Friday - October 31, 2008

This morning the sun rose at 6am over the Golen Heights. It was spectacular sitting on the beach for my quiet time at Tiberias. This is not a sandy beach like we are used to but rocky. Lots of rocks to sit on. As I sat I read Matt 5:13-16. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works in heaven and glorify your Father in Heaven. There is no mistaking that the sun rose. It was awesome. There should be no doubt that we have the light in us for all to see. We need to shine brightly. That was my prayer this morning.Today we went to the Mount where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. It is also on the Sea of Galilee. One thing that touched me was when our Leader spoke on Matt 5:1-2. And seeing the multitude, He went up on mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them….Our Leader said when “He opened His mouth” it meant He opened His heart. He wanted us to “get it” to “get HIM” He truly gave us the recipe to be happiest on this earth. Today we are walking in the steps of Jesus. Matthew 5-7 are how you can walk in His steps in the USA. We then went to the most Northern Part of Israel to the city of Dan. Solomon’s son Rehoboam was King the tribes split and the Southern Kingdom or Judea was under Rehoboam’s rule and the Northern Kingdom or Israel chose Jeroboam as their King. Because Jeroboam didn’t want his people going to Jerusalem to worship he sat up two cities in the Northern Kingdom where they could worship. One of the cities was Dan.The city is no longer inhabited but archeologists have found the gates and walls of the city and the place of the Altar. They even made a golden calf there like in Egypt. All of the tribe of Levi went to live in Judea so Jeroboam made priest of the sons of rich men. This led to their destruction. They broke with their people & their faith. At Dan they have also discovered a gate that Abraham would have walked through. Way Cool! We then went to Caesarea Phillipi. Not to be confused with Caesarea. The word Caesarea actually means Caesar. It was common at the time to pay tribute to Caesar in naming cities after Him. Philip was King Herod the greats son. This city paid tribute to them both. It is in the Golan Heights. This is also in North and the further most North city that Jesus went to. It is where he took his disciples to teach them. It is where Jesus said, Whom do people say that I am and Peter responded you are the Christ, the son of the living God. His backdrop while speaking was this huge rock formation. Jesus said that Peter was the rock (little rock) and upon this rock (Jesus) he would form his church.The greek words for rock in both cases are different. The church wasn’t built on Peter but on Jesus. ( He could have been pointing to the difference between a small rock and that huge rock formation and then to himself) I love object lessons. Next we went to Capernaum. We saw Peters house and the very synagogue that Jesus taught in, healed the lady that touched the hem of his garment and lots more. I still need to read more to catch up on all Jesus did there. Awesome place. Then we went to the River Jordan…possibly the very place Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and yes…..I was Baptized again. It was so cool in everyway. Then….and you may already know I finally was able to connect to the internet and try to send all the messages and pictures about what we had done and the internet was there and I could get on but IT WAS ALL IN HEBREW. I tried and tried but I couldn’t figure how to sign in and where to type my password. I could get on email and send a message to Roxanne and ask her to upload one day and see if it worked for her and then I decided to send the rest in text since it took so long to add a picture and ZAP! I was knocked off the internet because it’s the Sabbath. Friday at 6pm to Sat at 6pm. Grrr!I Try again tomorrow after we get back from Cana where Art and I will review our marriage vowsJ
I will try to send some pics but it takes time and I want to be sure you get them.Appreciate it so much.You gotta come here. Its mind blowing.