Closer to Jesus

A Bar mitzvah for a young boy

The Mount of Olives, The Garden of Gethsemane, The Western Wall, The Temple Mount, The Pool of Siloam, The Old City of Jerusalem, Caesarea, The Via Dolorosa, The City of David, Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum);  these are just a few of the places we have visited in the last couple days.  It's been an amazing couple of days to say the least.  We have been flooded with diverse emotions -- joy, sadness, thankfulness, shock, disgust.  We have experienced the full gambit.

Praying under the Western Wall

Today we walked through Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.  Everyone should experience this once in their lives.  The motto of the Jewish people in regards to the Holocaust is "never again."  Never again will they allow themselves to be subjugated, humiliated, and destroyed like the Nazis did to them in WW II.  We only had forty-five minutes in the museum.  We could have spent the whole day in there.  I had to fight back the tears the whole time as I wondered how we, as a human race, could stoop to such depths.  But, the fact is, if the circumstances were right (or wrong) it could happen again.  We have not "evolved" to the place of being above such horrific events.  Six million Jews died at the hands of the Nazi regime.  It's unthinkable.  NEVER AGAIN!

We also went to the Western (Wailing) Wall.  It's one of my favourite places in Israel.  The passion of the Jewish people is humbling for me.  We went in the tunnels under the wall down to the level of the second temple.  At one site in the tunnel is a location that is the most holy place for the Jews.  It is the closest they can get to the Temple Mount, which is now controlled the Muslims.  While in the tunnels I noticed a young lady, not more than 25 or 26 praying at one location.  Her lips were quivering as she was praying.  We moved along to another place and she walked past us, lips moving silently while she walked, carrying her Hebrew Scriptures.  She reached the holiest of sites and prayed fervently, fist clenched, rocking back and forth, scriptures pressed against her face.  I was more than curious.  What could she be praying for?  A job?  An illness?  A broken relationship?  I asked Eitan, our guide.  "She is praying for peace in Israel."

Wow!  That brought me back to 2011 in Vancouver.  The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in the finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs and a riot broke out in the streets.  Over hockey for Pete's sake.  We riot over hockey.  That is pathetic.  After the riot my friend from the Golan Heights, on the border of Syria, whose wife has not been able to see her family for about 15 years because of being locked out of Syria, emailed me to ask if I was ok, or if I had been hurt in the riots.  Hockey!  I was so embarrassed.  They pray and fight for freedom and the most important thing to us is hockey?  Really?  Something is out of whack. Sorry for the rant.  My eyes were opened to how petty we are sometimes.

I love Israel, especially Jerusalem.  Jesus walked here.  He taught his disciples here.  He cleansed the Temple here.  Here he was arrested, tried, and found guilty.  He carried his cross here.  Here he died.  He rose from the dead from Jerusalem.  And it was from here that the Holy Spirit came in power on the disciples and the Christian faith spread like wild fire.  When you experience the Land you leave changed.  I have seen it over and over again.  I am witnessing it again this time.

I just finished having a heart to heart talk with one of the group.  She said she does not want to leave here unchanged.  She wants to take the change home with her.  She is excited about Jesus and her faith like never before.  She's not the only one either.  Several others in the group have told me the same.  The group ranges in age from 30 to 79 and each one has a similar story.  My heart beats for stories like this.  I want to keep bringing groups to experience this life changing journey.

Please continue to pray for us.  Tomorrow we finish the Via Dolorosa, we go the Garden Tomb, where we will celebrate communion together, we will go to the pools of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the crippled man, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and finally we will cross the Palestinian border into Bethlehem to see the Church of the Holy Nativity.   This is the climax of our trip, so we need your prayers.  We will be focusing on the death and resurrection of Jesus.  My prayer is that we will all leave with a new resolve to live in the victory of the risen Christ.  I want the entire group, including our guide and driver to experience the power of Christ crucified and risen.  This is what will change us, not an experience in a place, unless we experience Jesus there.

Tomorrow night we have our farewell dinner and then we rise at 3:00am to leave for the airport.  I will say goodbye to the rest of the group and then spend a couple days with my Druze family near Haifa and then a couple days with my Jewish family near Nazareth.  Please pray for me that I will be able to have some rich conversations with these families.  God is doing something.  I want to be a part of it.

May you experience the peace of Christ as you walk with him.

Pastor Jeff