Live By Faith
For the past couple of days I toured some more sites. Some of the sites were traditional and some were biblical. Let me explain, the traditional sites were places where churches had passed down information and claimed them to be authentic. Biblical sites can be traced back to the Bible with certainty. Many of the traditional sites were from the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox churches. These sites such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where supposedly Jesus died and was buried were really hard for me to connect with. It seemed as though people worshiped the sites themselves and even the objects or rocks connected with them. There were a few of these traditional sites that were very dark spiritually. Sadly, they even distracted from what should have been the object of our worship, Jesus.
The protestant site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial can be argued more clearly from a biblical perspective due to its location outside the city and the history of where the Romans performed executions. This was my favorite stop today. Stepping through the gate of the Garden Tomb the presence of God’s peace was so tangible. The workers there are volunteers from all over the world. Their job is to help people connect with Jesus in their hearts because Jesus in NOT in the tomb. My tour guide Allison was from Scotland, and she carried the peace and presence of God with her. She was in her late 70’s or early 80’s. She led me down to the tomb but reminded me of the joy that He wasn’t there. She then served me communion and I sat down and prayed and soaked in God’s presence. I also prayed with Allison that she would continue to carry God’s presence as she led many people through the garden. She was such a precious blessing to me today.
During my time of prayer the Lord showed me a vision. In this vision He showed me a great light like the sun that was shining over the entire earth. From the sun came millions of light beams touching all over the globe. These beams represented the those who had Jesus in their hearts. The Lord showed me that the light of Christ was shining in the hearts of Christians everywhere. This light was not a light that was connected with only Jerusalem but to all places and all people who received him. I had the privilege of being in the place where it all began. The Lord let me experience the light of life in my heart and the warmth of His presence in my life. This was a special moment for me here in the Holy Land. I am so thankful that you don’t have to come to Jerusalem to know God in this way by that the warmth of His light shines everywhere.
Coming here allows you to walk where Jesus walked and see the places where the hero’s of our faith did ministry. The disciples were just human beings like us who struggled with sin, but God used them in amazing ways to spread the Gospel to the rest of the world. Jesus told them not to go anywhere until He gave them the Holy Spirit. So, they went to the upper room in Jerusalem to wait and all of a sudden God sent them the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in tongues. They received the power promised in Acts 1:8 to be God’s witnesses. Yesterday I had the privilege of being one of the first people to enter the upper room since the war began on October 7, 2023. When we first arrived there the door was locked to the room. However, we could hear singing coming from somewhere. It was so beautiful. We went to the roof of the upper room and there was a group of people from Asia singing and worshipping. I stayed to worship with them for a while and after a few minutes my tour guide came running over to me excited and told me that the door to the upper room had opened. He said that I was a very blessed man because this door had been closed and locked since October 7. We went inside as the group I had been worshiping with went in as well. To be clear this was a traditional site, however there were some interesting discoveries that point to this site at least being a good possibility of being the place of the house of the upper room. This was an amazing.
I can’t help but think that this door being opened to the upper room was symbolic of what God is doing in New Hope and in the world. He is opening the way into His presence for all who believe. He is also blessing us with the power of His Spirit to be His witnesses everywhere. Friends His presence is our peace. What does the world need? His presence and remember we carry His presence everywhere we go therefore we also carry His peace. We need to be the ones who are willing to go to places where it is not safe. God is not going to bless apathy of complacency, but He will bless obedience. Of course, it wasn’t the safest time to come to Israel, but it was God’s time and He blessed me for coming.
When we step out in faith and obey God in the hard stuff, He uses us and blesses others through us. Everyone was so happy and thankful that I came. Tourism is the main industry here and without it people suffer. I can’t tell you how many times people thanked me for coming. I blessed a lot of people by simply giving them a little business, smiling at them, and encouraging them. The world is a scary place right now but God chose to put us here for such a time as this. I want to encourage to consider coming to Israel. By coming here, you will be a blessing and maybe even get to share your faith with a Muslim or a Jew. This sharing first being demonstrated by coming and through living by faith and not fear.
