DAY 2: MORE TO DO THAN WE HAD TIME FOR

Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea (Acts 8:40).

Food in the hotels in which we stayed was very good, so we ate a hearty breakfast in Tel Aviv, loaded our luggage on the bus and headed north to Caesarea by 8:30.

Caesarea was a city built by Herod the great as a gift to the Roman Caesars.  It was a beautiful city with all the amenities that a royal visitor or government official would expect: a 4,000 seat theater, a hippodrome, pools, baths and saunas were all there.  Caesarea became the defacto capital of Herod's kingdom.  The weather on the Mediterranean coast was much better than in hot old Jerusalem, and the people were not as contentious either, so government officials much preferred Caesarea to Jerusalem!

In the book of Acts there are 15 references to Caesarea.  There is evidence that Philip established a church there (see Acts 21:16),  Cornelius and his family became believers there and Paul was imprisoned there for 2 years as well, so Caesarea is an important place in Christian history.

Since I visited in 2008, quite a lot of restoration work had been done on the theater.  We made an attempt to demonstrate the acoustics of the theater, but there were many tourists there so it did not work out so well.  The theater in Jeresh, Jordan, is much superior--I was there in 2008.

Our next stop was Mt. Carmel where the prophet Elijah smote the prophets of Baal.  From both Carmel and Megiddo one can view one of the most fertile valleys in the world.  It is beautiful so it is hard to believe that the last battle will be fought here.  Northern Israel is where most of the fertile land is and where most of the prosperity is.  Could it be that partially explains why the northern tribes fell into idolatry more quickly because of too much prosperity?

Just next-door to Mt. Carmel is Meggido.  This site was important to the kings of old because it was a strategic location.  Meggido is a tel with 28 different layers of civilization to it. James Michener used Megiddo as a model for his novel, "The Source."  "The Source" was required reading for our Hebrew History class at Nebraska Christian College.  BTW, Bob and Polly Pat Michener were on the tour with us.  It was interesting to converse with them about their famous cousin.

On to Nazareth, "Shootsville" (The August 23, 2008 archive, "He Shall be called a Nazarene" explains it. ) to visit the church of the Annunciation.  It was there Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son as a virgin--a son who would be the Savior of the World.  The church and its symbolism were impressive.  In stark contrast to the church was a sign placed by the Muslims warning Christians not to worship the Trinity because only Allah is God.

Though it was on the schedule, we did not stop at Cana where it is recorded that Jesus did his first miracle of turning water into wine.  It was getting late and dark so we drove on to Tiberius on Galilee to spend the night.  It was a long day.  Touring the Holy Land is not easy, but it is good!

Our Father's Love,
Tom

This picture is of Jerusalem, taken from the Mount of Olives.  I will try to do better in picture selection.

TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL UPDATE

If you remember the "Touched by an Angel" bullet of March 02, I said I would keep you all further updated on my mother's visitors that enter her apartment bedroom, but never leave.  I could just write them off to hallucinations, but I want to keep an open mind.  Mom saw one of these visitors yesterday, it was a male, the others being female.  She thought it was me so she didn't say anything.  I said, "Mom, if I enter your apartment I will say hello."  I asked her if she saw the man leave and she said, "no."

One would think if an elderly woman saw an unidentified person entering entering her apartment that she would be afraid.  My mother is not.  These visitors do not inspire fear, only curiosity.  I asked her again to ask the visitors to identify themselves.  I have my own theory and will share it at the appropriate time, but I will keep you updated.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom

DAY ONE: OLD JAFFA

Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.  He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea (Acts 10:5-6).

At the airport in Tel Aviv we were introduced to our guide, a charming 40 something female who both entertained and informed us about what we were seeing.  Her name was Keren. Keren has a great speaking voice making her easy to listen to Our bus driver was Heim.  To me it is amazing how he could navigate the crowed narrow streets with a tour bus and never put a scratch on it.  We were all very thankful for his important skill as a driver!  We tourists came to love them both.

Jaffa was an old city even during the time of Jonah.  When God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah left Joppa (now Jaffa) headed in the opposite direction.  Archaeologists have unearthed remains dating 2,000 years before Christ, establishing it as one of the world's oldest sea ports.  We saw archaeological evidence that the Egyptians were a significant part of the city's history.

Significant Biblical events happened in Jaffa other than Jonah's disobedience.  Tabitha/Dorcas was raised from the dead here (Acts 9) and Peter had his vision here in which God communicated to Peter that anything that God has made pure shall not be called impure, speaking of the conversion of Cornelius and his family which was soon to follow (Acts 10).

We walked the streets of old Jaffa.  The old streets are dark and narrow and turn alot--it wouldn't be hard to get lost. We met a woman who had moved there from Oklahoma, making Jaffa her home.  We saw the traditional home of Simon the Tanner as well as St. Peter's church where the alter faces west, symbolizing the church's openness to the Gentiles because of Peter's vision.  One of the items of interest is that there are so many cats in Jaffa.  Keren said the British (Brits) brought them to deal with all the rodents.

The Mediterranean coast reminds me a lot of California.  The weather was somewhat stormy that first day, the surf was up and there were surf-boarders surfing.  We had a festive supper, but were very tired, and eagerly went to bed.  March 12 and 13 blended together into one long day.  We spent the night in the next-door city of Tel Aviv.

Our Father's Love,
Tom

This wasn't the 777 we flew in on, but it is amazing to me that we can load up 300 people and all of their stuff and fly them at 500 miles per hour across the ocean.  What an age we live in! Below is Simon the tanner's front door. (A traditional site.)

THE TRIP TO ISRAEL (keeping the appointment)

Do two walk together, unless they have made an appointment? (Amos 3:3).

For Helen and me, the trip to Israel began much earlier than the 12th of March, we had many chores to do and responsibilities to make arrangements for before we could leave.  We left home on the evening of Tuesday, the 11th, because the flight out of Omaha was at 6 in the morning.  We checked into the motel, but did not sleep well due to the anxiety of checking in on time and of the flying itself (The missing 777 out of Malaysia was a big news item).

The alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. and we were out by 4:15.  We went through the checking-in process only to find out that, because of bad weather in Chicago, the flight would be delayed 2 hours.  Still we made the flight to Chicago in time to catch the flight to New York.  Even though we were late to New York, we were able to board El Al to Tel Aviv on time.

The 777 was packed with Jewish people going to Israel to celebrate the feast of Purim.  Seated next to me was a Jewish man who struck up a conversation with me.  By this time of the day I just wanted to relax my brain, but he didn't let me.  So we talked of our families, our occupations, and even politics (I asked him why Jewish people support Obama even though he is anti Israel.)  But then we got to religion.  For me, my mind being what it was, it was like bringing a butter knife to a sword fight.  My seat partner had a law degree from Georgetown University, but was a financial planner.  Who am I, but a lowly Iowa farmer.  So he tried to impress on me the superiority of Judaism over Christianity by saying, "A whole nation witnessed the giving of the law and they passed it on to their children.  In Christianity only a few people witnessed the resurrection, and who knows if they saw anything or not?"

I wished my reply would have included this, but it did not, "Your law, witnessed by a whole nation, says a fact is established by 2 or 3 credible witnesses, and the credibility of those witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ is well established."  What I did say to him was still pretty good.  "Yes, a whole nation did witness the giving of the law, and they all died in the wilderness because they did not believe God."  That pretty much ended our discussion.  He had a lavatory stop to make and prepare for prayers at 6 a.m. on the 13th, which it was because of time-zone loss.  I'm not sure why God made the appointment for us to sit together.  My argument was not impressive, but perhaps God thought he needed to hear it.

We arrived at Ben Gurion airport at 4:30 p.m. and we immediately started our tour at old Jaffa.  (Continued tomorrow).

Our Father's Love,
Tom

WE ARE HOME (for a while)

Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you" (Mark 5:19).

Helen and I are home.  We departed the 12th of March, 2014, on a trip to Israel.  It was the second one for me, but the first time Helen was willing to travel outside the United States.  We went with a group from the South Yukon Church of Christ let by pastor Dr. Perry Greene.

It was a great trip, blessing both body and soul.  Basically, our diet was Mediterranean fare, though one night some of us went to McDonald's to eat.  We walked close to 5 miles each day--one of our group had a pedometer.  It was not easy walking either, walking up steep stairs or down steep inclines, through narrow tunnels, both wet and dry.  We all came home in better shape than we left.

I was in the Holy Land 6 years ago.  There has been much excavating and discovery since that time that it was very interesting to return.  One of my personal beliefs which I came to hold from my first visit, and this visit only strengthened it, is that the place of Israel in these last days is to be the developer and protector of artifacts and antiquities for all the world to see.  People are coming from all over the world to see the story of the Bible told there.  I'm not sure how many are being made believers in Jesus Christ, but I know that some are.  If the Muslims had full control over what is now Israel, very little Biblical evidence would exist because the archeology does not tell the story of Islam.

When we arrived in Israel the CEO of the tour company met us in Tele Viv.  As he shook each of our hands he said, "Welcome home."  He meant, of course, that Israel is our spiritual homeland, the place where the events that paid the price of our pardon actually happened.  Helen and I are now at home in Iowa--not quite Heaven yet--trying to bear witness to the truth of the Bible until we are finally home with the Lord.  Over the course of the coming weeks I will try to share a few of these important things with you.  

Our Father's Love,
Tom  

The picture of the "Dome of Rock" is a holy place to Muslims.  The most holy place to the Jewish people today is the Western Wall.  It is located below and to the right of the DOTR.

NO MAN'S SLAVE

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).

If I remember correctly, I am currently watching the mini series, Centennial, for the 13th time.  It was given to me for Christmas in 1998 by the lovely and gracious Helen in video casett form.  I took a couple of years off watching it because of not having a VCR player that worked.

My favorite episode of the mini series is of the cattle drive of 1868 when John Skimmerhorn and R.J. Poteet and cowboys trailed 3,000 cattle from Texas to Colorado to start the Venneford Ranch.  The foreman of the cowboys was a black man named Nate Person.  Nate had been a slave before the Civil War, now he was free.  One of the great lines of the episode was when Nate said, "When you are a cowboy you are no man's slave."  There's something about a cowboy.  I've raised cattle and hogs.  The hogs make the money, but nobody writes songs about farmers who raise pigs.  There's some romance and freedom in being a cattleman.  The cattleman is out in the open spaces making his own decisions--cattleman walk a little taller than other men.

Still, when one is a slave to Jesus Christ, he is the most free that he will ever be because he belongs to the family of God and heir to His wealth.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom

TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL?

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14).

My mother will be celebrating her 94th birthday the 28th of this month.  One of my daily tasks is to stop and visit with her and make sure all is well with her.  One day during my visit she told me that a woman enters her apartment and goes into her bed room.  She waits for the woman to come back out, but she never does.  I told mom that sometimes we think we see movement out of the corner of our eyes and think it is a person, but it is not. Emphatically she said, "NO!"  "I see the door open and a woman comes in, but I never see her go out!"

I am not sure what to make of it.  It could well be just a hallucination, but there could be more to it than that. I have told mom to let me know when it happens again.  It has been over a week now and she has said nothing.  I am going to ask mom about it again and ask her to talk to the woman and find out what her name is and what she is doing.  I was thinking that maybe it is an angel sent to minister to my mother.  I will bring up-dates as this plays out.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom