Israel: Jerusalem

Jerusalem April 9-10

Sunrise over Jerusalem April 9...

We started the day on the temple mount.  I snapped a picture of the Dome of the Rock and immediately got this very strong 'pull' inside me that I was not to take pictures of that structure.  I may write more on why that happened some other time.  Our guide taught us that the Dome of the Rock was built in 691 AD.  He also taught us that Muhammad used to have his followers pray toward Jerusalem as he was trying to get the Jews on his side.  When he saw they wouldn't follow him, he killed them and instructed his followers to pray toward Mecca.

The picture below is the platform on which Solomon's temple stood.  It is where the 2nd Temple of Jesus' time stood.  The Temple Mount sits on Mount Moriah which is the mountain on which Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him.  Some pretty incredible things happened on this ground and if the Bible is to be believed (which I think it should be!) there are some pretty incredible things that will happen here again someday.

Looking East toward the Mount of Olives....

Jesus said he would destroy the Temple and it would be rebuilt in 3 days.  He was, of course, speaking of His death and resurrection tearing down the walls between God and Man.  It was symbolically done the day he rose with the veil in the Temple being torn from top to bottom.  That was the veil that separated us from the "Holy of Holies"

We learned before leaving for this trip that the veil wasn't a thin little piece of cloth like a wedding veil.  This 'veil' was a massive threaded veil that was 4 INCHES thick, 60 feet long and 40 feet high.  In my subsequent research I have found these measurements noted a number of times in different sources.  Though some say that the 4 inch thick part is an exaggeration, what is certain is that the veil wasn't some flimsy piece of material.  It was massive and would not have been easy to pull apart or cut.  Even getting to it would be near impossible given the security on the Temple Mount at the time.  I wish I could have been in the room when Caiaphas and the other high priests saw what had happened.  They must have been stone white.  Praise Jesus!

Back to the Temple Mount tour.  Here is bedrock of Mount Moriah on the Temple Mount....

The East Gate....was only opened once a year each year to let out the 'Scape Goat' with the sins of the nation.  So, contrary to what some say, this is NOT the gate Jesus would have entered on Palm Sunday.  He most likely came up the stairs of teaching on the north side of the Temple Mount (mentioned later in this post)  This East Gate was actually built by the Byzantines after they defeated the Persians.   The next time it opens will be when the King comes again....

The kids next to East Gate.  You think they have had enough of their picture being taken?  ;)

The Photobomber (aka Rachel) strikes again in a photo from the east side of the Temple Mount looking east to the Mount of Olives....

Headed back down to the Western Wall and saw....

Girls with guns....

I just like this picture of the kids...

The Western Wall...the Holiest of Jewish sites....

After visiting the Western Wall for a time of prayer, we headed to some ruins on the north side of the Temple Mount.  Got a great picture of S and AJ playing before we got down to the ruins....

This part of the tour was one of my favorites.  As noted previously, it is difficult in the 'big' sites to really feel connected to Christ (at least for me) because there are SO many people all over the place that it is hard to get any kind of quiet time with God.

But in this place there were no other tourists (amazing!) and ample time to sit, think, pray.  There is also absolutely no question whatsoever that Jesus walked on these actual stones and TAUGHT from these steps. 

Our guide used the following picture at this site.  The West Wall is the one facing us in the picture below.  The north edge (the one to the right with the steps) is where Jesus and others would teach.  The actual temple up on the Temple Mount was NOT a place of teaching back then.  It was a holy place that very few people could enter.  The teaching in Jerusalem at the time was done on the steps.

The view below is from the northwest corner (the corner nearest in the picture above).

There is no question from scholars that this was the walkway / road alongside the temple in Jesus' time. He walked on those stones.  Notice in the distance the levels of earth that have built up over the past 2000 years.  It was behind that area that we took the underground tour of Jerusalem the other day.  This is the extension of that road we were on.

The left side of the street has been restored.  The right side has been left the way it was found.  The huge divots happened when the Romans were destroying the city in 70AD.  Imagine huge stones (piled in the background) being hurled from a height 10 or 15 stories high onto the pavement below.  Thus, the divots.

Family picture at this part of Jerusalem...

A different day we saw a massive model of Jerusalem and how it looked during Jesus' time.  Below is the north face of the Temple Mount where you can see the 'stairs of teaching' as our guide consistently referred to them.

And below are the stairs themselves now 2000 years later (the part of the building that is jutting out was added after Jesus' time and thus isn't in the model above.  Looking at the model, we are standing about halfway down the wall  close to the left side doorways....the one you can see half of in the picture below.

Interestingly, the stairs are different heights and different lengths.  This was done purposefully so that people would have to take a more reverent mode of walking, slow down etc.  It was hard to run up stairs like this.  Remember in Jesus' day there were just robes and running up stairs could expose things that shouldn't be exposed in a holy place!

Anyway, these are the steps where Jesus taught.  These are likely the steps as well where he entered the  Temple on Palm Sunday.  I could really get a sense of Him riding up to the steps on the donkey with people lining up in this area laying their coats and branches before him.  Perhaps he stood atop the steps that day and addressed the crowd before going to do battle with the money changers!  Read Matthew Ch 21 to see what parables he taught from these steps during the last few days of his life on earth.

Our guide talked about how Jewish people coming to Jerusalem would sing Psalm 133 and 134 when coming to the city and then would say Psalm 135 upon arrival.

Finally, these steps are most likely where the events of Pentacost occurred with the first 3000 Christians being baptized that day in the mikvahs (ceremonial baths) that were ALL around the temple including many at the foot of these steps.  We learned as well from our guide that when the book of ACTS speaks of the wind and sound of the Holy Spirit coming....those exact words were used in Hebrew to describe the first covenant given on Mt. Sinai.  Interesting!

The pastor who was with our group preached a little sermon here.  This area and the time we spent there was one of my favorite things from the tour, just sitting there on the steps where Jesus taught learning about His word.  Awesome.

The view from the steps....

 Heading out of this archaeological park, I really liked this set of stairs.  Restored on the right side, as found on the left side.  Cool.

Next we headed to the Upper Room.  To be clear this is not the 'actual' Upper Room where the apostles and Jesus had the last supper.  That room is lost to history and buried well beneath Jerusalem somewhere.   Regardless, it has been a special place of worship for many years commemorating the last supper.  We took communion (the bread part) and sang a song.

S breaking bread.  Love that smile....

Nearby is the Tomb of David.  Our guide was pretty adamant that it is (in his opinion) impossible that this is where the Tomb of David would be for a variety of reasons.  The interesting part of this site is that all 3 major religions come here (Jews, Christians, Muslims).

V and AJ on our way to the Jewish Quarter and lunch...

After lunch we had an AWESOME tour under the Jewish Quarter.  When Israel gained independence in 1948, the fighting stopped at a time when the 'Old City' was in the hands of Jordan and the Muslim population.  The Jews had to flee their old section of the city and the Muslims basically destroyed everything that was there.  The homes, the places of worship, the shops.  Everything.

So, when the 6 Day War happened in 1967 and Israel captured the whole of Jerusalem they decided to turn lemons into lemonade.  Before rebuilding the entire Jewish quarter, they did EXTENSIVE archaeological research from 1969 until 1983.

These homes were for the very wealthy and very prominent members society around the time of Jesus.  These homes lie well beneath current day surface and in Jesus' time would have been about 500 feet from the Temple entry.

The mosaic floors in Jewish homes were geometric shapes and modest compared to Roman baths that often had images of nakedness etc.  Notice the bath in the upper left corner of the picture

Pottery found during excavations.  In a different picture I got a picture of a lot of STONE pots.  The Jews of the time had many stone pots because stone could not become ritually unclean.  If a clay pot touched something dead or became ritually unclean then it had to be broken.  Stone pots did not have to be broken.

While I was super impressed with this area, AJ wasn't so much.

One of the electrifying finds in this area was a menorah for the first century AD.  Since the temple had the 'actual' menorah from the Jewish story, this find (a mere 500 feet from the Temple itself) arhaelogists believe is the best reproduction of the 'real' menorah.  It was very likely copied from the real one in the temple.  Later versions of the menorah got much more ornate etc.  But this is likely what the real one looked like.

I don't remember what the guide said on whether this was an imprint that they found or if there was some object that is in another museum in Jerusalem.  Regardless, it was a big deal to find this so close to the Temple.

Another amazing discovery in this area was CHARRED WOOD from when the Romans burned the city of Jerusalem in 70AD.  Amazing....

Beautiful floor.  This must have been archaeology heaven when they were uncovering these things.

While there is no evidence of one of these houses being the home of Caiaphas, as I re-read some of the Gospels describing Peter's denial, it very much fits with what I saw here.  It would make sense given how close this house was to the Temple that it could have been involved in Jesus' trial (or something that looked very much like it)

Look at the model below of this home and read Matthew's account of Peter's denial of Christ:

Matthew 26:69-72

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard (see large central area below), and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

⁷¹ Then he went out to the gateway (see steps on right side and opening / gateway that leads to the courtyard area), where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁷² He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

Could this 'large hall' (or one like it) have been the place where the high priests questioned Jesus?

The entire underground site looking from the bottom near the temple to the top.  Notice NO TOURISTS!  I thought this was one of the best parts of the the tour and loved it.  Highly recommend it to anyone going to Jerusalem.  It is in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

Another major find was a wall from the time of King Hezekiah 8th century BC.  There were some who questioned whether David really led from Jerusalem as it seemed to be a small city from previous research & not fit to be a Capitol.  This find proved that Jerusalem was a big city.

Look at how thick the wall is!!!  This is the wall that is referred to by Isaiah in Isaiah 22:10

"You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
    and tore down houses to strengthen the wall."

The King Hezekiah story is a good reminder that we are to pray but we are also supposed to get to work!

Finally, we arrived at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is run by 30 different denominations who somehow have figured out a way to have peace with one another.  The ladder by the middle window on the 2nd floor apparently was there when whatever agreement was agreed to on how everything would be run.  It was a ladder of one denomination in the area controlled by another denomination....so now it just sits there.  I'm not sure what to make of that but I guess it is better than everyone warring over this site.

This has been chosen as the site of Jesus' crucifixtion for a couple of reasons.  It was just outside one of the city gates (common place for executions of the day).  It was a fairly short walk from both the Antonio Fortress as well as Herod's palace (the two places where the trial with Pontius Pilate most likely occurred).  Plus when Hadrian came through (remember he HATED Christians and wanted to wipe them out about 100 years after Jesus' death), this is the site where he erected his Pagan Temple (similar to what he had done in Bethlehem with the site of Jesus' birth)

The site of the cross.  My personal feeling is that it would be way more powerful to just have a simple wooden cross there instead of all the accoutrements.  But this part of the church is under the control of one of the orthodox religions, so it is what it is.

Though the area is very crowded and often has people pushing to get near the physical site where the cross was laid, the bottom line is that you have to do the best you can to block all the modern day stuff out and really think about what happened here 2000 years ago.  We prayed as a family and moved on (yes, AJ is sleeping on my back)...

We didn't 'touch' the cross site on this day (from picture above that is what the lady in the beige coat and black skirt is doing) because the wait in line was too long.  Same thing for the tomb which is in another part of the church.  We saw the site (see picture below) but didn't go in on this day with our tour group because the line was too long.  We had an extra day in Jerusalem after our tour ended and we came back here with the kids to wait in the lines so they could have those experiences.

We started our last day of the tour on April 10 with a visit to the Jerusalem museum where they have a GIGANTIC model of what Jerusalem looked like at the time of Jesus.  VERY cool (though it was raining when we were there which was not so great!).  One thing our tour guide said is that you have to use your imagination because Roman cities were VERY colorful.  There would have been a lot of green, blue, yellow, red and gold throughout the city.

This view is what Jerusalem would have looked like from the Mount of Olives as Jesus started making his way to the city.

The stairs of teaching (mentioned earlier in this post) is over on the left side, temple in the middle, Antonio Fortress (named in honor of Herod's 'friend' Marc Anthony) to the right of the temple, and if you keep moving to the right and towards the camera you see part of the Pools of Bethesda where Jesus healed the paralyzed man (ruins of this were shown in a previous post)

Better view of the Pools of Bethesda (the two square shaped buildings).  Read John 5:2 for reference

View from the other side.  'Calvary' is the middle right bunch of rocks just outside the inner walls.  Look at the Antonio fortress on the right side of picture and then come toward the camera just over the first wall and you will see the rocks.  When you walk the Via Dolorosa, this is the route you are taking (from the Antonio Fortress to Calvary).  Anyway, the church of the Holy Sepulcher now sits in that spot where the rocks are.

The other potential site for the Crucification is on the left side of the picture.  Follow the road up and you'll see a muddy area with rocks on the left.  That area is a major intersection of two roads (Damascus and I think Jordan roads) and also would have been a place where Romans would have crucified people for maximum public exposure.

That area is where the 'Garden Tomb' site is (see below) and also where a rock outcropping which looks like a skull (Golgotha = Place of the skull).  It is also the place where St Stephen was stoned and became the first Christian martyr.

Finally, something that never made much sense to me in the Bible makes sense to me now.  The timing of the events on Good Friday were quite compressed.  I remember reading how Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to Herod Antipas because Herod was ruler of Galilee.  Herod questioned Jesus (who remained silent) and then sent him back to Pontius Pilate.

Another place for the trial to have occurred was in Herod the Great's palace (Lower right side in photo below with the 2 red roofed buildings and the big courtyard).  Pontius Pilate would stay in this palace when he was in Jerusalem (he normally lived in Caesarea) and of course Herod's son, Herod Antipas would stay here as well when he was in Jerusalem.

So, if the trial occurred here, then all Pontius Pilate did was send Him across the courtyard and back again.  He could have sent Him from the Antonio Fortress to this area and back as well as it isn't a huge walk.  Anyway, there is a lot of discussion as to where the trial actually took place, but in the end the places don't really matter.

All that matters is what Jesus did on that cross nearly 2000 years ago and how he was resurrected.

AJ at the Jerusalem Museum (where we also saw the ACTUAL Dead Sea Scrolls....but couldn't take pictures of them).  AJ = All Boy

Next we headed to Yad Vashem which means "Everlasting Name' in Hebrew.  This is the Holocaust museum which the Jewish people call the Shoal.  The whole museum and surrounding area is moving.  Horrific for what it shows, but moving for the hope it inspires.  Ezekiel 37:14 adorns the gateway into the site...

The Holocaust is a symbol of evil in the eyes of the world.  While there have been many genocides over the course of history, this genocide was different for the combination of the following reasons

1. Jews were condemned just because they were born a certain way.  It didn't matter if you were rich or poor.  It didn't matter if you converted to Christianity or if you were a non-practicing Jew.  Young and old.  Educated or uneducated.  All were condemned to death.  The kids were the first ones killed because they were useless to the Nazis plus they knew if they wiped out the kids there would be no way to grow the Jewish people back.  Evil.

Children's memorial at Yad Vashem.  One of the most moving parts of the entire museum is inside the children's memorial where there are 5 candles lit.  From those 5 lights mirrors placed all around the room make it look like there are literally millions of lights....but all the lights come from those 5 candles.  

I don't recall the name of this man, but the memorial is built in his  honor because he ran an orphanage for Jewish children and when the Nazis came for the kids, he went with them knowing what was going to happen...and was with them all the way into the gas chamber.

2.  This genocide was the first worldwide genocide of a people.  All other genocides have been local and confined to a certain region.  But whenever the Nazis conquered any land or controlled any land they would kill the Jews.  They literally were sending Jews from Africa to Auschwitz and other concentration camps.  The universality of the killing was unique to the Holocaust.  Evil.

When excavating the site for the museum, they found a large ancient tomb and put a marker outside it that reads 6,000,000

3.  There was no logical motive to the Holocaust.  Other genocides had a land element where one group wanted the land of another.  But the Jews had no land to be conquered.  The Nazis on the one hand blamed the Jews for all their woes implying that they were strong but on the other hand called them weak and said they should be stamped out like bugs.  There was no logical motive for what the Nazis did (particularly given the resources they had to devote to accomplishing this grisly task).  Evil.

4.  Finally, the death camps achieved a level of cruelty never seen before.  There was a model in the museum that showed how the death camps worked from the trains arriving, to the sorting of the people, stripping them down, entering the 'showers', taking them out to extract gold teeth and anything else valuable, and then burning them in the furnace.  It was literally like a factory of death where the goal was to keep things moving as quickly as possible.  Evil.

The State of Israel started an award called "Righteous of the Nations" honoring those outside the Jewish faith who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.  Individuals must be nominated by someone who is Jewish and the story must be confirmed.  These individuals cannot have received money to do their good deeds (other than covering nominal expenses).  The recognition has been given to nearly 25,000 people.  When they started the award they would plant a tree with a plaque at Yad Vashem but eventually they couldn't plant anymore trees so they would just place a plaque.

You cannot take pictures inside the museum.  It starts with the rise of the Nazi party and ends with horrific pictures and films of the liberation of the death camps. The structure itself is a long corridor that bends down into the ground with the 10 rooms you go through on both sides of the corridor.  After the 10th room there is a HUGE side room that looks like a large circular library with what is obviously testimonial evidence from thousands upon thousands of Jews.  I didn't see what was in the 'books' on the shelf but it wasn't hard to figure out that this was a documentation room of some sort.

As you exit the museum this is the glorious scene you see with many of the trees in the picture planted in honor of the 'Righteous Among the Nations" recipients.  Moving.

Some stories from this place:

1.  The man who stayed with his orphans all the way to the gas chambers (see above)
2.  The woman in one of the films who spoke of her mother hiding her and her sister in the closet when the Nazis came.  The Nazis grabbed their mom, opened the closet, but didn't see the girls.  The mom said "please let me get a coat before we leave" and when she came back to the closet she said "Goodbye girls, I love you.  Go to the neighbor (name?) for safety"  It was the last time they saw their mom.
3.  The woman who was standing in line with her child at Auschwitz.  A stronger looking lady said "Your child will have a better chance for survival if I hold him."  So, she handed over her child.  Her child and the other lady were sent to the gas chambers.  The mother lived and could never forgive herself for living while her child and that lady died.
4.  From our guide:  Her grandmother's best friend had a heart condition due to events that happened to her at a concentration camp.  She was told that she would be risking her life if she had children.  But having children and continuing the Jewish people was so important to her that she risked her life 2 times and had 2 children....and lived to age 94.
5.  From our guide:  He was in the Israeli army in 2006 during the last invasion into Lebanon and crack down on the Palestinians who were setting off bombs in Israel.  He said 'if there is one set of people you do not want to cross, it is Israeli border guards.  They are very rough if you cross them.'  He witnessed a Palestinian doing something that really angered 2 border guards.  They took the man into the back of the truck and he could tell by the way the truck was moving around that they were beating the man badly.  His point to us all was 'You have to think of how you will act when these situations come up.  While I reported those soldiers after the incident, the fact of the matter is I was in a position to do something right then and stop the wrong that was happening, but I didn't.  I froze and did nothing.  Many people froze and did nothing as the Nazi's did what they did."  It was really a very powerful story he told on the human condition.

At this museum, no one under the age of 10 is allowed in.  We figured that meant one of us would have to hand out with AJ but there was one wonderful lady, Helen, who had been to a number of concentration camps and is just devastated by the Holocaust who offered to hang out with our boy for the time we were in the museum.  He had a great time.

Helen with her husband Michael (AJ photobombing in the background...like his mom!)

Michael juggling with AJ.  It was SO funny watching AJ try to juggle.

After a brief stop at the hotel to allow some people who were leaving that night to pack, we headed off to the Garden Tomb which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel.

This is such a lovely site with free entry and a great staff.  The way it is laid out really allows for time for reflection and prayer.  We started with a tour where our guide (a retired English Pastor) took us to the 'Place of the Skull'.

As seen 100 years ago and before the bus terminal was put in (see the skull face in the rocks?):

As seen now with some stuff cut away for the bus terminal.

The Bible refers to the crucifixion site as the 'place of the skull'   Not only does this site have the skull face in the rocks but it was also at the junction of the Damascus Road and Jordan Road.  The Romans would put their crosses in very public places like this for maximum humiliation as well as to breed fear in the populace.  So, this area could have been the place of the crucifixion.

What is almost certain given the height of these rocks is that this is the place where Stephen was stoned.  There were rules about the height someone being stoned had to be thrown, and this site definitely fits the description.  He went through how people were stone back then.  There had to be 2 witnesses to the crime and if found guilty the person would be naked and pushed off the cliff by the first witness with the second witness throwing the first huge stone on the body.  If the head first fall didn't kill, then the huge stone being thrown afterward would end the condemned person's life.

I hope to write some more on how the Apostles went to their violent deaths proclaiming Jesus as Lord.  They KNEW the truth and yet every one of them chose to die rather than deny Christ (John was miraculously saved and lived to old age).  That is different from dying for a belief. Many people have died for a belief.  But no sane man knowingly dies for a lie.  These men, including Stephen, knew the truth.  They died proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah because that is what He is and they actually saw His resurrected body.  There is no other logical explanation for these 12 men behaving the way they did after Jesus' death other than they all witnessed the Resurrected Christ.  Praise Jesus!

Side note: Here is a great video regarding evidence for the Resurrection that was put together by a former atheist police detective who came to belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior due to studying the evidence.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFFAoaukR6o&feature=youtu.be  (video opens in a separate window, so click now and watch later)

There was a tomb found here about a 100 years ago which was VERY unusual.  Most tombs of the day you would enter and then continue going forward to the place where the body would be.  But this tomb you enter and turn RIGHT to see where the body would be.

Now read Mark which describes the tomb this way:

Mark 16:5

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁵ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

The guide had spoken to a man whose CAREER revolved around studying ancient tombs.  He had personally excavated 1700 tombs and studied thousands of others.  He said in all his work and studies he had never come across a tomb laid out like this tomb where you enter and then turn to the right to see where the bodies lay.

Could this be the real tomb of Jesus?

The image on the wall was originally carved into the stone and was a sign of the early church.  Could someone who knew of the place of Jesus' tomb been marking the spot for future generations?

Our family in front of the tomb door....

The door to the tomb.  Love it....

Our British pastor guide ended his presentation with a description of Christ on the cross.  Psalm 22 talks of exposure and Isaiah 53 indicates Christ as unrecognizable.  He ended talking about the 3 crosses that day.  Jesus in the middle and 2 thieves on the left and right.  One accepted Christ, the other mocked and rejected him.  The British pastor said 'That is a decision all of us will make.  We we either accept or reject.' And then he encouraged those who have not come to Christ to speak with him afterward (everyone in our group was a believer)

One of the other things found on this site is a wine press dating back to the time of Jesus.  That would mean this area would have had vineyards all around and perhaps gardens which one of the gospels mentions about the tomb (Mary thought Jesus was the gardener).

In addition, this wine press would have been owned by a wealthy man since it was so close to the city.  Joseph of Arimathaea was a rich man who received Jesus' body and placed him in his tomb.  Was this his vineyard and his tomb?  Questions, questions....

Regardless of whether this is the 'actual' site of the crucification and tomb can be debated.  However, it was a much more peaceful and spiritual place than the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  I enjoyed it immensely.  We had a short communion service where Pastor Jake said a few words and we sang some songs.  AJ was very busy during this service so I was off to the side making sure he didn't run back to the tomb.  ;)

Finally, this trip we are on to many parts of the world isn't so much about places and sites.  It is about people, and we have met some wonderful people along the way....including Israel:

Laurel - our guide said the first day she got to Jerusalem that she would definitely buy a Jerusalem bag.  Laurel said "No way...not going to happen"  Based on the picture below, who would you say was correct?!

To be fair, our guide Eran, got this for her at the very last site we visited.  She did, indeed, hold out and not succumb to the Jerusalem bag buying spree (they are $2 at the Garden Tomb).  So, he got the bag for her despite her resistance.  We'll see what the future of this bag holds....

Pastor Jake and his wife Dana.  They serve in Roanoke Virginia.

Michael and Helen (same picture as above).  Michael has the exact name as a friend of ours from our church (and a similar gregarious personality).

Diane...

Jack and Lynne (sat at our table the first night and were favorites from the beginining)

David and Pauline from Sydney Australia.  We now have 4 friends in Sydney and started the trip with none....hmmmm, may have to make a return trip there someday ;)    Pauline had a great app on her ipad that she uses with her grandkids and kept AJ entertained on many bus rides.  Needless to say, we have now downloaded those apps!

Finally, at dinner the last night with our tour AJ put his play cars in a cup and...

tried to drink them.  LOL!

Final comment: 

Many believers, when asked why they accept the Gospel, talk about an experience or a “personal testimony.” The “I know that Jesus lives because He lives in my heart” sort of thing.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I hope God has captured your heart in such a way that you overflow with personal testimonies and experiences with God. But a sincere Muslim, Mormon, or believer in any other faith could say the same thing about a personal experience or 'burning in the bosom'   Pointing to personal experiences as the main reasons to believe in Christianity misses a crucial point: Our faith is true in an objective, historical, and universal sense.

When Christians say the Bible is true, and that our faith is true, we don’t mean it’s true for us. We mean it’s true. We don’t mean it’s true if you accept it. It’s true whether you choose to accept or reject it. It’s true because two-thousand years ago, the Lord of life really did walk the soil of this land called Israel, rewriting history and eternity on behalf of His people everywhere.

That God entered history is verified in the public, historical, verifiable events recorded in the gospels and professed in the creeds.

Knowing that our God really did come to dwell among us should light a fire under our faith. Unfortunately, that cosmos-shaking detail loses its revolutionary essence far too often. Sometimes it takes pointing to where He stood on a map, or standing where He did in a synagogue, for that fire to light us up like it should.  That is one of my big takeaways from visiting Israel!  

Til next time, God bless....

Update: Got this picture from a member of our group...this is our entire tour group on the steps where Jesus taught on the north side of the Temple.  Also, below is a map of where our 'guided' tour traveled....