I have good friend that is Jewish whom I have known for about 6 years. Last night I met with him to see photos from his recent trip Israel. Though it was really awesome to see photos of places I am familiar with because of my faith it was also a very saddening and sobering experience. Though the tour he went on concentrated on Israel's recent history there were some photos of places like Mt. Carmel, the Dead Sea, Tiberias and also some photos overlooking the Holy Land in which you could clearly see the Islamic Mosque. Every photo that was taken outside made me wonder, did Jesus walk there? It was so neat but it was so sad to think about my friend and the group of people he toured with being in Israel where Christ, the one true God who created them, had walked, preached the Kingdom, had lived a sinless life and then died on the cross for our sins- and they were completely oblivious to this.
As they stood on Mt. Carmel did they know that is where Elijah had victory over the 450 prophet's of Baal and showed Yaweh to be the one true God? As they were partying in Tiberias, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, did they think about all the great miralces ofChrist around there? And when they looked out over the city of Jerusalem do they know how Christ wept over it and that some day Christ will return to earth and reign from there? I am afraid they never thought about Christ as they walked where He walked. This made me so sad for my friend and others who are lost and oblivious to Christ. May God in His great mercy draw the lost and blind to Himself.
4 comments:
AMEN! I want to go there so badly. Wouldn't that be the most meaningful and emotional trip to be in those places. let's go...
Hey I had to post this here because you don't have the non-blogger post thingy singed up.
Matt, what the heck! now you're a blogger too? YEESSS. Sweet bike! The best I've ever seen, GOSH. No for real though very nice looks like a batman-mobile and you'll press the secret pop-out button and it'll have wings and fly. I'm guessing you're "stitched up" because you anticipate some stitches or what? Don't go gettin all crazy now, Dana doesn't want someone flying organs in a cooler to fix you back up.
Matt's bike doesn't compare to a Harley though. But it's closer to a motorcycle than I'm at right now, so I'll give him props for that.... (I wonder if he runs from the cops like my cousin does when he gets caught pulling wheelies at 90 mph?)
But on this post, the thought I had is that I'm glad that our relationship to Christ is irrelevant to geographic location. I've never been enamoured with the Holy Land. I'd love to go, don't get me wrong. But I know people who just have this fixation with it. I guess I don't. The "Holy Land" isn't holy. It's land. As a Christian it's a part of our family history, similar to my dad's birthplace being a part of my history. But in the end, it's all land. It's rubble. None of it is eternal.
And in that, I take comfort. No mosque in the world will take Jesus away from me, no matter where it's built, and if you ask me, that's cause for rejoicing!
WHAT A WONDERFUL TIMETHTA WOULD BE TO EXPERIENCE A TRIP LIKE THAT, BUT IT'S A EVEN BETTER EXPERIENCE TO KNOW GOD LIVES IN YOUR HEART DAILY, HE WALKS AND TALKS AND LIFTS YOU UP, AND EVEN HOLDS YOU IN THE PALM OF HIS HANDS...
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