Day 7

First of all, I would like to give a huge shout out to Chad Kerr. He has done such a great job and we don't even know everything he's doing. He gets us to where we need to be, takes care of the bills, makes sure we're all on the bus, kindly moves us along and always makes sure we have bathroom breaks. Thank you, Chad!

We started out this morning on the Mount of Olives to discuss the Temple Mount. We were not allowed to go in to the Temple Mount because it is occupied by the Muslims but were able to see it from a distance upon the mount. Jim did a teaching there about the Old and New Testament and how on the Mount of Olives, the Lord will be seen.

You can't come to Jerusalem and not ride a camel. I guess the Jim heard that, too.

We walked down from the Mount of Olives into the Garden of Gethsemane. It was quite a treacherous walk down the mountain. Before we went in, Jim told us to read Matthew 26:36-46.

32 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. 

Yet not as I will, but as you will."

Jim told us to think about a suffering that we would consider to be a cup and ask the Lord if he would remove the cup. We had about 20 minutes in the garden to talk to the Lord. During that time, tourists came through in a big group. "And on your left is where Jesus prayed before he died." And then they all snapped pictures and moved on. At that moment I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude to Jim and Lisa for the teachings we have received on this trip. We are experiencing Jesus.

Then we walked further down the mount and on to the road Jesus would have taken when he rode a donkey in through the east gate. Right inside the city wall is the pool of Bethesda. Lisa did a teaching on John 5 where the lame man was physically healed by Jesus and then just picked up his mat and left. Jesus later found him in the temple and told him that he also needed spiritual healing but he didn't listen. We then contrasted this to the blind man who was healed physically and spiritually in John 9. Lisa gave us time to consider how the Lord has healed us spiritually, physically, emotionally and relationally. We were asked to examine how we responded to our healing. Like the lame man or the blind man? We were able to shout out loud our praises and give testimony to how God has healed us. Satan clearly did not want those praises to be heard because that's exactly when the prayers of the Muslims started on the loudspeakers. We had trouble hearing each other so we just shouted louder. The church of St Anne is right there and we went inside this simple little church and were able to sing How Great Thou Art, The Doxology and O Come All Ye Faithful. It was beautiful and the acoustics made us sound like angels.

We started up the Via Dolorosa. It was not like I imagined; parts of it were street-like but in some places it was a narrow path between the marketplace merchants.

It was hard and grueling and my back hurt just carrying my backpack up. I cannot imagine having to carry a cross, nails in my hands, being mocked by the merchant sellers. It was sobering.

We got to the top and went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is where they believe the cross was placed and where the tomb was. Did you read my post yesterday about the Church of the Nativity? This was no different. You can't come all the way to Jerusalem and not see these things, but we all agreed that seeing the commercialized alters was not as meaningful to us as the places where we were studying and learning about Jesus through Scripture.

After lunch we were given time to do some shopping in the market place. We looked long and hard for a Guns N Moses shirt but we didn't find one...

We went back up to the Mount of Olives where we started our day and watched the sun set over the city of Jerusalem. Jim read the Olivet Discourse from Matthew 24 and 25. He talked about end times and where we are in the process. Phase one and two have have already come to pass, so we know that the prophecy has started and we know that it will be finished. It was very cool that two students from Prague, a married couple named Martin and Dana, were sitting on the steps near us watching the sunset. They heard Jim's entire teaching and came up afterwards to thank him. They are believers from the Czech Republic and are in Jerusalem for 3 weeks to study. A group member invited them to come back to the hotel and have dinner with us and I know they appreciated the fellowship with fellow believers. Only God could create a kinship between people from Grand Rapids and the Czech Republic, meeting seemingly randomly in Jerusalem. I love God. He's awesome.

We had another amazing debrief. God has done amazing things this week. A-mazing. During that time we prayed for Jim and Lisa and asked the Lord to bless them in a mighty way for how they have poured their lives into ours this week. For Chad, that the Lord would bless him for his humble servitude. And for Josh Phillips, that the Lord will strengthen him as he goes back to his calling as a pastor to a church in Maine.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day. We will be visiting the Western Wall, City of David, Pool of Siloam, the Upper Room, the House of Caiaphas and the garden tomb. We will get back to the hotel sometime late afternoon and pack up and get on the bus to head to the airport. We have appreciated your prayers while we are gone and would love prayers for traveling mercies on the way home.