Day 2 - Galilee region

First off, I want to thank you all for your prayers. It was a good day. God literally shined down on us with beautiful weather.

It's amazing to hear the stories from the Bible. It's even more amazing when you are sitting where they happened while hearing the stories from the Bible!

We were up and on the bus by 7:15 this morning and headed north to Caesaera Philippi. It's in Golan Heights (and just miles from the Syria and Lebanon borders.) On the road there, Jim taught about the miracle of Jesus healing the blind man in Mark 8:22-26. Why did it take two tries? Why did he use mud? Why couldn't the man go back in to the village and tell others? Through the teachings in Mark and using Peter as an example, we learned that God can make some things clear to us but not open our eyes all the way, right away. When we are concerned with human traditions, our vision can be blurry.

While in Caesarea Philippi, Jim talked about the history of  "church" and how it dates back to the time of Moses when they assembled (ekklisia) around Mt. Sinai. He talked about Peter and how Jesus told him he would build his church (ekklisia) and how the church is the battering ram against the gates of hell. When we assemble together, the power of the Holy Spirit is present in a unique way. It's God's plan for rescuing the world. Basically, Jim's telling us to go to church! :)

We had this lesson in the courtyard of the Temple of Pan. It's a really dark place with a very dark history and was considered a gateway to hell. They did unspeakable things to appease the god of Pan (Panic). It wouldn't make sense to the outside world why Jesus would come to give his message about the church here... but He did it because He came to bring light to a dark world and what better place than one of the darkest?

We headed up to Dan, the most northern city in Israel. On the way there, our tour guide, Boaz, gave a more modern day history of Israel and the conflicts they have endured. He shared about his military experience and his community where he lives.

While in Dan, the talk about church continued. King Jeraboam set up a rivalry to the temple in Jerusalem to make it easier and more convenient for people to make their sacrifices. Instead of worshiping God, they worshipped two golden calves and held more conveniently timed festivals. It was also in the complete opposite direction of Jerusalem. We learned they also built a shrine in Bethel, which was almost all the way to Jerusalem...but not quite. Do you see where this is going? What did Satan do? He made it convenient to skip going to the Temple in Jerusalem. He distracted them, he made it easy for them to worship idols, he tried to make them think they could manipulate and move God. It's everything we still do today except Satan uses sports or lack of motivation or fighting in the car on the way to church or other lies and distractions. Basically, it's Satan's oldest trick in the book. He can't stop the Holy Spirit from showing up in church, so he'll try to stop us from going.

Next was Nazareth Village, a recreation of what a typical village would look like in Jesus' time. We saw how they would press wine and press olives. We saw a weaver and what a synagogue would have looked like. After seeing so many ruins, it was good to see what they would have looked like 2,000 years ago.

Our last stop was at Cana. We passed by the Cana Wedding Wine First Miracle souvenir store. Too bad we didn't have time stop. (Yes, I'm kidding!)

Once we situated ourselves on a hill overlooking Cana, Jim taught about 3 private miracles in John 1, 2 and 4. Sometimes God performs private miracles to build faith, so we can share with others and to open us up to bigger miracles. Then Lisa talked to us about a different way to read scripture using all of our senses. Using John 2:2-11 as an example, we thought about what the servants could have been thinking. Was it noisy? What would the servants have talked about? Why was Mary so passionate about the wedding host not being embarrassed by running out of wine? Lisa encouraged us to slow down and use our imagination when we read scripture. It was a good reminder.

It gets dark about 4:45 so we made the trip back to our hotel. We had a lovely dinner of Israeli cuisine at a local restaurant. I can cross lamb hot dogs with liver pate off my bucket list!

Here are some fun pictures taken en route today.

We are off to Mt. Carmel, Caesarea by the Sea, Bet Shemesh and Elah Valley tomorrow.