something to do with Shemitah or 555 not until to this very hour of our 17th District 6th Pastors’ Thanksgiving. Was it mere coincidence?

 

2020 is coming! Will it be a “knocking opportunity, discovery and harvest,” a shemitah year of release? Let us see then….

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