Hollyisms

We are just weeks away from Julia Grace being born so we are preparing to blog! Holly is geared up (very ready) to deliver Julia and I am getting her ready for the blog. As you can tell its still a work in process. We are learning how to set it all up and get it looking right. But for now, here it is.

Hollyisms:

1. I am about to explode!

2. Do I look fat?

3. I have nothing to wear.

4. Do you smell natural gas?

5. Can you rub my feet?

6. When are we going to finish Julia's room?

7. Can you pick that up for me?

8. My arms hurt!

9. Where is the bathroom?

10. Can you get me just a little bit of chocolate?

11. Can you clean the base boards soon? (along with the ceiling fans, carpets, bathrooms, etc)

In the future we will be posting Juliaisms!

Israel Day Seven- Living Set Apart to God

Megiddo

Our first stop was Megiddo. This was another tough place to visit due to the pagan Ba’al worship that was practiced here. Throughout the scripture Megiddo is mentioned several times. 

Joseph defeated the king of Megiddo during his conquest (Joshua 12:7, 21). During the time of the Judges God allotted this city to the tribe of Manasseh, who failed to drive out all the Canaanites (No.33:52; Judges 1:27).  Solomon fortified this city as a place of defense (1 Kings 9:15, 10:26). Probably the most popular thing Megiddo is known for is the battle of Armageddon. This is when last great gathering of armies (good vs evil) will take place at the end of the tribulation, just before Christ returns to establish His kingdom (Rev. 16:13-16). In Hebrew, Har Megiddo, often translated Armageddon, means the “Hill of Megiddo.”

When we visited we focused on the Canaanite practice of Ba’al worship which revolved around the cycles of nature necessary for survival and prosperity, namely, growing crops, raising livestock, and the growth of human populations. There are so many gross practices of this pagan worship that I can’t recount them all there. Some of the worst parts are the practice were unnatural orgies and infant sacrifice, both led by the priests and priestesses. 

Ba’al had a mistress named Ashora, in Greek she is called Ischtar, and in English she is called Easter. She was considered the goddess of fertility and her ancient symbol was a rabbit and an egg.  Makes you think twice about the Easter egg hunt, especially if you have been there and realize its origins. It is perhaps one more way we as Christians could be set apart (sanctified) from one of the seemingly innocent practices of the world. We should celebrate the true reason for the season, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We learned that Easter day would be better referred to as Resurrection Day! Amen?

Mount Carmel

Interestingly, our next step of Mount Carmel, which was considered Ba’al country and the place associated with its practice in Israel. We climbed to the top and saton the cliff and studied how when Ahab was king over Israel he had no problem dishonoring God and even strived to provoke Him to anger (1 Kings 16:29-33). He even went as far as to marry a foreign woman named Jezebel and allow her to worship her pagan god Ba’al (this is the exact reason God forbid Jews marrying foreign women). Ahab even set up an alter and a Temple to Ba’al and Easter (aka. Ashora or Ischtar) in Samaria.

The greatest thing about our visit here is when God proved Himself as true and Baal as false. This is where the prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven when the prophects of Ba’al could not. I would encourage you to read the biblical account in 1 Kings 18:16-45, esp. vs. 39 where the people fall prostrate and cried out the Lord of Elijah, “the Lord-he is God’” referring to the God of Israel as the true God! Read and celebrate God’s victory over pagan worship and pagan practice. Then think about how we can bring the light of Christ to a dark world. Not by imitating them in ignorance but showing how the One we worship is the only true being worthy of worship and how we celebrate Him alone. How has God called me to reflect the truth of Christ in a dark world of paganism?

 

Olive Grove

At the bottom of Mt. Carmel is one of the oldest working olive groves in Israel. In Romans 11 Paul used the olive tree as an illustrative picture of the union between the two people’s of God, Israel and the Church (Romans 11:17-24). Basically, the nation of Israel is the root of our faith and the Church is an olive shoot that has been grafted in due to Israel’s unfaithfulness. However, we must never forget God’s original chosen people and the promises He has made to them. He has not forgotten the nation of Israel! We honor the nation of Israel as we participate in some of the blessings promised to her as a result of being grafted in as the new chosen people of God, the Church. The Bible Knowledge Commentary and the Nelson’s Commentary have great explanations of this passage.

Caesarea by the Sea

We traveled to the Mediterranean Sea and visited the ancient city of Caesarea. This city was founded by Harod the Great in 22_BC and was the place of Roman government for over five hundred years. Caesarea was the home of Roman procurators, included Pontius Pilate. It  was really cool to visit because half the book of Acts takes place here. Philip took the gospel here (Acts 8:40), Peter took the gospel to Cornelius and the Gentiles (Acts 10), Paul sailed to Tarsus from here after his conversion (Acts 9:30) and all of Paul’s missionary journeys either began or ended here. Paul stopped here while traveling from Ephesus to Jerusalem (Acts 18:22), he was taken here by soldiers when the Jews sought to kill him (Acts 23:23-33), he was imprisoned in the palace here for about two years (Acts 23:35), and Paul’s three defenses were made here, before Felix (Acts 24), before Festus (Acts 25:1-12), and before King Agrippa (Acts 26).

This was a great place to visit and soak in the place where so much New Testament history happened as the church was being established.

Israel Day Six- Dedication

Day Six - Dedication

We started day six climbing Mt. Gilboa, an extended ridge on the southeast side of the Jezreel Valley. This was a strategic site for Israel as the Valley was a route from Galilee to the north and Samaria to the south. This also made it a place of many battles.  Amongst other things, this is where Hosea prophesied great blessing on Israel (Hosea 1:10-11), where the Philistines killed Saul and his sons (1 Sam. 28:4-5; 31:1-5), and Judges 7 records that Gideon camped and chose his 300 men at the spring of En Harod, which sits at the base of Mt. Gilboa (also called Mt. Gilead). It was interesting to learn some of how Gidean chose his men. He looked for men who were alert, cautious, and aware of their surroundings. The men who drank from the spring by lapping water with their hands and keeping their heads up and eyes on their surroundings make up the 300 men he chose. Fighting with just 300 men ensured God would be glorified through their impossible victory over the Midianites because it becomes unexplainable. Gideon trusted God and often lived an unexplainable life, expect for the power of God. We were challenged to live unexplainable lives for God. Trusting Him to provide, give victory, and get glory through obeying not only what He has called us to but also the way He called us to do it.

Our next stop was Beth She’an, the capitol of the Decapolis, the region occupied by the Pagans and practice of Hellenism. As we came over the hill, possibly where the Garden of Eden might have been located, it was impressive to look down on the remains at Beth She’an. Although God allotted this area to the tribe of Manasseh they could not drive out the Canannites and before the time of Christ the city was renamed Scythopolis and occupied by the Greeks.

It was interesting to learn the 5 key elements of Hellenistic society:

1.     Gymnasium- the development of body and mind

2.     Theater- the center of drama and entertainment

3.     Arena- the place of sport and entertainment

4.     Agora- the practice of upscale shopping

5.     Temples- the worship of many different so-called Gods

In Hellenism the Heroes are athletes, entertainers, thinkers, and the wealthy. Humans are the focus and “I am a God and I want it all” is the motto they live by. It was not hard to see the parallel with our own culture. An earthquake destroyed this city in 7 seconds. We reflected on loving God and not the world knowing that the things of this world will soon pass away (1 Jn. 2:15-17). How can we influence a place like this to see the true God? What is it that we have that they don’t? Our story. We must tell our story. Many people know about Christ but not many realize what it means to their life to walk in a relationship with Him. Let us show and tell with our lives and words.

 

We then traveled to Susita, another city in the Decapolis and a great example to telling of what God has done in a place of Hellenism. This is where Jesus cast out the “legion” of demons from a man, cast them into about 2000 swine, then they jumped into the Sea of Galilee and drowned (Mark 5:1-20).  

Afterwards the man who was possessed wanted to follow Jesus but Jesus did not let him go along and told him to“Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” The man went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed’ (Mark 5:19-20).

Sometimes Jesus leaves us right were we are to influence the place we know best, even a sinful, rebellious, seemingly impossible place. Our calling is to tell those around us what great things the Lord has done and how He had mercy on us. The cool thing is Jesus returned to this place and over 4000 people followed Him around listening to His teaching (Mat. 15:32-38) and 300 years later the city became a Christian center. One of the authors of the Nicene Creed would come from here. Amazing what the faithful testimony about the great things and mercy of God can do. It’s almost unexplainable!

 

Our Last stop of the day was the Jordan River. This river connects the Dead Sea in the south to the Sea of Galilee in the North (70 mile distance but 110 miles of winding river). So many things happened along this river and in connection to it. A few things include God identified this as the eastern border of Israel (Num. 34:10-12; Ezk. 48:47:18), large bronze objects of Solomon’s temple were cast (2 Chron. 4:16-17), Elijah and Elisha crossed over the Jordan on dry ground (2 Kings 2:7-14), Joshua and the nation of Israel crossed over into Canaan on dry ground with the Ark of the Covenant (Josh 3:13-17), John the Baptist baptized here (Matthew 3:5-6; Mark 1:5; John 1:28), and this is where Jesus was baptized (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9).

We focused on Joshua and the fact that the Priest had to trust God to stop the river after they stepped in while carrying the Ark (Josh. 3:14-17). Since all of us had already been baptized (and the water was low with a strong current) we chose to honor the Jewish custom of Mikveh and dedicated our head, heart, hands, and feet to the Lord by sprinkling water in all those places.

Mikveh is a ceremonial bath where a person immerses himself in living water to become ritually clean according to Jewish law and was done before entering the Temple or Synagogue. It is the background to Christian Baptism. For us, it was a meaningful time with God as we rededicated our whole selves to God. We want His truth in our heads to penetrate our hearts and be lived out in our hands and feet. May everything we do be done to reveal the heart and actions of our great God! 

Israel Day Five- Jesus and the Pagans

We began our day at Gamla. The Zealots were stationed here during the time of Jesus. It was a beautiful mountain range and a great hike. The first things we noticed were the Eagles. In Hebrew the eagle is called, Nesherim, and we saw “the shadow of his wings” as the Griffen Voucher flew overhead. It was a beautiful picture of the protection of God.

The Zealots were religious Jews who were extreme in the practice of devotion to God. They could be considered terrorists as they used a curved knife to kill off their Roman enemies. Although Jesus was the most zealous person in all of history He was not a Zealot. He used love and personal sacrifice rather than a knife and torture to combat His enemies.  It was a great place to learn of the love of Christ and to be inspired to live extreme lives for God.

This was also a place we saw the remains of a first century ritual bath and synagogue. We are 99% sure Jesusread and taught in what remains today. We stood in the bath, the place one washed before reading from the day’s assigned text. We saw the Moses Seat, the place the reader of the day sat. We stood on the Bema Stone, the place where Jesus would have stood as He read the assigned reading from the text. 

It was incredible to be there, to stand where Jesus stood, the read what He possibly read in the same exact place He did. It was an experience you can only have in that spot in the world and God blessed us with the experience. It was incredible! 

We spent the rest of the day at incredibly sad sites. Places of Paganism and rebellion of God. Places of sin and torture. Places of sexual immorality of the worst kind. Places of sinful and unnecessary murder sacrifices. It was a sick feeling to be there, to see the place where these things took place. However, even this evil enhances the beauty of God, the truth of Christ, and the justice of our Father.

Caesarea Philippi was in the northern part of Israel and borders Syria and Lebanon. The Paganism practiced here is called Pan worship and this was the most pagan place in all of Israel. In was in the midst of this sin referred to as the “gates of Hades” by Christ that Jesus visited this city, stood with His disciples, as asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-20).

We are all faced with this question as we stand in the place of sin. As we live in the world we must continually ask ourselves, “Who do you say Jesus is?” Who He is to you will determine how you live your life. If it doesn’t I ask you the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” My friends, He must be more than a good thought, He must be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This should impact our lives because it us upon this confession that Christ is building His Church. Be a builder for Christ!Our last stop was Dan, practically speaking this is the northern most city in Israel. This city was also full of Paganism. Here is where the Tribe of Dan was not satisfied with their land and compromised by setting up altars of worship to others Gods (Judges 18). To be honest, after Caesarea Philippi it was hard to take more teaching on paganism.  It made me wonder how numb I am to subtle compromises to pagan thought in our culture, it’s probably more than I realize. It made me want to study the text more practically and examine my life. I love to study for doctrine and theology but never want to compromise the practical. We have to believe right to live right but sometimes I focus more on the former. I want the practice of my life to reflect the text.

It was a heavy day in northern Galilee. 

As I stand on the text in the face of secular pagan culture and say to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God and I will live as a builder of Your Church.” Amen?

Israel Day Four- Discipleship

Today was one of my favorite days so far on our journey through Israel. It was a busy day but we saw and learned some amazing things as we began our tour of Galilee.

We started at Mt. Arbel, one of the places Jesus probably went to for a “solitary place to pray” (Luke 6:12; Mark 1:35-39). It was an amazing hike and an awesome view. We looked over the Sea of Galilee with a beautiful and peaceful view and again saw many of the places we read about in the Bible. 

Hiking this mountain helped me to realize how much effort Jesus put into spending one-on-one time with the Father. In our hectic worlds Jesus demonstrated that we must find time to be alone with God.

We then went to Tabgha, the place where Jesus called His first disciples to follow Him (Luke 6:13-16; Mark 1:16-20). This is a place of calling people to follow Christ. This is also where he ate with the disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:36-49). It’s a place of calling to discipleship, and a place of glorification that is to come.

From there we climbed to the place were Jesus taught what we refer to as “the sermon the mount” found in Matthew 5—7 (cf. Luke 6:17-49) - (no picture). Jesus taught many things here and one of them was how we ought to pray, often referred to as the Lord’s prayer (Mat. 5:5-15). Holly and I took some time to reflect on Jesus’ teaching and then prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the spot Jesus most likely taught His followers to do so; another amazing opportunity to see and practice the text in real life. It was one of the meaningful times Holly and I grew together as the scripture came alive to us.

We then when to Korazin and leaned about family and community living. The 1^st century church had “Insula,” a family and community living arrangement that caused them to be mutually dependant on one another. The community scripture calls us to have with one another as believers was actually built into the way they lived.  The challenge for us is to live life with Insula. We should design our lives so that we are mutually dependant on one another (Acts 2:42). This community is the way God desires for us to live.

Next we went to Capernaum, the headquarters of Jesus’ ministry (Mat. 4:13-16). Jesus performed many miracles and healings here. It is also the place where Jesus trained His disciples for ministry, both intellectually and practically. 

The question to us is, Who are you discipling? Who are you training to live their life as a servant of Christ?  As I thought through ministry and the guys I meet with I was challenged to do more and train harder. It was a real blessing to see the place where Jesus set up His ministry.

Finally, our last stop was at Bethsaida. This is where Jesus fed the 5 thousand (Luke 9:19-17), healed a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), and the town where Philip, Andrew, and Peter grew up (John 1:44). To picture them on the hills and down in the Sea let your imagination run free, it made these people real and normal. Thinking of ministry and discipleship, Jesus used regular guys from a regular place. It was their faith that made them effective!

If we want to be people of the text, people with an meaningful life for Christ we must be people who live finding time to be alone with the Father, people who are committed to following Christ, people who live in genuine and dependant community with other believers, people who are equipping others to live as disciples of Christ, and people who live trusting Jesus and His word. We learned this today in living color!

Today was a big day…a big, big day!

Israel Day Three - Committed to the Text

Day Three – Committed to the Text

One of the most interesting things we did the whole trip happened on day two and I forgot to mention it. We visited a place called Tel Arad located in the desert of the Negev in southern Israel. Not far from here live the Bedouin people who are known for their hospitality. We walked three miles across the rocky desert to visit where they live, learned about their history, eat some bread and drank some tea they prepared for us. It was a really cool experience and a great example of hospitality. The lifestyle of the Bedouins was practiced in the Old Testament. "People in Old Testament times believed guests were sent to them from God.  Abram and Sarah prepared a meal for their guests (Gen. 18:2-8). One of the first things a host did was to offer a guest something to drink (Gen. 24:17-18) and then a meal (Gen. 26:30)" (Omar Garcia). It was a blessing to experience this. It helps give a real picture of life and practice of the Patriarchs.

Day three we had three big stops. We first went to En Gedi where we hiked the Wadi Argot. Here again we saw the Bible come to life. This is where David hid from Saul, spared his life, and where David snuck up on him and cut the corner of his shawl.  We see the heart of David and his passionate obedience to God. We also got to see first hand how God supplies water from a rock in the desert. Rather than relying on our supply of cistern water we should rely on the “Living Water” that God supplies. 

We then went to one of Harod the Great’s fortresses at Masada. He built this palace of refuge on top of a rock plateau. It was crazy and impressive to see the engineering, supplies, strategy, and luxury of that place. It was a huge hike up but awesome to see what Harod had built.

Our last stop was at Qumran. This is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We saw the cave where the book of Isaiah was found as well as many other caves. It was a challenging hike to the top but a great view. From the top we could see “Bethany beyond the Jordan” where John the Baptist taught about the coming Christ and where he baptized Jesus. On the other side we could see the Judean Wilderness and we were close to the spot where Jesus was led by the Spirit and tempted by Satan. 

We learned about the Essences and their commitment to be people of the text.  We too made this commitment, to be men and women of the scripture.   

As I blog about our day it is hard to find what stood out to me most or describe the most significant thing God taught me. Its pretty overwhelming to see where the Bible took place and to learn the lesson God taught there. Probably the things I think of 

most today have to do with people. The Bedouin people were a cool experience and it was a blessing to meet them and to learn from their hospitality.  It was even more significant for Holly and I to be atop of the Qumran Mountain and commit to being people of the text. The moment, the hike, the history, the view, the Bible, the day, the scripture, and us together…it was great to commit to the text together in just that way.

As a people of God’s own possession, a people He desires to reveal Him, to glorify Him, to fulfill His purposes…we must be people committed to the text!

Israel Day One and Two- Smooth Stones

This is a first in a series of blogs we plan to post about our trip to Israel. Check back each week for an update. 

FYI, I also plan to start a weekly series on the Life of Christ and the book of Colossians on my ministry blog site (www.bstone3@blogspot.com). I am teaching both right now and plan to include a summary thought of the truth and challenge as a blog. 

Smooth Stones

Today, our first full day touring and studying Israel, has been a great day. God is at work in our hearts and minds. 

We are seeing places and touching things we only imagined existed from reading the Bible. 

As I write this blog I don’t even know where to start. Not only are we literally walking as fast as we can from place to place we are reading the scripture and seeing it “in context” like never before. It’s a fire hydrant of information that we will be processing for a long time. 

It’s hard to choose the place that impacted me most so far. Last night we stoped at Gezer and learned about Cannanites and their dead stones of pagan worship. But today, weather it was Beth Shemeh where we learned about Sampson and his “slippage,” Lachish where we learned about Hezekiah and his passionate faithfulness to God, or taking a swim (more like a float, literally) in the Dead Sea, its hard to choose the place that impacted me most.

I have decided to share about a place where a very familiar story happened. It’s located in the Shephelah, in the Valley of Elah, in the city of Azekah. It’s the story of David and Goliath.  As we sat on a hill looking over this valley, reading the story from the text…I saw the story come to life. I can’t share all that I learned but I understood in a new way how a young boy, full of trust in God, aware of his talents and how he was gifted, with the passion for God’s glory, and the motive to make God of Israel know in the world can have a huge impact.  He was not focused on his own glory like Saul but focused on the glory of God and was used in a huge way.

Beyond the story that took place there was what we got to do after our study. As you know, this valley was a common place for battles between Israel and the Philistines 

and this valley was naturally between two mountain ranges, Israel on one mountain and the Philistines on the other with the battles taking place down in the valley. You remember how David killed Goliath. He took five smooth stonesfrom the stream, put them in his pouch along with his sling, and aggressively approached the line of battle with Goliath. He took out a stone, slung it at Goliath hitting him in the forehead and killing him (2 Sam.17). 

Here is where we come in. There is only one stream in this valley and it sits at the bottom of the mountain on the Israel side. This is the only stream for David to collect five smooth stones…Holly and I walked through this stream today. It’s crazy because this had to be where David came down the mountain to get his stones to fight Goliath…we were in this exact same spot! We even pick up stones from the dry steam bed. I can’t believe it…as we looked onto the valley where David killed Goliath Holly and I pick up stones from the exact same stream that David did. Totally cool! 

There are many lessons I learned from all our studies today that I could share, but I am so blown away that God has given Holly and I this blessing that I can’t get it off my mind. The blessing of being in Israel and seeing where the Bible originally took place is unbelievable. I can’t wait for what we will see and do tomorrow!

Wayne and Julia…In Katy!

   
   It was a great weekend. Wayne and Julie came to visit Holly and me January 23-26. We had a lot of fun showing them Houston. We did things like taking them to our favorite restaurant (Guadalajara), we went to Houston Museum of Natural Science and saw the Birth of Christianity exhibit, drove though the Medical Center, around Katy, etc. We worshiped at church together and they visited the singles class Holly and I teach and serve in. Although we were busy we also had time to relax at our house. Holly did and overwhelmingly great job on the meals (again), we got to visit and even watched a movie.
           
It was a lot of fun to have them here. Holly was especially appreciative. She loves her family and enjoys time with them more than anything else. For Wayne and Julie both to make the trip was meaningful to her. She was giddy for a week before they came as we counted down their visit a month out and she was glowing for a week after they left. She loves you guys a lot and I really appreciate the effort to visit. Our move has been great, we enjoy our new community, our church, the people, our new friends, etc…but nothing beats a visit from the family. We look forward to seeing many of you soon!