Discomforting the Comfortable

We packed up and said goodbye to Jerusalem. On the bus, as we departed, we had a time of devotions.

Pastor Aaron prayed:

We were almost to our first destination there in the Negev Desert. Natalie comes to the front of the bus and begins to pray for those carrying burdens. She was almost done with her prayer when the bus erupted with excitement at the sight of baby ibexes. Ibex look kind of like a cross between a goat and an antelope. They are common in this area. 

We get to En Gedi and proceed up the path. En Gedi is the place where David hid from Saul. Pastor Thomas shared:

David had to get out of dodge, but he wasn’t alone. He had 400 men with him. If he wanted to go to the desert. He needed to get to a water source. He ran because he held this truth to be self evident: Touch not God’s anointed.

The other day we took a wrong turn and ended up in a cistern. It was dripping with water, but it was broken. How do I know? If it were a working cistern it would be filled with water.

Not too far from here another king, another time. King Herod on Masada made a place for himself to run to if he were ever chased. He had storehouses of food and yes… cisterns. To collect water. To provide for himself and his men. King Herod hew out cisterns to save himself. They were man made and now they are broken they do not hold any water.

But here, David’s stream, it still flows. The living water is still here.

“For My people have committed two evils:

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,

And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13

I shared the other day that we have a fairy tale version of Christianity. Like Goldilocks, we have a need to be comfortable. (this porridge is too hot. This too cold. This bed is too hard. Etc.)

But God, He discomforts us. Strive to enter into rest

You won't accidentally trip into the kingdom. David wasn't looking to be attacked by a spear. He loved Saul. It caused David to come to dryness of flesh and soul. To come to the wilderness. But David stayed near the living water both physical and spiritual.

When you try to save yourself by building cisterns. You may be able to hold water and stay afloat for a little while. But it won’t last forever. Go to the fount of Living Water. You carve out cisterns where you don't need Him. It's the faithfulness of God that breaks your cistern so you need Him. God has a process in you life. Yearn for living water. Is what you are pursuing living water? He'll give us everything else.  Seek first the kingdom and all things will be added. When I am not trying to work it out myself.

We played in the lower waterfall. Natalie and Katie got soaked.

We got on top of Masada and Meir told us the story of what happened here.

Once upon a time there was a king named Herod. He was not a king by birth but by political appointment. He was the son of a rich family from Edom. His parents sent him to Rome like many wealthy parents in ancient Israel to study in the house of Augustus. Yep, that Augustus, who would be known to us all as Caesar Augustus. When Caesar began to look for someone to help manage his governmental interests in Israel. He chose the guy that had lived in his house who was from the same region. Edom was a neighbor to Israel. So Rome dubbed Herod King of the Jews, even though he was not Jewish and was not of the House of David, like all the kings were supposed to be. The Jewish people hated having him as their representative. Their ambassador. Their intercessor with Rome because he did not plead their cause. He sided with the Romans. Herod was paranoid. He thought everyone was out to get him. He began building fortresses all along a route that led back to Edom. Of course, there was Jerusalem. But then he had Herodian in Bethlehem. And the next stop on his place to flee was Masada. He had storehouses of food that could feed 1,000 people for 3 years. He had huge cisterns filled with enough water to sustain people in the desert and for him to take luxurious baths. To me one of the craziest things is that Herod never actually stayed here, nor did he ever climb the mountain. He stood at the bottom and observed the progress, but he never used it.

The real story of Masada begins when Rome is tired of dealing with the Jews as a people. They

believe the only way to manage the unmanageable people groups is to scattered them across the known world so they cannot form a revolution. Divide and Conquer. The Diaspora involved a process of sweeping through the country of Israel and gathering up all the Jews and shipping them off to various ports of call. Rome heard there was still a group of zealots that had taken over Herod’s palace at Masada that still needed dealt with.

Masada is a natural fortress. This mountain has no other connecting range. It is fairly easy to protect. Someone tries to climb up, you throw a rock and crush them. (Insert Meir’s Rolling Stone joke here). There are plenty of rocks atop so no shortage of ammunition. So how did Rome defeat them? They built a ramp up to the gate. Using Jewish slaves so that the zealots on top would not kill their brothers. It took one year for them to build the ramp up to the gate. They finally battered the gate and broke it open. Knowing that the Israelites had no where to go and they would conquer them in the morning. The Romans went back to their camp to rest for the night.

 

That night the camp gathered together. Their leader basically said Would you rather watch your wives assaulted and your children led off as slaves or die as free men in a free Israel? Each man killed his own wife and children. Ten men were chosen to kill the other men. Finally, lots were cast for the one man who would kill the others and then fall on his own sword. They found the pot shards with names inscribed on them.

When the Romans arrived in the morning, they found the bodies of the slain. To make their

point that they were not starving or defenseless. They had a pile of food and a pile of weapons showing they did not do this from despair but from choice. They have a record of what happened because a woman and her two children were found hiding in one of the cisterns.

Half of our group descended from the mountain. The rest of stayed on the mountain to tour more of the ruins. The church that was up here. The pigeon house also known as an ancient mailbox. The synagogue was beautiful. There is a new addition to the synagogue, the side room where they found the pieces of scroll including the chapter of Ezekiel has been turned into an

office for a scribes to hand copy the Torah. The scribes were in there working away. It is wild to me that this is their office. This place has a fresh occupation.

The craziest thing started to happen. On the mountain opposite of ours a dark cloud loomed. It kept getting closer and darker. And then the lightning started. We cut our tour a little short to avoid lines at the cable car. As we got off the cable car, it began to rain. Our driver Motti said he personally has only seen rain in the desert one other time. We are in an awesome time and place. And a fount of living water flowed from heaven!

We came off of the mountain and had lunch. I thought there might be an international incident with myself and the clerk running the snack bar. I went to pay with my shekels and he pointed down and gestured ‘is this yours?’ There was a $5 bill precariously draped in the candy display. I said ‘no.’ But he panicked and I thought I could see him thinking, “I don’t want to be responsible for this!” He wanted me to take it and I had the same, “I don’t want to be responsible for this” shaking of my head. He sighed, picked up the bill like it was diseased and dropped it on the shelf behind him. Praying and hoping someone would come and claim it or it may just stay there forever.

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We headed from Herod’s palace on Masada to Herod’s Dead Sea a spa and hotel at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Many of the pilgrims enjoyed the half day off to rest up either by napping,

floating in the Dead Sea or scoring a massage in the spa. The food was off the charts! The dessert table was full of artistry and finesse. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Way of Suffering

First off Wednesday held the greatest blessing: Meir!!

Meir has been our guide for the last several trips. He had a previous engagement and was only able to join us for this last day in Jerusalem. We miss Shany, but are so happy to have this time with Meir.

We drove around the city. Meir began to explain to us that until 1967, the road we were driving on was a No Man’s Land between Jordan and Israel. This road was a moat that Herod built to protect Jerusalem from the north. There is a story about a hospital that was on the edge of the No Man’s Land. There was a French nun who was standing at a window in the hospital. She began to laugh so hard her false teeth fell out of her mouth, the window and landed in No Man’s Land. There was no retrieving them without an international incident. It took two weeks of bureaucratic intervention to get them back to her.

We walked around to the walls of the city into the cemetery in front of the Golden Gate. This provides a spectacular view of the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.

I once heard a message by Beth Moore. She went throughout the Scripture. Old Testament and New, and catalogue how God’s presence entered and left the city. It says that to the fill the Temple, the spirit of God took this route: down the Mount of Olives and up passed us into the city. Jesus came into the city the same way, was crucified and then left the city and ascended into heaven by the same route back up the Mount of Olives.

We moved on to the Pool of Bethesda/ The Church of St. Anne

As we walk past the church. There was the sweetest Irish priest who shook Meir’s hand. He look at us all and said: “Thank you for coming today. The Lord is surely in for a treat!”

Pool of Bethesda

After this meeting, we proceeded down to the pool. And some of the guys mid line, took a detour and we ended up in a cistern at bottom of the Pool. There was actually water here. James sensed the power was present to heal. So we began to pray.

We went into the Church of St. Anne for some singing.

We stepped out on to the beginning of the Via Dolorosa. Meir explained the stations of the Cross. Typically, a Roman Catholic series of events (some are not found in our scripture) there is still such an appreciation for the devotion and careful contemplation given to every step.

Meir went a little more in depth about the actual crucifixion process. The Romans did not nail through the hand. There was no flesh or bone to stop the hand from being ripped through (between the fingers) from the weight of the body. The piercing would have happened between the two bones on the wrist just below the palm so the hand would have kept them on there. The would have done the same process in the leg. Nailing the lower leg between the two bones. They would have turned the leg so as to get between those bones to the wood. We know this because in a grave near the place of crucifixion, we found a bone with the nail through it in this way. He also told us that they would have bent on leg up to cover the private parts of the one being crucified.

Pastor Taylor stood on the steps and said, “I want to make sure to give the youth group version of the place we are in. Many of us who have been a couple of times try to mine the details of every spot, but I do not want our first comers to miss the fact that we are walking the Way to the Cross. It probably didn’t look like this, but it was here that Jesus walked the road in suffering that made a way for you.”

We got to the place where the Pavement was. Archaeologists have found carved in stone the

game that would have been played to gamble over Jesus’ garments. It is here that He was stripped of all of His possessions. He was left with nothing.

We were led into a beautiful chapel. Meir told us that He had never been allowed to use this room to meet in. He always had to just point at it from the back, but never sit and share in it. Wow.

He began to speak to us about the fact that Jesus’s crucifixion was unusual. The Romans did not normally go so far. They didn’t parade people through the streets and make them carry the Cross alone. They didn’t give everyone a crown and a robe. They did this to mock Jesus.

He shared that the Cardo was like the main street of ancient Jerusalem. It means heart. Heart of the city. I pointed out that it meant that the Blood of Jesus fell on the stones that mad up the heart of the city. His heartbeat flowed through the veins that are the streets of the city. If you think of Jerusalem like a heart with arteries and veins. His blood flowed through the city.

(Side note: in this chapel the art work was very interesting. The Cross above the altar included the four spcies from the book of Daniel. If any of you have every studied the temperaments. You would recognize: the lion, the ox, the eagle and the man. Each were painted on the four corners of the Cross.)

We went down to the pavement. Pastor Kim read the Scripture:

Molly began to sing the Via Dolorosa. It was so powerful.

We spent a moment praying at the pavement. When we stood to go the guide from the group behind us came and asked to speak to the girl who was singing. Their whole group was so sweet. They wanted to know who she was and thanked her for not holding back. (We got them information on how to find her music online. Molly Keller is on itunes, Spotify and youtube. I put her album on especially when I need to find a peaceful place of worship. Check her out!)

From this point we had an interesting decision to make. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the Cross/Calvary) has been under renovations fro several years now. Today was the unveiling. This

meant it was going to be very crowded and that dignitaries from all over would be coming. (Erez who showed up at the church of St. Anne told us that it had taken him a while to get there from Jaffe Gate

because they had blockaded off sections because the Prime Minister of Greece was there. So as we do often, we had a quick change of plans.

We headed instead to the German Colony for lunch and then on to Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust museum here in Israel. Pastor Jerry had shared earlier in the week that when God loves something, there are people in this world that will hate it and try to destroy it. This is true for God’s people. There is so much information and so much devastation it is hard to express. Two things stood out to me. We walked through the Children’s Memorial. It took a very long time for an artist to be found that would be willing to tackle this feat. No one wanted to make a visual representation of the children dying in death factories (which is what the concentration camps were.) The artist they finally found was an engineer. He strategically places thousands of mirrors to reflect off of each other. He placed five candles in the room which represented the 1 million children who died in the Holocaust. Ranging from one day old to 18 years old. The mirrors catch the light of the candles and bounce around the room. The reflected lights represented all of the possibilities

lost. These children would never grow up and have families of their own. A voice over the intercom reads the names, places and ages of the children. I asked Meir how long it takes for the recording to repeat itself. “One million names? Two weeks.”

I guess what really struck me was the fact that right here, I was speaking to Meir. If he would have been born in Europe. This may have been his fate. His lineage would have been cut off. He has four children and fifteen grandchildren. There would have been none of this.

Jesus’s words: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The other thing that caught my attention while we were walking through was Ryan Teddy’s response. He asked me to walk with him through the museum because he didn’t want to be alone and he thought he might just cry the whole time with his dad, Brent. So we walked through. Ryan has just started learning about the Holocaust last year in school. I remember my

own exposure to this dark time in history at the same age. I told him to let me know if he needed to move on from one space to another. Watching him, the part that caught in him most were not the graphic images of mass graves. I mean it rips everyone’s hearts, but Ryan became overwhelmed at the sight of lists of names. He would just look at me and say, “I can’t…” I guess seeing their names side by side and the lists going on forever overwhelmed him. He asked me about the striped clothes. I had just walked by a video of a woman sharing that she and the other women were put into a room full of barbers. Their heads were shaved. She said, “All of a sudden, we could not recognize one another.” I explained to Ryan that everything was taken from these people, even their identity. They were given striped clothes and numbers tattooed and sown to their coats. Their humanity was stolen. Their names.

We stood before one list and I felt Ryan come stand at my shoulder. I heard him breathe sharply when he saw another list, but when he saw whose list, he sighed a great big sigh of relief and he relaxed a bit. This was Oscar Schindler’s list of people that he saved through his factory. It wasn’t nearly as long as the other list, but it was full of hope. I explained to Ryan that Mr. Schindler lost all of his wealth in trying to save one more Jew from the camps, from death. He grieved that he wasn’t able to save more. He has a tree planted in the garden here of Righteous Gentiles. He is also buried in Jerusalem. A great honor. People visit his grave everyday and thank him for sparing their lives and the lives of the ones they love.

The Culture of the Kingdom

This morning on the bus, Shany said to that “You far from my worst groups.” Pastor Thomas

said, “I think there is a compliment in there.” She said she likes to take the to get to the group from the other guides and tour agencies so that adjust her themes to them. “Roby sat and taught me about you.” At this we all started laughing.

We began our drive around the city and Shany pointed out some details.

She said the Gates of Jerusalem were named either for their geographical points or their literal function. So Jaffa Gate goes to Jaffa. Damascus to Damascus. Dung  to the ancient Sewer (And did it smell like it yesterday!)

The ridge of Mount Scopus includes the Mountain of Olives.

Our morning began atop the Mount of Olives. It is always my favorite thing to say (after 10 trips) I have never done this before. We walked into the church Pater Nostre. This is a church commemorating the Lord’s prayer.

Pastor Thomas: I think it is wonderful the disciples asked to learn how to pray. They were astounded by the prayer life of Jesus. And wanted to know more.

Pastor Jerry shares:

I want you get the bigger picture. If you look around this building, set in all of the wall tiles there is a version of the Lord’s Prayer in every language.

All of the languages of the world are represented. I try to pray at every one that all of these cultures that God would come to them. You can touch the world here. Agreee with God to touch everyone.

Jewell said a place to come to oneness.

Pastor Jerrry said “Yes a portal to oneness of His kingdom and the world.”

We sing and pray the Lord’s prayer in the olive grove on top of the mountain.

Pastor Taylor shared that on the plane, God began to speak to him about the Lord’s prayer. To pray Thy kingdom come. We have been blesses to experience the kingdom of God. The kingdom transcends all languages and cultures.

Yesterday, I ran into a friend from Asbury at the Western Wall. Blake believes God has called him to reach the Muslim world. He talked to me about culture. About the vast difference between American and Arab culture. There are elements in every culture that are close to kingdom culture. There is not one culture that owns the culture of the kingdom. To pray the Kingdom will come on this trip. The kingdom is more than an abstract thought. It is a governmental reality. When the kingdom comes among us. Coming into a new place, a new country where Jesus is the king. The need of this trip is that the kingdom come. The reality of God’s  government structure. Revelation imparted by my dad: The kingdom of God is where Jesus is in charge. None of us own our revelations, they are imparted. A gift.

Pastor Thomas:

Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Shany stood to speak. She said “wow I am so inspired by you all. It is hard to shift to history from the place we are at.”

When Jesus speaks His words, they are in a Roman occupied city among Jewish people. I spoke to you yesterday of the connection at the time of the priesthood, finance, and politics. The city looked beautiful, but they are rotten in other spots.

Rome decided it needed to clean house. They killed some and split the rest out and around the known world. The Diaspora included Jews and Christian.

Three hundred years after the Diaspora, Helen, mother of Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, returns to Jerusalem. Constantine was facing a great battle. He has dream in which he sees Jesus. Jesus shows him the symbols for Alpha and Omega. Constantine instructs all of his soldiers to engrave the symbols on their shields before the great battle and they win the battle.

Helen has a goal in Jerusalem to find the place of the cross. She knows how important the Mount of Olives is to Jesus’ story. She walks into an Olive Grove. Finds a cave. And believe Jesus could have stayed in that cave. She built the first version of the church over the cave. In fact, she built a church over all of the important site.

Persians destroyed the church here. Crusaders came to “release” the city by making it Christian. Her churches were twice the size as the Crusader churches.

Where we are standing is the first church built in Jerusalem after 300 years. They reuse the rocks in mishmash.

Helen is responsible for marking the Mount of Olives, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre & the Church of the Nativity.

Pastor Fleming said, “Just like a women, getting things done!” Helen really did stand between the altar and the porch on this one.

We proceeded to the Overlook and Shany give us quite the overview. She began by telling us about Herod and his renovations for the city that raised the platform where the Temple was to a level area. He made these renovations partially because he longed for tourists to start coming to bring finance to the city. To maintain his influence in renovating holy sites he often bribed the priesthood. This influenced the priests into turning the purchase of sacrifices into a side business. Jesus arrived and was grieved that people were paying for sacrifice, using money, instead of simply to worship God.

We looked over the Herod’s great plateau that we still see today. While not knowing for sure, many believe the Dome of the Rock (the Golden Dome) is in the same place as where the Temple stood.  What was fascinating to us that we learned later in the day as she was showing us a model of the Jerusalem through the ages is that the structure on top of the plateau, before they added a gold dome to it was a Crusader church. It’s octagonal shape (8 sides) represented the 8 Beatitudes. Several of us were blown away. So in this spot. Was the Jewish Temple, a Christian church, and a Muslim Mosque. All built on top of each other.

Shany shared with us that Islam arrives in the 7th century in Jerusalem. The Mamluks stand on the mountain we are standing on and decided to conquer the same spot and claim it for their own. If it is a place important to Jew and Christian, it needs to be conquered first.

Muslims also believe that on Judgement day, it will happen here. They say there will be a bridge from this mountain to the Old City, but it is more like a tight rope. A thin hair. And those that cannot make it or are not worthy will fall of the rope into the valley where they will be swallowed up by the earth and descend to hell.

Jews and Christians have a very similar eschatological belief, but with a little difference on the details. One thing became obvious, we all believe it will happen here.

We shifted a little into talking about who owns the Temple Mount. Who do you think owns it right now? Israel? Palestinians? Muslims? Well, I was surprised to find out that it is owned by the Jordanian Waqf. The word waqf means “holy, or untouchable”. It is a fairly old Muslim organization that is led by people that donate all their earning in life to the ownership of holy sites. So that one country does not own them. It being a Jordanian waqf, simply means that is where the seat of their leadership is. Jordan does not have ownership.

In the 13th century, Mamluks would ride up into the mountains of Europe and Western Asia after the Crusaders had come through. They would kidnap children from their families and bring them back to the middle east training them to be soldiers under the Mamluk. They teach these child soldiers that it should be considered their honor to donate everything they earned to the Waqf. So neither Israel or Jordan owns the Temple Mount, the Waqf does. Harming any facility owned by the Waqf is an act of war. After Israel became a state, Jordan donated the Temple Mount to the Waqf. So it would be under a different jurisdication.

If you are speaking with someone in Arabic, they do not call the city Jerusalem, they call it Al Aqsa which is the name of the Dome. Al Aqsa means “furtherest.”

The waqf also own every Muslim cemetery. They are considered holy sites and are not to be disturbed.

Shany went on to share with us that tombs take a lot of the real estate in Israel. Down below us is a great cemetery and your family must have had to buy their land years and years ago to be buried here. They wanted to be buried as close to the Judgement Seat so they could awake first and skip the line. Front row seats to the End Times. For Jewish people there is not cremation option. They are buried in the soil and covered with a rock. “We do not place flowers on a grave because they die, we place rocks because they stay forever. When you walk out alive from a cemetery you leave nothing that is dead (or dying like flowers). I have thought for many years that cemetaries are not for the dead, they are for the living. To remember the impermanence of life.”

We were running late for our next appointment at the Western Wall Tunnels so we had to skip the Garden of Gethsemane. I know a couple of people were saddened to hear this, but we would not have wanted to miss being invited to a Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall for anything! (PS. And we made it back to the Garden, keep reading!)

We descended under the floor down to the Western Wall and learned about how they harvested the rock for Temple. Pastor Thomas shared that there was not a hammer heard in the city when it was built. He said he always looked at it as the fact that our work is done here on earth and their will be no sound of a hammer in the New Jerusalem. We are building now in our

obediences that corridors of heaven.

We walked up to Mount Zion after lunch in the Jewish Quarter. We stepped into the Upper Room. 

Pastor Jerry shares: This is space is commemorated to the 120 disciples and followers of Jesus that were gathered when the Holy Spirit came and indeed them with power from on high. 

Jesus had instructed them right before He ascended to heaven to wait or tarry in Jerusalem until... Here they were... 120 people together in this space for 10 days. I am sure there were plenty of preferences and personalities crammed together. Maybe they were getting tired of each other. Short with one another. But it says in Acts chapter 2, they were all in one place in one accord. One accord requires the grace of God and diligence to keep your heart. 

That challenge never goes away. God is going to find a people He can trust that will wait. Holy Ghost Awakening will not just happen magically. 

At the end of their ten days, they were still in one accord when a sound like a hurricane swept through here. I was 19 years old in Florida and was in a hurricane. I thought the house was going to be ripped to shreds by it. I was afraid for my life. It sounds like a freight train is running over the room. And then there were tongues of fire. Their gifts were in full operation. 

Can I be trusted while I am waiting?

We begin to pray: what you have done, you will do it again. Help us not to bail on each other till you pour your Spirit on all flesh.

We went up on the roof of the Upper Room to see the vista. From here you can see the Mount of Olives and the City of David clearly. Behind us is the Dormition Abbey, we headed there next.

Dormition Abbey is the place where it is believed that Mary the mother of Jesus lived and (some believe) died.

 (Others believe that St. John took her with him when he became bishop of Ephesus. Some accounts say, here life was in danger in Jerusalem because there was a desire to silence all parties that could testify of the validity of Jesus. And His mother had a front row seat to the whole story.)

I was talking to a friend once who said, if she really did live here, it may be that she chose Mount Zion because she could see most of the places He spent His ministry in Jerusalem. From her

vantage point, she would have been able to see the Garden of Gethsemane, Calvary and where
He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. His mother looking longingly to the hill where he returned to the Father. 

As we walked down to the crypt, Pastor Thomas said to me: if there is one thing I would share here, it is that the Roman Catholics raise Mary too high, and we protestants do not even pay her any respect in response.

We got down in the crypt. I sang Ave Maria quietly so we didn't bring too much attention. A young lady in the corner that was not with our group began to weep. After I finished she and her two friends came over and thanked me. She said I don't know when I have heard something so beautiful. I asked where they were from, she said oh... here in Israel. From her head covering, she may very well have been Jewish. It made me wonder... how much like a young mother Mary was she. So affected by the presence of God.

 

The plan originally was to go shopping, but I think everyone agreed that going to the Garden of Gethsemane and reclaiming our time there was more important. 

Shane worked so hard to get us a side garden. It was such a sweet act of love. We decided to just meet where we were waiting. Which was facing the side garden that is to the right of the Church of All Nations.

Jesus prayer here. We know that. Right here.

Natalie stood and shared: Jesus leaned on a rock to pray. We, too, need to lean on the foundation when we cry out.

Pastor Jerry shared:

Jesus revealed the core of the gospels here. Rev. Helm prayed and asked God for the exact spot where He knelt. (Come with us next time and we'll show you)

The gospel of Luke tells us it was His custom to withdraw and pray. He was a stonesthrow. 

(Pastor Jerry asked Dale how far he could throw a stone. It was outside of this garden and into the one across the street.)

So a group of disciples was a ways away, He then asked Peter James and John to join Him and then He walked a little further from them. Why?

Don't ask God why. He has His reasons for placing you where He places you. (It may not be in your best interest to know why or press to know why. It has the potential for causing separation.)

Often your burden is in the context of your assignment. It might be in your family or in your body. You may say let this pass from me just like Jesus did here. There is the core of the gospel. The door of the gospel is receiving the finished work. The core of the gospel is praying with Jesus, not my will but yours. 

What was going on here between Father and Son?

"Son, if there was any other way I would do it."

"Father, is there any other way?"

What was on his heart and on the father's heart? We would rather not do this. they decided together at creation we will do this. 

How is Jesus finding us? Asleep? Rev. Helm said that the church is three or more times to sleep more than the disciples were over here in the garden. Watch and pray with me. You can sleep later. It is possible that the three disciples that were closer may have been there to be a witness and to record this.

We returned to the hotel. We had a wonderful time in saying goodbyes Shany. I think everyone really enjoyed their time with her. Meir will join us in the morning. Please enjoy this lovefest that we had:

We then met for evening service after dinner. Mr. Dale Mayo opened with prayer. Molly lead us in "Your Great Name" and "The Lion and the Lamb". I wish I could get across to you how the people in our group and in that little room same with all of their hearts. Heaven was close.

Pastor Thomas testified that when Pastor Taylor and Pastor Jerry later hands on him his ankle was on fire he believes for healing.

We had prayer for people that were grieving. We specifically spent time praying for Meghan Jacobs and the kids. A year ago this week she lost her husband and the children lost their father, Officer Allen Jacobs, in a shooting while he was on duty. Meghan and Allen were A part of Christ Fellowship in Travelers Rest. Please continue to pray for them.

Pastor Thomas shared on Ephesians 2:4-10

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

God has a different framework. We aren't designed for merely 70 years, but for eternity. He reviewed what he said in the Western Wall tunnels that a hammer will not be heard in the heavenly city. Chipping away on this side of heaven. It's worked it out already before we even get there.

He spoke about works prepare beforehand. Many of your great challenges or works prepare

before hand. We have nothing to boast about. We are his workmanship.  The Lord knows how to get you to your works prepared before hand.

We had some special guests with us. Pastor Jerry and the people at Plainfield recently who said Rabbi Miller for meetings. He has several places all over the world for training people in missions and ministry. One such place is in Cyprus. A Group from Cyprus have come over to spend a month in Jerusalem. A couple from that group came and joined us for service. It was really nice to be with them. 

We begin to pray for them.  Pastor Fleming prayed over David and Rachel. She help them with some visuals on what kind of trust it was going to take in the days and years ahead. She had them fall into the arms of people standing behind. Saying they needed to trust God and know that he would not let them fall.  They would have to let go of fear and just fall into his arms. They went to go sit back down. She called them back up and said I'm sorry there is something else. She began to talk about them having to do spiritual warfare. They were going to need to punch cake to get through. Then she had them do it. David went after it. Even a high kick! 

Earlier in the evening, as I was getting ready for dinner in the meeting.  The Lord showed me a picture to paint. When David and Rachel came in the room. I knew it was for them.  So I painted it during worship.  And ask God to give me the words to go with. I saw in my mind I earlier an orange tree. Full of fruit. The word I got was "fruitful." God was wanting to make their ministry fruitful. I went on to say: in Florida the sweetest fruit came after a frost. It did something to the oranges chemical make up. So there may be times that they will fear their fruit is dying, but it is actually just making it sweeter. 

Here is the painting:

Skipping ahead to the next morning, we walked into the courtyard at the pool of Bethesda. And there it was... The orange tree full of fruit that I saw in my heart in the hotel miles away the night before.  It was the orange tree I painted. I was very excited!!!  God testified to me in it! 

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