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
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 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:
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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