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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Hanini & the Waters of Shiloah

A smaller group of us headed out at 7:45am to the City of David. This is where David’s palace was. It is outside of the Old City walls of today. This was early Jerusalem days.

Pastor Taylor Keller (Plainfield, IN) gave us a beautiful mini version of the sermon he brought in Parker City last fall at the RFOD reunion meetings. He spoke on the waters of Shiloah. And today, we were heading to those waters. They flow from the Gishon spring.

He shared:

The scripture from Isaiah I am about to read was written in the time of Hezekiah, who’s tunnel we are headed to today. To put this word in context, Hezekiah’s dad was King Ahaz and his kingdom was under attack (Isaiah 7). Instead of listening to the prophet, Isaiah, and trusting in God as their source. He trusted in the strength of the kings around him. ‘I am going to trust my military/political alliances.’

Ahaz refused it, but because of his position as representing the people. God says through Isaiah:

Isaiah 8:5

The Lord also spoke to me again, saying:

“Inasmuch as these people refused

The waters of Shiloah that flow softly,

And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son; (their political alliances)

Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them

The waters of the River,(Euphrates) strong and mighty—

The king of Assyria and all his glory;

He will go up over all his channels

And go over all his banks.

This contrast is made between two waters is made. The waters of Shiloah that flow gently and softly and sweetly. Compare that to, the waters of the River that represent raging, swelling, flooding.  It is the difference between trusting in the way of God and man. Trust in man? You always get more than you bargain for in a bad way. But if you trust in God, it may not seem like there is any power in it in the moment or strength. How are we going to be protected from being under siege? This little water source, but what the waters of Shiloah represented was the provision of God. God made the statement that you have refused the waters of Shiloah.

The word Shiloah it means “Sent”. Same root word as Siloam. It means God sends them from the source. The source is the Gihon Spring. The Gihon Spring is one of only a hundred intermittent springs in the whold world. The spring we are about to see is one of the most famous. It means that it will burst forth periodically throughout the day, a couple of times a day. It varies between wet season and dry season. That is why the channels can fill up and empty.

Refusing the waters of Shiloah means refusing what God has sent. That is the key issue. It still very relevant to the people of God today. When God sends something into your life. It may not look like the most effective or powerful solution. It probably will not look like that. It will probably look like the waters of Shiloah that flow gently. It may not be the timing.

Because these people refused the waters of Shiloah, refusing what God has sent, they are going to get flooded out. That principle still remains for people today when receiving or refusing what God has sent to them.

I’ll put this at the end. Ahaz refused the waters, but Hezekiah did not refuse them. He actually utilized them. He made tunnels for them. He said we are going to use these. Hezekiah, he was a man of God and he listenend to voice of the same prophet his father ignore. May we be people that receive the waters.

In the New Testament, Jesus said to the man, “go wash in the pool of Siloam” Which is the exact same waters. “Go wash” in the sent waters. That was a man who later believed received what was sent and received his healing.

And those are the waters we are headed to.

We climb the overlook. This is where the palace of David stood. This is where the original City of David was. It is located outside of the walls of Jerusalem.

Shany (our guide) read Psalm 125 with us:

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

So the Lord surrounds His people

From this time forth and forever.

We are standing here surrounded by these mountains.

She shared with us that she did not grow up in a religious household. She looked at the Bible and said I need proof that these words are true and really happened?

Psalm 125

I wanted to find proof of the scripture. How do I know David was really here?

In Jeremiah...  we find the names of the people that would be the king’s scribe. We found the seal of this person just a coupe of steps away from where we are standing. The king’s scribe the one mentioned in Jeremiah, his seal was found here…  It becomes problematic as a non religious person like me when such proof presents itself. This scripture has roots in the ground. They are buried in this ground.

Shiloah spring as Pastor Taylor shared with us is under our feet. Hezekiah builds a tunnel. This is also written. But the diggers also carved their signature into the walls of the tunnel. Biblical graffiti. Ancient emojis. Here in this place is another testimony that the words in the stories on the pages of this Book. They happened and they happened here. Let’s go.

We started the first descent of many flights of stairs. We paused at a construction zone. The workers were busy at their jobs. Yesterday, Rabbi Moshe explained to us that every piece of

construction equipment we saw was prophecy coming to pass. The rebuilding of Jerusalem, of Israel. He said every piece of fruit we eat here is the fulfillment of prophecy of the desert blooming.

We stood there and watch as these men were literally rebuilding the house of David. The palace of David. Considered the Capitol Hill of ancient Israel. The seal they found here was a bula.  They would tie the seals to the letters sent from here. They found arrows because their was guards in the palace.

There is no record of who covered the City of David in rubble. But over the last 10-12 years they have been excavating.

Down below us in the valley was the exit of the Shiloah waters.

Shany shared. (And this amazes me. We were on the bus and she was busy with the driver, but kept her ear tuned to Pastor Taylor. This was like a half hour after he finished sharing.)

“Two things Pastor Taylor said echoed with me:

First, when we spoke of the water being an intermittent spring. It's a heartbeat of water pulsing. The city has a heart beat of this water. The waters of Shiloah pulsing below it.

Second, Refusing water. We are in the desert. We work with drought. California as you know has had a terrible drought and wildfires. Israel offered to California  the technology of desalination so that ocean water could be used to replace what they were lacking in fresh water. You may or may not know this but California is a very liberal state. (We laughed and said we were aware). California declined this offer of help because many of them, they don't recognize Israel as having a right to exist. Refusing water. Refusing the waters of Shiloah. Here is a modern day

example. They eventually agreed to receive help because of their need. They had to walk past their opinions and receive.

So back to Hezekiah, he is here in the city. Assyrians taking the cities of Israel one by one. There is a threat. To protect the people of the city, Hezekiah knew they needed a water source within the city walls so they could survive longer. So he devised this plan to reroute the waters of Shiloah, so they could use them to save the city.

We kept descending into the mountain. Down through the layers of history.

Shany told our young ones to cover their ears. She quoted one of her favorite Israeli poets: No one will ever see Jerusalem naked. There are too many layers. The more you find, the more there is yet to uncover.

Every where there is a water source you will find evidence of the people that lived here. Jebus people worshipped idols so we have found idols. David’s general, Joab entered the city by this shaft. To conquer the city and reclaim it for the children of Israel.

We descend into the excavation of a Canaanite city. There is a representation of a pool there.

They used a blue light and sound effects since it is dry now. Here they found items that were traded from the sea. They were importing exporting. It was an early hub of trade.

We spoke yesterday about the people of Israel & their rulers. The priest, prophet & king.

Right here most likely at this pool:

So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon. 39 Then Zadok the priest took a horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the horn, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” 40 And all the people went up after him; and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth seemed to split with their sound.

King David taking care of his son determining him to be his heir. Had him anointed right here to silence any confusion over who his successor was to be. You have to have running water living water for purification. This is the place where king Solomon was anointed. You take the prince of Israel to the protected side.

Wow. King Solomon who would be the wisest. Who would rebuild the temple was anointed right here.

We walk further down. Hezekiah fortifies this section to cover the spring. 10,000 people would have been normally  living in the city during this time. The Assyrians attacked. People of Israel ran to Jerusalem. The city grew exponentially. They needed enough water for all of those seeking shelter.

Jerusalem was rescued. 

Brent asked “Was there enough water for everyone?”

Shany:  The shiloah. This is the water company of the Jerusalem of today. They still drink from the spring today. The Old City uses the Water of Shiloah today.

They do not refuse them. There is still more than enough to go around.

2 Kings 20:20

20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

The question mark is here because it is that important, Hezekiah’s acts are so well known, that it doesn’t need to be repeated here. In fact, it is still here. It testifies of the validity. 

The plan for digging the tunnel was that one group started from spring and the other group starts from the pool. They meet at the middle point. This is crazy because what if you miss each other? You will dig right past. They were very accurate. They dig from different parts and the find each other. On the finial day of digging, they start hearing each other hammering. So they start dig toward each other and the sound. There is soft limestone that makes it easy.

We finally get to the tunnel they carved. We did not do the wet tunnel much to great grief of Natalie and Katie, but I did walk them down to the 45 degree waters in the wet tunnel and let them touch it. It was a beautiful rushing sound. That filled the cavern walls. We then went through the dry tunnel. Of which we always just keep moving because it is barely big for one person to walk through, let alone stop and have a conversation. Plus we want to be careful for our people that have the slightest bit of claustrophobia. So we keep moving.

We come out of the tunnels and head to the Pool of Siloam.

Shany begins the introduction to Herod. He was Jewish and was taken and trained by Rome to read and write, etc. They brought him back to rule Jerusalem.  He marries Mary of the Maccabees. A very prominent Jewish family here. He does renovations all over the country and in its palaces. He did it to show his own wealth, but also to win the hearts of the people.

He is afraid of no one but himself. This is the atmosphere Jesus is arriving to. The priests were closest to Herod because of his pockets. Herod gave them finance and a good living to keep their influence over the people under his control. This is the way of man, not of God. These priest were supposed to be God’s men

So when Jesus comes, he begins preaching basically: Do not relate goodness to the pockets of the king. He stirred things up.

Shany asks me to read in John where Jesus spit in the clay and applied it to the eyes of the man blind from birth. Shany says look at the dirt. It is clay here.

I shared that this place that we were sitting was the first thing this man saw in his life. He went to the waters of Shiloah.

Earlier when the disciples saw him who could not see them, they asked:

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:1-5

May we recognize that our difficulties may be there so that God can get the glory.

We returned to the bus and went to the hotel to pick up the rest of the group.

Our next stop was FOZ (Friends of Zion). My mom and dad (Barbara and Thomas) came here with Pastor Jerry and Susan last year. For the past eight months, mom refused to tell me anything about it and forbade me from googling it. I get it now. I don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone. My highest birds eye view of it would be it is a place dedicated to remembering the Christians who have believed and walked out their belief for the Jewish people to have a homeland. It is an exquisite Thank you letter. I will say this I walked out strengthened and convicted.

It is one of the most modern museums in the world right now. And it is dedicated to the concept of Pastor Jerry’s sharing from yesterday. Of standing between the porch and the altar. Of interceding… of standing in the gap. Of not following blindly as sheep, but taking a stand. One of the new phrases we learned there was Hanini. It is Hebrew for “Here Am I”. You see this response in Abraham, in Moses. In many others. This willinginess to allow their lives to be altered forever in service to God and to His people.

It is time for us all to say Hanini to what the Lord is asking of us which is to stand in the gap.

Last night in service, Pastor Jerry reviewed one of his first memories of Rolland Abraham. Rolland was 17 years old when he started attending the church Pastor Jerry was ministering at (much like in the position Taylor is) They were working on a project. Rolland look at Pastor Jerry and said, I am so thankful to be able to give my life to something of greater significance than just myself. Here is this 17 year old! Who thinks this way? And yet now he is the principal 2500 high school students. He prays for them. Sometimes staying up into the night. He walks the halls and prays. He visits them in the hospital and prays for their healing. He responded with Hanini at a very young age and is now influencing those coming of age. Here am I. I will give my life for something greater.

Beautiful.

We sat there in the lobby of the Friends of Zion and did what we always do when we come to this part of the day: Pray about where we were to go for lunch. Lol.

Before we got to that. Pastor Jerry began to tell us this story:

Sunday night they were overbooked in our hotel. Pastor Jerry and Susan having stayed in the Old City, graciously volunteered to take the night away and stay within the Old City walls at Christ Church(bucket list for me!).

Earlier in the day when we were walking through the Jewish Quarter. The Lord spoke to Pastor Jerry and said you will see Ruth soon.

Ruth was our guide about 14 years ago. One of the most amazing stories then was that we were outside of the Church of the Holy Selpulchre (Calvary). Once again trying to pray about where to go for lunch. Daddy explained to her that when he prays and gets to the right answer it is

illuminated for him like the breastplate of the high priest led them.

She began to talk about the Urim and Thummim. And talked about how the letters in the stones would light up on the breastplate and then the priest would decipher what the king was to do, what the nation should do.

She looked at us very skeptical about it actually being something active or working in him. Especially, after his next question:

How many McDonald’s are there in Jerusalem?

Im sure in her mind she was thinking: “Yes… sure… an American thinks he is being led to McDonald’s…” She humored him: “Four McDonald’s.” He asked her to number them.

The one God operated on was not the most convenient. It was in a neighborhood, it wasn’t a tourist type place. But she obliged.

We stepped off of the bus. She took three steps. There was her 13-year old son. Who had skipped school and was walking around with a group of girls on the exact of opposite side of Jerusalem he was supposed to be in. She got him in a head lock. His punishment was that he was grounded with us for the next week. She wasn’t letting him out of her sight.

So I still don’t know what she thought about it, but God testified of the validity of His leading in that we were in the right place at the right time.

Back to present day. God has impressed on Pastor Jerry to be looking for Ruth. He kept paying attention. There in the Jewish quarter. But he never saw her.

After their night in the Old City, Pastor Jerry and Susan went to the Western Wall early for prayer. This morning he was standing at the flagpole there having already prayed and simply waiting for Mrs. Susan. When this woman walked up with a couple and stood right beside them. She was speaking in German. Pastor Jerry turned and saw Ruth standing three feet away from him.

Once she had finished speaking, she turned and looked at him and he said, “Ruth!” Her face lit up and she attacked him with a hug. Pastor Jerry was able to ask about her son (who is Taylor’s age). He is doing well. They just had an amazing time.

The point of the story. God gave a heads up to Pastor Thomas and we found Ruth’s son in the process. God gave a heads up to Pastor Jerry about seeing Ruth, whom he hadn’t seen in 14 years. That she would walk up next to him. When according to the itinerary he wasn’t necessarily scheduled to be there, but obviously, he was meant to be there.

So back to sitting at FOZ trying to decide where to go to lunch. We  got to Ben Yehuda. As soon as he heard it Brent came to me and asked if it might be possible for me to help him find Uri’s shop. We did:

We then went to Gordon’s Calvary and had a sweet time of worship and a service.

Blessings to you all!

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