Well, I am back in the motherland! The United States is a good place for me to be for a while at least. Many people have asked about my time in Israel and South Africa the past half of the year. Spending 6 months out of the country, away from what is comfortable, and what is familiar has taught me a lot. So I want to bring a couple of things up that have been re-enforced or that I’ve learned for the first time.
Backing up all the way to 6 months ago is a little hard for me to do... but the one thing that sticks out in my mind that I had to deal with is the fact that on the mission field, you NEED to be focused on making Christ the center of your life. There are many distractions and many different challenges that come up because it is just a different way of living than what you are used to. For instance, last spring I lived in a dorm full of godly men. These guys are the type of people that you could go to at any time of the day or night to talk about anything from sports, any problems, to what you were learning from the Bible. In my certain situation was that, that I left America only three days after finals week was done. That meant that I was pulled from an environment where I was surrounded by people that I knew and I was put into an unfamiliar place.
As I look back on this, I am so glad that I went through it. I believe that I am now more prone to depend on Christ in those times of loneliness or isolation. Praise the Lord that He gave me a lot of free time to read His word and to pray.
Another highlight of South Africa was that I had the chance to read through Mark and to see Jesus’ compassion. God was faithful to have His word pierce my heart and to convict me of sin. I realized just how little compassion that I have. I mean I would even go as far as to say that some of the days that I hung out with the children of Lambano, I had the wrong attitude and I was the opposite of compassionate. This allowed me to change my thinking in this area, and even to adjust what I would do now that I’m home and how I live this out.
Moving to Israel for the last three and half months was an opportunity of a lifetime. I learned so much and I am thankful for all of the people who made it possible. My parents, The Master’s College, and the profs (Randy, Bill, Abner, and Ariel, plus their wives, support staff, and volunteers). So many people put in countless hours of work so that we could have a smooth stay in Israel.
I learned so many things, and the ones that I probably have to highlight are I learned just a little more the importance of knowing the Bible, and that means memorization and meditation. One of my favorite times at IBEX was the men’s Bible study that Abner led. We thought that it would be appropriate in the land of Israel to study the book of Hebrews. Studying Hebrews combined with Land and Bible class (our Bible geography class) it was clear that there needs to be an understanding of the Old Testament if you want to understand fully the New Testament. There are many different reasons why this is necessary. We need to understand why God gave a sacrificial system, and how Christ accomplishes everything necessary for atonement. Many times I have breezed by the Old Testament on my Way to read the Gospels, or Epistles, but I learned that I need to know what the Old Testament is all about if I want to get the New Testament. Thanks to our study, I am more convinced that Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who is not a fairy tale, who is someone real, is superior to any other thing in this life. I have been encouraged to live a life that honors Christ because there is a rest to come.
Another thing that I have learned is that there needs to be a practical discipline in my life to get things done. This was probably one of the toughest semesters that I’ve experienced, in so many different ways. But God is faithful through it all. We had maybe 4 “free” days the whole semester and I learned to be disciplined in my studies so that could be free on my free days. The work that was put in was well worth it. This semester I think I learned the most academically as well.
Something that many people say when they come back from Israel, and it sounds so cliche, but it is really true, is now when I read my Bible it is like I am reading it in living color, not black and white anymore. After being there and actually seeing the real sites where Jesus worked, and where the Israelites walked so much more the the Bible makes sense.
I really hope that anyone who is a Christian gets the opportunity to go to Israel and experience the Land of the Bible. And if you are not a Christian, I hope you get to go and that you can validate the Bible, and see that this is not a mere ideology that we believe in, we believe in something real and tangible. This has been an awesome year so far, and I’m looking forward to learning more and being sanctified into the likeness of the Son.
I will still be blogging, hopefully with some sort of regularity. Hope to see you soon to see some pictures.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Ireland...
Well, we’re back from travel study break and only 2 more weeks left here in Israel. Ireland was simply amazing. It is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world. I’m sure that I have noticed before, but this trip really highlighted the creativity of God. There are so many different shades of green. Light green, dark green, darker green, lime green, and the list goes on.
Our “Jewish Thought and Culture” professor, Ariel, has a special relationship with Ireland and some of the people there. And when he heard that we were going to Ireland he perked up and got really excited. He gave us many good suggestions and recommendations of where to stay and eat.
Our trip started off on Thursday, November 8 with a taxi ride to the airport. All five of us had all we needed for 10 days on our backs, and we were filled with excitement and uncertainty about the week to come. As you can imagine, Israeli airports are not a place that one can get into easily. I’m talking about all of the security. We got there 3 hours early and it was just enough time to get everything settled so we could get on the plane. We got questioned by security more leaving the country than coming into the country, which was surprising to me.
But once we got our boarding passes we found our gate. Our gate was situated right where one of those people movers, or the flat escalators, started. And as the gate opened for boarding we all stood in line. Now when I said that we all had our stuff on our backs, that isn’t totally true. Garrett had all of his stuff in a trash bag so he could carry it on. And as we were standing in line Garrett had the bright idea of sitting on the handrail of the people mover, and it sort of grabbed his jeans and lifted him up, but he was able to jump off quickly. It was a close call. But he didn’t learn his lesson. He was leaning up on it again and this time he wasn’t so lucky. The rubber handrail stuck like Velcro to his pants and lifted him off the ground and was taking him down the people mover. So he panicked and jumped off but didn’t land on his feet, rather his face. And he almost kicked a lady in the face who was sitting on the outside of the mover. So with about 50 other people around, we all were laughing. And the people behind us noticed that we had American passports, so they asked us where we were from. And its hard to answer that question in a foreign country because you can’t be super specific. So we said obviously the U.S. and from there, California, then Los Angeles, then Santa Clarita, then The Master’s College. Most times when we tell people where we are from it stops at L.A. but the people we were talking with were actually from the same area. The woman went to Master’s and knew my sister. And she went to my rival in high school. So after we met each other and talked, we got on the plane headed for Manchester.
We arrived in Manchester and it was about 7 degrees Celsius and 1:30 in the morning. We didn’t have a place to stay and our flight didn’t leave until 11:10pm November 9. So we walked around the airport looking for the train into the city. And we got a free ride into the city. Which was so nice because they use the British pound there, and our dollar is not strong there at all. Two American dollars is worth 1 pound. So we walked around and got something to eat, and tried to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a 24 hour café and ordered some coffee. But they weren’t too keen on us sleeping in there booths. So we just decided to sleep in the bus station.
And at 6:30am we got the treat of the semester. I drank my first Starbucks that I’ve had since August. And it was amazing.
That day we just walked around Manchester waiting for our flight to Dublin. And when we finally got on our RyanAir flight, there were 6 drunk ladies in front of us. Mind you, this is midnight, and we just slept in a bus station. As you can imagine, we were not too happy. Or at least I wasn’t. But nonetheless, we made it to Dublin. And that night we slept in the airport, because we didn’t think it was worth spending the money for a full night if we were only going to be at a hotel or hostel for a couple hours of the night.
So the next morning started our adventure in Dublin. This was a total shock to us coming from a Middle Eastern country where it is a harsh language, and culturally rude people (rude to Americans), and a pretty dirty country. The city was beautiful, clean, and the people were great. It was nice to be in a place where you don’t have to worry about people not understanding English to communicate. Even though some of the accents were thick, it was nice to know that we were speaking the same language.
We had a total of 5 days in Dublin, and we did a lot. One day we went to Trinity College which houses the Book of Kells, which was basically 5th century gospel tracts. It was a copy of the New Testament that monks would slip into people’s travel sacks. This was amazing to see because of how many countless hours of work went into making these hand written copies. And the artwork was unbelievably detailed and small. It was incredible. Other days we just walked around in the parks, and fed the birds. One day we took the train up to a city named Howth. This was a small fishing town and it was probably the highlight of the trip. We took a hike along the cliffs and it was just beautiful.
Most of the pubs there in Ireland you can sit down and have a meal. And that’s what we did most of the time if we needed to eat. And we got to a particular one named The Pale, just as some people were setting up to perform some music. This was another high point of the trip. There was a man in his late 60’s who was the lead singer, and another man playing the guitar, and another playing the mandolin. And as they were playing I could hear an accordion playing, but I couldn’t pin point where it was coming from. And when I finally found it, it was someone in the same room just playing along with the songs, and he wasn’t a part of the band. So the guys invited him up to play with them and it turned out they knew each other from like 10 years ago. It was neat to see how they just rolled with the punches.
On Wednesday of our trip we took a 4 hour bus ride to Cork. This drive was great to see some of the rolling hills and countryside of Ireland. We basically had two days in Cork, and one of them was used to sleep in and rest up a little bit. The other was just walking all around the city. Trying to find cool places. We found a huge cathedral, and some nice parks. Also, Blarney is not too far from Cork, so we went and kissed the Blarney Stone. It is a piece of stone on the top of Blarney Castle the myth promises to those who kiss it upside down, eloquence of speech. So we all kissed it and I guess we’ll see if the promise holds true.
And then on Saturday we got the same bus ride back to Dublin. We had the afternoon to do last minute shopping and relaxing in the city. And that night we spent it in the airport because our flight left early in the morning.
So we made all of our flights and we are back at the Moshav safely.
I learned so many things about leadership on this trip. So many things that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. It was such a good trip. I am glad I went and I am glad that God kept us safe with whatever we were doing. I will never forget the lessons I learned and the grace of God manifested in this trip.
Our “Jewish Thought and Culture” professor, Ariel, has a special relationship with Ireland and some of the people there. And when he heard that we were going to Ireland he perked up and got really excited. He gave us many good suggestions and recommendations of where to stay and eat.
Our trip started off on Thursday, November 8 with a taxi ride to the airport. All five of us had all we needed for 10 days on our backs, and we were filled with excitement and uncertainty about the week to come. As you can imagine, Israeli airports are not a place that one can get into easily. I’m talking about all of the security. We got there 3 hours early and it was just enough time to get everything settled so we could get on the plane. We got questioned by security more leaving the country than coming into the country, which was surprising to me.
But once we got our boarding passes we found our gate. Our gate was situated right where one of those people movers, or the flat escalators, started. And as the gate opened for boarding we all stood in line. Now when I said that we all had our stuff on our backs, that isn’t totally true. Garrett had all of his stuff in a trash bag so he could carry it on. And as we were standing in line Garrett had the bright idea of sitting on the handrail of the people mover, and it sort of grabbed his jeans and lifted him up, but he was able to jump off quickly. It was a close call. But he didn’t learn his lesson. He was leaning up on it again and this time he wasn’t so lucky. The rubber handrail stuck like Velcro to his pants and lifted him off the ground and was taking him down the people mover. So he panicked and jumped off but didn’t land on his feet, rather his face. And he almost kicked a lady in the face who was sitting on the outside of the mover. So with about 50 other people around, we all were laughing. And the people behind us noticed that we had American passports, so they asked us where we were from. And its hard to answer that question in a foreign country because you can’t be super specific. So we said obviously the U.S. and from there, California, then Los Angeles, then Santa Clarita, then The Master’s College. Most times when we tell people where we are from it stops at L.A. but the people we were talking with were actually from the same area. The woman went to Master’s and knew my sister. And she went to my rival in high school. So after we met each other and talked, we got on the plane headed for Manchester.
We arrived in Manchester and it was about 7 degrees Celsius and 1:30 in the morning. We didn’t have a place to stay and our flight didn’t leave until 11:10pm November 9. So we walked around the airport looking for the train into the city. And we got a free ride into the city. Which was so nice because they use the British pound there, and our dollar is not strong there at all. Two American dollars is worth 1 pound. So we walked around and got something to eat, and tried to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a 24 hour café and ordered some coffee. But they weren’t too keen on us sleeping in there booths. So we just decided to sleep in the bus station.
And at 6:30am we got the treat of the semester. I drank my first Starbucks that I’ve had since August. And it was amazing.
That day we just walked around Manchester waiting for our flight to Dublin. And when we finally got on our RyanAir flight, there were 6 drunk ladies in front of us. Mind you, this is midnight, and we just slept in a bus station. As you can imagine, we were not too happy. Or at least I wasn’t. But nonetheless, we made it to Dublin. And that night we slept in the airport, because we didn’t think it was worth spending the money for a full night if we were only going to be at a hotel or hostel for a couple hours of the night.
So the next morning started our adventure in Dublin. This was a total shock to us coming from a Middle Eastern country where it is a harsh language, and culturally rude people (rude to Americans), and a pretty dirty country. The city was beautiful, clean, and the people were great. It was nice to be in a place where you don’t have to worry about people not understanding English to communicate. Even though some of the accents were thick, it was nice to know that we were speaking the same language.
We had a total of 5 days in Dublin, and we did a lot. One day we went to Trinity College which houses the Book of Kells, which was basically 5th century gospel tracts. It was a copy of the New Testament that monks would slip into people’s travel sacks. This was amazing to see because of how many countless hours of work went into making these hand written copies. And the artwork was unbelievably detailed and small. It was incredible. Other days we just walked around in the parks, and fed the birds. One day we took the train up to a city named Howth. This was a small fishing town and it was probably the highlight of the trip. We took a hike along the cliffs and it was just beautiful.
Most of the pubs there in Ireland you can sit down and have a meal. And that’s what we did most of the time if we needed to eat. And we got to a particular one named The Pale, just as some people were setting up to perform some music. This was another high point of the trip. There was a man in his late 60’s who was the lead singer, and another man playing the guitar, and another playing the mandolin. And as they were playing I could hear an accordion playing, but I couldn’t pin point where it was coming from. And when I finally found it, it was someone in the same room just playing along with the songs, and he wasn’t a part of the band. So the guys invited him up to play with them and it turned out they knew each other from like 10 years ago. It was neat to see how they just rolled with the punches.
On Wednesday of our trip we took a 4 hour bus ride to Cork. This drive was great to see some of the rolling hills and countryside of Ireland. We basically had two days in Cork, and one of them was used to sleep in and rest up a little bit. The other was just walking all around the city. Trying to find cool places. We found a huge cathedral, and some nice parks. Also, Blarney is not too far from Cork, so we went and kissed the Blarney Stone. It is a piece of stone on the top of Blarney Castle the myth promises to those who kiss it upside down, eloquence of speech. So we all kissed it and I guess we’ll see if the promise holds true.
And then on Saturday we got the same bus ride back to Dublin. We had the afternoon to do last minute shopping and relaxing in the city. And that night we spent it in the airport because our flight left early in the morning.
So we made all of our flights and we are back at the Moshav safely.
I learned so many things about leadership on this trip. So many things that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. It was such a good trip. I am glad I went and I am glad that God kept us safe with whatever we were doing. I will never forget the lessons I learned and the grace of God manifested in this trip.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Top of the Morning!!!
Well, Land and Bible class is over, so there won't be any more field report being posted. I ended up with an 87% in the class, which is pretty good. The final was easy and I only missed one. So that was an encouragement. Now it is time for a travel study break. Theo, Garrett, Ashley, Jackie, and I are leaving for Ireland today. We will be there for the next 10 days. I will be blogging when I get back about our time. So off we go!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Running to the Word of God...
How important is discernment? Is it worth studying the Bible so that we can detect what is false? I would argue yes. Whenever we read anything, or watch a video, we need to know what is wrong and why it is wrong! Abner Chou, my Life of Christ professor here in Israel, took the time today to teach a lesson that we need to be running to the scriptures all the time.
There is a movement in western churches, called the “seeker sensitive” movement. The church that is spear heading this is called Willow Creek, in Chicago. What is a “seeker sensitive” church? Well, by their own definition it is a church that has the goal of taking people that are far from God, bringing them into the church and getting them involved in services, small groups, Sunday school, etc., and soon enough they’ll be disciples of God.
Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, has a video that we watched in class, and it was scary. He starts out the video explaining how he is so distracted in church. First off, he gets so distracted by the amount of people that are sitting next to him and behind him and in front of him. He’s watching how many people should be at the church. If there are a lot of people he starts to feel good, and if not, his mind starts racing in a hundred different directions on why people aren’t coming to his church. A church that is supposed to be bringing the people in, not keeping them away. By his own confession, he isn’t even engaged in the service once it’s started because he’s so preoccupied about the demographics of the people at church. So after he has “realigned” himself to the right mindset, it just gets pushed off kilter again, because of the offering. Now, his concern with the offering is probably a good one. He is wondering if the funds that are given (and at Willow Creek, it’s a multi-million dollar church) are being used correctly and the best way possible. This is a legitimate concern. Are they spending the money rightly?
He wasn’t so sure that they were. So, in 2004 Greg wanted to get to the bottom of it. He wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t working in the church. So, instead of running to the scriptures to find out what was going wrong in the church, and what the Bible says about people spiritual lives, he decided to poll the audience. Greg made a church wide survey. And evidently the results were astonishing. These questions were designed to communicate what was helping the congregation grow spiritually and what wasn’t. Basically how they “do” church.
In the video he goes on to explain what Willow Creek is trying to do, which is to bring people who are far from God to disciples of Christ. This is done through programs, services, classes, small groups, care, etc. and all of these give the opportunity for people (i.e. “seekers”) to serve. Now there should be about 37 red flags going up in your mind right now and you should have some questions about what is going on. For example, we need to know what the purpose of the Church is, we need to know what the Church is, what is a seeker? what does participation in activities have to do with what is produced? I will try to answer those and some more.
It is clear in the Word of God that there are two types of people in this world: alive and dead. One who is alive has been brought to life through salvation. The dead remain dead because they can not do anything. Something that is dead has no use. Something that is dead can not do anything. That is just the nature of death. Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in the trespasses and sin,” and once you have been made alive there is no hope for the dead. There is no such thing as a “seeker”. Greg Hawkins describes the “seeker” as someone who believes that there is a God, but just hasn’t moved into the, and I quote, “Jesus thing.” It is clear in scripture that a person who does not have a relationship with Christ, and who has not repented from their sins, and is not living a holy life, that person is damned.
This is a scary thing if these are the kinds of people that Greg Hawkins wants to be involved in serving others on a weekly basis at his church. This leads to great problems. If we start blurring the line between Christians and non Christians it will be catastrophic. The Church will be infected. Sin affects other people. Brothers and sisters in Christ can confront and resolve sin. There are some church functions that will be tough to carry out because we can not tell who is saved and who is not. For instance, Church discipline (Matthew 18) and communion (I Corinthians 11). We can not discipline a non Christian for doing non Christian things. And it is not good to present and approve of non Christians taking part in the Lord’s supper, because they will be judged for it.
Greg goes on to explain the results of the surveys. He says that they learned that the level of participation in church activities does not enhance their spiritual growth. What he says they discovered was a spiritual continuum made up of 5 groups. 1-“Explorers” 2-“New Christians” 3-
Close to Christ” 4- “Centered on Christ” 5- “Stalled”. He says that each one had different needs, which is true! And his church was more geared for the first two groups, the “seekers” and the new Christians. But what about the more mature Christians? They are disappointed with the church, they are discouraged, and they are the ones who are thinking about leaving the church. Why is that?
It is because the seeker friendly movement is too focused on how the Bible can be used for them. They are focused on what they can get out of the Christian life. They want the Bible to conform to them and their lifestyle. That is bogus. We need to be asking not how can the Bible apply to me, as if the Bible can change to fit our lives, but we need to ask what we need to do that our lives fit what the Bible says.
Why isn’t the current strategies working to make better disciples of God in the “seeker sensitive” movement? It is because of the lack of focus on the scriptures. This is where it needs to be. There is nothing better than the Word of God. II Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Word of God is enough for any situation. This is what is going to help a church grow. This is what is going to make disciples of God. Teach the scriptures, nothing more, nothing less. Teach it with passion and conviction. This is what will convict people. This is what will pierce the heart: the Word of God.
The Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels, gave a talk at a leadership summit in October reviewing the same things that Greg, his executive pastor, went over. This video was even more disturbing and frustrating. Basically all of the statistics that came in was evidence that all of Bill’s work over the past years have been detrimental to peoples spiritual lives. He goes over the statistics and results of how people from those first four people groups in the church. The first group, the “seekers”, out of 10, he says, put them at a 9. And he said that, that was good news! That is not good news. He is saying that at church, the non believers needs are being met! How is this possible, if the message of the Cross is foolishness to men (I Corinthians 2). How is it that Jesus says that people will hate Christians (Matthew 10)? Why are non believers in the church any way? The Church is rightly named the body of CHRIST. Each member identifies with Christ. The Church is here to encourage and edify believers. That is not to say that when non believers come to church you kick them out by any means. But the church is for believers, and our evangelism should not be asking people to come to church. On the contrary, we need to be going out and sharing the good news with non believers.
The next group, the new Christians, rated the church a little lower, but still pretty high in the area of meeting their needs. And as the stats came in the group most disappointed with the way the church was helping them… or the lack of help they were giving, was the “Mature” Christians. Bill says that it was disappointing for him because he couldn’t understand what more they wanted. And this is what he said they said, “We’re not being fed.” “That they want more meat of the word of God.” “They want more serious minded scripture being taught to them.” “They wanted to be challenged more.” Bill had a surprising response. It was one that was more of a lashing out to the people who wanted to be fed. He says with an attitude, “I’ll feed those people, I’ll get some seminary prof. who’ll feed them till they barf.” What is so wrong with that? If people want to grow, why are we stopping it? I do not understand why that is such a bad thing to Bill.
Instead of Bill changing what is taught to what is scriptural, and repenting from his ways of not caring for the flock of Christ, he shifts all of the blame onto the ones who want to grow. He says that if they wanted to grow they should have learned how to do that and then do it on their own. There is some truth to that… a Christian should know how to study the bible. But with Bill’s thinking there is not a reason for them to still be in the church. And I think that there in lies the truth of the whole “seeker sensitive” movement: it is just a ploy to get people in the church and then out of the church. Because it is all of the mature Christians who want to learn, or even because they have been teaching themselves, they understand that they are not getting fed so they have to leave in order to find that shepherding.
There is a lot of danger in asking what they people think. As humans we are deceitfully wicked, and there are even sins that we have no clue that we struggle with. How do we even know what would be better for our spiritual walk. The way that we know is by careful evaluation and study of the Scriptures. What we need is for faithful men to rise up and study faithfully, preach faithfully, and train faithfully. We do not need surveys and questionnaires.
I hope that this is encouraging to you to study the Word.
These are the links to the two videos:
Greg Hawkins : http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48
Bill Hybels: http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=49
There is a movement in western churches, called the “seeker sensitive” movement. The church that is spear heading this is called Willow Creek, in Chicago. What is a “seeker sensitive” church? Well, by their own definition it is a church that has the goal of taking people that are far from God, bringing them into the church and getting them involved in services, small groups, Sunday school, etc., and soon enough they’ll be disciples of God.
Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, has a video that we watched in class, and it was scary. He starts out the video explaining how he is so distracted in church. First off, he gets so distracted by the amount of people that are sitting next to him and behind him and in front of him. He’s watching how many people should be at the church. If there are a lot of people he starts to feel good, and if not, his mind starts racing in a hundred different directions on why people aren’t coming to his church. A church that is supposed to be bringing the people in, not keeping them away. By his own confession, he isn’t even engaged in the service once it’s started because he’s so preoccupied about the demographics of the people at church. So after he has “realigned” himself to the right mindset, it just gets pushed off kilter again, because of the offering. Now, his concern with the offering is probably a good one. He is wondering if the funds that are given (and at Willow Creek, it’s a multi-million dollar church) are being used correctly and the best way possible. This is a legitimate concern. Are they spending the money rightly?
He wasn’t so sure that they were. So, in 2004 Greg wanted to get to the bottom of it. He wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t working in the church. So, instead of running to the scriptures to find out what was going wrong in the church, and what the Bible says about people spiritual lives, he decided to poll the audience. Greg made a church wide survey. And evidently the results were astonishing. These questions were designed to communicate what was helping the congregation grow spiritually and what wasn’t. Basically how they “do” church.
In the video he goes on to explain what Willow Creek is trying to do, which is to bring people who are far from God to disciples of Christ. This is done through programs, services, classes, small groups, care, etc. and all of these give the opportunity for people (i.e. “seekers”) to serve. Now there should be about 37 red flags going up in your mind right now and you should have some questions about what is going on. For example, we need to know what the purpose of the Church is, we need to know what the Church is, what is a seeker? what does participation in activities have to do with what is produced? I will try to answer those and some more.
It is clear in the Word of God that there are two types of people in this world: alive and dead. One who is alive has been brought to life through salvation. The dead remain dead because they can not do anything. Something that is dead has no use. Something that is dead can not do anything. That is just the nature of death. Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in the trespasses and sin,” and once you have been made alive there is no hope for the dead. There is no such thing as a “seeker”. Greg Hawkins describes the “seeker” as someone who believes that there is a God, but just hasn’t moved into the, and I quote, “Jesus thing.” It is clear in scripture that a person who does not have a relationship with Christ, and who has not repented from their sins, and is not living a holy life, that person is damned.
This is a scary thing if these are the kinds of people that Greg Hawkins wants to be involved in serving others on a weekly basis at his church. This leads to great problems. If we start blurring the line between Christians and non Christians it will be catastrophic. The Church will be infected. Sin affects other people. Brothers and sisters in Christ can confront and resolve sin. There are some church functions that will be tough to carry out because we can not tell who is saved and who is not. For instance, Church discipline (Matthew 18) and communion (I Corinthians 11). We can not discipline a non Christian for doing non Christian things. And it is not good to present and approve of non Christians taking part in the Lord’s supper, because they will be judged for it.
Greg goes on to explain the results of the surveys. He says that they learned that the level of participation in church activities does not enhance their spiritual growth. What he says they discovered was a spiritual continuum made up of 5 groups. 1-“Explorers” 2-“New Christians” 3-
Close to Christ” 4- “Centered on Christ” 5- “Stalled”. He says that each one had different needs, which is true! And his church was more geared for the first two groups, the “seekers” and the new Christians. But what about the more mature Christians? They are disappointed with the church, they are discouraged, and they are the ones who are thinking about leaving the church. Why is that?
It is because the seeker friendly movement is too focused on how the Bible can be used for them. They are focused on what they can get out of the Christian life. They want the Bible to conform to them and their lifestyle. That is bogus. We need to be asking not how can the Bible apply to me, as if the Bible can change to fit our lives, but we need to ask what we need to do that our lives fit what the Bible says.
Why isn’t the current strategies working to make better disciples of God in the “seeker sensitive” movement? It is because of the lack of focus on the scriptures. This is where it needs to be. There is nothing better than the Word of God. II Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Word of God is enough for any situation. This is what is going to help a church grow. This is what is going to make disciples of God. Teach the scriptures, nothing more, nothing less. Teach it with passion and conviction. This is what will convict people. This is what will pierce the heart: the Word of God.
The Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels, gave a talk at a leadership summit in October reviewing the same things that Greg, his executive pastor, went over. This video was even more disturbing and frustrating. Basically all of the statistics that came in was evidence that all of Bill’s work over the past years have been detrimental to peoples spiritual lives. He goes over the statistics and results of how people from those first four people groups in the church. The first group, the “seekers”, out of 10, he says, put them at a 9. And he said that, that was good news! That is not good news. He is saying that at church, the non believers needs are being met! How is this possible, if the message of the Cross is foolishness to men (I Corinthians 2). How is it that Jesus says that people will hate Christians (Matthew 10)? Why are non believers in the church any way? The Church is rightly named the body of CHRIST. Each member identifies with Christ. The Church is here to encourage and edify believers. That is not to say that when non believers come to church you kick them out by any means. But the church is for believers, and our evangelism should not be asking people to come to church. On the contrary, we need to be going out and sharing the good news with non believers.
The next group, the new Christians, rated the church a little lower, but still pretty high in the area of meeting their needs. And as the stats came in the group most disappointed with the way the church was helping them… or the lack of help they were giving, was the “Mature” Christians. Bill says that it was disappointing for him because he couldn’t understand what more they wanted. And this is what he said they said, “We’re not being fed.” “That they want more meat of the word of God.” “They want more serious minded scripture being taught to them.” “They wanted to be challenged more.” Bill had a surprising response. It was one that was more of a lashing out to the people who wanted to be fed. He says with an attitude, “I’ll feed those people, I’ll get some seminary prof. who’ll feed them till they barf.” What is so wrong with that? If people want to grow, why are we stopping it? I do not understand why that is such a bad thing to Bill.
Instead of Bill changing what is taught to what is scriptural, and repenting from his ways of not caring for the flock of Christ, he shifts all of the blame onto the ones who want to grow. He says that if they wanted to grow they should have learned how to do that and then do it on their own. There is some truth to that… a Christian should know how to study the bible. But with Bill’s thinking there is not a reason for them to still be in the church. And I think that there in lies the truth of the whole “seeker sensitive” movement: it is just a ploy to get people in the church and then out of the church. Because it is all of the mature Christians who want to learn, or even because they have been teaching themselves, they understand that they are not getting fed so they have to leave in order to find that shepherding.
There is a lot of danger in asking what they people think. As humans we are deceitfully wicked, and there are even sins that we have no clue that we struggle with. How do we even know what would be better for our spiritual walk. The way that we know is by careful evaluation and study of the Scriptures. What we need is for faithful men to rise up and study faithfully, preach faithfully, and train faithfully. We do not need surveys and questionnaires.
I hope that this is encouraging to you to study the Word.
These are the links to the two videos:
Greg Hawkins : http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48
Bill Hybels: http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=49
Monday, October 15, 2007
SEA OF G
After the awe of the initial view of the Sea of Galilee, we had the chance to explore the cities around it. It is amazing to actually see what we have been learning about. The whole day was saturated with and events from the life of our Messiah. We went from Capernaum, Hepta Pagon, Tiberius, Ginnosar, Tell Bethsaida, and the Upper Jordan River.
One of the first stops that we made was in between Capernaum and Hepta Pagon. This was no official spot where Jesus ministered or anything, but we stopped there so that Bill could make a point. If we look at the gospel of Mark, in chapter four Jesus was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, and a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was on the beach listening. With such a great number of people listening in on Jesus’ teaching, Christ must have had a strong voice. But what really helped was the natural theater type affect that the bank of the sea made. There is not a lot of effort needed to make yourself heard. So Bill had someone read Mark 4:1-9, the parable of the sower, and he was about 75 yards away, and with a quick synchronization with the passing traffic, we could all hear the parable clearly. When Jesus told the parable He didn’t have to contest with automobiles, airplanes, or motor boats, so there would be no problem with having a huge crowd on the beach listening to His teaching.
Next place we hit was up to Capernaum to the traditional site of Peter’s house. This has a octagonal shaped church built on top of it, with a synagogue right next to it. This synagogue can be dated to the Roman times. It was built with limestone, a distinctly white stone, on top of all of the basalt, which is a black rock. Capernaum was the site where the Centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his son, help fund the building of the synagogue. We know that the Centurion had great faith because he was at least a days walk from his son, and Jesus recognizes it, and He tells the people around that there is no greater faith in the land than this Centurion. This causes a rejection of Christ because they were Jews and they didn’t have more faith than a Gentile? Unbelievable!
In between Tavgha and Capernaum is the Catholic site for the Sermon on the Mount. This monastery was built by Mussolini in 1939 and is a late tradition, but the site was probably closer to Bethsaida. We learn again that the “disagreement” in the gospels between Matthew and Luke, concerning the place of the Sermon on the Mount can easily be solved. In Luke, he says that they were on a flat place, but in Matthew says that it is on a mount. This can be solved by saying that there was a flat place on the mountain. This works but there is another possibility: Jesus wanted some privacy with His disciples, so He talked to them first on the flat place, and then moved to the masses on the mountain. We know that the Bible is the word of God and that it can not lie, because His word is true, so there must be an explanation.
We then went to Ginnosar, the place where there is a boat from the days of Jesus. This was amazing to see for a couple of different reasons. First off was the amazing amount of work that went into preserving this. It took 14 years for it to be on display. It was discovered in the 80’s and in 2000 it was put on display. They are not sure if it was a fishing boat or a transport boat, but either way it was amazing to see. And not coincidently the capacity of the boat is 12-13 people, so it can be presumed that this was the type of boat that Jesus and His disciples traveled in when they were on the Sea of Galilee.
After a long day, we had a lot of fun floating in inner tubes down the Upper Jordan River. All of us floated down probably for 45 minutes down the river enjoying the cool water and it was refreshing. It was the perfect way to end a great day of reviewing the Life of Christ. To actually think about where these miracles actually took place still blows my mind every time I think about it.
One of the first stops that we made was in between Capernaum and Hepta Pagon. This was no official spot where Jesus ministered or anything, but we stopped there so that Bill could make a point. If we look at the gospel of Mark, in chapter four Jesus was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, and a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was on the beach listening. With such a great number of people listening in on Jesus’ teaching, Christ must have had a strong voice. But what really helped was the natural theater type affect that the bank of the sea made. There is not a lot of effort needed to make yourself heard. So Bill had someone read Mark 4:1-9, the parable of the sower, and he was about 75 yards away, and with a quick synchronization with the passing traffic, we could all hear the parable clearly. When Jesus told the parable He didn’t have to contest with automobiles, airplanes, or motor boats, so there would be no problem with having a huge crowd on the beach listening to His teaching.
Next place we hit was up to Capernaum to the traditional site of Peter’s house. This has a octagonal shaped church built on top of it, with a synagogue right next to it. This synagogue can be dated to the Roman times. It was built with limestone, a distinctly white stone, on top of all of the basalt, which is a black rock. Capernaum was the site where the Centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his son, help fund the building of the synagogue. We know that the Centurion had great faith because he was at least a days walk from his son, and Jesus recognizes it, and He tells the people around that there is no greater faith in the land than this Centurion. This causes a rejection of Christ because they were Jews and they didn’t have more faith than a Gentile? Unbelievable!
In between Tavgha and Capernaum is the Catholic site for the Sermon on the Mount. This monastery was built by Mussolini in 1939 and is a late tradition, but the site was probably closer to Bethsaida. We learn again that the “disagreement” in the gospels between Matthew and Luke, concerning the place of the Sermon on the Mount can easily be solved. In Luke, he says that they were on a flat place, but in Matthew says that it is on a mount. This can be solved by saying that there was a flat place on the mountain. This works but there is another possibility: Jesus wanted some privacy with His disciples, so He talked to them first on the flat place, and then moved to the masses on the mountain. We know that the Bible is the word of God and that it can not lie, because His word is true, so there must be an explanation.
We then went to Ginnosar, the place where there is a boat from the days of Jesus. This was amazing to see for a couple of different reasons. First off was the amazing amount of work that went into preserving this. It took 14 years for it to be on display. It was discovered in the 80’s and in 2000 it was put on display. They are not sure if it was a fishing boat or a transport boat, but either way it was amazing to see. And not coincidently the capacity of the boat is 12-13 people, so it can be presumed that this was the type of boat that Jesus and His disciples traveled in when they were on the Sea of Galilee.
After a long day, we had a lot of fun floating in inner tubes down the Upper Jordan River. All of us floated down probably for 45 minutes down the river enjoying the cool water and it was refreshing. It was the perfect way to end a great day of reviewing the Life of Christ. To actually think about where these miracles actually took place still blows my mind every time I think about it.
Service
As you know we visited the Jezreel Valley today, but there is so many things that happen that I cannot communicate everything. So I thought maybe today in addition to the field report I’d fill you in with a little bit of the more personal side of things.
Every week we go on a field trip. We sit in class on Friday and take a quiz over Wednesday’s field trip for the first half of class. Then we get a preview of the next weeks field trip. Monday comes around and we learn more about the theoretical side of the places that we are going to see on Wednesday. Then the real fun comes on Wednesday.
On any given Wednesday, Becky (one of the IBEX workers who is awesome), has made us all sack lunches, filled with the bountiful booty of the land. Such as pretzels, home made cookies/desserts, apple sauce, PB&J’s, turkey sandwiches, etc. We all have to have our lunch by 7:59 am in order to leave the Moshav by 8:00.
Today was no different. We left and spent the day just as I described it in the previous blog. But since this is the first night of the Galilee field trip, we spent the night in Nazareth at a Catholic convent. This convent has an amazing chapel and after dinner we all gathered into the chapel to sing. We have had awesome times singing in chapels in the past and why should this time be any different? Well let me tell you that it wasn’t different at all and it was an amazing time praising our Messiah, with my brothers and sisters.
When I say brothers and sisters I really mean it. Of course I can not know every person in the group with the depth that would like, but the people I do know and from what I’ve learned of every person, it is a privilege to worship with them. Every note that is sung by all the other 39 IBEX-ers is a blessing to my own soul. In Ephesians 1:4-6 it says, “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” And in verse 11 it says, “In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Notice the US and the WE of these verses. This Christian life is not a solo thing. This Christian life is a “team effort” so to say. There is to be some sort of Christian community. We are all here for each other. And in being here for each other that means that we serve one another. Whatever the task is that falls under the umbrella of serving, that is what we need to do for one another. Not because we get something out of it, but because God calls us to do it.
A lot of the time I think that others should be serving me because I deserve it. What a load! I deserve nothing, which should make me want to serve even more. And the only reason that I was saved in the first place was to be given to Christ as a perfect bride, but not just me, the whole church. That is my brothers and sisters. That is my pastor and the children in Sunday school. Every person who has been saved, has been saved for one purpose only. And that is to glorify God, nothing else. Glorify God. And how do we do that? Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”
So I just wanted to thank all of my brothers and sisters for serving me tonight in a way that Colossians tells us to: sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, admonishing one another in wisdom. This is what Christian community should be doing. And I am thankful to be in a place that serves God by serving others.
Every week we go on a field trip. We sit in class on Friday and take a quiz over Wednesday’s field trip for the first half of class. Then we get a preview of the next weeks field trip. Monday comes around and we learn more about the theoretical side of the places that we are going to see on Wednesday. Then the real fun comes on Wednesday.
On any given Wednesday, Becky (one of the IBEX workers who is awesome), has made us all sack lunches, filled with the bountiful booty of the land. Such as pretzels, home made cookies/desserts, apple sauce, PB&J’s, turkey sandwiches, etc. We all have to have our lunch by 7:59 am in order to leave the Moshav by 8:00.
Today was no different. We left and spent the day just as I described it in the previous blog. But since this is the first night of the Galilee field trip, we spent the night in Nazareth at a Catholic convent. This convent has an amazing chapel and after dinner we all gathered into the chapel to sing. We have had awesome times singing in chapels in the past and why should this time be any different? Well let me tell you that it wasn’t different at all and it was an amazing time praising our Messiah, with my brothers and sisters.
When I say brothers and sisters I really mean it. Of course I can not know every person in the group with the depth that would like, but the people I do know and from what I’ve learned of every person, it is a privilege to worship with them. Every note that is sung by all the other 39 IBEX-ers is a blessing to my own soul. In Ephesians 1:4-6 it says, “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” And in verse 11 it says, “In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Notice the US and the WE of these verses. This Christian life is not a solo thing. This Christian life is a “team effort” so to say. There is to be some sort of Christian community. We are all here for each other. And in being here for each other that means that we serve one another. Whatever the task is that falls under the umbrella of serving, that is what we need to do for one another. Not because we get something out of it, but because God calls us to do it.
A lot of the time I think that others should be serving me because I deserve it. What a load! I deserve nothing, which should make me want to serve even more. And the only reason that I was saved in the first place was to be given to Christ as a perfect bride, but not just me, the whole church. That is my brothers and sisters. That is my pastor and the children in Sunday school. Every person who has been saved, has been saved for one purpose only. And that is to glorify God, nothing else. Glorify God. And how do we do that? Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”
So I just wanted to thank all of my brothers and sisters for serving me tonight in a way that Colossians tells us to: sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, admonishing one another in wisdom. This is what Christian community should be doing. And I am thankful to be in a place that serves God by serving others.
Are you for REEL?
The most lush and beautiful part of Israel so far has been the Jezreel Valley. This is in the northern part of Israel, and there are several routes that we reviewed both in class and on the field. One big obstacle in traveling north to south and vice versa is Mt. Carmel. There are three different routes that you can take. And each one played a significant role in the history of Israel. The three passes are Jokneam, Megiddo, and Dothan.
The first place that we stopped was at the Megiddo pass. There was a lot of conflict that happened here at the site. We know some of the times because of biblical records. For instance in the time of Deborah and Barak in 1230 B.C. We read in Judges 4:14 that Barak went down from Mt Tabor with 10,000 men and fought the Canaanites who came from the Megiddo pass.
One other significant Event that happened here was involving Thutmose III. In effort to conquer the land, Thutmose was working his way north from Egypt, and he stopped in Yaham to have a war council. The rational for the meeting was to decide which route the Egyptians should take, for they had three: Jokneam, Megiddo, and Dothan. Because of the narrow opening to the Megiddo Pass the counselors told Thutmose to go anywhere but the Megiddo Pass. So, Thutmose sent out two decoy battalions, one up the Dothan Pass, and the other up the Jokneam Pass, and at the same time the Egyptians went up the Megiddo Pass and conquered Megiddo. This is an important site for the city because like any important cities in Israel, it controls the traffic.
The importance of the city can be seen in the archeology. There has been more than twenty inhabited layers found in archeological excavations. Some dating back to the middle bronze age, Solomon built this city up with great gates and palaces, but the funny thing is, there is none of the glory that remains. It really makes me think about where my treasure is going now on this earth, and to really think about where is what I’m investing in on this earth going to be in 300 years. There will be no remnant of it!
We then saw a rolling stone tomb that dated to 135 A.D. but was probably the same model as the one Jesus was buried in. This was great because we harmonized the gospel accounts of the resurrection by acting out the whole ordeal. Some people find it very difficult to account for everything that happened in the Gospels, but we did because we were flexible and allowed for humanity to play a role. There were probably at least 5 people who visited Jesus’ tomb that morning, all from different social status’ and different backgrounds. And the ladies told different things because they all witnessed different things all at different times. We must not forget that even though things might not line up exactly as we would think, there is no contradiction or lie in the Bible.
One of the great places that we stopped was Mt. Carmel. This was the mountain where Elijah, in I Kings 18, defeats the prophets of Baal. But more importantly Yahweh defeats Baal. This again brings to attention that it is not man who is fighting the battles, but God. Another great story about that exact thing is in Judges 7. This is where 32,000 men were gathered to fight the Midianites. But the Lord told Gideon that he had to many men for Him to deliver them into Gideon’s hand. So Gideon told the men that if they wanted to, they could go home, and 22,000 men left, leaving 10,000 men. But the Lord said that was too many. So at the Harod Spring, where we visited, Gideon had them drink and the Lord said to keep the men who lapped the water like a dog. And that was 300 men. This was exactly what the Lord wanted. Yahweh is fighting the battle. God did not want the Israelites to say that it was on account of their number and strength that the Midianites were defeated, the glory was to be to God.
There are many other stories and events that happened here in the Jezreel Valley, but these are the ones that stuck out to me today. All of these events clearly show the faithfulness of God. His mercies are new every morning and we can never end praising His name!
The first place that we stopped was at the Megiddo pass. There was a lot of conflict that happened here at the site. We know some of the times because of biblical records. For instance in the time of Deborah and Barak in 1230 B.C. We read in Judges 4:14 that Barak went down from Mt Tabor with 10,000 men and fought the Canaanites who came from the Megiddo pass.
One other significant Event that happened here was involving Thutmose III. In effort to conquer the land, Thutmose was working his way north from Egypt, and he stopped in Yaham to have a war council. The rational for the meeting was to decide which route the Egyptians should take, for they had three: Jokneam, Megiddo, and Dothan. Because of the narrow opening to the Megiddo Pass the counselors told Thutmose to go anywhere but the Megiddo Pass. So, Thutmose sent out two decoy battalions, one up the Dothan Pass, and the other up the Jokneam Pass, and at the same time the Egyptians went up the Megiddo Pass and conquered Megiddo. This is an important site for the city because like any important cities in Israel, it controls the traffic.
The importance of the city can be seen in the archeology. There has been more than twenty inhabited layers found in archeological excavations. Some dating back to the middle bronze age, Solomon built this city up with great gates and palaces, but the funny thing is, there is none of the glory that remains. It really makes me think about where my treasure is going now on this earth, and to really think about where is what I’m investing in on this earth going to be in 300 years. There will be no remnant of it!
We then saw a rolling stone tomb that dated to 135 A.D. but was probably the same model as the one Jesus was buried in. This was great because we harmonized the gospel accounts of the resurrection by acting out the whole ordeal. Some people find it very difficult to account for everything that happened in the Gospels, but we did because we were flexible and allowed for humanity to play a role. There were probably at least 5 people who visited Jesus’ tomb that morning, all from different social status’ and different backgrounds. And the ladies told different things because they all witnessed different things all at different times. We must not forget that even though things might not line up exactly as we would think, there is no contradiction or lie in the Bible.
One of the great places that we stopped was Mt. Carmel. This was the mountain where Elijah, in I Kings 18, defeats the prophets of Baal. But more importantly Yahweh defeats Baal. This again brings to attention that it is not man who is fighting the battles, but God. Another great story about that exact thing is in Judges 7. This is where 32,000 men were gathered to fight the Midianites. But the Lord told Gideon that he had to many men for Him to deliver them into Gideon’s hand. So Gideon told the men that if they wanted to, they could go home, and 22,000 men left, leaving 10,000 men. But the Lord said that was too many. So at the Harod Spring, where we visited, Gideon had them drink and the Lord said to keep the men who lapped the water like a dog. And that was 300 men. This was exactly what the Lord wanted. Yahweh is fighting the battle. God did not want the Israelites to say that it was on account of their number and strength that the Midianites were defeated, the glory was to be to God.
There are many other stories and events that happened here in the Jezreel Valley, but these are the ones that stuck out to me today. All of these events clearly show the faithfulness of God. His mercies are new every morning and we can never end praising His name!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
The Chronic-What?-cles of Samaria
Samaria
Our adventures today were mostly centered around Samaria and the Sharon Plain. This is north west of Jerusalem, but south of Mt Carmel. We saw many thought provoking, sites that made you dwell on the glory of God, and the plan that God had to save the world. To start the day we headed straight to Shiloh. Shiloh has two major biblical passages that we looked at so that we could understand the events. First, we need to look at Joshua 18:1-10, 19:51. This passage is where the Tabernacle of the Lord, where the Ark of the Covenant and the table with the showbread, and the altar of incense all stayed. The Tabernacle was set up at Shiloh and the Israelites came there for the apportioning of the territories. Shiloh also remained an important center from this time through the period of the judges.
The Tabernacle would logically be placed at the north end of the city because of the geography. There are valleys that run behind the city and on the side. But more importantly there is some biblical evidence for that. In I Samuel 1-4, when the news that the Ark had been captured, Eli the Priest heard all of the commotion down in the city. So we can assume from that, that the way into the city would have been from the south. And with the layout of the land, this is most probable. And as the story goes, Eli was extremely fat because he was taking the Lord’s fat portion, and when he heard the news, he fell backwards broke his neck and died.
Also in I Samuel we have the story of Hannah, a barren woman who prays to the Lord for a child. When she was praying close to the Tabernacle, Eli the Priest thought that she was drunk for she was praying while just moving her lips and not an audible prayer. Hannah prays for a son and says that she would dedicate him to the Lord. So when God answered her prayer, she gave birth to Samuel, and after he was weaned she dedicated him to the Lord and he grew up to be a judge.
After Shiloh, we made our way to Mt Gerezim with a view down to Shechem and across the valley Mt Ebal. This is the site that impacted me the most. In our Life of Christ class we had just covered the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and one of the first things He does on His whirlwind tour of Israel, He stops in Shechem. During this stop, Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman, and asks her for some water. He continues to tell her that He is the living water, and later in the conversation, claims to be the Messiah. To see the place where this exchange of words happened was unreal to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about how clear Jesus was when He said that He was the Messiah. Because He was so clear, the woman and many more came to be saved in that village. Sometimes I think about how many people would just believe because the message is so clear. I ask myself, “Why don’t they believe? It is so clear!!!” But then I have to remind myself that I did not believe, and the only reason I do believe now is because Christ opened my eyes to the truth.
Soon after that, we went to Caesarea, the port town that Herod the Great built up. This was a beautiful beach city. This is where Paul was brought and shipped out to Rome from. There is some argument that this is where Paul wrote the prison epistles. This is also the place where Herod Agrippa, in Acts 12, was persecuting Christians. James had already been killed at the time and Peter was in prison. And after he made a speech God allowed him to die… a harsh death.
Hospitality can be summed up in one word: Naiel. This is the name of our bus driver who is an Arab believer in Jesus the Messiah. After a long, long day, we are talking thirteen hours, he invited us over for dinner at his house. Feeding one family of eight is an undertaking, but feeding 50 people is something that people don’t just beg to do every day! But he was kind enough to bring us all to his house and make us all dinner. We had some Arab pizza, and fresh pita with chicken. It was very good. Naiel is the man, and we are all thankful for him and his hospitality to us by showing us God’s love in that way. So thank you.
And I'm sorry that there are not any pictures on here. I tried 3 times to put some up but there was some sort of error.
Our adventures today were mostly centered around Samaria and the Sharon Plain. This is north west of Jerusalem, but south of Mt Carmel. We saw many thought provoking, sites that made you dwell on the glory of God, and the plan that God had to save the world. To start the day we headed straight to Shiloh. Shiloh has two major biblical passages that we looked at so that we could understand the events. First, we need to look at Joshua 18:1-10, 19:51. This passage is where the Tabernacle of the Lord, where the Ark of the Covenant and the table with the showbread, and the altar of incense all stayed. The Tabernacle was set up at Shiloh and the Israelites came there for the apportioning of the territories. Shiloh also remained an important center from this time through the period of the judges.
The Tabernacle would logically be placed at the north end of the city because of the geography. There are valleys that run behind the city and on the side. But more importantly there is some biblical evidence for that. In I Samuel 1-4, when the news that the Ark had been captured, Eli the Priest heard all of the commotion down in the city. So we can assume from that, that the way into the city would have been from the south. And with the layout of the land, this is most probable. And as the story goes, Eli was extremely fat because he was taking the Lord’s fat portion, and when he heard the news, he fell backwards broke his neck and died.
Also in I Samuel we have the story of Hannah, a barren woman who prays to the Lord for a child. When she was praying close to the Tabernacle, Eli the Priest thought that she was drunk for she was praying while just moving her lips and not an audible prayer. Hannah prays for a son and says that she would dedicate him to the Lord. So when God answered her prayer, she gave birth to Samuel, and after he was weaned she dedicated him to the Lord and he grew up to be a judge.
After Shiloh, we made our way to Mt Gerezim with a view down to Shechem and across the valley Mt Ebal. This is the site that impacted me the most. In our Life of Christ class we had just covered the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and one of the first things He does on His whirlwind tour of Israel, He stops in Shechem. During this stop, Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman, and asks her for some water. He continues to tell her that He is the living water, and later in the conversation, claims to be the Messiah. To see the place where this exchange of words happened was unreal to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about how clear Jesus was when He said that He was the Messiah. Because He was so clear, the woman and many more came to be saved in that village. Sometimes I think about how many people would just believe because the message is so clear. I ask myself, “Why don’t they believe? It is so clear!!!” But then I have to remind myself that I did not believe, and the only reason I do believe now is because Christ opened my eyes to the truth.
Soon after that, we went to Caesarea, the port town that Herod the Great built up. This was a beautiful beach city. This is where Paul was brought and shipped out to Rome from. There is some argument that this is where Paul wrote the prison epistles. This is also the place where Herod Agrippa, in Acts 12, was persecuting Christians. James had already been killed at the time and Peter was in prison. And after he made a speech God allowed him to die… a harsh death.
Hospitality can be summed up in one word: Naiel. This is the name of our bus driver who is an Arab believer in Jesus the Messiah. After a long, long day, we are talking thirteen hours, he invited us over for dinner at his house. Feeding one family of eight is an undertaking, but feeding 50 people is something that people don’t just beg to do every day! But he was kind enough to bring us all to his house and make us all dinner. We had some Arab pizza, and fresh pita with chicken. It was very good. Naiel is the man, and we are all thankful for him and his hospitality to us by showing us God’s love in that way. So thank you.
And I'm sorry that there are not any pictures on here. I tried 3 times to put some up but there was some sort of error.
En Gedi Trip...
I know I probably will never face such distress like David did when he was fleeing from Saul. I am sure that my enemies will not camp around me. But in my minuscule trials I will find my rest in God.
Sometimes, while reading the Psalms, I can not envision what the circumstances are like. This past Saturday and Sunday I got the opportunity to see firsthand what conditions David was probably in. On Shabbat we all piled in the bus and headed for En Gedi, the spring of the wild goat. It is a city on the banks of the dead sea on the west side of the lake about halfway down. The terrain that surrounds this place is extreme. The dead sea sits about 1300 feet below sea level. And on the east side there is the trans Jordanian plateau that is over 2000 foot climb, and on the west of En Gedi there are jagged peaks and the Ascent of Ziz which leads to Techoa (Close to the Herodian) And we had the chance to hike a little bit of the ascent. The whole area is harsh terrain. With the smell of sulfur in the air and the blazing sun beating down on you like an angry parent, there is little which one can find relief in. Except, in the spring of the wild goat. In David's time, when he was fleeing in the wilderness, there were no camel packs, no ice makers, no refrigerators, no sunblock... he was the real mountain man! So much more would this spring be refreshing to his soul. And we can understand when he talks about as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after You God. This has become more real to me, because after walking up the mountain I was longing for water, but no matter how thirsty I am, that is nothing compared to how I need to be longing after God.
When David says that God is his refuge, and that He gives him shade, he is really tapping into some serious analogies. Being in the place where David was writing these things was amazing because there is little shade in the land, except in the ravines. We hiked down one, and the temperature must have dropped by at least 10 degrees. It was so nice to have some shade from the sun.
God is good, and in his wisdom let David recognize these simple illustrations of the glory of God, in the midst of seemingly dire circumstances. And God is good to let me see the circumstances that David was in when he wrote them. Psalm 18,56,57,63.
In addition to the hike, we all got to swim in the Dead Sea! It was amazing! You really can not sink. I felt like I needed to be putting forth a lot more effort than I was to be able to float the way I was. After swimming, we made a fire on the beach, and Abner gave a devotional on David and the Psalms, and when he was the moon was rising up over the Trans Jordanian Plateau. I took some pictures that I'll post, but it doesn't look like the moon, it looks like a sunrise. But if you look closely you'll be able to see the stars in addition to the moon that looks like the sun.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
SHEPHELAH...
Today was one of the best field trips that we had. The combination of biblical sites and the adventure of spelunking, the excitement of seeing where David fought Goliath, and where he grew up. The Shephelah played a major role in biblical times. It is home to many of the easier routes up to the hill country. There are five major valleys making up the Shephelah, or the “Low Lands”, and those are: the Aijalon valley, Sorek Valley, Elah Valley, Guvrin Valley, and Lachish Valley. These valleys are broad and have very good soil to have crops such as wheat and barley and some of the best grapes come from the vines in these valleys. Each valley has cities that contribute to the significance of role the valley plays.
Since we visited the Aijalon Valley on the Jerusalem approaches trip, we started out with the Sorek Valley. We started out at Beth-Shemesh where we looked at two major events. We looked at Judges 13-16 which involves Samson, and I Samuel 6-7:2 which has to do with the Ark of the Covenant. Beth-Shemesh means House of the Sun. This city was a Canaanite city and was probably named because the inhabitants worshiped their god of the sun. From the tel-Beth Shemesh we could see the broad valley and Timnah in the distance giving some guard to the entrance of the valley. And further than that to the south of Timnah is Ekron, which provides more control of the mouth of the Sorek Valley.
As we were at Beth-Shemesh we read the account of how the Ark of the Covenant was brought up from the Philistine cities up to Kiriat Jearim. This really made me think of the fact that the Lord is in control of everything. The fact that the Ark was taken in the first place, when the Israelite were depending on themselves, and God allowed the Ark to be taken so that the Israelites might repent of their sins, and then the Ark was brought back to them… by some cows. Of all things, cows! Again, this account that was written actually knew all of the terrain, and was a first hand account. There is an emphasis in the coming DOWN from Kiriat Jearim, and taking it back UP to Kriat Jearim. Knowing the geography helps to understand what really happened when we read the Bible.
We then went to Azekah, in the valley of Elah where David and Goliath had their feud. As we stood on the tell on the top of the hill we could clearly see the where they probably were and where Goliath stood every morning taunting the Israelites. The Philistines were camped from where we were standing, at Azekah, all the way to Socoh, and it was really neat seeing how many Philistines were actually there to cover all that ground! From the top we drove down to the brook that goes through the Elah Valley, close to Azekah, probably where David chose the 5 smooth stones to sling at Goliath. After reenacting the events of the fight I realized again how this fight was not David’s or the Israelites, but God’s. That was probably the highlight of the trip… all of these fights were not anyone else’s but the Lords. For example, when the Amorites were chased as far as Azekah with hail stones from the Lord. No one caused that but the Lord.
Working our way southwards we hit Maresha, which is the hometown of the prophet Micah. Here we saw well excavated and preserved Hellenistic and Idumean cities. This was also the spot that is in II Chronicles 14:9-15 that talks about Asa repels an attack by Zerah the Ethopian king.
Lachish was the next spot that we visited. This is where Joshua smote the inhabitants with the edge of the sword. Meaning that he didn’t burn or destroy the city. This is something that helps out with the 1446 exodus from Egypt. Archaeologists who look for burn layers for the Israelite periods are looking for the wrong things because the Lord told them that they would be living in houses that they didn’t build, and reaping fields they didn’t plant. They wouldn’t burn down the cities that they conquered, they would just move into it.
Gath, the hometown of Goliath was the last place that we went to. This was a nice hike up to the tell. And as we were up there you can tell why this was a good city to have. It controlled the entrance to the Elah Valley and you have a commanding view of the coastal plains and the hill country. This was the one of the places fled from Saul. Of all places, this one is ironic, because it was the hometown of Goliath who David killed not too long before he visited the city this time. And this is where David acted insane so that his life would be spared. David was not only thinking about himself when he fled to Gath. Yes, David was fleeing for his life, but he knew that if he were to flee to some other town in Israel, Saul would have punished both David and the people helping him. So he wasn’t just thinking about himself when he came to Gath.
Since we visited the Aijalon Valley on the Jerusalem approaches trip, we started out with the Sorek Valley. We started out at Beth-Shemesh where we looked at two major events. We looked at Judges 13-16 which involves Samson, and I Samuel 6-7:2 which has to do with the Ark of the Covenant. Beth-Shemesh means House of the Sun. This city was a Canaanite city and was probably named because the inhabitants worshiped their god of the sun. From the tel-Beth Shemesh we could see the broad valley and Timnah in the distance giving some guard to the entrance of the valley. And further than that to the south of Timnah is Ekron, which provides more control of the mouth of the Sorek Valley.
As we were at Beth-Shemesh we read the account of how the Ark of the Covenant was brought up from the Philistine cities up to Kiriat Jearim. This really made me think of the fact that the Lord is in control of everything. The fact that the Ark was taken in the first place, when the Israelite were depending on themselves, and God allowed the Ark to be taken so that the Israelites might repent of their sins, and then the Ark was brought back to them… by some cows. Of all things, cows! Again, this account that was written actually knew all of the terrain, and was a first hand account. There is an emphasis in the coming DOWN from Kiriat Jearim, and taking it back UP to Kriat Jearim. Knowing the geography helps to understand what really happened when we read the Bible.
We then went to Azekah, in the valley of Elah where David and Goliath had their feud. As we stood on the tell on the top of the hill we could clearly see the where they probably were and where Goliath stood every morning taunting the Israelites. The Philistines were camped from where we were standing, at Azekah, all the way to Socoh, and it was really neat seeing how many Philistines were actually there to cover all that ground! From the top we drove down to the brook that goes through the Elah Valley, close to Azekah, probably where David chose the 5 smooth stones to sling at Goliath. After reenacting the events of the fight I realized again how this fight was not David’s or the Israelites, but God’s. That was probably the highlight of the trip… all of these fights were not anyone else’s but the Lords. For example, when the Amorites were chased as far as Azekah with hail stones from the Lord. No one caused that but the Lord.
Working our way southwards we hit Maresha, which is the hometown of the prophet Micah. Here we saw well excavated and preserved Hellenistic and Idumean cities. This was also the spot that is in II Chronicles 14:9-15 that talks about Asa repels an attack by Zerah the Ethopian king.
Lachish was the next spot that we visited. This is where Joshua smote the inhabitants with the edge of the sword. Meaning that he didn’t burn or destroy the city. This is something that helps out with the 1446 exodus from Egypt. Archaeologists who look for burn layers for the Israelite periods are looking for the wrong things because the Lord told them that they would be living in houses that they didn’t build, and reaping fields they didn’t plant. They wouldn’t burn down the cities that they conquered, they would just move into it.
Gath, the hometown of Goliath was the last place that we went to. This was a nice hike up to the tell. And as we were up there you can tell why this was a good city to have. It controlled the entrance to the Elah Valley and you have a commanding view of the coastal plains and the hill country. This was the one of the places fled from Saul. Of all places, this one is ironic, because it was the hometown of Goliath who David killed not too long before he visited the city this time. And this is where David acted insane so that his life would be spared. David was not only thinking about himself when he fled to Gath. Yes, David was fleeing for his life, but he knew that if he were to flee to some other town in Israel, Saul would have punished both David and the people helping him. So he wasn’t just thinking about himself when he came to Gath.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Bethphage to Herodian...
Matt Davis
Land & Bible
9.19.07
Jerusalem Approaches
It never ceases to amaze me when I can catch a glimpse of God’s genius. Today it was a glimpse at His planning of the land of His chosen people, Israel. We were focusing on the approaches or routes that lead to Jerusalem. From the beginning God had a plan for the layout of the country and the geography plays a huge role in Israel’s success and protection. From the east, coming from Jericho, on the Ascent of Adumim anyone traveling would have to go over the Mount of Olives. And of course any travel in the land of Israel is going to be, for the majority of the time, will be on the ridges. Travel will rarely be in the valleys, just because it is harder to go up and down in elevation.
Our first stop on the Mount of Olives was at Bethphage in garden overlooking Bethany. Bethany was where Jesus raised Lazarus up from the dead in John 11. And if you think about it one of the most amazing miracles. I mean if someone has power over death in that one instance it is very convincing, this is one of the reasons why many saw and believed in Jesus. This miracle goes against the grain when it comes to the publicity that it received. In Jesus’ ministry He would be telling people to not tell anyone about these miracles that He was performing. But this one was different. Messengers came to Jesus and told Him that he was sick, but Jesus waits 2 days before He sets His sights on Bethany. And during His journey Lazarus dies and Mary comes to tell Him. Now Jesus knew that this was going to happen, and that there were going to be people following Him to Bethany, and He also knew that there would be mourners there. So as the people were there watching and listening to what Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!” they would have thought he was crazy. But this was to prove His authority over sin.
Many other events in the life of Christ happened on the Mount of Olives. Jesus’ ascension takes place here, as well as the start of the triumphal entry, and the Olivet discourse. Many aspects of these events that I have never thought about were helpful to me today. Take the ascension for instance, I have never really thought about how that really happened. Did Jesus just take off like a rocket ship and go up into the sky, go through the atmosphere, up past the moon, past Pluto, and off until the people couldn’t see Him anymore? Well, the bible says that He was taken up into a cloud and the cloud is what probably took him away. And this event is how He will return, which is exciting.
After the Mount of Olives we headed to the Ketef Hinnom, or the Shoulder of Hinnom, where two silver amulets were found with the oldest inscription of biblical text. The priestly blessing from Numbers 6 is what is found on them. This archaeological find really hurts liberal scholars who want to say that the Pentateuch was written later, because of the age of the inscription which is 600 B.C.
One of the most impressive places we visited was the Herodian. This was a fortress that Herod built up for himself on an existing hill making it on very high ground. He could see the dead sea and the back side of the Mount of Olives. From Josephus’ writings we find our that he wanted to make a memorial for himself, and so he decorates it very extravagantly. This is where Herod wanted to be buried. Archelaus’s, Herod’s son, brought out all Herod's ornaments to adorn the pomp of the funeral. And Josephus goes on to describe all of the things that went into putting on this funeral: purple robes, gold, jewels, diadems on his head, and a scepter in his right hand. This was the King of the Jews (politically speaking), and no one liked him at all. Now contrast that with Jesus King of the Jews (spiritually speaking) who rivaled Herod at age 2. Jesus barely got a tomb to be buried in and He is the one who can save a soul. The radical nature of Jesus’ humility is so convicting to my own heart. This is not to say that Jesus will never be the ultimate king and rule over all with all authority, but his first coming showed us His humility. And at Christ’s “lowest” point here on earth, that was really His greatest time. He conquered death and sin. Herod’s highest point could never compare to anything Jesus did.
Thinking about Christ’s work on the cross should make us love Him more and more. This is the man that saved our souls. This is the man we worship. This is the man that cares for us. This is the man that is our king. What an amazing God we serve.
Land & Bible
9.19.07
Jerusalem Approaches
It never ceases to amaze me when I can catch a glimpse of God’s genius. Today it was a glimpse at His planning of the land of His chosen people, Israel. We were focusing on the approaches or routes that lead to Jerusalem. From the beginning God had a plan for the layout of the country and the geography plays a huge role in Israel’s success and protection. From the east, coming from Jericho, on the Ascent of Adumim anyone traveling would have to go over the Mount of Olives. And of course any travel in the land of Israel is going to be, for the majority of the time, will be on the ridges. Travel will rarely be in the valleys, just because it is harder to go up and down in elevation.
Our first stop on the Mount of Olives was at Bethphage in garden overlooking Bethany. Bethany was where Jesus raised Lazarus up from the dead in John 11. And if you think about it one of the most amazing miracles. I mean if someone has power over death in that one instance it is very convincing, this is one of the reasons why many saw and believed in Jesus. This miracle goes against the grain when it comes to the publicity that it received. In Jesus’ ministry He would be telling people to not tell anyone about these miracles that He was performing. But this one was different. Messengers came to Jesus and told Him that he was sick, but Jesus waits 2 days before He sets His sights on Bethany. And during His journey Lazarus dies and Mary comes to tell Him. Now Jesus knew that this was going to happen, and that there were going to be people following Him to Bethany, and He also knew that there would be mourners there. So as the people were there watching and listening to what Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!” they would have thought he was crazy. But this was to prove His authority over sin.
Many other events in the life of Christ happened on the Mount of Olives. Jesus’ ascension takes place here, as well as the start of the triumphal entry, and the Olivet discourse. Many aspects of these events that I have never thought about were helpful to me today. Take the ascension for instance, I have never really thought about how that really happened. Did Jesus just take off like a rocket ship and go up into the sky, go through the atmosphere, up past the moon, past Pluto, and off until the people couldn’t see Him anymore? Well, the bible says that He was taken up into a cloud and the cloud is what probably took him away. And this event is how He will return, which is exciting.
After the Mount of Olives we headed to the Ketef Hinnom, or the Shoulder of Hinnom, where two silver amulets were found with the oldest inscription of biblical text. The priestly blessing from Numbers 6 is what is found on them. This archaeological find really hurts liberal scholars who want to say that the Pentateuch was written later, because of the age of the inscription which is 600 B.C.
One of the most impressive places we visited was the Herodian. This was a fortress that Herod built up for himself on an existing hill making it on very high ground. He could see the dead sea and the back side of the Mount of Olives. From Josephus’ writings we find our that he wanted to make a memorial for himself, and so he decorates it very extravagantly. This is where Herod wanted to be buried. Archelaus’s, Herod’s son, brought out all Herod's ornaments to adorn the pomp of the funeral. And Josephus goes on to describe all of the things that went into putting on this funeral: purple robes, gold, jewels, diadems on his head, and a scepter in his right hand. This was the King of the Jews (politically speaking), and no one liked him at all. Now contrast that with Jesus King of the Jews (spiritually speaking) who rivaled Herod at age 2. Jesus barely got a tomb to be buried in and He is the one who can save a soul. The radical nature of Jesus’ humility is so convicting to my own heart. This is not to say that Jesus will never be the ultimate king and rule over all with all authority, but his first coming showed us His humility. And at Christ’s “lowest” point here on earth, that was really His greatest time. He conquered death and sin. Herod’s highest point could never compare to anything Jesus did.
Thinking about Christ’s work on the cross should make us love Him more and more. This is the man that saved our souls. This is the man we worship. This is the man that cares for us. This is the man that is our king. What an amazing God we serve.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Rosh Hashana...
Soon enough we will have a free day here in Israel. We have been going on adventures, either out in the field or in the classroom for the last couple weeks. This week was Rosh Hashana, which is the Jewish New Year, and Biblically it is the feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:23). We have been learning a lot about what these festivals actually mean. The word for feast in Leviticus 23 is better translated times. So in the beginning of the chapter it would read more accurately, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed times of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed times." Following this verse are several different days that God had told the Israelites to set aside for an appointment with God, such as the Sabbath, Passover, feast of firstfruits, feast of weeks, feast of trumpets, day of atonement, and the feast of booths.
Why are there appointed times if God is approachable every day? It was explained to me this way: Say I'm friends with my doctor, Dr. Smith, and I saw Dr. Smith on the street today. And we chatted it up, and we talked about the family, sports, polar caps, etc. I talked to him very casually and about things that were important at the time. But lets say I had an appointment next Monday with Dr. Smith and I just didn't show up. I knew I had an appointment because it was in my planner, and it was also in Dr. Smith's planner. And the receptionist and Dr. Smith was counting on me to show up, so I would get charged for missing the appointment. You see, Dr. Smith is still Dr. Smith when we met on the street, but next Monday I planned on seeing him in a different context.
So these different days that are celebrated by the Jewish people were appointed by God. Romans 14:5-6 says, "One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and he gives thanks to God." What does this mean for us today? I would say that you have to be aware of God who has given you the day to live and recognize that HE is holy and give thanks for that.
Coming up on Saturday is another holiday for the Jews, and that is Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. This is exciting because if falls on a Shabbat, and in Israel (minus the Arab's, who are also celebrating Ramadan) the country will pretty much shut down and everyone will be inside. So I think I might go play on the highway because there won't be any cars on it!
I meant to actually talk more about our trip to Ashkelon last Saturday, but I got rambling, so I'll write another one recapping that within the next couple of days.
Why are there appointed times if God is approachable every day? It was explained to me this way: Say I'm friends with my doctor, Dr. Smith, and I saw Dr. Smith on the street today. And we chatted it up, and we talked about the family, sports, polar caps, etc. I talked to him very casually and about things that were important at the time. But lets say I had an appointment next Monday with Dr. Smith and I just didn't show up. I knew I had an appointment because it was in my planner, and it was also in Dr. Smith's planner. And the receptionist and Dr. Smith was counting on me to show up, so I would get charged for missing the appointment. You see, Dr. Smith is still Dr. Smith when we met on the street, but next Monday I planned on seeing him in a different context.
So these different days that are celebrated by the Jewish people were appointed by God. Romans 14:5-6 says, "One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and he gives thanks to God." What does this mean for us today? I would say that you have to be aware of God who has given you the day to live and recognize that HE is holy and give thanks for that.
Coming up on Saturday is another holiday for the Jews, and that is Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. This is exciting because if falls on a Shabbat, and in Israel (minus the Arab's, who are also celebrating Ramadan) the country will pretty much shut down and everyone will be inside. So I think I might go play on the highway because there won't be any cars on it!
I meant to actually talk more about our trip to Ashkelon last Saturday, but I got rambling, so I'll write another one recapping that within the next couple of days.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Benjamin... the land between
Matt Davis
Land & Bible
9.12.07
Field Report #4
Mission: Possible. What was the mission, you ask. It was to explore and learn about the land allotment of the tribe of Benjamin along with the “front door” to Jerusalem. These field trips really start the class before we actually go on to the field, in the classroom. We learned in the classroom about the verses that actually are assigning the land to Benjamin. In Joshua 18:11 we learn that the lot of Benjamin, “fell between” the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. And also we learned about the different routes that cut east and west between Jericho to Jerusalem to the coastal plains.
In the following verses in Joshua they tell about how Benjamin is “in between”, it goes into great detail about the boundaries of the territory. I mean it really goes into detail. This is one of the evidences we have as to the authenticity of this account. It shows that this was written by an eyewitness. Because why would someone who was writing this a century later write in such detail? And if someone tried they would probably mess up on certain things that only eyewitnesses would recall.
We started out our day at near Kiriat Jaarim, which is near the border of Benjamin and Dan. Heading due west we went down into the Aijilon Valley, which is the next valley north of the Sorek Valley. We stopped briefly at Emmaus, which is not the city where the two disciples were heading for when Jesus, after the resurrection, appeared to them. The explanation to why this was not the site really made me think about how important it is to learn the original languages, and to actually study traditions and figure out where they really came from.
One thing that we have learned here in the land of Israel is that travel is on the ridges, and out of the valleys. This is important because the geography of the land changes so drastically and you can really tell why it is such a big deal to find the easiest way from point A to point B. Definitely one of the easiest ways to get from the coastal plains through the mountains is the Beth Horon Ridge route. This is because it continuously follows a single ridge. There is not really any loss in elevation once you get on it. It goes straight up. The bible says that this route is where Amorites flee from the Israelites led by Joshua, and large hailstones fell at the Ascent of Beth Horon. This is also the same occasion where Joshua prayed to God for the sun to stand still at Gibeon and the moon in the Valley of Aijilon, which is visible from the ridge route. Thinking about these miraculous things that hadn’t happened before or since then, made me meditate on the magnitude of God. When we got out of the bus, and we were standing there listening to Bill talk on the route, I saw a praying mantis, and I thought about how God is big enough to control the weather, in a way that is more like a sniper in battle, picking off the Amorites. But yet God cares so much about that little mantis, to give it food, and to make everything work in his body. And so how much more about me to give me salvation. Wow.
So after meditating on how awesome God is, we worked our way over onto the other side of Israel. The eastern side of Israel has its own beauty which is like none other. After being on the western side of the hill country where it is green and beautiful, and receiving the western breeze off the Mediterranean, I don’t think that I was prepared for the wilderness. The contrast between the two places is incredible. Wandering for 40 years (even though it wasn’t exactly the same) seems a little more real to me now that I know what the wilderness is.
We were at Jericho, and got to see the tell (a mound where a city is built over another) where the ancient city was. And while we were marching around the city like the Israelites, Abner wanted to point something out to us. In one of the layers in excavations there was a pot that had been discovered. And this pot was pretty much in tact. It was broken, but the dirt around it held its form. And when they discovered this, there was ash in it and this ash turned out to be burnt wheat. This would seem weird to the excavators, because why would one burn their grain, that’s a waste. But this layer dated back to the 1400’s BC, and what happened then? Joshua led the conquest of Jericho! And since God told them that none of the booty was to be kept for themselves, everything got burned. This really puts a cramp in liberal scholars’ style, especially about the date for the Exodus. This was also a reminder that God is really in control. And when God is fighting for you, who can be against you?
Sorry about no pics on this one... I'll try and get them up soon. But I have loads of homework to do!!! bah!:)
Land & Bible
9.12.07
Field Report #4
Mission: Possible. What was the mission, you ask. It was to explore and learn about the land allotment of the tribe of Benjamin along with the “front door” to Jerusalem. These field trips really start the class before we actually go on to the field, in the classroom. We learned in the classroom about the verses that actually are assigning the land to Benjamin. In Joshua 18:11 we learn that the lot of Benjamin, “fell between” the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. And also we learned about the different routes that cut east and west between Jericho to Jerusalem to the coastal plains.
In the following verses in Joshua they tell about how Benjamin is “in between”, it goes into great detail about the boundaries of the territory. I mean it really goes into detail. This is one of the evidences we have as to the authenticity of this account. It shows that this was written by an eyewitness. Because why would someone who was writing this a century later write in such detail? And if someone tried they would probably mess up on certain things that only eyewitnesses would recall.
We started out our day at near Kiriat Jaarim, which is near the border of Benjamin and Dan. Heading due west we went down into the Aijilon Valley, which is the next valley north of the Sorek Valley. We stopped briefly at Emmaus, which is not the city where the two disciples were heading for when Jesus, after the resurrection, appeared to them. The explanation to why this was not the site really made me think about how important it is to learn the original languages, and to actually study traditions and figure out where they really came from.
One thing that we have learned here in the land of Israel is that travel is on the ridges, and out of the valleys. This is important because the geography of the land changes so drastically and you can really tell why it is such a big deal to find the easiest way from point A to point B. Definitely one of the easiest ways to get from the coastal plains through the mountains is the Beth Horon Ridge route. This is because it continuously follows a single ridge. There is not really any loss in elevation once you get on it. It goes straight up. The bible says that this route is where Amorites flee from the Israelites led by Joshua, and large hailstones fell at the Ascent of Beth Horon. This is also the same occasion where Joshua prayed to God for the sun to stand still at Gibeon and the moon in the Valley of Aijilon, which is visible from the ridge route. Thinking about these miraculous things that hadn’t happened before or since then, made me meditate on the magnitude of God. When we got out of the bus, and we were standing there listening to Bill talk on the route, I saw a praying mantis, and I thought about how God is big enough to control the weather, in a way that is more like a sniper in battle, picking off the Amorites. But yet God cares so much about that little mantis, to give it food, and to make everything work in his body. And so how much more about me to give me salvation. Wow.
So after meditating on how awesome God is, we worked our way over onto the other side of Israel. The eastern side of Israel has its own beauty which is like none other. After being on the western side of the hill country where it is green and beautiful, and receiving the western breeze off the Mediterranean, I don’t think that I was prepared for the wilderness. The contrast between the two places is incredible. Wandering for 40 years (even though it wasn’t exactly the same) seems a little more real to me now that I know what the wilderness is.
We were at Jericho, and got to see the tell (a mound where a city is built over another) where the ancient city was. And while we were marching around the city like the Israelites, Abner wanted to point something out to us. In one of the layers in excavations there was a pot that had been discovered. And this pot was pretty much in tact. It was broken, but the dirt around it held its form. And when they discovered this, there was ash in it and this ash turned out to be burnt wheat. This would seem weird to the excavators, because why would one burn their grain, that’s a waste. But this layer dated back to the 1400’s BC, and what happened then? Joshua led the conquest of Jericho! And since God told them that none of the booty was to be kept for themselves, everything got burned. This really puts a cramp in liberal scholars’ style, especially about the date for the Exodus. This was also a reminder that God is really in control. And when God is fighting for you, who can be against you?
Sorry about no pics on this one... I'll try and get them up soon. But I have loads of homework to do!!! bah!:)
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Multiple Views...
As you know I am not the only one here in Israel learning and studying. I hope that you guys check out other blogs of my fellow IBEX members. John Lafferty, my room mate has a blog: http://laffertyjr1.blogspot.com/ called the Fourth Star Will Not Fall.
Theo Low also my room mate has another blog: http://theoldenglish.blogspot.com/ called Looking Back to the Mercy Tree
Steve Crawford also has a blog: http://stephencrawford.wordpress.com/ called Commentary on a Vapor, Vo. IV
I hope you enjoy a different perspective on time spent in Israel. Shalom
Theo Low also my room mate has another blog: http://theoldenglish.blogspot.com/ called Looking Back to the Mercy Tree
Steve Crawford also has a blog: http://stephencrawford.wordpress.com/ called Commentary on a Vapor, Vo. IV
I hope you enjoy a different perspective on time spent in Israel. Shalom
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Out for a stroll...
Matt Davis
9.5.07
Land and Bible
Field Report NT Walk
Am I tired? Well, to be honest, yes. And that’s for good reason. Last night started the adventure that is known as the New Testament walk in Jerusalem. Everyone left the Moshav at 5:30 to go to the Israel Museum which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, a model of Jerusalem c. 70 AD, and other artifacts.
On the way to the museum, we were reviewing our facts about the city of Jerusalem and all of the dates. And Bill was preparing us for what we were about to see. He told us that it was going to be about the size of two tennis courts. I couldn’t really comprehend what that was going to be like so I didn’t think too much on that fact. Well, it was amazing when we approached the model because we came up to it as if we were up on the Mount of Olives, looking down on the temple mount. We have seen other models before, probably about 3 other ones, but this one struck me so much because I really felt that it was more real. I thought on how Jesus walked up the Southern steps up to the temple. I thought about how He was at the pool of Siloam. I thought how he walked the streets and people followed. The unique thing about this model was that it wasn’t so small that you really couldn’t relate to it, but at the same time it made it a lot more manageable than the real thing. Sometimes even though I know the map of Jerusalem, while I’m in the city I feel so dwarfed by the buildings looming over my head.
(This is a 46 picture collage of the model of Jerusalem. Thanks to Darren Wright who gave me the software to blend all of the pictures)
You were able to see clearly the Antonia Fortress guarding the northern entrance to the Temple, and the Citadel on the west side of the city, modern day Jaffa gate. It was clear that the houses on the western hill were definitely more expensive. That whole quarter had the huge houses, theaters, and large wide roads. This model was amazing, and taught me a lot about the lay out and plans of the city.
We then made our way over to the building that houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are about 800 scrolls discovered and about a quarter of them were books of the bible. These scrolls are very important because we can use them as a textual critic. One of the best examples is of the book of Isaiah. Of the several copies of Isaiah found there were the minutest of variances, such as a missing “kadosh” (holy) in a Holy, Holy, Holy passage. And we can also compare it to what we have today. And the differences are so small. Meaning that the scribes who wrote it down made it an essential to make everything as perfect as possible. This also means that we have the closest copy of the OT as the people who were living in 100 BC.
Later that night we had a unique opportunity to walk along the western wall of the temple mount. This is all underground beneath the Muslim quarter. We were able to walk on a Roman crafted road, and to see the colossal size of some of the stones used in the foundation of the wall. There was one that was about 500 tons. No crane can lift that currently. We were all pretty tired at this point because in was midnight.
After spending the night in the New City, we started off the day with a walk up on the temple mount itself. The place where the Temple was built. We refreshed our history of the mount as well, noting that Mount Moriah was the place God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and the place where David bought the threshing floor from a Gentile, for Solomon to build (II Chor). Solomon’s Temple which was built in 966 BC lasted until 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed it. Another was built and then destroyed in 70 AD. Since approximately 700 AD, the Dome of the Rock has stood there as a Muslim monument. It is making a statement in Jerusalem saying that Islam is the last revelation by God through Mohammed His prophet. They wanted to build something that was bigger than the other buildings in the area.
We then “thought upon [God’s] mercy in the midst of His temple”. Praying and thanking God for His mercies so fresh every morning. For the good times and bad. Rejoicing in the fact that He saved us. This was impacting because I was just thinking about when the curtain in the Holy of Holies tore down the center, making a way to God. I was sitting a few hundred feet away from where it used to be, and I was praying to the God who dwelt in that place, where only the high priest could go once a year. It was amazing.
After such an awesome time we went to see the ruins of the southern steps up to, what would have been, two sets of gates into the temple mount in Jesus’ day. And on the steps of ascent, we read some Psalms of ascent. We read Psalm 120-22, 34-35. To be reading that where most likely those same Psalms would have been read is such a privilege. These steps are also, most likely were Peter and John walked up and a lame man asked them for some money, and they said to him that they had no silver or gold but in the name of Yeshua Hameshia, get up and walk! And that’s exactly what he did.
I can tell from only a little over a week here in Israel that my imagination is being sanctified. I can more clearly see what bible stories are made of. I can see the situation that people were in, desperately seeking for a savior. Most people looking for a political savior, but also many actually receiving the priestly savior, who saved their souls and gave them life. Who gave me life.
We also stopped in the Jewish quarter to see some rich parts of town where probably priests lived. This was probably also a similar type house where Jesus was brought to after he was arrested (Luke 22). The courtyard was the scene for when Peter denied Christ. These priestly houses were remarkable, they had intricate mosaics, large rooms, many baths, and antiques. There was found in one of the houses a Babylonian alabaster jar antique. The total square footage was around 6000 sq. ft. So they weren’t really houses, but mansions.
Tired? Yes. But it is totally worth every sore muscle and every drop of sweat. What an amazing opportunity to understand the Bible better.
9.5.07
Land and Bible
Field Report NT Walk
Am I tired? Well, to be honest, yes. And that’s for good reason. Last night started the adventure that is known as the New Testament walk in Jerusalem. Everyone left the Moshav at 5:30 to go to the Israel Museum which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, a model of Jerusalem c. 70 AD, and other artifacts.
On the way to the museum, we were reviewing our facts about the city of Jerusalem and all of the dates. And Bill was preparing us for what we were about to see. He told us that it was going to be about the size of two tennis courts. I couldn’t really comprehend what that was going to be like so I didn’t think too much on that fact. Well, it was amazing when we approached the model because we came up to it as if we were up on the Mount of Olives, looking down on the temple mount. We have seen other models before, probably about 3 other ones, but this one struck me so much because I really felt that it was more real. I thought on how Jesus walked up the Southern steps up to the temple. I thought about how He was at the pool of Siloam. I thought how he walked the streets and people followed. The unique thing about this model was that it wasn’t so small that you really couldn’t relate to it, but at the same time it made it a lot more manageable than the real thing. Sometimes even though I know the map of Jerusalem, while I’m in the city I feel so dwarfed by the buildings looming over my head.
(This is a 46 picture collage of the model of Jerusalem. Thanks to Darren Wright who gave me the software to blend all of the pictures)
You were able to see clearly the Antonia Fortress guarding the northern entrance to the Temple, and the Citadel on the west side of the city, modern day Jaffa gate. It was clear that the houses on the western hill were definitely more expensive. That whole quarter had the huge houses, theaters, and large wide roads. This model was amazing, and taught me a lot about the lay out and plans of the city.
We then made our way over to the building that houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are about 800 scrolls discovered and about a quarter of them were books of the bible. These scrolls are very important because we can use them as a textual critic. One of the best examples is of the book of Isaiah. Of the several copies of Isaiah found there were the minutest of variances, such as a missing “kadosh” (holy) in a Holy, Holy, Holy passage. And we can also compare it to what we have today. And the differences are so small. Meaning that the scribes who wrote it down made it an essential to make everything as perfect as possible. This also means that we have the closest copy of the OT as the people who were living in 100 BC.
Later that night we had a unique opportunity to walk along the western wall of the temple mount. This is all underground beneath the Muslim quarter. We were able to walk on a Roman crafted road, and to see the colossal size of some of the stones used in the foundation of the wall. There was one that was about 500 tons. No crane can lift that currently. We were all pretty tired at this point because in was midnight.
After spending the night in the New City, we started off the day with a walk up on the temple mount itself. The place where the Temple was built. We refreshed our history of the mount as well, noting that Mount Moriah was the place God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and the place where David bought the threshing floor from a Gentile, for Solomon to build (II Chor). Solomon’s Temple which was built in 966 BC lasted until 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed it. Another was built and then destroyed in 70 AD. Since approximately 700 AD, the Dome of the Rock has stood there as a Muslim monument. It is making a statement in Jerusalem saying that Islam is the last revelation by God through Mohammed His prophet. They wanted to build something that was bigger than the other buildings in the area.
We then “thought upon [God’s] mercy in the midst of His temple”. Praying and thanking God for His mercies so fresh every morning. For the good times and bad. Rejoicing in the fact that He saved us. This was impacting because I was just thinking about when the curtain in the Holy of Holies tore down the center, making a way to God. I was sitting a few hundred feet away from where it used to be, and I was praying to the God who dwelt in that place, where only the high priest could go once a year. It was amazing.
After such an awesome time we went to see the ruins of the southern steps up to, what would have been, two sets of gates into the temple mount in Jesus’ day. And on the steps of ascent, we read some Psalms of ascent. We read Psalm 120-22, 34-35. To be reading that where most likely those same Psalms would have been read is such a privilege. These steps are also, most likely were Peter and John walked up and a lame man asked them for some money, and they said to him that they had no silver or gold but in the name of Yeshua Hameshia, get up and walk! And that’s exactly what he did.
I can tell from only a little over a week here in Israel that my imagination is being sanctified. I can more clearly see what bible stories are made of. I can see the situation that people were in, desperately seeking for a savior. Most people looking for a political savior, but also many actually receiving the priestly savior, who saved their souls and gave them life. Who gave me life.
We also stopped in the Jewish quarter to see some rich parts of town where probably priests lived. This was probably also a similar type house where Jesus was brought to after he was arrested (Luke 22). The courtyard was the scene for when Peter denied Christ. These priestly houses were remarkable, they had intricate mosaics, large rooms, many baths, and antiques. There was found in one of the houses a Babylonian alabaster jar antique. The total square footage was around 6000 sq. ft. So they weren’t really houses, but mansions.
Tired? Yes. But it is totally worth every sore muscle and every drop of sweat. What an amazing opportunity to understand the Bible better.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Many Misconceptions...
Matt Davis
9.2.07
Land & Bible
Jerusalem OT Walk
Though the city is small, Jerusalem has something to offer every single time that you go. There is so much history and there are so many things to see. Today we really tried to focus on Old Testament happenings in the city. Some very thought provoking sights were King Hezekiah’s broad wall, the “Upper Room”, and the City of David.
We started out the day with a little devotional thought to set our minds on what we were going to be doing today. As usual we sang the song “Hodu Adoni” and it is quickly becoming my favorite Hebrew song. We left Moshe, our faithful bus driver, and headed towards Jaffa Gate, and when we entered the old city we made our way into the Jewish quarter. There, our first stop was at The Broad Wall, or Hezekiah’s wall. In recent excavations, archeologists have found what is believed to be what II Chronicles talks about in chapter 32 verse 1-5. In verse five it talks about how Hezekiah raised towers and outside the broken wall he built another wall, and he made weapons and shields. I was really thinking that whole time on the magnitude of the wall. First off, I’m not used to seeing any walled city, so seeing a wall that is twenty feet thick and made of these huge boulders is pretty amazing. This was in anticipation for the Assyrian king’s attack.
These walls were pretty much all left intact underneath the ground, and built on top of because of the strong foundation it provides. These are stones that are dating back a long time, so it is a good thing to build on a foundation that can take thousands of years of abuse.
We then stopped at a little gallery or museum that had a model of Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time. It was similar to the Gettysburg map that lights up and shows different keystone points in battle. This one was showed many highlights of the city. Such as, the Gihon Spring, the palaces, the temple, and the northern gate. I was just thinking of how good God is to His people, just the fact that His city is still around.
We had a discussion inside the museum about why the temple was built on the north side of Jerusalem when that is the most vulnerable side. And Bill’s answer hit me like a ton of bricks. He said that probably there is a sense of non-logic to it, just because that was just one more thing to trust God in at the time. There is no real reason except that’s where God said to build it. Mount Moriah was also the place where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac. So there is a little bit of reason, but for the most part God told them to build it there. Our God is an amazing God.
After the model, we went to a church that is said to be built on the place where the Last Supper happened. This again was an enlightening time. Luke 22:7-20 gives the account of that night. Bill was talking about how it probably didn’t happen like DaVinci’s painting portrays it. They were probably at 4 or 5 tables sitting on cushions and there were most likely women and children there. For after all, Passover was a teaching opportunity. That was why the Jews would celebrate it. But no longer would it be celebrated in remembrance of the Egyptian Exodus, but now we do it in remembrance of Yeshua.
In Jeremiah 7:30-34 in talks about the Valley of Hinnom and what people were doing there. They were worshipping idols, and “burn[ing] their sons and daughter in the fire”, just a whole lot of evil going down there. And Jeremiah later records the Lord’s response to the evil: God’s judgment comes swiftly. So henceforth it will be known as the Valley of Slaughter. So Gehena in the NT would be known as a symbol, not a continuously burning fire. It couldn’t be for several reasons. One, there is no archeological evidence, such as ash, or burnt rocks, etc. Two, think about the trash of 2000 years ago… not much more than broken pottery or bricks. There wasn’t much flammability to the waste. And lastly, Gehena is on the western side of the city. The prevailing wind is from the west. Burning trash and a wind to blow it over the city would be a no go. So we can assume that this is a symbol of God putting an end to sin when it talks about where the worm never dies.
In conclusion to the OT walk we went to the City of David, which is outside the Old City walls that were built by the Turks. We saw a step stone structure and walked Hezekiah’s tunnel. The Gihon spring is a natural water source for the City of David and the tunnel was used to bring water into Siloam. The plan was for two groups of diggers to start at both sides, from the spring and from the pool, and to meet in the middle. We are talking about 1700 feet of digging through limestone. And it isn’t a straight line. There is an inscription of when the two groups met that was discovered by two boys from a neighboring Arab town, that describes the event of when the groups met. It is now in the Turkish museum. It talked about how when they were about 3 meters apart they could hear each other. What an exciting day that must have been!
Well, the water was freezing and the tunnel was definitely not made for broad shouldered men such as myself. A lot of ducking, scraped elbows, and a few knots in the head from standing up, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
9.2.07
Land & Bible
Jerusalem OT Walk
Though the city is small, Jerusalem has something to offer every single time that you go. There is so much history and there are so many things to see. Today we really tried to focus on Old Testament happenings in the city. Some very thought provoking sights were King Hezekiah’s broad wall, the “Upper Room”, and the City of David.
We started out the day with a little devotional thought to set our minds on what we were going to be doing today. As usual we sang the song “Hodu Adoni” and it is quickly becoming my favorite Hebrew song. We left Moshe, our faithful bus driver, and headed towards Jaffa Gate, and when we entered the old city we made our way into the Jewish quarter. There, our first stop was at The Broad Wall, or Hezekiah’s wall. In recent excavations, archeologists have found what is believed to be what II Chronicles talks about in chapter 32 verse 1-5. In verse five it talks about how Hezekiah raised towers and outside the broken wall he built another wall, and he made weapons and shields. I was really thinking that whole time on the magnitude of the wall. First off, I’m not used to seeing any walled city, so seeing a wall that is twenty feet thick and made of these huge boulders is pretty amazing. This was in anticipation for the Assyrian king’s attack.
These walls were pretty much all left intact underneath the ground, and built on top of because of the strong foundation it provides. These are stones that are dating back a long time, so it is a good thing to build on a foundation that can take thousands of years of abuse.
We then stopped at a little gallery or museum that had a model of Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time. It was similar to the Gettysburg map that lights up and shows different keystone points in battle. This one was showed many highlights of the city. Such as, the Gihon Spring, the palaces, the temple, and the northern gate. I was just thinking of how good God is to His people, just the fact that His city is still around.
We had a discussion inside the museum about why the temple was built on the north side of Jerusalem when that is the most vulnerable side. And Bill’s answer hit me like a ton of bricks. He said that probably there is a sense of non-logic to it, just because that was just one more thing to trust God in at the time. There is no real reason except that’s where God said to build it. Mount Moriah was also the place where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac. So there is a little bit of reason, but for the most part God told them to build it there. Our God is an amazing God.
After the model, we went to a church that is said to be built on the place where the Last Supper happened. This again was an enlightening time. Luke 22:7-20 gives the account of that night. Bill was talking about how it probably didn’t happen like DaVinci’s painting portrays it. They were probably at 4 or 5 tables sitting on cushions and there were most likely women and children there. For after all, Passover was a teaching opportunity. That was why the Jews would celebrate it. But no longer would it be celebrated in remembrance of the Egyptian Exodus, but now we do it in remembrance of Yeshua.
In Jeremiah 7:30-34 in talks about the Valley of Hinnom and what people were doing there. They were worshipping idols, and “burn[ing] their sons and daughter in the fire”, just a whole lot of evil going down there. And Jeremiah later records the Lord’s response to the evil: God’s judgment comes swiftly. So henceforth it will be known as the Valley of Slaughter. So Gehena in the NT would be known as a symbol, not a continuously burning fire. It couldn’t be for several reasons. One, there is no archeological evidence, such as ash, or burnt rocks, etc. Two, think about the trash of 2000 years ago… not much more than broken pottery or bricks. There wasn’t much flammability to the waste. And lastly, Gehena is on the western side of the city. The prevailing wind is from the west. Burning trash and a wind to blow it over the city would be a no go. So we can assume that this is a symbol of God putting an end to sin when it talks about where the worm never dies.
In conclusion to the OT walk we went to the City of David, which is outside the Old City walls that were built by the Turks. We saw a step stone structure and walked Hezekiah’s tunnel. The Gihon spring is a natural water source for the City of David and the tunnel was used to bring water into Siloam. The plan was for two groups of diggers to start at both sides, from the spring and from the pool, and to meet in the middle. We are talking about 1700 feet of digging through limestone. And it isn’t a straight line. There is an inscription of when the two groups met that was discovered by two boys from a neighboring Arab town, that describes the event of when the groups met. It is now in the Turkish museum. It talked about how when they were about 3 meters apart they could hear each other. What an exciting day that must have been!
Well, the water was freezing and the tunnel was definitely not made for broad shouldered men such as myself. A lot of ducking, scraped elbows, and a few knots in the head from standing up, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Kabalat Shabbat
My friend Matt Floreen gave me some advice right before I left for IBEX... he told me to either jump right into exploring and going out to visit different places, and to plan trips frequently, or to get ahead in your school work now so you can be free later to do the same thing...explore. So for the last couple of days I have been reading a lot and getting ahead in all my classes so I could go on a hike today. Theo Low, my room mate, Garrett Mendenhall and his fiance Ashley Power, Jackie Fisk, and me all went on a hike to the cave that has been calling my name ever since we set foot on this Moshav. From the vineyards on the grounds, across the valley, on the next mountain face is a man made entrance into a cave. Naturally I wanted to go see what was in it...so thats what we did. I asked Randy about the cave and he told me that it was only about a hundred years old, an infant in this land, and that it was used by Bedouins as an escape from the hot summer Israeli sun. I also asked him about the best way to get to the cave and he said that I might be able to find some goat trails, but the best way is to pretty much bushwhack it. And that's what we did.
It was a pretty steep decline into the valley and a pretty steep incline back up to the cave, but because it was downhill most of the way it did not take us long at all, maybe a half hour. and when we reached our destination I could feel the coolness of the air that has been cooled by the rocks inside, safe from the brutal sun. To my surprise the cave was actually pretty large. Probably 35' deep and 100' long. With flash lights in hand we went to explore. Bats started flying all around us... well maybe just 3-6 of them, but it was still pretty amazing. After a nice group picture we decided to follow the road back up leading eastward towards Jerusalem and to loop around back to Yad Hashmona, because to be honest the view back kup the mountain to the Moshav was pretty depressing.
So we went up the road into Abu Gosh, an Arab town, and stopped to get something to drink and walked back on paved roads to the Moshav. All together it was about 3.66 miles round trip. So my legs are pretty tired.
Also, today is Kabalat Shabbat. Which in Hebrew means the receiving of the Shabbat, or Sabbath. Sabbath day is from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. Before the Shabbat supper we sing a song in Hebrew that declares the praise of God for His goodness and His mercy on our lives. There is also a song sung for the fruit of the vine, and also the bread of the earth. We also sung Amazing Grace as a group to bring in the Shabbat.
So that was my day today in a nutshell and we are off to go have Chapel as an IBEX group right now.
SHABBAT SHALOM!!
It was a pretty steep decline into the valley and a pretty steep incline back up to the cave, but because it was downhill most of the way it did not take us long at all, maybe a half hour. and when we reached our destination I could feel the coolness of the air that has been cooled by the rocks inside, safe from the brutal sun. To my surprise the cave was actually pretty large. Probably 35' deep and 100' long. With flash lights in hand we went to explore. Bats started flying all around us... well maybe just 3-6 of them, but it was still pretty amazing. After a nice group picture we decided to follow the road back up leading eastward towards Jerusalem and to loop around back to Yad Hashmona, because to be honest the view back kup the mountain to the Moshav was pretty depressing.
So we went up the road into Abu Gosh, an Arab town, and stopped to get something to drink and walked back on paved roads to the Moshav. All together it was about 3.66 miles round trip. So my legs are pretty tired.
Also, today is Kabalat Shabbat. Which in Hebrew means the receiving of the Shabbat, or Sabbath. Sabbath day is from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. Before the Shabbat supper we sing a song in Hebrew that declares the praise of God for His goodness and His mercy on our lives. There is also a song sung for the fruit of the vine, and also the bread of the earth. We also sung Amazing Grace as a group to bring in the Shabbat.
So that was my day today in a nutshell and we are off to go have Chapel as an IBEX group right now.
SHABBAT SHALOM!!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Three Valleys and Two Hills...
So, for my class "Land and the Bible", after every field trip we will be writing a report about that day. It doesn't matter what about, it just has to be regarding what we did that day. It can be about what you learned, what you saw, what you liked, what you observed, so its very open and free. So what I thought I would do is post them on the blog so you guys can read what we did that day. This is what I will be turning in to my prof. so without any further delay.... The Old City.
Matt Davis
Land and the Bible
8.28.2007
Field Report #1
Wow, can someone please wake me up? Today was the first time we all went into the Old City Jerusalem. It was amazing. Here’s why: We saw everything from entering the Jaffa gate, touring the Citadel, meeting Shaba, going in to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, exiting out of the Damascus gate, walking around the north eastern corner of the city walking into Stephen’s gate, seeing the pools of Bethesda, sang in Saint Anne’s Church, walked past the Golden gate (or Eastern gate), had a great view of the Mount of Olives, walked back into the city through the Dung gate, walked passed the Dome of the Rock, and viewed the Western Wall, and trekked back to the Jaffa gate. All in one day!!
One of the many blessings while doing this is to have a person who knows all about the land leading you. And that’s all I’ll say about that. Some of the highlights and enlightening moments that happened today were probably being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, singing in St. Anne’s, and reading scripture looking over the Kidron Valley.
After seeing the Citadel and changing money with Shaban, Bill took us to the Holy Sepulcher and gave us a little bit of background on the site. I learned that this is actually a good candidate for the actual site for the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. But wait, didn’t Jesus die outside the city wall? Yes He did. The why is the Sepulcher inside the city? Well, the Old City should be called the Modern Old City, because the walls that we see today are close to 550 years old. The walls were built by the Turks. And the city when Jesus was alive were not far from Golgotha, but still outside of the city. The reason this is important is because the Jewish thought was that dead bodies were unclean, so you would bury someone outside of the city walls. And another good evidence for thinking this was the actual place was because of a tomb that was found really close that dated to the first century. Thus meaning that it was outside of the city.
While we were leaving I saw something that was a little disheartening, in the entrance there is a slab of rock and there were people kneeling down and kissing it. Not only adults but children as well. And I later found out that that slab of rock was believed to be the place where Jesus fell while He was carrying the cross to Calvary. And I was talking with someone about how sad that was because that is not what God wants, a show or a worship of things because that becomes an idol very quickly. God wants the heart.
We all were walking around the city and Bill took us to where the Pools of Bethesda are and it is on a site where there is a church made all of stone, and when we walked past it the first time I noticed that people were singing in it so I wasn’t sure if it was a Mass going on or some sort of church service so I just glanced inside quickly and moved on to be with the group. So after Bill had us read John 5:10-18, about how Jesus healed a man who was lame for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, we all went into the church made of stone. After we all had gotten situated sitting down, Bill lead us in a song, conducting us to stop on certain notes to hear the beautiful echo of our voices. We sang “It is well with my soul”, “My stronghold” and another song, and it was just a reminder that as beautiful we all sang, and as good as we thought we sounded, that is only a taste of how glorious praising God will be. After all of us left an Asian tour group went into the church and sang “It is well with my soul” as well, but they sang in there own native tongue. Same song, different language. That was another reminder that God is a God who doesn’t have any limitations. God is a God who has no boundaries, weaknesses, or shortcomings.
The last highlight that really caught my attention and made me think, and what I thought was pretty amazing is when we were standing just outside of the city walls on the east side, looking at the graveyard just opposite of us across the Kidron Valley, and Bill had us read Matthew 23:27 where Jesus pronounces a woe upon the Pharisees for they are like white washed tombs. Before we read it Bill called our attention to the grandeur of some of the tombs. The ones that were extravagant probably thought they were pretty hot stuff or else really rich. Now to think about how big some of those graves were and to think about how important the people inside thought themselves to be and to further think about what was actually in those tombs now was quite the mental picture. And reading this part of scripture, Jesus was probably on the Mount of Olives and the cemetery, or grave yard would be in sight, so the people and the Pharisees would know exactly what Jesus was talking about. It just became so much more real to me because I know what graveyards look like, at least the ones in the States. The ones in the states are green and colorful, and well just a flat piece of marble in the ground neatly manicured. But the ones here in Israel are packed together and all the same color and kind of ugly, but yet pretty in a weird sort of way. Now, I thought I had an idea of what the white washed tombs looked like, but I had no idea. After seeing it, it is like I’m reading a whole different passage.
It was great to spend some time in the Old City, and I know that I will be spending many more hours exploring it and the surrounding areas on my own.
Here is the Mt. of Olives and the tombs
Matt Davis
Land and the Bible
8.28.2007
Field Report #1
Wow, can someone please wake me up? Today was the first time we all went into the Old City Jerusalem. It was amazing. Here’s why: We saw everything from entering the Jaffa gate, touring the Citadel, meeting Shaba, going in to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, exiting out of the Damascus gate, walking around the north eastern corner of the city walking into Stephen’s gate, seeing the pools of Bethesda, sang in Saint Anne’s Church, walked past the Golden gate (or Eastern gate), had a great view of the Mount of Olives, walked back into the city through the Dung gate, walked passed the Dome of the Rock, and viewed the Western Wall, and trekked back to the Jaffa gate. All in one day!!
One of the many blessings while doing this is to have a person who knows all about the land leading you. And that’s all I’ll say about that. Some of the highlights and enlightening moments that happened today were probably being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, singing in St. Anne’s, and reading scripture looking over the Kidron Valley.
After seeing the Citadel and changing money with Shaban, Bill took us to the Holy Sepulcher and gave us a little bit of background on the site. I learned that this is actually a good candidate for the actual site for the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. But wait, didn’t Jesus die outside the city wall? Yes He did. The why is the Sepulcher inside the city? Well, the Old City should be called the Modern Old City, because the walls that we see today are close to 550 years old. The walls were built by the Turks. And the city when Jesus was alive were not far from Golgotha, but still outside of the city. The reason this is important is because the Jewish thought was that dead bodies were unclean, so you would bury someone outside of the city walls. And another good evidence for thinking this was the actual place was because of a tomb that was found really close that dated to the first century. Thus meaning that it was outside of the city.
While we were leaving I saw something that was a little disheartening, in the entrance there is a slab of rock and there were people kneeling down and kissing it. Not only adults but children as well. And I later found out that that slab of rock was believed to be the place where Jesus fell while He was carrying the cross to Calvary. And I was talking with someone about how sad that was because that is not what God wants, a show or a worship of things because that becomes an idol very quickly. God wants the heart.
We all were walking around the city and Bill took us to where the Pools of Bethesda are and it is on a site where there is a church made all of stone, and when we walked past it the first time I noticed that people were singing in it so I wasn’t sure if it was a Mass going on or some sort of church service so I just glanced inside quickly and moved on to be with the group. So after Bill had us read John 5:10-18, about how Jesus healed a man who was lame for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, we all went into the church made of stone. After we all had gotten situated sitting down, Bill lead us in a song, conducting us to stop on certain notes to hear the beautiful echo of our voices. We sang “It is well with my soul”, “My stronghold” and another song, and it was just a reminder that as beautiful we all sang, and as good as we thought we sounded, that is only a taste of how glorious praising God will be. After all of us left an Asian tour group went into the church and sang “It is well with my soul” as well, but they sang in there own native tongue. Same song, different language. That was another reminder that God is a God who doesn’t have any limitations. God is a God who has no boundaries, weaknesses, or shortcomings.
The last highlight that really caught my attention and made me think, and what I thought was pretty amazing is when we were standing just outside of the city walls on the east side, looking at the graveyard just opposite of us across the Kidron Valley, and Bill had us read Matthew 23:27 where Jesus pronounces a woe upon the Pharisees for they are like white washed tombs. Before we read it Bill called our attention to the grandeur of some of the tombs. The ones that were extravagant probably thought they were pretty hot stuff or else really rich. Now to think about how big some of those graves were and to think about how important the people inside thought themselves to be and to further think about what was actually in those tombs now was quite the mental picture. And reading this part of scripture, Jesus was probably on the Mount of Olives and the cemetery, or grave yard would be in sight, so the people and the Pharisees would know exactly what Jesus was talking about. It just became so much more real to me because I know what graveyards look like, at least the ones in the States. The ones in the states are green and colorful, and well just a flat piece of marble in the ground neatly manicured. But the ones here in Israel are packed together and all the same color and kind of ugly, but yet pretty in a weird sort of way. Now, I thought I had an idea of what the white washed tombs looked like, but I had no idea. After seeing it, it is like I’m reading a whole different passage.
It was great to spend some time in the Old City, and I know that I will be spending many more hours exploring it and the surrounding areas on my own.
Here is the Mt. of Olives and the tombs
Monday, August 27, 2007
Yad Hashmona...
So, yes, after many many hours on planes and in airports we have finally made it to the Holy Land. This is the moment so many of us have been waiting for. I have been in Israel for about one full day, and I don't think that it has hit me that I am actually here. We have learned a lot so far. We have definitely "hit the ground running". There is so much planned for us and we have so much to learn and so much to explore. One cool thing that happened is that on the way to the Yad Hashmona, the name of the place where we are staying, which is a Moshav, a town. Bill Schleigal read us Acts 9 where Peter heal a lame man and raise Tabitha from the dead. And on the bus we were driving past where all that happened. Which is awesome to think about how these events actually took place within walking distance from where you are.
Last night we were all pretty tired but we had to stay up as long as possible to combat the affects of jet lag. So John Lafferty and I went to explore the Moshav and got some great pictures. After a restless night of sleep, we got up and had breakfast and had some IBEX orientation and took a formal tour of the Yad Hashmona. After lunch we had class for Land and the Bible, because we are taking our first field trip. We are taking a walking tour of the Old City.
Today we also had a water fight to combat the heat and to wake us up from all the jetlagging.
I'll be posting some pictures of the Old City in the near future. Shalom.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Home Sweet Home
Well, I'm back in America safely! What an awesome trip that I had. I hope that you had a small taste of South Africa from what I have written. This will not be the last of my trips. I have another month before I leave the states again. I will be spending another 3 months in the Holy Land. The Master's College has an extension program called IBEX. Israel Bible EXtension. I will be studying in Israel while taking field trips and interacting with the people there. I hope to keep up my blog and I anticipate many more stories to tell when I get back.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Crocodile Hunter...
Please excuse me for not blogging for a while. So much has happened since last weekend’s rugby game. I did successfully install all 24 heaters into the school in Katlehong. If you would like to see the school, Jesse Rodriguez of Calvary Bible Church in Burbank, made a presentation with footage that Beth Mack has given to him. You can see that video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNe_yszulrs, this is a very good picture of what is happening at the school. I did get a library card and I have used it! I am starting research for my last paper that needs to be written. And they say that here in South Africa that if you need to get something done, then expect to make at least three trips to the place that you need to go. And I have been actually lucky to not have to make many trips to the places that I needed. But I guess all that time that I have saved in the past was building up for this past week. I believe that it took six trips to the library to actually get the library card that I needed to actually check books out. So that is one thing that I will be doing in this next week.
On Thursday, my sister, Tiffany, and Melissa Briganti (sp?) made it safely to South Africa. After a long flight and many airplane meals, they were ready to jump into things. So I took them for a tour of the Lambano homes, and took them to the worksite to see the work of the Conrad (the mason from Canada). After trying to keep Tiffany awake, we rented a movie and then they crashed. On Friday I took the girls to Katlehong to show them what the situation is there and I think that it was very eye-opening.
I guess there is a tradition here in South Africa at Grace Christian Church, every intern has finished “THE AMERICAN DREAM”. There is a restaurant here named Pano’s and all of the sizes of burgers are named after the comic strip characters from Archie. And the biggest of all is the “Jughead”. This is a 450g piece of meat. And the American Dream is two patties. So we are talking almost 1kg of meat (for those of you who don’t do metric… that’s almost 2.2 lbs of meat!!!). If you eat it in a half hour of less then you can put your name up onto the “Wall of Fame”. Unfortunately, I broke the tradition and surrendered to the American Dream about halfway through. I couldn’t finish it. It was bigger than my face. Sorry to let you down.
But we bounced back wonderfully the next morning after eating all that beef. We went up to Irene craft market, where it is basically a flea market, where you can buy anything you could imagine. Contrary to how Brian describes it as a “chick” market, it wasn’t half bad. It was a nice relaxing walk around with friends and family. The place did have excellent food.
After going to the flea market, Tiffany and I decided to go to Croc City Crocodile Farm. I was on a mission because a close friend, who supported me on both of my trips here to South Africa, wanted a crocodile skull or teeth. So I google searched and found this crocodile farm not to far from where we are staying. So we went on the tour and I got to hold a baby croc. We were also successful in getting the skulls. But one funny thing did happen to us while we were there. I didn’t take out my camera right at the beginning of the tour for whatever reason. So I told Tiffany that when the tour finishes, I’ll get my camera out and go back to the ponds and take pictures. So, standing on this bridge I get my camera out of Tiff’s backpack. As I am holding the camera with my right hand, I take off the lens cap with my left hand. And right at that moment my head started itching, so I reach up with my left hand to adjust my cap, and what do you know, my lens cap falls out of my hand to land only a few feet away from this huge crocodile. It seemed like everything went in slow motion right when I dropped it. And of course there is no getting near that thing to get it. So, someone will have a nice lens cap to a Nikkon camera, if they don’t get eaten trying to get to it.
I hope to finish my paper by next Friday before we leave to Pilansburg, the game park, with friends. And a week from this Wednesday I’ll be boarding the plane to come home! Cant wait to see all of you!
On Thursday, my sister, Tiffany, and Melissa Briganti (sp?) made it safely to South Africa. After a long flight and many airplane meals, they were ready to jump into things. So I took them for a tour of the Lambano homes, and took them to the worksite to see the work of the Conrad (the mason from Canada). After trying to keep Tiffany awake, we rented a movie and then they crashed. On Friday I took the girls to Katlehong to show them what the situation is there and I think that it was very eye-opening.
I guess there is a tradition here in South Africa at Grace Christian Church, every intern has finished “THE AMERICAN DREAM”. There is a restaurant here named Pano’s and all of the sizes of burgers are named after the comic strip characters from Archie. And the biggest of all is the “Jughead”. This is a 450g piece of meat. And the American Dream is two patties. So we are talking almost 1kg of meat (for those of you who don’t do metric… that’s almost 2.2 lbs of meat!!!). If you eat it in a half hour of less then you can put your name up onto the “Wall of Fame”. Unfortunately, I broke the tradition and surrendered to the American Dream about halfway through. I couldn’t finish it. It was bigger than my face. Sorry to let you down.
But we bounced back wonderfully the next morning after eating all that beef. We went up to Irene craft market, where it is basically a flea market, where you can buy anything you could imagine. Contrary to how Brian describes it as a “chick” market, it wasn’t half bad. It was a nice relaxing walk around with friends and family. The place did have excellent food.
After going to the flea market, Tiffany and I decided to go to Croc City Crocodile Farm. I was on a mission because a close friend, who supported me on both of my trips here to South Africa, wanted a crocodile skull or teeth. So I google searched and found this crocodile farm not to far from where we are staying. So we went on the tour and I got to hold a baby croc. We were also successful in getting the skulls. But one funny thing did happen to us while we were there. I didn’t take out my camera right at the beginning of the tour for whatever reason. So I told Tiffany that when the tour finishes, I’ll get my camera out and go back to the ponds and take pictures. So, standing on this bridge I get my camera out of Tiff’s backpack. As I am holding the camera with my right hand, I take off the lens cap with my left hand. And right at that moment my head started itching, so I reach up with my left hand to adjust my cap, and what do you know, my lens cap falls out of my hand to land only a few feet away from this huge crocodile. It seemed like everything went in slow motion right when I dropped it. And of course there is no getting near that thing to get it. So, someone will have a nice lens cap to a Nikkon camera, if they don’t get eaten trying to get to it.
I hope to finish my paper by next Friday before we leave to Pilansburg, the game park, with friends. And a week from this Wednesday I’ll be boarding the plane to come home! Cant wait to see all of you!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Blou Bulls for the win
Before I came here to South Africa, I asked two interns if they had any advice for me, because they had spent a year each in Johannesburg. Matt O'brien had this to say: "hmm...tips...well don't die...that's important. that's #1. Drive on the correct side of the ride. That's a corolary to not dying. If you go over fisher's hill, before you get to the freeway, there's a 24-hour pizza place on the right. Check it out. Oh, and check the expiration date on the bottle of ketchup in the church kitchen cupboard. It's been there for a while. I think Conrad has the key to the room." So I haven't died so that has been good, and I have been to the Fisher's Hill, but need to find the pizza joint. The only problem that I've had driving here is in parking lots. I find that the one place where I find myself wanting to be on the right side of the road.
And Matt Floreen, one of the other interns had this to say: "I'm with Matty-O... don't die. Tip #2 is when people say "We must have you come to a rugby match sometime," hold them to it. People told me that for a year and never took me. Pick a couple people to really, really invest in. Buy cheap clothes at Mr. Price, not PEP. Encourage random people by SMS. Commission a craftsman at Bruma to make you a one-of-a-kind carving. Learn a song in Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho. Teach the Lambano kids some good games. Learn the proper way to braai. Make sure the young adults remember how to make s'mores. Always ask your host if you can bring something. Learn how to use a fork and knife together. Offer visitors tea, and make it the right way (Rooibos steeps way longer than Five Roses.) Learn Vuyo's skunk poem. Tip the car guards 2 rand. If you buy stuff to take home, keep the receipt and get the VAT refund at the airport. Always walk people out to the gate. The standard response to "howzit?" is "Fine and you." You'll do great."
It seems like not dying is pretty important, and with all the crime here it's good advice. In the last week there have been two hijackings on the street that I'm living on. And Beth Mack was in a restaraunt a week ago and it was held up by some armed robbers. God was good in protecting her and her family, but crime is real here.
I have learned a song in a different language, I haven't needed to buy clothes, braai-ing (bbq-ing) is a breeze, and I have commissioned a craftsman.
The one thing that I was pretty excited about was the rugby game that i needed to go to. And that hope came to fruition yesterday. Lonngren, Eddy, and Garth took me to a Johannesburg Lions vs. Pretoria Blou Bulls game. And after, Lonngren's mom made a meal for a king. It was a traditional Afrikaans meal and it was so good. We were chearing for the Lions, but they got beat by the Bulls.
So here are some pics of the game.
And Matt Floreen, one of the other interns had this to say: "I'm with Matty-O... don't die. Tip #2 is when people say "We must have you come to a rugby match sometime," hold them to it. People told me that for a year and never took me. Pick a couple people to really, really invest in. Buy cheap clothes at Mr. Price, not PEP. Encourage random people by SMS. Commission a craftsman at Bruma to make you a one-of-a-kind carving. Learn a song in Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho. Teach the Lambano kids some good games. Learn the proper way to braai. Make sure the young adults remember how to make s'mores. Always ask your host if you can bring something. Learn how to use a fork and knife together. Offer visitors tea, and make it the right way (Rooibos steeps way longer than Five Roses.) Learn Vuyo's skunk poem. Tip the car guards 2 rand. If you buy stuff to take home, keep the receipt and get the VAT refund at the airport. Always walk people out to the gate. The standard response to "howzit?" is "Fine and you." You'll do great."
It seems like not dying is pretty important, and with all the crime here it's good advice. In the last week there have been two hijackings on the street that I'm living on. And Beth Mack was in a restaraunt a week ago and it was held up by some armed robbers. God was good in protecting her and her family, but crime is real here.
I have learned a song in a different language, I haven't needed to buy clothes, braai-ing (bbq-ing) is a breeze, and I have commissioned a craftsman.
The one thing that I was pretty excited about was the rugby game that i needed to go to. And that hope came to fruition yesterday. Lonngren, Eddy, and Garth took me to a Johannesburg Lions vs. Pretoria Blou Bulls game. And after, Lonngren's mom made a meal for a king. It was a traditional Afrikaans meal and it was so good. We were chearing for the Lions, but they got beat by the Bulls.
So here are some pics of the game.
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