An Amazingly Busy Day in the Holy Land…

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Holy Land — Day 3

Today things started early. From the 6 a.m. wake-up call until now, things have been going non-stop.

First we went to Bet-She’an, a relatively newly discovered archaeological dig. Although we saw great pillars, a remarkably well-preserved theater, and detailed flooring, the most popular room was, of all things, the restroom just off the theater.

Yes — the restrooms. It was funny seeing people wanting to sit in them, but struggling with the idea of such images being posted online. Who would post such things online? Me.

Luke 4 tells of Jesus being taken by force to a hill in order to be thrown from the precipice. While at Nazareth, we stopped and visited the only hill in the area that would be good for such brutality. While the plaque at the site said Jesus leaped from this cliff, the Bible tells us he disappeared from their midst — less dramatic, but more accurate, no doubt.

We went from there to Zippori, a village across from Nazareth.

The village was long ago buried under the sand, but excavations have unveiled some amazing things, among which is a mosaic floor depicting the pagan goddess, Dionysus. One of the faces is known as The Mona Lisa of the Galilee.  The Jesus connection is that there is a chance that the boy Jesus carried his father’s lunch to him here in Zippori as Joseph may well have been working at this site.

There has been a lot more archaeologist’s work done at Tel-Megido. But the most amazing part of that site remains  Ahab’s tunnel. We walked through it and tried to recreate the photo I had taken 13 years earlier. It’s a bit blurry, but it was a good effort.

As we headed to Mount Carmel, our guide said, “Hey — let’s go up this road! There’s a newly discovered tomb with a stone in front of it that would have been just like the one that had been rolled away from Jesus’ tomb!

Sure enough, our drive wheeled around and traveling up the narrow road, we were able to locate the tomb and take pictures.

From there we went to the highpoint of our day — Mount Carmel, or as I like to call it, The OK Coral! Upon ascending the mountain, we looked east toward the Mediterranean  and imagined a cloud, the size of a man’s hand on the horizon. I spoke there on the three miracles that God performed on behalf of Elijah in this place, emphasizing that he still does miracles in our own lives.

After all, Elijah was a man just like us (James 5). Looking down into Harmegedon, it was amazing to think of blood being as deep as the horses bridles.

Every day has been incredible on this trip, but today was the best.

Tomorrow a couple dozen people will be baptized in the Jordan. Then a devotional on a boat in The Sea of Galilee!  The devotionals have been going well. Thanks for your continued prayer support.

I probably won’t get to post this completely for a few days.

Holy Land 2011

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Day 1

Now that I have found the free internet, I will take the opportunity to post some information about my trip on this site. Not everyone stops by this site, so if you get the chance, please let anyone who might be interested know there’s fresh data here.

We left rainy Pennsylvania on Tuesday to head to Scranton where we caught a bus to JKF. While it was rainy in Pennsylvania, it was even worse, weather-wise, in New York. Sometimes when you’re leaving on a journey like this it’s hard to leave the familiar, but weather like this makes it easier to say goodbye to your native land.

When we landed in Israel we hit the ground running – literally. After being processed, we got onto the bus where our “first water is free.” We headed off immediately to our first stop – the “traditional site” of the home of Simon the Tanner, where Peter enters a trance and receives his revelation concerning not calling “unclean” what God has called “clean.” I brought a devotional message called, “Hidden Realities,” concerning our need not to miss the spiritual significance of the events that had taken place here. Our Jewish guide, Doran, made a good point concerning Peter’s vision: “So what did he do? He got up and made himself a ham sandwich, right? No – Peter was a Kosher Jew, he never had a ham sandwich in his life! Peter went to the house of Cornelius. The point of the vision wasn’t dietary, it was the opening of the door for the Gentiles!” I’d never thought about that before. While Jesus did declare all foods clean, his point in this context for Peter was that he needed to be willing to go to the house of one who was unclean, Cornelius, and to willingly eat with him. The food might have been clean or unclean; the point was that Jesus wanted Peter to reach people who didn’t belong to him.

From there we went to Caesarea by the Sea and saw the Aqueduct and the Theater along the Mediterranean Sea.  The view of the sea was amazing. We read some Scripture and headed in for supper at our kibbutz, arriving at about 8 p.m., exhausted. The food was great, fish and lamb, the inevitable pickles, and a vast array of vegetables.

I headed off to a long-over-due shower and went to bed. 6 a.m. would arrive too soon.

I don’t even have time to proofread this. Edit the typos out in your head, please!

Feeling Disconnected…

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One of the benefits Christians of recent decades have enjoyed is doing things in bulk. Sunday morning was a time when everyone was together — in bulk. It was similar on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.

When Carl George and others advanced the small group model of the church, they noted the importance of the Sunday morning service — a time when all the groups came together to worship — along with the importance of small groups. Part of the jargon they used included the terms, cell and celebration. They noted that the celebration of Christ was best experienced in a larger community of believers connecting in worship, and that cell groups gave opportunity for genuine spiritual intimacy.

If you miss out on either of these, you will feel disconnected. But when you embrace both, the experience is generally more fulfilling than doing things in bulk all the time.

So, as you might have guessed, this is a shameless solicitation asking those who call Curwensville Alliance their church home to engage in both the cell aspect (small groups) and the celebration aspect (corporate worship).

Not only does it help you feel connected, it also helps you grow to be the disciple God wants you to become.

Please pray with me that our church would experience the joy of small group interaction with the celebration of corporate worship.

“I love it here!”

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While many of the songs we sing at SuperVBS are not new to Curwensville Alliance — Jesus, Messiah, Beautiful One, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, My All in All — they are new to many of the children present.

Last evening, at VBS, Linda spoke to me and said, “Pastor Steve, I have to tell you this story.”

She went on to speak about a little girl in her tribe of 17 kids who kept asking, “When are we going to sing? I want to go up and sing!” Linda told her it was coming soon. Finally, when they went up to sing, as the music was being queued, the little girl looked up at Linda and said with a sort of sigh in her voice, “I love it here.”

For some kids, VBS can be life-changing immediately. I read on Diane’s facebook today that she came to know Christ at a VBS. On the other hand, sometimes VBS is doing the work of giving children a pleasant experience so that when they are seeking something more in life, they come back to that memory.

In both cases, it’s a wonderful thing to see children loving the music as they worship God. Please pray for these kids — that through the work of this ministry, they would find Jesus.

If you’re interested in learning more about SuperVBS, go to www.supervbs.org.

If you’re interested in Curwensville Alliance Church, go to www.curwensvillealliance.org.

~Pastor Steve