Our Own Personal Holy Land

God has been so faithful to us. He is always giving us a little breeze to encourage us. We started at the Pilgrim Steps this morning. There is no shade here, so an early morning expedition is always preferred.

Meir explained that the excavation of this site had offered so much new information on how Temple life may have been. He also shared that this was the common man’s entrance. The Golden Gate in the front was reserved for the priests and important people, but where we were standing would have been teeming with life.

Pastor spoke with us. Many years ago he had asked a friend who worked in higher education to assist him with a mini-research project. He was curious about the number of people on the earth. He asked her to get him all the information she could on the amount of people throughout the centuries. Some amazing facts came forth. In the time of David, there were only about 1,000 people living in Jerusalem. During Jesus’ time, there may have been 100,000 people in this area. Today, there is a almost a million, just in the Old City. During the time of Jesus, there were only a million people on the earth… total! Pastor also found out that there are more people alive today, than if you went back and added all of people that had lived before. Our earth is reaching maximum capacity. Feasible sustainability. Our resources and our demand are teetering on not having enough.

Pastor continued that the place we were sitting was one of the few places in Jerusalem where thousands of people would have congregated. Making this a more likely choice for Pentecost. On this day all of the young Jewish men would have been at the Temple celebrating the giving of the Torah. They were of many tongues, and yet as the disciples spoke they heard their own language! This was the first harvest.

At this point, Pastor asked Meir just to shut his ears, which, of course, caused him to listen more. He said that Meir could trace his family lineage and see his connection to God, but our only entrance is through the grace of Jesus. I always like to think I might be part of the lost tribes.

Meir interjected, “Ephraim…. You are of the tribe of Ephraim.” Pastor looked at him shocked, “How do you know?” Meir replied, “Because this tribe traveled the furthest.”

Pastor chuckled and said, “well, I have always thought I have a little Jewish blood in my veins.”

“You do!” Meir exclaimed, again a look of surprise from Pastor… “You have Jesus’ Jewish blood running through your veins.” That is quite the transfusion!

Pastor shared with us that you could not deny that the earth is reaching maximum capacity. Jesus could have established His reign when he rose from the grave. But there will be a Second Harvest in the feasts of the Jewish people prescribed in the scripture one of them is the feast of Sukkot or the Feast of the Ingathering. This is what we are waiting on. This Second Harvest.
We walked over to the Pinnacle of the temple and walked on the very street that Jesus would have walked on in their day. Heather and Elizabeth sang “Bircath Cohenim” or the priestly blessing. Meir said that not too far from here, the rabbis would speak this blessing over the people when they gathered for the feasts. Each father would gather his family under his talith, covering them as this blessing was offered! How beautiful!

We had a time of prayer. Michelle, Stephen and I walked up to the ritual baths, or the Mikvahs. We talked about how you walked down one side of the stairs unclean, you bathed in the cleansing flow of living water and then you ascended up the other side on the clean side of the divided staircase. Here is baptism! You can no longer walk the way you have been, you are cleansed!

We started our jorney down the Via Dolorosa at the Church of St. Anne. I had not seen it this crowded since my first trip in 1994. I was only fourteen. We stepped into the church built in the time of the Crusaders. The very first thing Meir said to me when I stepped off the plane was that I would be singing in this church. So I followed him in and said, I follow you Rabbi. He smiled and laughed. I stood on the steps and sang Ave Maria. A few from our group noticed a dove had flown in as I was walking to the front of the church. When I began, he flew down a little closer and began to sing with me. He was not the only one. Meir told me, he laughed when he saw all the people rushing from the basement to see what was going on.

After Ave Maria, we sang Agnus Dei or Alleluia. A group of Spanish-speaking people came and sat across the aisle from us. They were about 40 in number. They began to sing “I Love You, Lord” in Spanish. We sang with them in English. Their leader was smiling from ear to ear as we joined together in worship. They sang another song I had never heard before, but it was other worldly… um… heavenly. They lifted their hands in worship. At one point, I heard Yelba’s voice in their singing. It was beautiful.

Their leader came over to James Miles and just wanted to shake someone’s hand from
our group. He asked if we were also Catholic and we said no. He then asked if we were charismatic. They identified themselves as Charismatic Catholics. Quite a beautiful breed of devotion and passion. He was amazed at the unity of our groups in worship.

This group left and another group stepped forward singing, “The Lord is My Shepherd.” We sang along with them also. On our way out of the church, I walked over to the leader of their group and shook his hand. Just telling him what a privilege it was to worship with them. He asked where we were from and I said USA and then I asked the same of him. South Africa was his reply. God is so good.

The streets were so crowded on the “Way of Suffering”. It took us a while to get to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Here is a great place to interject something. Last night in our meeting, many of us shared a common feeling we were having. There have been times in the past where many of these sites have been awe inspiring and we have identified with what God has done in these places. But this time it really hasn’t been that way. And like Ms. Debbie said, at one point I was feeling like I should repent of passivity because I didn’t “feel” like I was connecting the fact that I was in Israel, that I was where Jesus paid it all. Many of the sites… Chapel of Tears, Garden of Gethsemane, even Calvary are such solemn places of suffering, but that simply has not been where we have been. We have had so much joy! The highlights of the trip so far have been off the beaten path.

David shared last night that he was thankful for the times of rest in the afternoons because touring has been wonderful, but like today he went to his room and as he rested the power of God hit him! He said,, and others shared the same feeling that God is doing something so deep in each of us that it is hard to describe. And it is not just for us. We are just representitatives on this trip. We have brought the whole church along. Those of you following along are not merely reading a news report, you have testified over and over that you are right here with us and you are! God is probably doing this same deep healing in you.

James Doss said I feel like there is this wedge being driven in me. To open me up, God is wanting to remove so much and yet put so much in me. If I spend too much time thinking about this work, I begin to weep.

All of this to say, we aren’t going by what we are supposed to be feeling we are going by what He is doing. And it is not being worked up. It is just coming naturally.

Matt shared, “The first thing I told Sylvia on the plane was, ‘I don’t want a trip shoved down my throat. I wanted to relax.’ It has been that. I like to take in each site, but didn’t need to see it all. It has been a blessing.

Heidi, “For a while I have felt like I haven’t sensed God’s presence as easily. But here I constantly have this stirring within me, but I don’t have words for it. This trip has been very relaxing. More so than the sites, I know where I have been and who I am with. Even the people I don’t know.”

Heather, “I was really able to appreciate the time to rest in the afternoon. I have had the time to appreciate the specific moments throughout the day and to go over what God has done. I didn’t realize how much God had really done in my heart the last time I was in the light in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.”

You see, the best part about visiting Calvary today was reviewing a day in 2002. Heather was 17. She was in the middle of making some very important decisions about who she was going to be. As she stepped in that beam of light, and worshipped God. Some major foundational things were settled. Pastor turned to Drew and said, you would not have had your bride, if she hadn’t had this experience here. I asked Heather and Drew to stand in the light together and just thank God for this blessing.

(Side note: Meir was so fascinated by this story. That she had a truly life changing experience right there! He wanted to know more of the details.)
In service Pastor asked Kelsey if she had anything to share. She said very exuberantly, “I’ve really enjoyed it!”

Mrs. Barbara spoke up and said, “That said a lot. I was talking to a tour group who have a 13 yr. old that is just bored the whole time. And here Kelsey is at fourteen just drinking in everything she can!”

Anyway, back to the Old City. We left the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and had lunch in a place where God offered us a beautiful miracle in 2007. A man had approached Pastor as were leaving the Church then too. He said please come visit my restaurant, I have the best falafel in Israel and clean bathrooms. This got Pastor’s attention. You see we never stay in the Arab and Christian quarters longer than we have to, but Pastor told him, well we will walk through and see. Daddy called it an adult playpen because the boundaries were clear and the shopping and food were excellent, but as we ate we looked up and there was a double circular rainbow above us! If we hadn’t have stopped we would have missed it. That all happened in 2007.

Pastor spoke to a very distinguished young Arab man and kind of told him this story. We found out soon that this was the son of the man we talked to last time. His father came around the corner at that exact moment. Joyful to see us. Through the magic of iPad we were able to show him pictures of our experience last time and he was so overwhelmed. He then invited us sincerely to his daughters wedding this weekend. What an overwhelming gift of delight in connecting with this wonderful man. He gave us grapes and we really just enjoyed our visit.

We toured the King David Hotel. (This may not mean much to some of you, but it was a very important site during the War for Independence. Some of us were extremely excited to see such a historically important place)

The group divided into shoppers and non-shoppers. Which meant some to the Hotel and the rest of us to Ben Yehuda Street. As many of you know we had quite the experience there.

In 2007, we met Uri. Brent and he had a special time connecting and Uri gave him some valuable advice about mending broken relationships. Well it was on my heart to sing Him a song. So I sang, "You are My Hididng Place". He got so excited and ran over to a place in his shop. Exclaiming that only a couple of years ago, he heard shouting otside of his shop and grabbed his elderly father and ran to hide behind this basically cardboard wall. Just then, the bomb went of. Amzingly enough this pitiful version of a wall protected he and his father from being hurt or even worse, killed! There shop was completely destroyed and everything in it, but he excitedly gave God thanks for his "Hiding Place"!

We visited Uri again today. He was so happy to see us. He remembered us coming before and singing! We had such a sweet time. He talked with Heidi and said it was wonderful to see her again. She laughed and said this was her visit to his shop. But she had heard his story so many times and she always got so much help from it. She told him you are famous in our church, you know! We all know about Uri and his hiding place. He stood there amazed and said, “Really?!”

Will stayed behind and talked with him for awhile. Uri spoke about Heidi saying she has such a genuine and beautiful heart for God. It was so evident. “Her heart is special to God!” Will shared a little of Heidi’s testimony with Uri and the power of God fell in the shop and they both felt it!

Uri went on to say some familiar words… “It is obvious that God is drawing the hearts of Jews and Christians together.” Will smiled, “Do you know Rabbi Moshe of the Shorashim Shop from the Old City?” And just laughed.

God is good! Pastor said last night that God is carving out for us our own Holy Land amidst the sites. We are no longer looking to what we are expected to feel but to where He is for us.