Apprentice 2 Jesus

Tolerating demons

When I began Lent I had in mind a practice I read in Esau McCaulley’s new book, Lent. I was going to go through the New Testament books that weren’t the Gospels or Paul’s writings. I would start in Acts and move through and end up in Revelation. Once I opened my Bible to try that while I was in Galilee on our trip to Israel, I realized, “WHAT AM I DOING?” I opened to Matthew and began reading.

Beth Moore and Anglicanism

Beth Moore gives a testimony of her first visit to an Anglican Church after she very publicly left the SBC, her home her entire Christian life. It is a beautiful witness. One that I resonated with in so many ways.

She gives this description at the end of her first worship service at an Anglican Church:

The question of FAITH

³Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:3-5)

I love this passage and every trip through I am left with new questions and new areas of wonder.

Pilgrimage

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. (Psalm 84:5)

I had asked the Lord before we left for Israel to help me think of pilgrimage. My heart needed to be set on him so when I walked almost literally where he walked I could get a sense of his presence in a different way.

Idolatry isn’t always about competing gods

One site we visited in Israel was the place where Jeroboam set up the second calf for the northern tribes to worship in the far north of Israel. The footprint of the altar area is huge and the upper part is outlined by a metal frame.

A well designed sanctuary

This space was easily the most impressive worship space I visited in Israel. It is a Catholic Church in Magdala. The altar is in the shape of a fishing boat and the view through the window behind makes it look like it is floating on Galilee.

Israel… it’s complicated

The trip to Israel was important to me to connect with the time of Christ and other biblical eras. The trip also could not avoid modern Israel and its current conflicts. While we were in Israel there was some activity between Palestinians and Israeli settlers that flared up. We weren’t near any action, but it was certainly a concern.

The geography of Israel

One of the striking realities of Israel is its very limited geographical footprint. The stories become more real as I read them when I realize how the distances are not that great. Yes, they traveled by foot and that made the journeys longer in time, but to travel Israel today helps shorten up the space in the biblical accounts.

Time traveling

In the past few years when I have visited historic sites, I have had a sense of “time traveling.” A few years ago I visited a traveling exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. When I looked at the tiny piece of parchment through thick security glass, I had a sense of time travel. Thousands of years no longer separated me from the past.

The visit without pictures

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. We are finishing a trip to Israel and I limited myself to a phone and typing with thumbs isn’t my thing. But I wanted to make one note before I get back to working on posts about the Israel trip.