April 10

April 10

            Howie and Sue (the couple we met at church on Sunday) kindly offered to drive us to Tiberias (our next stop).  It was a fun road trip.  Howie and Sue are New Yorkers nearly through and through – very boisterous, very animated, and ultimately, very entertaining.  They’re a lot of fun to hang out with.

            We drove north through the mountains along a scenic route that was very green with many trees coming into blossom.  We talked a bit more about the end times and about the precarious situation of Israel (it’s pretty much hemmed in on all sides by hostile Muslim nations).

            We stopped at Capernaum along the way.  Capernaum was the town where Jesus spent a good majority of his time in ministry.  It’s mentioned several times in the Gospels.  Walked around the ruins.  Saw the house where Peter lived.  Looked out at the Sea of Galilee for the first time and realized Jesus probably stood here and glimpsed these same unchanging hills.  I won’t say that the ground we stood on was holy ground, because I believe that the whole earth belongs to God and that He alone is Holy.  On the other hand, I will admit that there was something special about standing in a place where the eternal, immortal, omnipotent, omniscient God incarnate walked and talked and lived.  In a sense, looking out at the Sea of Galilee, the phrase ‘seeing things through God’s eyes’ takes on a whole new meaning.

            Went to one of Jesus’ possible baptism sights along the Jordan River.  Historians are uncertain as to where exactly along the river Jesus was baptized.  Anyways, we saw the Jordan River for the first time.  Where we were there were many people ‘baptizing’ and ‘cleansing’ themselves in the Jordan’s clouded waters.  These people, clad in rented ‘white robes,’ were devoutly gesticulating the sign of the cross and dunking themselves.  I understand the Biblical significance of some of these historical sights, but to my knowledge it seems clearly unbiblical to venerate any place.  We are to venerate a person, Jesus Christ, and no one and nothing else.  But, it’s not my place to judge any individual.  Still, I am going to voice my opinion, and my opinion is – to treat any place as a holy destination worthy of setting out on pilgrimage to catch sight of and experience is nothing short of idolatry...  I enjoyed visiting the Jordan, despite the highly religious-themed gift shop and the slightly mislead journeyers on ‘pilgrimage.’  I thought about all the old gospel songs written about the Jordan and about what the Jordan seems to signify in a lot of Christian literature, hymns, other narratives, etc. [eg. crossing the Jordan (the great divide between life and death) into the Promised Land (Heaven)].  You could say I got a good ‘old time’ feeling and it certainly struck a chord within my soul.

            Found the Kibbutz we’re staying at with Messianic Jewish believers Yaniv and Silvia.  Yaniv got talking with Howie and Sue at which point we realized that God had most definitely orchestrated their meeting.  They’re going to get involved together in ministry.  I don’t know the details exactly.  Christian networking is expanding and deepening in Israel.  This is evident to me even by this divinely orchestrated meeting.  Gospel multiplication is such a miraculous process.

            Said goodbye to our lovely surrogate parents Howie and Sue who so graciously adopted us, however briefly.  Silvia mentioned to me later how it’s so neat to be a believer because as a believer you really do have connections (family) wherever you go.  It’s an international family.  Sometimes you become children.  Sometimes you become parents.  Sometimes you become grandparents.  Sometimes you become brothers or sisters.  Sometimes you become aunts or uncles or cousins.  God makes us different things to different people, but we all have roles to assume to strengthen the body of Christ, and every believer is family.