Jesus’ plan was never to stay here. It was always to leave us and to leave us with all we needed. Today we visited sites that reminded us of this. We started in the Garden Tomb – an alternate site of Calvary/burial. We shared Communion, it was beautiful and great!

We left from there and remembered the timeline we discussed in Galilee – Jesus rose in Jerusalem, met with the disciples, told them to meet Him in Galilee, reinstated Peter and returned to Jerusalem with them. They had to have been thinking He was about to establish the kingdom. Yet He had better plans. He was going to leave and leave us His Spirit – we have all we need to live like Jesus did! After another quick teaching time on the Mt of Olives, we considered His ascension.

We then ended on the original southern steps of the Temple and remembered how the church began – Peter filled with the Spirit boldly proclaimed Christ and 3000 followed Jesus and were baptized that day!

We were done! After a pizza, some cards and some final shopping, we are coming home! On our way to the plane now.

Shorter sightseeing day with more reflection time. I also took a nap, so you know we are running hard here (I hate naps)!

We started the morning off reading the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17) and then heading to a location considered by many to be built on the original site of the upper room. Then we prayed together on the roof after a short teaching time.

Then we headed down the steps to the Kidron valley and back up to the church located where the Garden of Gethsemane is supposedly located. Gethsemane means “oil press” and we looked back at our Nazareth tour for a reminder of how olive oil is pressed three times and considered the force Jesus was feeling pressing on Him during His prayer time in the garden. May we take following the Father’s will as seriously! Jesus could have escaped into the wilderness on the east. David did when running from Absalom. Jesus trusted His Father and followed His will – to our benefit and for the sake of saving the world. 

We then headed back into Jerusalem to the possible location of Caiaphas’ office where Jesus was questioned by the high priest and sentenced. Very cool location, but I will save some of that for our Luke series. This is also where Peter denied Christ 3 times, in Caiaphas’ courtyard. Therefore the church has a rooster over a cross on its steeple.

After a quick lunch, we started walking an alternative Via Delarosa route from near Herod’s palace in Jerusalem where Pilate may have lived to the location of the Holy Sepulcher. This is a possible location for Golgotha and Joseph of Arimathea’s family tomb. Then we left the tomb and will consider its emptiness tomorrow! 

I then took a short nap and we all met for a time of worship and to share one big thing God is teaching us right now. It was great!

Final thoughts tonight: my heart is breaking for so many people who are seeking to find some connection to Jesus in these places. Weeping, depositing trinkets, etc is happening everywhere we go. Many have been overheard saying “I feel so close to Him now.” “He was here.” I get it. Yet theologically it breaks my heart. I am no closer to Him than when I left IL. His Spirit lives in me. If you trust Him as your savior, He lives in you too. There is no location on earth that can draw you closer. He’s already inside you! Trust that. Cling to that! I understand His steps better now. I see Scripture in a new light and am amazed by how different my devotional times have been. But He is not here! He’s coming again, but He’s not here! May we cling to that as believers!

Today started with a brief drive up to the Mt of Olives where we began to consider and “see” Jesus’ passion up close. You can get a great view of the Temple Mount from there. Here’s a panoramic view from a church there.

We stopped at a hill and looked east to see where Jericho is. Then the town of Bethany, which today is called “al-Azariya” which derives from its most famous story/resident: Lazarus. Jesus brought his friend back to life during the last few months of His ministry, what we would call Phase 5. Here are the phases again to review: Preparation, where He learned and grew up, Ministry Foundations, where His ministry started and He called people to Come and See, Ministry Training, where His challenges lead to Follow Me, Expanded Outreach, where He began to teach the disciples how to fish and prepared them for what was next. 

Now He turns to Phase 5 – Multiplying Kingdom Influencers. Here He will make them Apostles, send them out, disciple more people and lead them to do the same. They do things for Him and His glory! They don’t always get it right, but He leads them and guides them back. He starts to let them lead. In this last week of Jesus’ life, He invests in them and reminds them of what the plan is. They still don’t get it. So today we saw it. The family tombs.

The church built where Jesus wept (maybe). We “saw” His triumphal entry. We “saw” the trips back and forth from Jerusalem to Bethany. The crowds welcoming Him to be King. The leaders plotting to kill Him. His careful teaching, crafty answers to questions, His ability to redirect to the Father.

Jesus lived out what it is to Love God and Others (Samaritans, Pereans, Scythians, even the Pharisees and Sadduccees! – He could have just ended them and ended all debates), He studied the Word to know God, He lived worship through obedience to the Father’s will and bore fruit, teaching others to do the same, He depended on prayer and the Holy Spirit’s leading. He didn’t just make disciples, He was the perfect model of one and He calls us to follow and fish and multiply ourselves. Are you doing that? Are others closer to God due to your work in their lives? This is what the morning was all about.

Our afternoon was at Yad Veshem – the holocaust memorial/museum here. Powerful day. I wasn’t allowed to take photos of most of it, but did get this.
This was from the end lookout of the main display. It was hard to take in all the displays. The big idea of the memorial is that 6 million died, but they were murders committed against one person in a moment, 6 million times. It really humanize the overwhelming number of 6 million. There were pieces from the victims, stories were told to bring them to life. It was tough but good for us to be there.

We ended the night in an amazing location. Often I’ve heard that history is buried under layers and layers of civilization. This seems to be true here. Almost everything we see is “well, under 20 feet of debris we have…” or “under Turkish ruins, Crusader ruins, Muslim ruins, Byzantine and Roman ruins, the city is down there.” Tonight we entered the western wall tunnels, and it was amazing! Herod the Great wanted the Second Temple to be grander than the first, so he commissioned a project for the ages. The Temple Mount was splendid before, he made it breathtaking. He built up the valley and built a structure 30 meters high that held the Temple structures. On the mount, you had a huge Temple, Antonia fortress (named after Marc Antony) and colonnades filled with money changers and shops. This may give a better idea:

Again, ancient does not mean primitive. When Jesus kicked them out, it was an event! That structure is enormous. After the Temple was destroyed in 70AD, the Mount was cleared and left. Later, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques were put in place there. Muslim groups built things up and wanted to be by the wall. Closer. So, they built arches that made things closer and buried all that was below. Today these are the Western Wall tunnels. They preserve the Second Temple era. We walked and touched parts of the wall that were there when He was there. We understand now why the disciples said “look at the size of those stones!” Even the newer (700 years old) things had to be grand just to arch the gap. It was something to see.

All this past two weeks has done is focus on Jesus. We’ve been where He was. I see things differently now and the Bible is making more sense than ever. Yet I’m no closer to Him than I was when I left. I think some come here to find something, or to experience Jesus. Being here, I am grateful for the trip and eager to serve the church better with the knowledge I now have. But I had Him before this trip in the same dose as I do now. His Spirit lives in me and I want others to know Him. That is the whole idea of living a disciple making life – we just point people back to Him, the One who is doing a much bigger project than Herod in sanctifying you and I.

While traveling in Israel you might say, “we’re going to Tel-Aviv” or “we’ll travel to Mt Carmel” but you say “we’re ascending to Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is the center, Jews believe it is the center of the universe. Three monotheistic religions see it as significant. It is the center of the new beginning for you and I. All because Jesus “turned His eyes to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51). Today we traveled the same way Jesus would have, He left the Galilean hills and traveled down the Jordan Valley to Jericho and then ascended to Jerusalem from there. We didn’t do a ton today, but what we did see was enormous! Jesus likely would have walked past a city that sits where the Jordan and Jezreel valleys meet. Here Saul died by his own sword. Paul mentions the people of this city in Colossians. We stopped in Scythopolis, or Beit She’an. We saw things from the Egyptian period, Greek period, Saul’s time, the Crusaders time and the Byzantine time. There was more to see and explore, but we did what we could while ascending to Jerusalem. 

This mosaic was not too far from the public toilet.This view from inside the ruins shows you how huge this structure was in its heyday.These pillars gave shelter to the shops on the street.This Egyptian palace was abandoned in the 13-12th century BC. The wall the crusaders built used material from other walls/ruins.

A couple of takeaways from today. 1) Whoa. 2) Ancient doesn’t mean primitive. 3) Our tour guide here is the best. 4) I can’t wait for good Wi-Fi again. These posts get harder and harder to post.

So Galilee means “rolling hills” and they certainly have that. Today we wandered north with the Galilean hills on our left (west) and the Golan Heights on our right. We saw Israeli soldiers doing drills in the fields and made our way to Dan. In Judges 18, the Danites decide to move and carve out their new home at the foot of Mt Hermon. This is where the headwaters to the Jordan River start and was a lush and fertile land. The structures were mostly Hellenistic with some 9th Century BC worked in.This is where Jeroboam encouraged Israel to forsake God and worship one of the golden calves he made.Look how preserved the structures are. Syria is just off in the distance.You can really see where the 9th and 4th centuries collide.This is the city Gate the tribe of Dan made.Heres a closer look at the inner gate.Notice the lack of mortar.

The Danites destroy the city of Laish to take hold of the land. This gate existed in the 19th century BC.

Crazy old and interesting! This Gate would have been standing when Abram moves into the land!

We then spent some time at Caesarea Philippi and more on this later in our Luke series.

We ended the day in Capernaum again thinking of the time that Jesus reinstated Peter and were challenged by this passage. We broke into groups in this courtyard to discuss the passage. Lots of great ideas/content was shared! Tomorrow we look to Jerusalem just like Jesus did in His last days. Just a few more days!

While we are definitely in Phase 5 in our journey here, some aspects of the last two days have elements of Phase 4, so I will focus on that. Again, our understanding is that Jesus was the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world, but also was the chief disciplemaker and beckons us to “walk as He walked” (1 John 2:6). So, yesterday as we looked at Phase 3 and considered “come and follow,” we now turn our attention to Phase 4, leadership development or “come, follow and FISH.” Jesus has beeen calling individuals with different backgrounds and passions to follow Him. They have started to do so, but are still missing the point. So, He develops them by giving them a view into who He is and who they are IN Him! He does this by taking them on trips with Him and putting them in steadily increasing uncomfortable situations. When was the last time Jesus made you uncomfortable? I don’t mean the “He wants more money if mine” kind of uncomfortable, but the “He’s calling me to do what? Go where? Reach who? Invest where?” kind of uncomfortable. I think many of us have settled for a simplistic Christian life. He calls us to more. He calls us to everything. Consider those that follow. They were never the same. We considered this today.

This is Mt Arbel, we hiked down this first.Here’s where we ended.

Here’s part of how we did it.

Then we moved on to Magdala.This was the synagogue here in Magdala. Perhaps Mary was healed of her demons right here!An amazing first century mosaic up close.

Look at the colors!

There is a beautiful church with amazing artwork!

Then out friend Heather shared with us about how to find our place in Him and to minister better both as women and to women. It was great! She was way out of her comfort zone but did amazing!!

Then we had a quick shwarma/falafel/schnitzel lunch and headed to our boat tour. They found a boat in Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) in the 1980s and it is from the first century.

We then took a boat ride across the Lake and learned from Shane Stacey about the calming of the storm. Again, it was great!

Then we went to Kursi, one possible location for the healing of the demoniac (where Jesus casts the demons into pigs). This was on the Gentile side of the lake. Jews weren’t supposed to go there. Jesus was taking them to an uncomfortable place! Shea shared about this for a bit. Then we explored a Byzantine church! I crawled into a crypt!!

Dead bodies used to be down here!

Then a few of us hiked a trail. We just got back and I’m tired. Until tomorrow, folks. In the meantime, wish Merri Lane a Happy Birthday! She’ll love that!

After 18-21 months of “come and see,” Jesus started to invest in the disciples in a new way. His call became “follow me.” He began to train them and move them along in their disciple-making journey with Him. He starts calling them forward and begins to challenge them to commit to this amazing journey He is on. They had a chance to buy in!! Most or all of this phase occurs in a couple of months and in the region we are currently staying – around Lake Kinneret (you know it as the “Sea of Galilee” despite the fact that it is not a sea – it’s freshwater – nor in Galilee – Galilee means “rolling hills”). He taught them and pushed them out of their comfort zones.

In light of this, we visited Peter and Andrew’s hometown, Bethsaida. They moved to Capernaum later and we visited there too. In fact, Jesus in Matthew 9:1 as coming to His hometown, Capernaum. So it was significant to Jesus’ later years and ministry with these guys. We also visited Korazim.

We started in the ruins of Bethsaida. Lon teaching us with the Lake in the background.This is the line that separates the reconstructed from the old here.

Notice the difference in rock colors here – Basalt versus limestone.

This was the entryway into the synagogue.

This is the detail on the roof of the synagogue. 

Jesus actually cursed Bethsaida and Korazim and neither of them have been inhabited for centuries. Very interesting. We then went to Korazim.

We met a small family of hyrax.
Look at how the houses were made. The door to this house was only a little taller than 5 feet tall.

We then went to Capernaum. We learned that many came to this region to be healed by the sulphuric springs. Those that had skin diseases sought healing in Galilee. Interesting how Jesus had so many to heal!

A lunch at St Peter’s Restaurant – eating fish that is from the same family as the fish that Jesus would have eaten! If only 2000 years later!

The Catholic property built this building. Note the Basalt and Limestone combination.Lake Kinneret – the Sea of Galilee. It’s smaller than you’d expect.Possibly Peter’s house.

The top is what’s left of a 5th Century synagogue, the foundation that it’s built on is 1st Century AD remains.We learned next to where Peter went fishing.

Great view of the lake from here.
A plaque on the way into the ancient ruins of Capernaum (Hebrew Capher-na’um or village of Nahum, a famous rabbi – not the prophet). We spent a lot of time being challenged today about strategy and lifestyle. It was great!

We ended walking the path of the Beatitudes. We came across a plant with pods that were important.The mustard seed pod!

Here’s two seeds in my hand!

Then we saw a gorgeous sunset, did some laundry, ate a meat-tastic dinner, played a game and are now ready for bed. Oh, and I found this Spider (it deserves a capital S).

Zoom in if you dare.

So the timeline of Jesus’ life and ministry starts with a preparation phase (phase 1) where he was born and prepared to live out his ministry life. He learns Scripture, is presented and shown to be unique in the Temple. He lives in Bethlehem for part of this time, lives in Egypt for a time and spends much of the rest of the time in Nazareth. It is at some point in Nazareth that He is led by the Spirit to go to John, who is baptizing in the Jordan River valley, and be baptized. After this baptism, He is tempted and shown faithful and then He starts to teach and preach. His followers grow, He does a few miracles and He beckons with a command: “Come and See.” This baptism ministry all the way to His rejection at Nazareth and setting up shop in Capernaum is Phase 2, or what some call “Ministry Foundations.” This is what we explored today.

We started today in an old theatre in Sepphoris. This place is not mentioned in Scripture, but is a very short walk/journey from ancient Nazareth. It is possible that Jesus worked in this city with His earthly father, Joseph. Joseph, as you may know, worked with his hands and was a craftsman. The Greek “tekton” had been translated “carpenter” by us, but is better understood as “home builder.” This likely means that Joseph (and Jesus) worked on stone and wood structures – and it is likely that they would have been used in building Sepphoris as Herod Antipas called all local craftsmen to work starting in 3BC and ending in 19AD or so. So it is very likely that a teenage Jesus worked in this city with His dad.

A view from the top of the lookout.

A mosaic in a rich woman’s house. Dionysus is winning the drinking game.

After we spend some time digging for artifacts, we ate lunch and prepared to go to Nazareth.

We then made our way to a site where they gave us a glimpse of 1st Century Nazareth with a bunch of reconstructed buildings and some people dressed in 1st Century garb and some animals. We ended in a full size replica of the synagogue in Nazareth and considered Jesus making a ruckus by his words and being taken to a place to be dropped off a height and/or stoned. Check out the photo I shared on Facebook for a 360 shot from my friend Brandon.

We then went to a cliff outside of town where some believe Jesus was led after His “troubling” teaching. They threatened to throw Him off. He disappeared through their midst. The views from there were amazing!

Below the cliff is the Jezebel valley. This is the direction an Assyrian or Babylonian army would come to conquer Jerusalem. This is the path of the Via Maris and a very strategic location for all commerce of the ancient world. Overseeing it made Herod rich. It helped the message of the Gospel spread quickly. It is a very strategic location and from the hill outside Nazareth, it is all there to see. We wondered how many times Jesus snuck up to this mountain to consider how this planet has rebelled against the ways of God. We wondered how many times He asked, “is it time, yet?” We wondered if we were in the spot our Savior sat 2000 years ago after a long week of working Sepphoris. Very strategic indeed.

We have so much packed into each day that it is tough to fully explain what we are seeing/experiencing.

This morning we prepared for another hot day and made our way to the Temple Mount. The doors open during weekdays at 830am and all non-Muslims must leave by 11am. Many Muslims here do not believe a temple ever stood on the mount and that it is Jewish propaganda to believe so. Therefore, when you enter the Temple Mount space, you must not speak of the Temple at all.

We walked up a rickety bridge and cleared security before standing on a place that is revered by Muslims as their #3 holiest place (behind Mecca and Medina) and a place that is honored by Jews as still containing the Divine Presence of G-d. Not to mention that this place contains many of the most significant accounts of Jesus. So, it is very special! Two Mosques sit atop the complex now and Jews are constantly praying at the Wailing Wall just below.

When we started our tour, we were next to the Al-Asqa mosque, which is on the southwest corner of the Mount (grayish dome in the photo above).

We talked about the marketplace at the original Temple and looked at some of the marble colonnades used to hold up the market in Herod’s complex. 

You can still see the gold used to cover them! It must have been beautiful!

Then we turned to the Dome of the Rock, where Muhammad supposedly ascended to heaven to receive the commandment to pray 5 times a day. Both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Asqa Mosque were used to worship God during the 100 years that the Crusaders held Jerusalem. They are amazing structures.

We turned from there to consider a few possibilities of the “previous structure” or temple may have stood. Regardless where it stood, the Western (or wailing) Wall is the closest wall to the rock protruding from the mountain that Jews believe still enthrones the Divine Presence, or Foundation Stone. This mountain is also Moriah (think Abraham/Isaac sacrifice, think Melchizedek), so God was often met with here. I left feeling glad that His Spirit is in me because of Christ! I don’t have to go to a place to meet with Him!

We then took a very short walk to what is left of the Pool of Bethesda.

There is an awesome basilica over part of the pool of Bethesda and we sang a song in there together. It was beautiful and the acoustics make everything sound amazing.

Plus they had amazing doors!

Then we went to the Wailing Wall together, our guide told a bad theological joke and then we each had two hours to grab lunch.

Shane and I had some pizza, chilled and changed out of our Catholic and Muslim modesty apparel and prepared for the City of David.

These are the archaeological digs happening in the part of the city where David once lived and the rest of the kings of  Judah. He conquered it from the Jebusites around 1000 BC and then took up residence there. Then he brought the Ark of the Covenant to rest on the peak of Mt Moriah which is directly northeast of the city and almost touching it.

The top picture is the best guess of how it looked after Solomon built the Temple and the bottom part of the picture is it today. Note the part of the fortress that juts out of the wall and down to the Gihon spring. Scholars believe that David’s men (perhaps Joan and others!) snuck into the city at night by using a special entrance from there to capture the city. Wait until you see what we explored next!

So this is possibly the cave that they used to climb up and attack! The cavern was huge leading down to the water structure.

All this is either ruins of that tower or the actual caverns underneath that may have been exploited by David’s men.

Hezekiah, choosing to come up with a better solution than the water tower/guardhouse, commissioned his tunnel and we walked through it. This is the most authentic thing you can do in Jerusalem! Everything else either has a church on it, leaves us unsure as to what it is or is covered in meters of debris. This is THE tunnel and is 2700 years old. That. Is. Crazy.

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Don’t watch this if you get claustrophobic.

Look at the joy of archaeology in my eyes!
This is a replica of the original plaque placed in the tunnel entrance. After this, we ended with a devotional thought by the Pool of Siloam. John 7 can never be read the same way by me. We can’t wait to get back and share pieces of this trip through teaching and videos!

The steps are original and the sign, if you zoom in, shows what the pool looked like.

We head to Galilee in the morning – be praying for us!

We started today by looking at the weather and realizing that 101 degrees in Jerusalem means 107+ in the Jordan/Dead Sea basin. So, Shane and I prepared to drink lots of water and dressed lightly. We then ate a modest breakfast and hopped on the bus headed to Masada. Masada is an ancient fortress. If you care to learn more, read about it here. It was amazing. 

It’s imposing from the bus. Look at what was on top.

A model of Herod’s northern palace.

What’s left of the bottom of the palace (his living chambers). This is the square part of the model.

The pillars on the outside of the residence.

The inside of the residence.

A view from the semicircle viewing part of the palace looking down at the circle and square part (check the model for reference).
The storerooms – 24 of these existed! They also built deep cisterns that would have held months worth of water. They even brought soil up so they could grow crops! The plaster on the bottom is original!

The faint black line denotes where the old construction was and where the modern “rebuild” begins. Archaeologists built a few walls back up to show what they looked like and to clear paths. 

A look down from the western palace.

The lighter “ridge” in the foreground was the ramp built by the Romans to conquer Masada. In the top right of the photo, you’ll see the left side of a “box” which was one of the 8 encampments built by the 10th legion. You can faintly see the remnants of the Roman wall in front of that box.

A panoramic view from the watchtower.

A panoramic from the northern castle. See the Dead Sea on the right and mountains on the left.

We ate lunch here and then headed to En Gedi. Check out 1 Samuel 24 and Psalms 57? 59 and 142? to get more into the story. (Question marks denote probability and not certainty about where they were written).

A view from a cave in en gedi (which means valley of goats) looking back at the Dead Sea. The greenery is accompanied by a brook.

It’s not called en gedi for nothing.

These are some of the Qumran caves.

They’re in there. Look closely. It’s hard getting good photos from the bus with a phone.

Then we headed to the Dead Sea. We did this.

Shane has a mud sweater. We both are very exfoliated and ready for a day on the Temple Mount tomorrow.

Here’s a view of the market right outside our door. We walked out tonight and got some Pringles. 

Heidi check out this door in the market!

I also found these awesome people to model walking in the door.

More updates tomorrow.