Day 18 and 19

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to the Jordan River a little bit north of were it goes into the Dead Sea. The Jordan River of today is smaller than it would have been when the Israelites crossed it. Now there is a dam near the Sea of Galilee that restricts the water flow and when the Israelites would have crossed it on their way to Jericho right around the time of the Passover it would have been at its flood stage, which could have been up to a mile wide. But even still, it is not like the Mississippi River or anything like that. This area was just reopened up to the public in the last few months, since the Jordan River is the dividing line between Israel and Jordan, and they don't always have the greatest of relationships to say the least.

Today (Friday) we woke up early and worked on an archaeology dig. It is the possible location of Ai (mentioned in Joshua 7, and a few other places). TJ and I were part of a group that worked in a section by the wall. No one has excavated in that spot before, and there should be a continuation of the city wall below the ground, which is exciting. That being said, it was mostly grunt work of moving stones. We did find pottery pieces, a circular flint stone (made for sling shots), and part of a grain grinding stone. The pictures below is the before picture, after picture, and one of 2 piles of stones we made.

Day 17

It is Thursday morning. I'm typing outside looking at the Sea of Galilee. It is our last day in this area. Wednesday we were in northern Israel. The landscape is very different from south or west Israel. They grow bananas, cherries, apples, avocados, and other things up here. We even stopped at a road side stand to purchase freshly picked cherries. To me it looks like the promised land.

We walked down to waterfalls near Caesarea Philippi, which is were Peter says Jesus is Christ for the first time (Acts 16:13-20). Since this waterfall is near the "land of Jordan and of Hermon", the psalmist may have been thinking of this location when writing Psalm 42. "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?"

Day 16

Today we took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, which is approximately 7 miles across and 12 miles long. There are mountains almost all the way around the Sea. It was a fairly calm day with just a little bit of breeze.

We stood on the hillside where Jesus gave the sermon on the mount, and read aloud Matthew chapter 5 to chapter 7. It was fun to picture a “great crowd” there listening to Jesus. Today it was very hot out (91 degrees, sunny and humid) and I found it hard to focus on reading of the passage the whole time. I wondered if the crowd in Jesus’s day was faced with the same difficulty. Whatever tries to distract us from Jesus, Jesus is still deserves our whole attention.

Day 15

Today has been very long. We've done a lot of driving and a lot of walking. Unfortunately we're getting to the point of the trip where everything is beginning to look alike. Yesterday we were at the beach on the Mediterranean, two days ago we were in Jerusalem where there it was urban and seemed to have no grass, three days ago we were in the desert of the Wilderness of Zin and Paran and today we are in the lush fields of the Jezreel Valley. The landscape has been incredibly diverse, yet this morning we were walking through a 2000 year old ruin and it felt like we've seen the same thing in previous days. I think it's because of the amount of information we're being given and we don't have enough time to process it. Yet, this afternoon it all changed. We reached Galilee and Capernaum. We hiked down the side of a cliff that overlooked the Sea of Galilee and all sorts of stories began to come alive. The cliff that was went down had ladder rungs and cables during the really "dangerous" parts to help give you a grip on the mountainside so we were safe enough. The Mountain that we climbed down was 590 feet above sea level and the Sea of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level. We didn't hike all the way down to the Sea of Galilee, but I bet we were close to 1000 feet when we finished.

We were really excited to be staying at a super nice resort, where they fed us grilled/barbecued chicken, and chicken with sauteed onions. After hiking down the mountain it was even nicer to eat well and then jump into the Sea of Galilee. It was so refreshing and satisfying. About halfway through the day, we went to the probable cliff that Jesus was brought in Nazareth after he read the Isaiah passage documented in Luke 4. The passage speaks about how the Messiah would come healing the blind and proclaiming the good news to the poor. Jesus then told the people of his childhood home that he was the one Isaiah was writing about. Then Jesus supposed that they would get him to perform his "magic tricks" on the people of Nazareth, since he had been doing these things in Capernaum and not his boyhood home of Nazareth. Jesus told them that he doesn't heal on command and that he wasn't going to these things in his hometown, probably because they were trying to manipulate his will. They brought him to the brow of a hill so they could throw him down the side of it. Jesus obviously escaped, but it presents an interesting dilemma in our lives. How many times do we try to manipulate God. I remember as a kid praying for God to make me incredibly wealthy and telling him I'd do anything if he helped my family win the lotto...among other things. I didn't know God at all then. I still don't know him completely, but I do know that I shouldn't be trying to manipulate God. The people of Nazareth tried to manipulate Jesus. They tried to get him to do his "tricks" without understanding him at all. Today, we challenge you to pray that God would reveal His will to you instead of you trying to force God's will onto your own plans.

Day 14

This is Sunday's post since we didn't have good internet at our last hotel.---- There was a Jewish holiday this weekend, which caused a lot of shops to be closed. It made souvenir shopping a little harder, but it did give us great traffic for yesterday. Sunday we went to Caesarea, another city that Herod the Great built. As crazy as Herod the Great was at the end of his life (killing his wives, killing his sons, and killing the babies in Bethlehem), he had “great” building plans and administrative skills to carry them out. In Caesarea, not only did he build a Roman city complete with a theater, hippodrome, and a palace, he also built a man-made harbor. The coast of Israel is very straight which makes shipping difficult. Some in Caesarea, he made a place that shipping vessels could safely dock. The harbor last for many years, but eventually fell apart due to earthquakes and rough seas, but you still can see the remains of it today. Caesarea is were Herod Agrippia I (Herod the Great’s grandson) killed James the brother of John and imprisoned Peter (Acts 12). Paul was also imprisoned in Caesarea for 2 years (Acts23:23 to Acts 27:2).

We went farther north to Mt Carmel which is actual a mountain range and not just a single mountain. Mt Carmel is mentioned a few times in passing in the Bible, typically referring to the fact it is very lush and fruitful. The main story that mentions Mt Carmel is 1 Kings 18 when Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a competition to see whose god is real. God through Elijah wins in spectacular fashion. It is a great story. Being there, you can see the story come to life. We were on top of one of the mounts of Mt Carmel. We could see the river of the Kishon Valley (vs 40) on the west and the Mediterranean Sea (vs 43-44) on the east. We stayed in Nazareth Sunday night (where Jesus grew up). In the breakfast buffet, they had spaghetti, I opted for cereal instead.

Day 12

We started off bright and early yesterday (Friday) at 5:00 am to climb up to top of Masada. Masada is a fortress on top of a hill/mountain next to the Dead Sea. Herod the Great is the one who built it up to a large structure during the time of Jesus, but there is some speculation that it could have been the “stronghold” where David hid from Saul in 1 Samuel 22:4-5. We were trying to make it up to the top by sunrise but we didn’t quite make it. It was still a beautiful view just below the top of Masada. Herod the Great in his typical fashion made it very grand. The front top of the mountain was carved out for one of his many palaces. He had a bathhouse and supplies to last years in preparation for a siege. The siege never came in Herod’s life time. But the Jews used Masada during the Jewish Revolt in 73 AD, and the Romans were able to capture it at that time. From Masada, we went north along the Dead Sea to the springs of En Gedi. This is the only fresh water source on west side of the Dead Sea. It has multiple waterfalls and all around it is desert mountains. En Gedi is mentioned in 1 Sam 23:29 and 1 Sam 24 talking about David hiding from Saul. It is a great place to hide because of the fresh water source and the many caves in the desert mountains. Scholars also think is inspiration for Psalm 57 and 142.

From En Gedi went across the street to float in the Dead Sea. What they say is true, you don’t have to swim. You can just float. The only effort you have to make is try to stay right side up, so you don’t roll over and dunk your face in the very strong salt water. We walked down the beach and found some mud to put on our skin (it’s supposed to be good since it is rich in minerals). The rocks on the edge of the beach had a thick layer of salt stuck to them. It reminded me of ice forming on the rocks on the edge of Lake Michigan.

We visited the Qumran ruins, which is where they found the Dead Sea scrolls, which is a mix of Biblical and non-Biblical writings. These scrolls were amazing preserved for hundreds of years in part because of the low humidity around the Dead Sea. One thing that makes the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls so important is, before they were found the oldest Biblical manuscripts we had were from 1200 AD and now we have them from as far back as 250 BC. This allows scholars to do textural criticism and what they found was an AMAZING preservation of the text. The Old Testament texts from the time of Jesus matched the ones from 2000 years later with only few small differences here and there. God is watching over his Word, and we can trust it to be true! Today we are back in Jerusalem for our free day (after the morning quiz). Basically we went souvenir shopping and rested. My arm is all healed from the sea urchins. :) Next week we are off to Galilee!

Day 11

Today was an easy day, hardly any walking. Unfortunately we got off to a bad start. We stayed right on the Reed (aka Red) Sea last night on the bay of Aquaba in the city of Eilat. The first scheduled activity was to snorkel there. They had a beautiful coral reef with tropical fish. We really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was perfect, it was warm with slightly cool but incredibly clear water. Another lady from our group was going in at the same time, and she kind of freaked out so TJ helped her get to the next dock. She was wearing a life jacket, but was not a very good swimmer and panicked every time a wave came. It was quite windy so the waves were splashing in her face. She couldn’t go back since it was against the current. Thankfully TJ survived and brought her to safety, even though she didn't make it easy on him. Heidi was left by herself, floating along and enjoying the scenery. There were plenty of non-stinging jelly fish and tropical bright blue/yellow fish, and like 200 little white fish in a school. The choral reef was also quite beautiful also. Heidi was taking her time and stopped to rest on some of the buoys they have available to allow you to take a break from kicking. Halfway to the exit dock, Heidi noticed that her arm hurt, and thought she had scratched it on the buoy. She stopped to look at it, but she didn't see anything on her arm. By the time she got out it though, it felt like it was on fire. She rinsed it off and noticed that it started to welt up. After waiting for TJ to get out (leading one stray sheep down the coastline of the red sea took a jolly good time, parting the sea and walking on dry ground would have made it quicker and easier). After we figured we were lied to and believed it to be a jelly fish sting we went to the snorkel instructor there. They told us that it was toxin from sea urchins that attached itself to those buoys. One of the employees applied vinegar to Heidi's stings and then aloe, which soothed it. As of right now, it still burns, though to a lesser degree. It's been a fun time though.

After our fun at the Red Sea, we went to a life sized model of the Tabernacle, and our guide explained how the Israelites moved it and function of the Tabernacle. For me, it gave me more of an appreciation for God’s holiness and how He was faithful to Israel.

We went to a "zoo" that contained native Israeli animals. It was more like a small wild life preserve. We saw venomous snakes, hyenas, and other animals that the Israelites would have had to deal with while wandering in the wilderness.

Here is a picture of a couple of porcupines huddled up together. The bobcats, wolves, and leopards were cool too. Tomorrow we get to swim in the dead sea. We're pretty excited about that! We'll write more soon.

Day 10

Wow, I can't believe its been 10 days since we've been here! We went to McDonald's for lunch today, which doesn't quite taste the same as it does in the states (but we knew that already from our trip to Europe). Our lunch discussion was about what our favorite part of the trip was so for. There has been so much in the past 10 days that we really had a difficult time deciding. What we did all agree upon was that we have a new dimension as we read Scripture. It's become 3D. Heidi and I were reading Judges 20 yesterday, and we knew all the cities that were mentioned there, and we could describe the geography to each other. It has been amazing. Today was very surprising as well. Israel has such a variety of terrain it is crazy. We've gone from cities, to plush valleys, to forests, hills, to sand dunes, to desert.

We are currently 2 miles away from the Egyptian border and probably even closer to the Jordan border, in the Sinai Peninsula. Our favorite part about today was wandering in the Wilderness of Paran, like the Israelites did. The bus dropped us off in this hilly desert terrain and we were ordered to take no water, no food, just Deuteronomy 8. Our similarities to the wandering Israelites stopped there, since we only spent 40 minutes in the desert while they spent 40 years. Deuteronomy 8 is a passage speaking about how the Israelites were not to forget God when He brought them into the promised land, but instead were reminded to continually place there trust in God. The Israelites were in a transition period. They had wandered in the wilderness of Paran for 40 years and now God was telling them to go take the land that he had promised them. The Israelites were to remember that God had provided for them while they were wandering, and now that they were entering a fertile land, they were to remember God even more. This brings me to our life. Heidi and I are in a transition. I am mostly finished with school and beginning to look towards the future. We don't know how God is going to use us, where He is leading us, or when it will take shape. What we do know is that God has been faithful to us in the past and He deserves to be praised. How much more will He be deserving of praise when we are taken out of this figurative wilderness and brought into a new land! What's great for us is that we know that even if our future is rough and God leads us into even more wilderness, God is still faithful and God is still deserving of praise. Where are you at in your life? Are you in the wilderness or in the fertile land? Are you properly praising God regardless of your circumstances? Are you praising God because of who He is and not because of what your life situation consists of? Regardless of your circumstances, God is in control, even when your life might be consisting of testings and trials. Praise God, for He is good and He is faithful.

Day 9

We heard this hostel was going to be a bit sketchy, but we’ve had great food, an internet connection. On the downside, we have two single beds and a bathroom that I can stand in the center of the room and touch all four walls at the same time (and I can't even stretch my arms out fully to do it). It sort of reminds me of my room growing up! Today was a busy and hot day. We are on the south west part of Israel. Tonight we are staying in Be’er Sheva “well of the oath”, which is the fourth largest city in Israel. It is where Abraham dug a well in Genesis 21:22-34 when Abraham made a treaty with Abimelech to deal honestly with each other. Unfortunately when we went to go look at the well tonight, they were building a visitor center over the top of it so it was all closed.

We went to an amphitheater, where some of the gladiators fought during the Roman era, around the second century. The town itself has a Greek name (Eleutheropolis) as well as a Hebrew name, but the Hebrew name is Bet Givran or land of the strong men (probably named after the gladiator games in the city). The amphitheater was right next to a gas station restaurant, and didn’t really have any significance, but it was reconstructed and did look pretty cool. We also stopped off at an awesome chalk cave that was dug out by hand for building materials about 700 years ago. One of the Rambo movies had a scene filmed there. It was massive. The chalk and limestone is fairly soft, so for centuries people have been carving out cave shelters for protection in these regions. David and his mighty men probably stayed in smaller caves near these areas in Adullum and Keilah.

Our favorite part was standing in Azekah on a hill in the Elah Valley. We were looking out at Ephes Dammim and Succoh. I had the privilege of reading aloud the entire David and Goliath account from 1 Samuel 17. The story really came alive as we were staring at the valley of the battle and reading the David and Goliath account. We picked up some smooth stones from the stream that runs through that area, just like David (the stream only has water running through it in the winter though, because winter is the rainy season in that region). It is great that nearly everybody has heard the David and Goliath story, since in 1 Samuel 17:46-47 is an exclamation from David that the outcome of the battle will proclaim that the God of Israel is alive and well. Since Goliath was continually mocking the Israelites and their God and then some non-military trained boy came out with a sling and five stones (which for the record, was a great weapon for mid-range fighting – whereas Goliath was using weapons for close-range combat). All throughout this story, David’s confidence was not in his stuff or weaponry. It was not in his abilities. It was not in his experience. Sure, David had potential, but his confidence was in his faith in God. The Philistines wanted to destroy the people of Israel and take over their land, but David knew that God made a promise to Israel through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob… (among others), that Israel would be blessed and through them many nations would be blessed. David had faith that God would continue that promise through him (since he was anointed by Samuel two chapters before and promised to be the king of Israel). For David, the struggle was big, but God is bigger. What are the struggles in your life? Are the things you’re fighting for in life aligned with God’s desires? For David, he knew God’s plans, the plans to prosper the people of Israel and bless other nations through them. David knew that God was with him in battle because David knew God’s promises and he stood up for God’s purposes. If you know God’s promises for your life and stand up for God’s purposes as you deal with the big struggles in life then you will have victory amidst the big struggles. When this happens, just like in David’s case, God’s name is praised throughout the land.

Here is a picture of us on Azekah looking over the Elah Valley. Just to the right of our heads was probably the spot that David took out Goliath.

Day 8

Today we had a partial free day. It started off with a quiz, since TJ is taking this class for credit. I was going to take it also just for fun, but they didn’t have enough copies of the quiz. The quiz was rather brutal. There are plenty of names, locations, and other things they are trying to teach us in a short amount of time. After the quiz, we went to a museum and wandered the city of Jerusalem. Since there is not a whole lot to say about today, I’m going to go back and talk about day 3 again, since we left out a part from that day. Wednesday we went to “City of David” which is Jerusalem in David’s time that is actually located outside of current city walls from 1500AD. There we walked through Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It is a tunnel that Hezekiah built to divert the water from a spring outside the city walls to bring in to the city. This gives Jerusalem a supply of fresh water even when they were under siege from Assyria. The Lord delivered Jerusalem did not fall in the siege. This tunnel is referenced in 2 Chronicles 32:1-8 and 2 Kings 20:20. The tunnel was a little wider than me and amount my height the whole way through which is about 1/3 of a mile long. Water still runs through the tunnel at knee height. Tomorrow night we are leaving for a different hotel that may not have internet, so we don’t know when we will be able to post next.

Day 7

Yesterday we were south of Jerusalem. We went to Herodium, a fortress palace of Herod the Great (he had a few palaces), and Hebron the traditional burial site of Abraham/Sarah, Isaac/Rebekah, and Jacob/Leah. We couldn’t see the Isaac/Rebekah side because that is controlled by the Muslims. They split the site so part of the building is controlled by the Jews and part by the Muslims. It is a very interesting dynamic. I picked up a Jewish pamphlet, which had some interesting Jewish mysticism in it, which said that Eve also was buried there, and it was the location of the Garden of Eden. I didn’t read that in my Bible. It made me laugh. We also went to Bethlehem, and now I’m going to ruin all the traditional Christmas plays. Stop reading now if you want to preserve your traditional views. In Luke 2:6, it says “while they were there”, which means Mary probably didn’t give birth the night they arrived in Bethlehem. Josephs’ whole family was from Bethlehem which means they probably weren’t alone while traveling. And when they got to Bethlehem they would have had family there. The word “inn” in verse 7 can also be translated “guest room” (it’s the same word that is found in “the upper room” discourse of Jesus of the last supper…which nobody translates inn). The stable would have been the warmest room/area of the house and the area that Joseph and Mary would have stayed in if the guest room(s) were already full which is way Jesus was laid in a manager. Now that your memories of cold and lonely baby Jesus are ruined, I’ll let you know that I still bought a nativity set (wise men included, even though they didn’t come until later). I did NOT buy the enormous one in the picture.

Day 6

We thought yesterday was long. Today started at leaving the hotel at 8:00am and getting back a little past 8:00pm. We are consistently walking about 4 to 6 miles a day. We saw a TON of sites today, starting in the desert area. This is a localized desert only 8 miles wide, and you can hardly believe you are in the same country. This is the area that David would have tended his sheep, and there are still shepherds there today, though I saw more goats than sheep.

We went to the New Testament Jericho, where we saw the remains of Herod the Great’s palace which had pools and other water features which was quite extravagant considering that is basically on the edge of the desert. We then went north a little bit to the Old Testament Jericho, which was uninhabited in the time of Jesus. There is archeological evidence that support destruction as described in the Bible through Joshua. The walls appear to be collapsed on themselves, covered by a layer of soot, and containers full of grain were burned also. This supports that the walls falling down by God instead of some mechanical force; that Joshua burned the city; and they didn’t take any of the spoils of battle that soldiers normally would in a conquest, but God had told them not to in Jericho. We saw the geography that is the background to the Saul/David story, including the cliff that Jonathan would have climbed to attack the Philistines in 1 Samuel 14:1-14. We headed west towards the Mediterranean Sea, which we saw from a great distance away, at the location of Gezer. At Gezer, there are remains from city gates from the days of Solomon. This city is mentioned in 1 Kings 9: 15-19 where it says the Gezer (formally a Canaanite city) was destroyed by Egypt as a gift to Solomon, and Solomon was rebuilding it. I think what struck me the most today was a video we watched before we went to the Old Testament Jericho. It was from a non-Biblical perspective, and it explained why Jericho could NOT be the Jericho from the Bible, and the Biblical Jericho story was a myth. Our guide explained a lot of why we think it really is Jericho and why this other archeologists concluded it wasn’t, partly because that archeology is not an exact science and that there are presuppositions that people start with that cloud people’s reasoning. It convicted me of the fact, that all of us, need to find out the facts for ourselves, and not blindly believing what people tell us. To be more like the Jews of Berea, talked about in Acts 17: 11 “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

Day 5

This will be a short blog post. We had an extra session tonight about the geography of Benjamin (just north and east of Jerusalem). Today was amazing. We went to a 1st century Christian synagogue that quite possibly was the site of the "Upper Room". Among other things, we went to an archaeological excavation just outside of the temple mount, in the ruins of what is now called "Robinson Arch" an enormous staircase that was an entrance to the Courtyard of the Gentiles and read Matthew 23-24, Jesus' woes against the Pharisees and Jesus prophesying the destruction of the Temple. This passage took on a completely new meaning standing next to stones larger than 4 foot wide 3 foot high, that left massive impressions on the ground next to the temple mount.

This is what it used to look like, this stairway was an engineering marvel that led up to the court of the Gentiles and then in to the temple.

This is what it looks like now. You can see the smaller stones in the wall...these are added on after the temple was destroyed in around 70AD.

Something else that we saw were some Mikveh or ceremonial cleansing baths. In this picture, you can see a separation.

On one side, you would go in unclean because of sin or because you have been defiled through touching something unclean. Before you could be a part of the community or offer your sacrifice it was necessary to go through this ceremonial cleansing. This was particularly true for priests, although by the time of Jesus, the priests became so wealthy that they had their own personal Mikveh in their homes. Anytime that a Jewish person would sin or even accidentally come into contact with something that was unclean, they were required to go through this washing. How burdensome this must have been. When Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." His way was truly a way that was less burdensome. Jesus' cleansing was once for all. Are you ignoring the grace that Jesus has available for you? Are you placing more burdens on yourself than Jesus intended? Or, are you still separated from God and not cleansed by the blood of Christ and still trying to make yourself right with God? When you trust in Jesus as the Savior, who paid the penalty for your sins once and for all, then and only then will your life be filled with hope and joy. How gracious is our God.

Day 4

Today we went to the temple mount and the Mount of Olives. I learned a lot of history not related to the Bible that gave me background into the current state of these historical sites. The temple mount is the area where the temple was in the time of Jesus, but when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, it was basically flattened. After that, it was essentially vacant for 640 years, at which point the Muslims believed Muhammad ascended into heaven at the exact location where the Holy of Holies location of the temple was. So the Muslims built what is called “The Dome of the Rock” over that location. So now this site is considered holy by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, which obviously causes conflict. Anyway, we were allowed into the temple mount area (but not the Dome of the Rock). The temple mount is huge. We were not allowed to take Bibles in, and we had to be dressed modestly (no knees showing, no bare shoulders).

There were a lot of Israeli soldiers around, with machines guns, but they are everywhere in the rest of Jerusalem anyway. We have even seen soldiers on motorcycles with machine guns, which doesn’t seem that safe. From the Mount of Olives, we saw the location of Bethany, where Lazarus was raised from the dead. We can’t go into that area, because today it is the West Bank and not safe to visit. From there we went to the areas that Jesus would have been Palm Sunday/Passion Week. We walked down the general vicinity where Jesus would have ridden the donkey for the triumphal entry, and where he shed tears for Jerusalem (which happened on the Mount of Olives because you had an excellent view of Jerusalem.

We also went to the Garden of Gethsemane (probably not the EXACT location but the general location). Gethsemane is where Jesus was praying and was arrested. This is recorded, in varying details in Matthew 26:47-56, Mark 14:32-52, Luke 22:39-53, and John 18: 1-11. In Luke 22:39 Luke says, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives…”. Jesus specifically left the busyness of the city of Jerusalem and secluded himself in a garden to pray to God “as usual”. I think this is something that I need see in my life as I imitate Jesus more, separating myself for the purpose of prayer on a regular basis. Is this something that you need in your life also? Will you take some time today to get away and pray.

Day 3

Today (among other things) we walked around the current city walls of Jerusalem. When we came to the eastern side of Jerusalem, across from the Mount of Olives, we saw that the main gate to enter directly to the temple (The Golden Gate) had been blocked up. There was no other entrance from the Mount of Olives to go directly to the temple. Now this doesn't seem that problematic, because there are seven other gates entering the city. Yet, when you read Zechariah 14:3-5, we read that the Lord will be standing on the Mount of Olives. In verse 5 it tells us that the LORD will come and all the holy ones with Him. Both Jewish and Christian tradition have the Messiah entering through the Golden Gate and going to the temple. So how does the LORD enter the temple when the gate has been blocked? In fact, the reason why this is blocked is because the eastern side of the temple is the Muslim quarter. They blocked the gate because of the prophecy found in Zechariah 14. This was an attempt at a psychological blow to the Christians for the return of Jesus and the Jews with the entrance of the Messiah from the Mount of Olives. This though is ineffective, because in verse 4 of this chapter, we read that at the time of the LORD's coming, the Mount of Olives will be split in two by an enormous earthquake. I believe that this will make way for the Golden Gate to be re-opened and give Jesus a clear path to the Temple Mount.

There are so many things that keep us from Jesus. There are barriers that separate us from our worship of Christ. What are some of those things in your life right now? Sometimes it is a deliberate sabotage by our enemies keeping us from worshiping God, other times it is our own barriers. Yet, have confidence that our LORD does not deal in human calculations. While we might be thinking from a human perspective, Jesus works from a divine perspective. Jesus can break down barriers in your life. P.S. These two pictures are me standing in front of this filled in gate and Heidi and I standing in front of the Mount of Olives.

Day 2

Day 1 of Touring, Tuesday May 15th This morning we had breakfast at our hotel, which the only meat was all beef hot dogs, since most other breakfast meats are from pigs (non-kosher). We are staying in Jerusalem all week using it as a jumping off point for touring Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. First we went to a few high points to get a layout of the city and got the "big picture" of the history of Jerusalem. We went to the location of the Pool of Bethesda and read John 5:1-17 -look it up :) We still needed to use your imagination at the site since the conquering people built over old buildings. At the Pool of Bethesda, there were Byzantine ruins on top of the un-excavated sections of the Pools, but it was still great to see. Reading the story in John 5, it still shocks me on how ungrateful the invalid man was to Jesus. He seems sarcastic or bitter when answering Jesus’s question and then after he was healed, he tattled on Jesus to the Jews. How do you and I react to blessings from God? Side note: Also at that location was a church that had excellent acoustics. We learned it is best to sing deep and slow to enjoy the echo. We visited the church of the Holy Sepulcre, which is the probable location of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial. I hadn’t really thought about the fact the crucifixion and the burial place would be fairly close together but they theoretically would have been since they would have had a lot of time to bury Jesus. A church was built over the site which had all lot of relics, so I didn’t feel a connection to the site personally but it was interesting to learn about and just be in that location. According to my handy dandy pedometer, we walked about 6 miles today. So between that and the lingering jet lag, I think I’m going to sleep superb tonight. -HeidiPS Unfortunately, we are taking most of our pictures with our camera, not our ipod, and we forgot our camera cord, so there isn't a whole not of pictures to post yet. We'll try to do better tomorrow. The picture that is posted is of the city wall showing Jaffa Gate that goes around old Jerusalem. The wall was built in 1540 AD.

Israel - Day 1

We made our flight to Philadelphia with no problems. Since we have a few hours in Philadelphia before we jump on our plane to Israel, I thought I'd write about what's on my mind. First, Philly cheese steaks are delicious, even in airports. On a more spiritual note though, Heidi and I are incredibly excited about going to Israel to (among other things) walk where Jesus walked. Today in church our pastor, David Daniels, spent a few minutes talking about what it meant to be a disciple. He talked about how the disciples of a rabbi would sleep in the same room as the rabbi, wake up when the rabbi awoke, eat when the rabbi ate, and do what the rabbi did. While we aren't able to completely identify with the disciples, because that was Israel 2000 years ago and not today, we hope that our trip to Israel will give us a better glimpse of the context of the Scriptures. Our hope is that many insights will arise as we travel throughout Israel and follow in the footsteps of Jesus and observe the locations and meditate on the Scriptures that connect our trip with the events of the Bible. Are you following the footsteps of Christ? Not literally! This is a once in a lifetime (if that) opportunity for most people. But just because you're living 2000 years after Christ and in a different location doesn't mean you're exempt from following in the figurative footsteps of the rabbi, Jesus Christ. Are you committing your life to be a disciple of Christ? Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 (among other places) that anyone who wants to be his disciples, "must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me(Jesus)." How are you lining up with the footsteps of Christ? The best way to make this happen is by radically giving your life over to Christ and being a fully devoted follower, but sometimes the best way to make that happen is to start taking one step closer to Christ. We'd love for you all to be following the figurative footsteps of Christ as we follow His literal footsteps.

Graduation

Graduation day! TJ graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) today, in just 3 short years. He does have a summer class he is working on, but for today we aren't going to think about that. Our time in Dallas has been great and seminary has been amazing and if you're reading this, you're probably interested in our next endeavor. We've moved all our stuff to Michigan and we're about to fly out to Israel for a 3 week class on the biblical, geographical, and historical study of Israel. We'll try to keep these short and we hope to cite some Bible passages if you want to read where we've gone and how it relates to the history written about in the Bible. Feel free to ask questions or post comments. We like to here that others are reading this! :)

P.S. Heidi made a map of where we're going. We thought we'd add it so that you can have a general idea of where we're at when we post a city name and you don't have to look it up on google every time. We hope you enjoy our blog!