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.

Thursday - October 30, 2008

Awesome Day! We flew into Tel Aviv at 3:30am. When we hit the coast the Israelies clapped. It reminded me we were entering “The Beautiful Land”. We could have joined in also. Our waiting is finally over and we are here. Israel is also called “The Holy Land”. Our leader reminded us that anything God calls Holy is “set apart for his Work”. Israel is different from any other nation. This is the nation God set apart to reveal Himself to the world. Our first stop was Joppa which is now called Jaffa. It was the main seaport into Israel until World War I. Tel Aviv was built on the outskirts of Jaffa and now encircles it. Joppa is the city that Jonah ran away from God. He did not want to go to Ninevah and tell the gentiles about God. Joppa is also the city where Peter had his vision on the roof of Simon the Tanner. God showed him that salvation was also available to the gentiles. (Act 10) We are those among those gentiles that God wanted to save.:) This vision enabled Peter to answer God’s call to go to Caesarea to preach to Cornelius. Caesarea was next on our journey. This was a city built by Herod the Great on the West Coast of Israel. It was the place where Peter witnessed to Cornelius, where Paul was imprisoned for two years. The Theatre is thought to be where Paul made his defense to Felix & Agrippa, who said, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”. Acts 26 Next, on our way to Mt Carmel, we stopped for a quick shot of the Roman Aqueducts which brought water from Mt. Carmel to the city of Caesarea. We then went to Mt Carmel. This is where Elijah confronted 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah in I Kings 18. After his victory King Ahab runs through the valley of Jezreel to the city of Jezreel. The city no longer exist but the valley is huge. It is probably more familiar to you as Armagedden. I kept thinking as I saw this valley of Revelations 19:11-16. Of Jesus, Faithful and True, on his white stallion leading the armies of heaven. Well, I am finally going to try to connect and upload the pictures with the last few days. It’s the first time I could get a signal so hopefully I can update everyday now. This is the most amazing trip. I am so humble and grateful to be here.

Tuesday - October 28, 2008

We’re Off! Can’t believe the day is finally here. We all caught a flight from Baton Rouge to Houston…all but Brother Tommy & Karen. They were bumped because the flight was full. They caught another flight and did make it on time for our next flight. We are now on our way to Frankfurt, Germany. For some reason I didn’t think about flying over the ocean. It’s a long way to swim if the plane breaks down but I know God is watching over me and the only way for me is up. We have all settled in for our nine hour flight and hopefully after dinner we can all sleep. Elaine…the guy at the security gate tried to confiscate Art’s M&Ms for himself. He wouldn’t give them up:) Sarah & Bryan..so glad you reminded me we could charge the zune on the computer. Somehow I must have turned the Zune on and discharged the entire thing and I need it now. I now know to switch the block button when I turn it off. Bummer, I only have a few hours of soft music to cover up noise in the plane.