Day 6

I would like to thank Lori who wrote yesterday's blog post. The Lord worked it out that when I was very tired, she had things on her heart she wanted to share with you.

This morning we started out by going to Bethlehem. We had no trouble getting into Palestine and we had a Christian tour guide meet up with us to share about the city. This is the security wall that separates the West Bank.

We were able to go to a cave in a shepherd's field, which would have been a lot like the stable that Jesus was born in. Around that cave, in the glorious sunshine, we had Calvary Church. After a week of learning and studying, it was refreshing to have time to worship and praise God for who He is. We were able to take communion again, sing praise and worship songs and shout out praises to God in the city where He was born. We were all feeling pretty blessed.

Our guide - whom I'm going to call Joy because that's what her name means in English and I have no idea how to spell it in Arabic - taught us about shepherds and sheep. She went through Psalm 23 and gave us context about shepherds and it brings the Psalm to life.

We got back on the bus and headed to the Church of the Nativity. It's too bad we didn't have time to stop for coffee on the way.

It was cool to see where they think Jesus was born and laid in a manger, but the surroundings of the nativity distracted from Who was really born there. It's almost as if they've turned it into an altar or good luck charm... Of course, we just finished studying 1 Samuel 4 this week where the Philistines used the Ark of the Covenant like a genie. That's still fresh on my mind.

We had a lovely lunch at a Palestinian restaurant. We had lamb and hummus and salads and pita bread. We finished off with baklava and the brave ones had Turkish coffee. Jason says, "That baklava was gooooood." It's different from Greek baklava because they don't use honey, they use orange blossom water.

We were able to go to a store that is run by Christians and purchase olive wood souvenirs. The Christians in Bethlehem carve them and that is their main supply of income. We had to be generous with them, right? The women shopped while the men warded off the street vendors waiting outside to attack us. It was pretty humorous watching all of the men being pressured into buying necklaces and women's scarves.

After a short wait at the border, we were able to re-enter Jerusalem. Two young soldiers with machine guns did a quick scan through our bus and then let us go. We are thankful for no issues there.

We headed out to Ein Karem, which means "Spring of the vineyard." This would have been the area that Mary came to visit Elizabeth. There's a church at the top of the hill that has Mary's Magnificat carved in stone in 65+ different languages. While we were there, Lisa helped us see why Mary is blessed among women. We went through everything that she had to endure, yet was humble and obedient to what the Lord asked her to do. We were encouraged to follow her example by 1) having the courage to obey, even when it's hard. And 2) recall all the things God has done for us. We had time by ourselves to write down all of our gratitude to the Lord because the Mighty One has done great things for us. I filled my page and ran out of time. What a good and gracious God we serve.

We walked to a local restaurant that fed us more abundantly then we could have imagined. A lot of people were excited to see a hamburger on the menu!

Again, for the third night in a row, our debrief time was powerful and meaningful. The Holy Spirit has been present in a very unique way this week and the Lord has done mighty things. I'm extremely grateful for this community of believers! Through Jim and Lisa's teachings, we learned how God has woven everything in the Bible together, from Genesis to Revelation. This week, we have seen how He has done the same thing in our lives. We are finding out how He has intricately weaved all of our stories together and we have to say, "You just can't make this stuff up!"

Tomorrow we are headed to the Temple Mount, Garden of Gethsemane, Church of St. Anne, Bethesda, Stations of the Cross, Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, and the Mount of Olives. Whew. That sounds like a lot, so I think I'll sign off and get some sleep! Thank you for your prayer.

Day 5 - You can't make this stuff up by Lori Morley

I’ll just be honest. My mind is blown. It’s blown that I’m here. It’s blown by the sights I’ve seen. It’s blown by the community that I have experienced with my fellow travelers. It’s blown about the things that I am learning. I can hardly absorb it all. As we’ve heard Jim say multiple times on this trip, “You can’t make this stuff up.” In other words, it’s so good that it seems unbelievable, but it’s true.

 It was another amazing day in the land of Israel. We started our morning by taking a walk into the wilderness. Seeing the rocky and desolate land reminds me of how remarkable it is that, although the Israelites walked this place for 40 years, God did not allow their clothes or shoes to wear out. The wilderness in Scripture represents a number of things in our lives; danger and death, rebellion and discipline, sin and temptation, testing and humbling, quiet and refuge, a place to encounter God and experience His provision. Above all, the wilderness is associated with PRIDE. Whether we think of ourselves too high or too low, the problem is that we too often take our focus off of God and put it on ourselves. God often leads us into the wilderness so that we will come face to face with our own insufficiency. There’s no place to run. No one to rescue. Everything is stripped away and God reminds us where our focus and our dependence must be. What is your wilderness and how would God like to meet you there?

 Other sites that we visited today are the Jordan River, Jericho, and the Jerusalem-Jericho Road. I’d love to give the details for each place but I am just going to focus on our visit to Jericho. Our guide through Jericho was a Christian archaeologist named Joel Kramer. Joel has a pretty interesting story. He spent his childhood in the Middle East as the son of a man who worked in the oil business. He went to boarding school in Arizona, went to college somewhere in the US, and was a pastor in Utah before he decided to pursue Biblical archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Joel’s Biblical explanation of the Jericho ruins was a powerful testimony to the inerrancy of God’s Word. There’s no way that I can restate his detailed explanation so I’ll just list a few of the facts.

 1. When the Jericho walls were built, there was a foundation wall of stone upon which was built a mud brick wall. The foundation wall would have been 20-25 ft. high and the mud brick wall would be an additional 20 ft. high. The part of the wall that needed to be knocked down for the enemy to enter was the upper part of mud bricks. People’s misunderstanding of the structure of the walls leads them to say that the Biblical account must be wrong because the Jericho walls are still standing. The lower part is still there but the upper part has obviously collapsed outward.
 2. The Jericho ruins do indeed have piles of mud bricks which run along the outside of the foundation walls indicating that the walls fell outward and could not have been the result of an earthquake. Official archaeology reports indicate that they “came tumbling down”. Sound familiar?
 3. When the mud brick walls fell outward, they formed a ramp by which the Israelites could walk up and into the city to conquer it.
 4. There is a burn line in the ruins indicating that the city was burned during a time of history that aligns with Joshua and the battle of Jericho.
 5. All archaeologists, believers and non-believers alike, agree that all of the above facts are true and yet the connection between the archaeological findings and the Bible is being suppressed, mostly for political reasons.

Joel was very passionate when he spoke and at one point, he threw his hands up to show his incredulity that a person, when presented with the Biblical evidence, would choose not to believe it. That’s when he uttered the phrase that we’d been hearing from Jim all week, “You can’t make this stuff up!” If you would like more information, you can read articles that Joel has written for Associates for Biblical Research or order Joel’s DVD, Jericho Unearthed. If you google his name, I believe he also has some video clips on you tube.

After touring the Jericho ruins, we moved into a nearby restaurant and I got to chat with Joel personally. When I told him that I had been a missionary in Papua New Guinea, he said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” He said that he had traveled there in the early nineties and wrote about it in a book called Beyond Fear. He asked, “Were you with New Tribes Mission?” I said yes and he named off several of his friends that I also am acquainted with. A God ordained meeting, do you think? One thing I do know is that God’s fingerprints are all over this trip and some things are just too good to make up.

 At the end of the day, we made our way to Jerusalem where we will stay for the last three days of our tour. Next up: Church of the Nativity, Shepherd’s Field, Ein Karem – Church of the Visitation, all of which are in Bethlehem.

Day 4

Today was another beautiful day in Israel. The weather has been absolutely fantastic; we couldn't ask for anything better.

We started out this morning on a trip to Masada. Not a biblical location, more historical. The ruins were very neat to see and our guide, Boaz, gave us a history lesson on the fortress there. On a personal note, I made it to the top and I shed a tear in gratitude to the Lord for that.

After taking the cable car down, we drove to En Gedi. After taking a trail back to a freshwater waterfall, we all sat down in the rocks and Jim asked us to read 1 Samuel 23. It's the story of when David was hiding from Saul. Saul went into a cave and it happened to be the one that David was hiding in. We talked about how many times the word "hands" appears in that passage. When David cut off a corner of Saul's robe instead of killing him, it was a kind reminder that Saul was not obeying the Lord. (The corner of Saul's robe would have had a blue tassel on it, which represented obedience. Numbers 15:37-40.) Jim reminded us that this teaching shows us that we should not take matters into our own hands, but rather trust God in all things.

Lisa asked us to read Psalm 57 and asked us to insert our own name in the Psalm. It was very powerful to talk about taking refuge and praising God while enemies are pressing down on us, while sitting and looking up at the caves that David could have very well hidden in.

We had a nice lunch overlooking the Dead Sea and were able to celebrate Lisa's birthday with ice cream and a song.

Next, Jim talked about how Eden is a mountain and the water flowed east off the mountain to water the garden. We went to passages in Genesis, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy, John and Revelation. I wish I could wrap it all up into a nice, neat box and present it to you like Jim can, but I can't. He shared a ton of history, information, cross reference and pulling things together... but I can summarize: Jesus wins and the Dead Sea will be fresh water. Even though this area is the lowest place on earth, his love reaches even there.

We came back to the hotel and all went for a swim in the Dead Sea. The water felt really nice. It's not something you can really explain; you have to do it yourself.

After supper, we had a beautiful debrief session. We heard powerful testimonies and several people made confessions and needed extra prayer. We had a sweet time of weeping and mourning through prayer with those and it was a very powerful time of feeling the Holy Spirit's presence.

Our trip is only half done and it feels like our brains and hearts are already filled to the brim. After eavesdropping on other tour guides, it made me realize what a gift we have to come here and get such deep biblical teaching, not just a history lesson.

Thank you for your prayers. Today we will visit the wilderness, Jericho and then land in Jerusalem.

Day 3

Shalom! We had another great day with more beautiful weather. God graciously allowed it to rain all night and have it stop just about the time we had to load up the luggage onto the bus.

We had a very full day today with a lot of hiking and a lot of teaching. We started our trip this morning on Mt Carmel. Jim did the teaching while we overlooked the Valley of Megiddo. It's breathtaking. He talked about some of the battles that took place there and how God used water and fire to win battles and sometimes He didn't help because of disobedience. It was a fascinating lesson through 1 Kings, Judges, 2 Chronicles, John and into Revelation. Armageddon means Mount of Megiddo so we talked about Armageddon. About that same time, fighter jets started circling around the area so we all had a chuckle about that. (It appeared they were just doing a training mission.)

Then we headed to Caesarea by the Sea. The "sea" is the Mediterranean Sea. It was absolutely beautiful. Herod knew what he was doing when he put his palace on this piece of prime real estate.

We talked about Acts 1-9. Caesarea played a very important role in how the gospel was proclaimed throughout the ends of the earth. Philip traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. Since it was a port town, the gospel went out in many directions and all the way to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Next was Beth Shemesh. Jim talked about the different attitudes that the Philistines and the Israelites (David in particular) had about the Ark of the Covenant. The Philistines treated it like a genie or a good luck charm. David didn't take the time to look up how it should be respected. We need to remember that He is holy. We cannot send him away; when we do, so does the blessing that comes with it. We were encouraged to examine what's going on in our own hearts.


We went up to Azeka, overlooking the Elah Valley. This is where David and Goliath met on the battlefield. Jim taught us how Goliath was a demonic being and  that's why people were so afraid of him. It's why no one wanted to fight him. Jim reminded us that David, a man after God's own heart, knew he needed to use the strongest weapon in the battle and that's a heart of faith. The weapons of demonic forces cannot be fought with weapons of the world; they must be fought with the Lords of strength.

Lisa then helped us with personal application. We had time to consider battles that were currently facing, what we've attributed our battle to and what weapons we've been using to fight the battle. We asked God to open our eyes to the spiritual aspects of our battle and what weapons God has provided to help us fight. It was a great time of reflection and application.

We headed down in to Elah Valley and each picked up 5 smooth stones. We will write on them as a remembrance of this truth: The battle is the Lord's.

We then descended 1,300 ft below sea level to our hotel on the Dead Sea. It was a long and windy road, connected to a long and windy road. It was dark when we arrived so we have not seen the sea yet, but dinner was lovely and we had a great debrief. At debrief, we had the opportunity to ask Jim anything we had questions about or to share what we've learned.

Jim and Lisa are such a wealth of knowledge and information. They have both been a blessing to the group and have poured themselves out all week. We've come to respect Chad Kerr, too. It's obvious how much time he puts ino the planning because every detail is handled. Someone said people don't appreciate him until day 5 so we're ahead of the curve.

Tomorrow is Masada, En Gedi, Qumran and swimming (aka floating) in the dead sea.

As always, thank you for your prayers.

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.

The Sea of Galilee by Lori Morley

Well, here we are. Team Calvary 2015 in the land of Israel. Some of us leaped out of the van with excitement saying, “This is awesome, guys!” (Craig) Others, like myself, felt like a little more like we hadn’t fully wakened from a dream. But that was yesterday. Today I think we were all “in the moment”.

First stop was the Sea of Galilee. I have looked forward to this day with anticipation to see the place where Jesus called the disciples, calmed the storm, and gave Peter a second chance. Imagine my surprise when, after sitting myself on a rock facing the water, the very first Bible passage that Pastor Jim taught from was from Mark 1 and John 1 where Jesus calls his disciples and says, “Come and see”. The very same verses that I referred to in this blog post only days ago! I guess I wasn’t the only one to think that the whole “come and see” thing was note-worthy. Jim took the “come and see” application to a new level. He used it to talk about the three stages of discipleship into which Jesus invites.

Stage One: Come and See In Mark 1, when Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John who were fishing in the Sea of Galilee, it wasn’t the first time that the disciples had met Jesus. Several of them had been disciples of John the Baptist. They had already heard Jesus’ teaching and seen him do miracles. They had gotten to know him and there was a point in time when they decided to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Stage one of walking with Jesus involves seeing Him at work and making the decision to believe.

Stage Two: Come and Follow Me In Mark 1, when Jesus calls the disciples, he says “Come and follow me.” Luke 5 also gives an account of a miracle that Jesus performed for his disciples. This is the miracle where they let their nets down into the water and caught so many fish that they couldn’t haul them back into the boat and indeed, it was enough to almost sink two boats. This was a very personal and specific miracle that Jesus did for them and it says that when Peter saw it, he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” And after that, Peter, James, and John left everything and followed him. Stage two of discipleship involves first, having a deeper, more personal connection with Jesus. Peter’s encounter with Jesus caused him to have a deeper understanding of his own sinfulness. Second, it involves obeying and leaving behind; surrender and sacrifice; a change in focus and occupation. Life is changed in a dramatic way because of a personal encounter with Jesus.

Stage Three: Come and Suffer In John 21, Jesus has died and been resurrected. He returns to the Sea of Galilee, the place where it all began, to reconnect with his disciples. He performed the same miracle that he had performed for them multiple times before and then, on the shore, he recreated the scene of Peter’s betrayal and offers him grace and redemption. He also foretells his death. Stage three involves suffering of some kind. To quote Jim, “No one learns how to love unless they suffer.” In stage three, you go from evangelism to discipleship; from fishing to shepherding; from sacrifice to suffering. The difference between sacrifice and suffering is that sacrifice is a choice that you make, but suffering is a choice that God makes for you and you must choose to accept it. The challenge that Jim gave us is first, which stage are we at currently? And second, what stage could God be asking us to graduate to? Would you leave behind your occupation if Jesus asked it of you? Is there some suffering that He is asking you to endure? Do you love Him more than anything else

Other sites we visited today: Mount of Beatitudes - We looked down on the Sea of Galilee and listened to the Sermon on the Mount read by Jim Samra. Bethsaida – The place where Philip, Andrew, and Peter grew up among a predominantly Greek and Hellenistic society. God can raise up obedient people from anywhere. Capernaum – The home place of Jesus during his adult ministry. We visited the synagogue where he taught and had communion while looking out on the Sea of Galilee. We ended the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Lisa Samra invited us to think about the storms in our lives that Jesus wants to calm. After returning to the hotel, some of us donned our swimsuits and took a dip in the Sea of Galilee. What a great way to end our first day in Israel.

Day 1 - around Galilee

What a privilege it is to be here in Israel! Since it was dark last night when we arrived we all got our first glimpse this morning of the beautiful Sea of Galilee.

I think I could write a book about everything we learned today! I'll let your friends and family fill you in on their experience and use this blog to give you some highlights.

After a night's rest at the En Gev Kibbutz, we started our day right on the Sea of Galilee at the Primacy of Peter. This is where Jesus called Peter, James and John to be fishers of men and we were reminded how they immediately obeyed. It rained through that teaching but we got a beautiful rainbow in return. The rain stopped and we headed across the street - and up a mountain - to where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. Jim read the sermon to us (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) and it was awesome to sit on the Mount of Beatitudes and hear the words of Jesus. Just like the followers in Matthew 7, I was amazed at His teaching. 

We drove to Bethsaida and learned about Philip, Andrew and Peter. Did you know Bethsaida was influenced by the Greek culture? I didn't! But we saw how God used that in their ministry and how everything we go through was ordained by Him to bring Himself glory. We also learned about the miracle of feeding the 5,000 and it was so cool to see how Jim pulled out common themes for us: wilderness, disobedience, bread, temptation, stones...

We had a lovely lunch where we were served Musht (pronounced moosht), which is basically Sea of Galilee tilapia. I was glad for the lesson on how to eat it since you are given the whole fish. We also had some of the freshest and most delicious hummus I've ever eaten. Served with warm pita bread... Mmmmm. We ate our fair share. Ok, moving on.

In Capernaum we sat in the Synagogue ruins and learned about where Jesus lived. We walked where Jesus walked and saw where Peter lived. Peter's house is only steps from the Synagogue. There was a sweet time of communion right on the hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. We sang praises to God and had time to reflect on everything we learned and had been challenged with.

Synagogue 

Peter's house

We did a quick stop to see a 2,000 year old boat that had been discovered and preserved before heading to take a boat ride of our own. Lisa read to us Isaiah 43:1-5a and we had time to pray, meditate and hear from the Lord. All while on a boat, watching the sunset over Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee.

Back at the Kibbbutz, some brave souls (myself included) took a quick dip in the Sea of Galilee It wasn't real for fun or refreshment; it was more so we could say, "I swam in the Sea of Galilee!!"

As we gathered tonight after supper to talk about our day, we heard stories about how God is moving. About how He is speaking. It's such a joy and encouragement to hear that God is teaching us all something on this trip.

Please pray for the group tomorrow as the schedule/timing has historically been a more challenging day. Thank you!