My Trip to the Holy Land...part 2

As promised here is Part Deux of My Trip to the Holy Land. More pictures, more stories, more holiness...or something like that.

Looking back at yesterday's post I realized I didn't actually describe the last picture. That was a picture I took of the giant wall the Israelis have constructed to fence the Palestinians into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This wall has been set up, at times arbitrarily defining the boundaries between Israel proper and the Palestinian territories. There are many on both sides of the wall issue...some view it as necessary, others view it as a harsh social injustice. Since we in America tend to be pro-Israel, here is a link to a site that wants to see the wall building stop. www.stopthewall.org


Here are two of many of a certain type of site that you can find all over Israel. It turns out that all you need to do is put up a sign and say Jesus did something right there and tourists will flock to it, weep over it, and find themselves getting emotionally attached to that specific site. In many ways, it is almost as if people are looking more for an experience than for the truth. The mountain in the left picture is referred to as the Mount of Temptation, because tradition holds that it was that mountain that Satan took Jesus to in order to tempt him in Matthew 4. The Scriptures give few details about where this might have happened, clearly it is conjecture. And then the picture on the right reveals the discovery of the very birth place of Jesus' mother, Mary! There are at least two distinct sites for most of Jesus' ministry, including 2 tombs, 2 caves where Jesus was born, 2 places for the Sermon on the Mount, etc. And the most amazing thing is how many churches: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and even some Protestant have been erected at all of these many locations. For almost every Roman Catholic holy site the Eastern Orthodox have one right next to it. It's crazy...


All that being said, there are places that have been authenticated fairly accurately as Biblical sites where Jesus did his ministry. This is the excavated pool of Bethesda, just down and below the Temple Mount. This is where Jesus healed the man who had been waiting by the pool for many years.


This is an authentic mikveh, or what we would call a baptismal. There are many of these that have been excavated around the city of Jerusalem. In one location, right outside the entrance to the Temple Mount they have excavated over 40 smaller mikvehs just like this one, and 2 large ones - one being the pool of Siloam which is one location the Scriptures tell us Jesus spent time at. These were right outside of the Temple Mount gates so that people going up to offer their sacrifices to God, could make themselves ceremonially clean according to the Levitical laws.


One of the things you don't really consider when you are going to the Holy Land is the reality that all of the places Jesus would have walked are over 2000 years old. Not only that, but a city like Jerusalem has been conquered about a bazillion different times by Romans, Muslims, and Christians, each then attempting to make it its own city. In America we don't really get the whole "building a city over another city," but in the Middle East they have perfected this form of city building. This picture is from the top of the Southern Steps, the steps just south of the Temple Mount leading from the mikvehs up to this Gate, that would have led up and into the beautiful Temple Courtyard. You can see how later conquerers found this gate to be problematic for defense, so they filled it in. Then, support structures were built over it to hold up the aging walls.


This is the view from our hotel balcony. Mike and I sat out here and spent time with the Lord as we watched the sun come up over the Mt. of Olives (to the left). Jesus spent much time around the Mt. of Olives. Just over to the other side of it was the town of Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. In all of his travels to Jerusalem, Jesus never actually stayed in the city. He always stayed with his friends in Bethany, which was less than a Sabbath's journey away. Also on the Mt. of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane (which actually means Olive Press), and a large graveyard of both ancient and modern Jews.

More to come....grace and peace.

My Trip to the Holy Land...part 1

Today is my first day home from the NYI Youth Ministry Summit in the Middle East. What an experience! The last 12 days have been a combination of hearing the stories of Christians in the Middle East as they try to faithfully do the will of God in a region of the world not very open to Jesus, viewing and walking in the very lands where our most sacred Scriptures find their origin and setting, and connecting with youth workers from around the world. Oh yeah, and visiting the Eiffel Tower during my 12 hour layover in Paris (That was quite an adventure in the middle of the night).

I have hundreds of pictures and stories to share, so this may end being in several parts. To be honest I don't even know where to begin.


So I will start here, on Day 2 at the entrance to Petra. Here is a picture of Mike Tennyson and I in front of the very large pictures of the previous king and current king (the previous king's son) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. These pictures were all over Jordan. Two things to note: I had such a great time with Mike. He's such a great friend, and he definitely got a raw deal by having to room with me. And then, being in a country that refers to itself as a "kingdom" really creates the opportunity for some intriguing dialogue with local believers as to what the Kingdom of God is and how "competing kingdoms" both encourage and challenge the Church.

BTW - Day 1 was an awesome day that we spent with Jordanian, Syrian, and Israeli pastors, youth workers, and young leaders. I can't share pictures for safety sake. But I am excited to share stories with people curious how God is alive and moving in the region of the world where all we believe got its start.



This is one of the incredible site at Petra. One overwhelming reality I encountered in the Middle East: we don't know history in America. If we go to anything man made in the states, it is max 300 years old, give or take a few years. The ancient treasury of the Nebateans was carved 2 - 3000 years ago. It's beautiful and magnificent and its old. I'll say one thing for sure, in a day where people are intentionally building crappy buildings (planned obsolescence), I really appreciated the longevity of craftsmanship in the region. I have lots of Petra pictures, but I figure you're more interested in some of the Biblical sites.


Day 3 - This is the incredible view from Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo? That's right, the place where God instructed Moses to go so that he might view the Promised Land. The morning was misty so we could only see about half the distance we could see on a clear day. Even so we could see Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan River valley. About 3 steps to my left is the platform constructed for the visit of Pope John Paul II about 10 years ago. And standing next to that is a giant statue of a snake on a pole. Mt. Nebo is also considered to be the place where Moses raised up the snake on the pole, so that all who looked up to it would be saved from the poisonous snake bites they had received. We realize that this passage is an early picture of what Jesus would come to do as the snake represents sin, and Jesus would as Paul puts it, become sin for us...and as we look to him on the cross we are saved from the poison of sin in our lives. We had an awesome time of worship together on top of the mountain that reminded us how important it is to finish strong.


One of the aspects of our trip that I wasn't expecting to be confronted with was the political realities of the region and how American naivety can result in the continued persecution of a group of people. No doubt the situation between Israelis and Palestinians is messy, but the reality of the situation is that the Palestinians have been herded onto reservations much like the Native Americans in the USA. We were challenged by our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ that we in America who are often quick to be pro-Israel, forget the while God may be for Israel, he died for all, making him pro-Palestinian too! God is for everyone! Amen! Do we really believe that? If we really did, I wonder how it would change our politics and the way we live out our faith. What if rather than calling a people group part of the Axis of Evil as our current administration has been so quick to do, we realized that the largest group of Christians in the Middle East are Arabs? The Church is alive in the Middle East! Arabs are coming to Christ, Jews are coming to Christ, God is alive and moving.

May we continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

More to come...Grace and Peace to you...