This month, Peggy and I had the privilege of
traveling to the Holy Land and Egypt with our church. Wow! What a blessing! I
am still processing what I experienced.
You know, I expected to have an emotional
reaction to being in the Holy Land. This was not the case. I was something much
deeper. It was a sense of peacefulness and assurance that settled over me. I was amazed at the sense of place. To see
where so many locations fit in God’s plan in the economy of His timing captured
my heart and imagination.
It was incredible to be in Tiberius, to have
a sense of how close everything was that happened there around the Sea of
Galilee. To walk around Jerusalem, where Christ walked and where Abraham may have
offered Isaac as a sacrifice was overwhelming. Standing in the Garden of
Gethsemane, among the olive trees where Christ may have prayed facing the
Eastern Gate was incredible.
We
went to the Dead Sea and floated effortlessly! What fun! We went to Masada
where, on a high plateau, Jewish rebels made a last stand against the Roman
army and eventually committed suicide rather than be enslaved by the Romans. We
stood high on a mountain overlooking the plain of Megiddo where it is said the
last battle, Armageddon, will be fought. Also on that mountain, in another
direction, we saw the Mount of Transfiguration, and Mt. Gilboah, the place
where King Saul fell on his sword and died. In the Sinai, we visited St.
Catherine’s Monastery, which was said to be at the site where Moses went up on
Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. It is the oldest continuously
occupied Christian monastery if the world, founded in 527 A.D
I would hope that
each of you would go and experience for yourself this place where God moved in
mighty ways.” Going to the Holy Land will enrich your reading of the Bible by
recalling the places that you saw on your journey.
Having said all this, I know God is moving
and will move in mighty ways right here in our hometowns. As Henry Blackaby says in his book,
“Experiencing God”, “Find out what God is up to and get involved.” Be a part of His continuing move. Pray that
God would show you where you can be used to further expand His Kingdom right in
your own neighborhood or hometown.
MINISTRY NEWS AND NEEDS
There were two things of special note that
happened on this trip. In Jerusalem, I
had the surprise privilege of officiating the renewal of vows for a couple of
Nigerian extraction now living in Dallas. Additionally, I had the privilege of
baptizing two women of Russian extraction now living in Nashville in the Jordan
River. (Ask me about this.) Also, Peggy and I baptized each other in the Jordan
also!
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