Crossroad

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Published: Wednesday, 18 December 2019 00:57
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Crossroad

By Augusto A. Kho

CLSF – Rosales; Rosales, Pangasinan

December 15, 2019 (Sunday); 10:31 a.m.

Updated : December 18, 2019 (Wed); 1:16am

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What shall we do when we reach the crossroad of our lives?

 

It is all the matters!

 

Jeremiah 6:16,

“This is what the lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’

 

 

Chronological Events

If you’re taking down notes for the past Sunday Preaching you will find out the following which I have shared to you that took place according to chronological events:

 

  • December 1, 2019. “Shemita: Breaking down.”

Remember my preaching last December 1 when I shared to you how a young man suddenly broke down then he said, “I understand this is a pruning season.”

 

  • December 8, 2019, the word “ 5 5 5 “

In the area of sowing and reaping, I said that “You cannot give what you have not received.” It is a story about numbers until what was left was “555” with other 5 zeroes resulting to 555,000.00 pesos left.”555” is “Shemita, a year of release”

 

My personal BDO bank account for many, many years always bears a saving deposit of merely maintaining balance. Two years ago, I asked the Lord, “From this time on, whether I own the bank savings or not, I will declare that my personal BDO bank account will always have a maintaining balance of P100,000.00 every month.” And it is made so. As of today, 15th December, 2019 that account has P1,004,135.95.

 

  • And now, December 15, I share this entitled, “ Crossroads “

Why crossroads? Because it is what I received from my quiet time as well that we are approaching a transition in life when the year 2019 ends. We are also going through a new transition of yet another year.

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Year 2020

What is stored for us for this year 2020?

 

It is the “shemitah, the year of release” according to Hebraic culture. What divine guidance shall we expect to receive from the Lord? What discernment that we need as to get the right tract of yet another journey of life?

 

Numeric code

Came December 10, 2019, Tuesday at past seven in the morning when someone called me up on my cell phone which is not saved in my phone book bearing a numeric code of 0017322584555

And that was a call from USA asking me if I could pick him up at NAIA 3 this coming 19th December, 2019.

 

Two hours later, I reported to the office in Paranaque and shared to two managers this unexpected phone number I received this morning bearing a numeric code of 0017322584555 which is “shemitah.” Both exclaimed and said, “Tito our cell phone numbers contained the same numeric code of 555.” Then they showed their numbers

  • 09175556104 @ Berne’s phone

  • 09175552205 @ Jimmy’s phone

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I am not avid fan of Numerology. But numeric code can be found anyone just like on blood pressure, blood count; our DNA, distances and spaces (km or miles), chronological age and many more. Biblically, why there is a Book of Numbers in the Old Testament? Why God ordained days, weeks, months and years and He ordained Sabbath on the seventh day? (Genesis 1:14; 2:1-3). Why there is a “sixth seal” in Revelation 6:12 or the “ mark of the beast, “ the “666” in Revelation 13:18? Why God whom we call “Jevovah-Nissi,” is God our Banner is very much fond of signs, insignia or symbols?

 

Labelling

On December 13, 2019, Friday, our Viber group chat reads this way:

“@ Verga pls take the lead sa pag expedite nun tape natin..just spoke with 5j, nahirapan rw tlga ang mga loaders na nagbubuild up ng cargo..

@ Drine, yng pinagusapan natin regarding sa pag lagay ng label, may natatanggal pa rn rw..”

 

How are we going to label a person? For sure everyone has a distinct character, values and behaviour that we could brand him the way he is.


The next day, December 14, 2019 a day after it dawned on me the word “labelling” the same word appeared again but this time in my daily devotion that read in Jeremiah 6:30,

 

“ I will label them ‘Rejected Silver,’ for I, the lord, am discarding them.”

 

So God gives labelling to a person or a nation as his or her distinguishing mark for he or she could easily be remembered. For His stiff-necked chosen people, Israel He branded them as “rejected silver.”

 

Label according to Webster means “mark, tag or ticket. In fact, according to Consumer Act Law in the Philippines, all commodity product must be labelled clearly containing its brand name, production date, expiry date and SRP (suggested retail price) especially if it is food products.

Labelling a person sometimes based on what we see from the outside just like this young, good-looking pilot sporting branded shoes, shirt and pants whom shall I call Mr. V____ You can mistakenly thought he is a showbiz personality but in real like he got plenty of political connections naming names like this senator or that senators or the present administration cabinet member. If not, this Mr. M______ who is super-gentle who talked so graciously warm and harmless who happened to be a board director and a manager. And of course, this foreign-businessman that I shall call Mr. A______ who knows almost everything talking his good connections in the business world and aviation. And Also this scion’s son who came from a prominent family of Filipino artists whom I will call Mr. B_______.

The photo below are the people I personally met whom I branded or labelled as Mr. V_____, Mr. M _______, Mr. B_______ and Mr. A________ (VMBA). The first one, I met at least twice but the rest of these personalities, I met several times.


From the outside, they are well-cultured, very much educated, professionals in several ways but I don’t know, deep down in my spirit I don’t agree what they say that somehow contradict their actions very often. I was branded as a “pastor who is judgmental and pessimist in several occasions” and I feel bad about it.



In fact, the foreign-businessman who seemed to be all-knowing was the one who said, “The value of the position is the person” where we were in Manila Pen Hotel. And I quoted that back to him and said, “Have you not said that the value of the person is the position and where are you now when you are defrauding others with money and you lie?” that made other people who were with us got caught unaware of my blatant rebuke to that guy.




Rejected Silver

Should the Lord will label them all as “rejected silver” as what prophet Jeremiah said. And what silver stands for?

 

Silver is resistant to inflation and Zechariah 11 recorded the throwing of 30 pieces of silver to the Potter in the Temple. Then nearly 600 years later, Judas betrayed Jesus Christ to the hands of the religious group, Pharisees as well to the Roman government in exchange of 30 pieces of silver and bought the Potter’s Field (Matthew 27:9-10).


Silver which is more gray and non-shiny is a symbol of mourning, repentance and destruction. No wonder that Jeremiah is called the “mourning or weeping prophet.”

 

Silver is sleekly modern, graceful, sophisticated this displaying elegance. It is a precious metal and like gold it is often symbolizes riches and wealth. Do you remember what Peter said to the lame man at the temple seeking for alms, “Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk?” (Acts 3:6).

 

 

To be honest, I love using money to detect as person’s character. Jeremiah is an intuitive prophet who was given a high degree of spiritual discernment. Like a detector, discerning spirit can be a gift from God (1 Cor. 12:10).

 

 

The call

We have the call to be discerning as man and woman of God. While judgmental and discriminatory are taboo to God (Matthew 7:1) yet Jesus warned us that we should be as “wise as serpent yet harmless as doves” because they are many wolves out there (Matt. 10:16).

 

Like Jeremiah, we should be like tester of metal, tester of people, tester of situations and circumstances so we could not fall on the devil’s trap whose main purpose is to “steal, to kill and to destroy,” (John 10:10a)



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On May 31, 2019, while at Manila Pen Hotel in Makati with a business meeting with Mr. A _____ and he mentioned about this words that say “The value of the position is the person.” And he is referring to a person’s integrity that speaks of his honourable position. And this one business group seem to have such a high regard on this man because he talked with much charisma and profound knowledge in his business field. But how sure are we on branding them the way we see them from the outside?

But how shall I label them from the eye of the Scriptures and godly principles? Look what God to Jeremiah:



The tester

As I told earlier that omeone told me, “You’re a pastor, how could you be that pessimist and judgmental?” And he was referring the way I assessed these professionals and businessmen.

 

On December 14, 2019 (Saturday) at 7:11 a,.m. ,my Quiet Time reads in Jeremiah 6:27 that says, “Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals, that you may determine the quality of my people.”

Like Jeremiah we should be like him as a “tester.”



Tester defined

The word “tester” in New Living Translation (NLT) in Hebrew “bachon” reads as “tower” in King James Version (KJV). Tester means “inspector” In the manufacturing industry, we as children of God must be like “quality controller.” We should know how to classify people according to their rank, degree or order. Are they from the den of thieves?

 

Bachon or tester also means “valuer of metals.” Jeremiah knows to equate and evaluate a king or particular situation. How about us?

 

Tester as an evaluator is in fact, an assessor. It derived from the root word “bachan” i.e. “ examiner ( tester, prover of gold, person, the heart and man of God).”

 

 

Branding

While top management with the rank of operation managers, sales managers and so forth are so trusting meanwhile I always have the apprehension and my spirit doesn’t agree with to these VMBA.

 

A thorough process must be applied for the silver to have a market value. This process is called distillation and refining. Distillation is to remove theh

 

Because it is transition. Because of the number 70 is the number of life (Psalm 90:10). According to Jewish Rabbi Dovid Rosenberg, 70 years is viewed a very significant Jewish writings that at 70 one reaches the age of “fullness (of years)”. The Torah lists 70 nations which descended from Noah after the Flood (Genesis 10). Jacob’s family numbered 70 souls when it first descent to Egypt (Gen. 46:27)The Torah further equates these two totals (Deut. 32:8_) stating that God established the nations of the world according to number of Israel. Seventy thus represents a totality. There were 70 elders of Moses (Exodus 24:1)l; the Sanhedrin (high court) consist of 70 judges. 70 represent completeness.

 

The Jubilee (Yiddish) is the end of the seven year cycles of shmita (Sabbatical years) and according to Biblical regulations it hjad a pecial impact on the ownership of the manageland of the Land in Israel. Leviticus say, shmitqa year is when the Hebrew slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts will be cancelled and the mercies of God will be manifested.

 

According to Rabbinic literature it was the 49th year (the last seven sabbatical cycles, referred to as the Sabbath’s Sabbath) or whether the following (50th year). The Jubilee or “Year of Release” which will take effect on 2020 from the time of the exiles of tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh (about 600 BCE).

 

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What shall we do when we reach the crossroad of 2020 of our lives?

It is all the matters!

Yes! Christ is all that matters in this crossroads.

 

 

NOTES:

 

Way (KJV) Hebrew “derek”

  • way, road, distance, journey, manner

  • Path, direction, habit, course of life (figuratively: moral character)

  • A trodden road

  • passenger

  • highway

 

Crossroads in Hebrew “derek”

“derek”

  • Way

  • Road

  • Distance

  • Journey

  • Manner

  • Direction

  • Course of life

 

“Old paths” in Hebrew “Nathiyb” means “a trodden with the feet, track, traveller.”