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.

So today we began the storyline we will be following for most of our trip – the chronology of Jesus’ life. Today covered Phase 1 of his ministry – the preparation period. In this period Jesus was born, circumcised, presented, given gifts, forced to flee to Egypt, returned to Israel, followed in his “father”s footsteps as a carpenter, was baptized, guided by the spirit into the wilderness, tempted and victorious over that temptation. So, a very busy, significant time. Luke tells is that this period was around 30 years long. So what did we see you ask?

We started in this ruin, called Herodium. It was a fortress of Herod the Great and overlooks Bethlehem and the Mt of Olives. It was huge and captivating as you can also see the Jordan valley, Dead Sea and Moab mountains easily from the top of the structure. The Bar Kokhba rebellion ended here in 135 AD and also Herod was buried here. 

It was crazy to be in a fortress built by the maniacal king who tried to kill Jesus to protect his turf. A later member of his family is the one who interrogated Jesus before His crucifixion. 

Then we went to Bethlehem and saw a Christian church complex called Shepherds Fields. This was to consider the birth narrative that we will cover in Luke.

This is also likely what the stable/manger looked like – much different than you might expect. More on that in the fall.

Then we headed to one of the possible baptism sites for Jesus’ baptism and John’s ministry.

Then we went on an amazing hike through the Judean wilderness. This is possibly where Jesus spent 40 days fasting and was tempted by Satan. We stopped a few times and we’re taught/prayed and let God lead us. It was incredible. So incredible that we were late to the bus and rushed to dinner. Worth. Every. Second.

We were pretty tired after a hot, long day. Very cool to consider what Jesus did and was led to do during His first 30 years.

Today we started with a quick orientation and then a hike along the current wall that surrounds the old city. This gave us views like this:

We hiked along the wall from the Jaffa Gate, passed the New Gate, the Damascus Gate and to the Herod Gate. This wall was built no later than 1538 but some parts of it are older. It is definitely more Turk/Medieval than the wall in Jesus’ time, but still amazing.

We then caught a bus and left the old city to go to the Mount of Olives. We caught glimpses of the desert/wilderness to the East of Jerusalem on our way to the range called “Mt of Olives.” You can see the olive trees and a massive old cemetery that define the hills from the rest of the region. From there, you can get a spectacular view back looking at David’s city (left) and the old city, along with the Temple Mount and the two valleys that make Jerusalem such a valuable asset to control, influentially and defensively.

From there we headed to the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem (Israeli-controlled but disputed by the UN) and it was an archaeological nerd fest (which I loved). Here’s some photos:

The oldest known inscription of David in an extrabiblical text.

The oldest fragments of Scripture we have.

An Assyrian victory motif after a victorious battle against Israel.

Herod the Great’s coffin.

A crucified ankle bone with the nail still intact.

The Moses seat.

They had the most incredible model of Jerusalem circa 70AD before the Romans destroyed the whole city (and temple) which gave tremendous context to Jesus’ last days and Passion Week.

Read about it here.

Today was great. Pray for those in the group dealing with new climate/food stuff. Tomorrow we start with our 11 day chronological walk through of Jesus’ life/ministry accompanied by the study we’ve been doing for the past 10 months and a notebook filled with our trip leader’s life work (Steve Hudson). We start in Herodium/Bethlehem and end at the baptism site. Thanks again for allowing this trip – can’t wait to preach this stuff when we get to Luke in the fall!

We stayed in Tel Aviv last night at an amazing boutique hotel called Hotel Sadot. We were tired, as it was 1am and we’d almost stayed up for 35+ hours during travel to avoid jet lag (thanks Rich for the advice). We were exhausted but hungry because the awesome juice box we got on our 45 minute flight from Amman to Tel Aviv wasn’t enough.

If you look closely, Shane spilled a bit of apple juice due to how exciting the contents of the magazine were (or juice boxes spill).

So we grabbed a couple biscuits from the free snack bar and a glass of lemonade. I was able to FaceTime the girls (thanks Steve Jobs). We then slept, hoping to sleep until the morning. The beds were super comfortable and we both slept past 10. We ate a sweet complimentary breakfast and got ready for the day. Seriously, Hotel Sadot is amazing!

We got a non-complimentary taxi back to the airport. We tried bargaining to get him to take us right to Jerusalem, but couldn’t agree on a price. At the airport, we got in a sherut (taxi) to Jerusalem and were amazed to find that Trump is helping even the economy here! 

That bumper sticker says “Trump” and I’m not sure if it was licensed by him, but someone made the money!

We then drove to Jerusalem and here’s a couple pictures from the sherut:

We got to the Jaffa Gate. Here’s the wall leading to it:

And then right to our hotel.

We explored the markets in the Old City for a bit and are now back at the hotel for a bit before dinner. Thanks if you helped make this trip possible – it is a dream come true and surreal to be here!!

This is a panoramic photo of Jaffa Gate.This is Jaffa Gate.

Girls, I’m going to see if I can bring a cat home.Heidi, cool door to a residence in old city.Iron plated door to Tower of David.Tower of David, built centuries after David lived. That’s still old.Inside Jaffa Gate.

So under those clouds is Cyprus! We boarded at 9pm Central time in Chicago on a flight with Royal Jordanian Airlines. We laughed at first since their movie titles said “western classics” and we thought the lack of a John Wayne title was suspect – then we realized we ARE “western” to the rest of the world. I concur with their choice of Inception, not so sure about Dumb and Dumber. 

We enjoyed two little meals. I’m too big for a long flight. We were definitely outnumbered as white guys. The hardwood floors in First Class seemed excessive. Those are just some quick thoughts.

One strange thing about the long flight was the lack of sunlight. Shane and I were watching Hidden Figures and he pointed out that the sun would be visible in a couple of hours. However, we didn’t know that they can tint the windows and keep the plane dark for the whole flight. Around noon over the Mediterranean, I wondered where the sun was and started having serious doubts as to whether we’d flown East or West. Yet by 2pm (in Jordan) the sun was shining and then the tint changed in the windows. It’s tough to avoid jet lag and not sleep when the plane is super dark for ten hours!

Now we are in Amman, Jordan, waiting for our connecting flight to Tel Aviv. The airport is beautiful here. However the bathrooms were a bit different as was the McDonalds. We have a tiny bird flying around us inside the airport. Pastor Rich wonders if it is a drone. He was FaceTiming with me when that happened. Check out the pictures and keep praying for us! Tomorrow we start to explore Israel!

Thank you so much to those of you that are helping make this dream trip possible! We will be giving updates here and as many pictures as we can post. Follow along for the latest on our trip!

What an incredibly draining and unpopular election! Some of the polling data was brutal and just showed elements of what made Election Day so unique and painful yesterday. I will have some thoughts on that in the third paragraph, but for now, let’s just look at some of the data without commentary. As I write this (it will change in the days ahead), there were 119M ballots cast on Nov 8, 2016 and our estimated voting population is 227M, so that is a voter turnout of 52.6% (check google, etc for data). This is the lowest number of voters since 2000 (105M) and lowest percentage since then as well (50.3%). This is curious. Key swing states (like Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado and Virginia) saw declines in overall voting numbers and others (Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida) saw overall numbers go up. Here you can learn some interesting facts. Trump carried white voters, Continue reading →

Yes, yes there is. You should also vote – it is a civic duty, responsibility and opportunity. Democracy is only as good as those who participate and a democratic republic is only as good as its elected officials. I’m not sure that is true. However, if it is even close to being true, then who we vote for is of utmost importance.

So, here’s my piece on voting for tomorrow. I will try to keep it somewhat opinion-free, but I can’t guarantee you will feel that way when reading it.

1. Vote and vote your conscience. I would hope that you have prayed about this and are at peace with your decision. Remember that this candidate is not your friend, so you really can’t know them as well as you like. You must determine what you feel you must do as closely as you can and vote accordingly. Jesus isn’t running… although you could write Him in, I suppose. Although He already saved us and will deliver us fully when He returns. He has a higher office than any on the ticket, so He won’t take office on January 20.
2. Do your research. You must know what are voting for and about. Check out this site and read up on all the candidates – down ballot candidates are just as important to you and I, as the national offices can only change so much. There are state, county and village appointments to fill as well that may in fact affect our day to day more. Know the issues and what you are voting on. Here’s some info from a source I trust – I like Ed and we have many mutual friends. Also, do a quick search for your county and local officials by typing this into your search bar above: “___________ (county name) 2016 ballot” and read up!
3. Tell others to vote – share this post or share the info you find and encourage others to be a part of the process!
4. Pray for our officials! There is a lot to feel bad about this time around – but God may move hearts that we don’t expect and lead people in a way we can’t fathom. Pray!
5. Be a part of making America better – get involved with people and show them the love of Jesus. Laws will not change behavior – but a repentant heart will! If we focused on discipleship and growing in Christ, change might actually happen. Help with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, be a youth leader or volunteer for your elected officials. Write them and let them know how you feel. Be an active constituent! I know many of us feel bad about where we are going, but a piece of paper on Tuesday is only a small piece of the puzzle – do more!
6. Trust Jesus.

Thanks for reading and we will see what happens!

Here at Park Hills, we have started a new reading plan. Many have asked for the rationale behind why these passages are being read and why start in Romans and Genesis. Perhaps this will help with the understanding of my reasoning.

We are going to spend many months in Ephesians, and rightfully so. As Pastor Mark quoted Martin Lloyd Jones on Sunday, it is “the most sublime and most majestic statement of the Gospel.” This book deserves our time and energy. We all can hope to grow much in our faith as we see 1) what Christ has done for us, 2) what we receive IN Christ (look for that phrase) and 3) how then we should live. We are excited for this sermon series! So we will read Ephesians a few times in the reading plan. However, I don’t want you to read it 20 times and get bored with it, so it will come in doses.

So why start in Romans and Genesis? To start, one must see God’s story in the law of Moses to begin to grasp His goodness to us as we receive grace in Christ. Therefore we will work through the Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and I will hope to blog along as things get interesting or complicated. To see God’s story through the faithful – Noah, Abram, Joseph and Moses – one sees how He works and what His holiness means for us. So that explains why the Law is going to be tackled in our reading plan.

Romans is perhaps the most significant theological treatise in the New Testament. The epistles explained the “how” of living out the Gospel, and Romans starts us off by seeing God’s answer to the sin problem. Romans shows us how messed up we are (end of chapter 1) and God’s response (3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 8:1) followed by our response (10:13, 12:1). Paul’s letters have a pattern and a thought process that will be fun for us to see as we read. So, we will be rotating through all of Paul’s church epistles throughout the reading plan and will be commenting along the way. Enjoy!

As mentioned in the sermon on Sunday, many have a strong misunderstanding about giving and churches. Unfortunately, some televangelists and others have given “giving” a bad name and have become quite famous for their expensive tastes and luxurious lifestyles. Some recent television shows also document misuse of tax exempt status and other factors that leave many leery of giving at all. After seeing how Jesus deals with those that are ripping people off in the name of God in John 2, we should be weary of these traps. Here’s some thoughts that might help you give at your local church.

1) You know where your offering is going.

Do you love your church? Your staff? The ministries your church provides? These things are created by and kept alive by corporate offerings. A majority of the expenses in a church budget are staff and building expenses. As we decide to give, it allows the church leadership to allocate funds as they see fit. You like the kids’ check-in system and well-trained volunteers of an organization? Giving allowed these things to be done! This is just a logistical reality! Not only that, but there is nothing evil about a pastor earning a salary or building being built to allow the church to worship together. (cf 1Ti 5:18, Pr 11:18, Mk 12:17, Mt 22:20-22)

2) We give as the Lord leads.

This is not about 10 percent of a personal budget, but a heart tuned to being a part of God’s mission here on this planet. We should start by looking at what God has provided in our lives – time, talents and treasures. I know this sounds lame, but the “T” words are easy to remember! Our time is very limited and something to consider. We were once selfish with our time, but now are willing to join God where He is working and give up of our time to meet Him there! Our talents are God-given and intended to be used and developed to serve Him and build His church. The Lord has blessed America with financial means like no country ever before. Our finances are another chance for us to consider what God has given and then give back as an act of thanksgiving to Him. I would recommend praying and asking for leading either alone or with your spouse or parents to determine where you might start with giving of your time, talent and treasure – once you have a sense of leading, follow through and live in faith according to this. This should cause us to rearrange our schedules, develop our natural/spiritual gifts and arrange our finances as such. I find it encouraging when a family will avoid/eliminate debt in order to give generously as the Lord lives. The New Testament instructs us to give generously, so we should do this! There is no sure promise of greater riches, etc to follow, but we live in faith that God has already given us all we need in Jesus (Eph 1:3) and therefore we are ready to give and trust Him with the rest! (cf. Gn 14:20, Nu 7:12-89, Mt 2:11, Jn 12:2-8, Rm 12:6-8, 1Co 12:4-31, Eph 4:7-16)

3) God set an amazing example!

Jesus is the ultimate example of sacrifice while He was living and in His death. God fulfilled all the promises He had made through Jesus. God has given of Himself so generously – above and beyond what we deserve! Now, any offering we make in this life is a RESPONSE to His goodness, not an OBLIGATION or manipulative play to get more from Him. We give of what He has given to show Him we understand what He has done. We can’t out-give God, but we are called to a life of sacrifice and service — Let’s follow Jesus together and well!