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Israel. What a place! There's nowhere quite like it. We spent 2 weeks there and learned so much. I've been trying to write this post for awhile but it's just so hard to put everything into words. (This whole trip is hard to put into words, but I do intend to write more posts to share what we learned. More will come as we continue to debrief.)
Everyone that I met that had gone to Israel told me, "Just wait. You'll love it. There's no place like Israel." "The Bible will come alive!" I do have to agree, there's no place quite like it. To be able to see what I read about in God's word is amazing, but the biggest blessing of our trip was the teaching we received at the sites, as well as the group we travelled with. It wasn't just a regular tour, we received biblical teaching at many of the sites, had days we hung out at the church and received teaching, got to know our group really well, had nights of prayer and worship and built relationships with the believers there. We spent 1 week in Haifa and during that time we visited many sites, including Ceasarea, Valley of Armageddon, Ceaserea Phillipi, Magdala (city where Mary Magdalene was from), Tel Dan, Galilee and others I'm currently forgetting. Our favorite spot was Ceaserea Phillipi. In that city there was a temple called the Temple of Pan. It was a temple built to the pagan god Pan- god of the wild, shepherds, and nature. The temple was built into a cave where water gushed out of. During that time people thought the cave was the 'entrance to the underworld' and many horrible things went on there, including sacrifices, immoral sexual activities...so extreme were the practices that the words 'pandemonium' and 'panic' come from the god 'Pan' because the activity that surrounded worship to this god was absolutely chaotic. In its day the location became known as "the gate of hell" because of the supposed connection to the underworld. Why was this one of our favorite spots? Because Jesus brought his disciples to this place to teach them a very determining truth. We know Jesus purposely took his disciples there because Ceaserea Phillipi is quite out of the way-it's in the very northern part of Israel and quite a few days walk from Nazareth. We read about Ceaserea Phillipi in Matthew 16. This is the passage where Jesus asks Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter replies "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Then what does Jesus say? He says, "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church AND THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT." Woahhhhh. Quite possibly Jesus was pointing to the Temple of Pan as he said that. Knowing this background brings a whole new understating of the passage, doesn't it? Gates don't attack, but the church attacks the strongholds of the devil and Jesus is saying, "Don't worry, not even this horrific, pagan place of demon worship can hinder my church going forth." Incredible. Now you have a taste of the treasures we received on this trip :) Another treasure we received was the beauty of seeing Arabs and Jews love each other under the banner of Yeshua (Jesus). In the congregation we attended there were both Jews and Arabs worshipping together - an incredible picture of the one new man Jesus talks about in ...Of course we don't receive accounts of these things happening on the news but the reality is that God is building his church and not even the most hostile situations will stop it. We learned more about God's purposes for Israel. He has not forsaken His people that he choose thousands of years ago. In fact, we're watching his purposes come to pass right before our eyes! For the first time in thousands of years, the Jewish people are returning to their homeland and God is revealing Yeshua to them - their long awaited messiah. The Jewish people are our older brother-they paved the way for the messiah, kept the Bible, passed down the traditions and bore the burden of the first born. They are worth honoring! It was beautiful to see the Jewish culture on display- they are very family oriented and they love to celebrate. Those were two aspects of the culture that stood out to us. Obviously there are parts of their culture which are God-less, but God did build them as a people, he created their culture in the midst of pagan cultures that were sacrificing their children, and committing shameful acts for their many false gods. To this day you can see the beauty of what God molded into their culture. We learned things we'd like to apply to our own family culture by watching them celebrate life, love their family and uphold the sanctify of life. We also spent 1 week in Jerusalem. This was my favorite time. Although much tension exists, we felt very safe there and all of the people we met were extremely kind to us. We went to the Temple Mount, Western Wall, walked the Via Della Rosa, went to the Garden of Gethsemene, Mount of Olives...it was a rich time. The Via Della Rosa was actually my least favorite part of our time in Jerusalem even though it's supposed to be the most 'holy.' It starts where it's believed that Jesus was whipped and ends with the place of his crucifixion and burial. The sad thing is the church has made it such a religious place that you can't see or feel Jesus. At the place of his crucifixion the church built a massive church laden with statues and incense and filled with tourists. Honestly I couldn't wait to get out of that place. Jesus wasn't there. But later we went to a place called the 'Garden Tomb'- another possible location for his burial- and the presence of the risen Jesus was there. It was a site run by Believers and there we worshipped, took communion and celebrated our Messiahs resurrection. Yes, being in Jerusalem was a treat - the city of the Great King! We know Jesus will return there one day (even Muslims believe that because they specifically bared off the gate and placed a graveyard in front of the gate they believe he'll come through. Little do they know their graveyard and barred gates won't stop him!) Spending time in Jerusalem makes the spiritual battle so much more clear. What a raging battle it is! But we know there's no stopping our great King. He'll get everything in order and we get to be a part of welcoming him back and proclaiming "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" If you ever have a chance to go to Israel - go! Actually, if you ever have a chance to travel the world at all- do it! I can't even begin to describe how much you learn by traveling, getting to know people of different cultures, understating their perspective, and learning to love even deeper. God used this trip to massively broaden our perspectives and for that I am so grateful. I plan to keep posting...I know I am so bad at posting frequently but I have every intention of continuing. I will also write a post trying to sum up what we learned during our travels - trying to sum up 6 months isn't easy but God is already showing me what the main theme was. It's simple but profound ;) THANK YOU for your prayers and love for us over these past 6 months as we've traveled the world. ❤
1 Comment
Viktor Schulz
4/12/2017 08:20:19 pm
Wow. Loved to read this. Can't wait to read more about your trip. I'm glad you guys were able to travel together and see all the great things God is doing all around the world.
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AuthorA & E. Currently living in the USA but called to the nations for this season of our lives. Devoting our lives to His Kingdom Come... Archives
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