Foreign Internet Connections, Jet Lag and other excuses

I'd be surprised to find out if anyone even reads this blog anymore. It's been a while since the last post and my best laid plans didn't work out. Today is our first day waking up at home after a 10 day trip to Israel/the Holy Land. Right now I am awake and functioning. But who knows what happens later in the day.

We had a marvelous trip. The Promised Land Possee (PLP's or as I called them, my pleeps) discovered why I talk about the landscape and impact of the land so much. It opens up the scriptures like nothing else. Even now, when I think about most any place in the whole country, I have a visual image that helps me understand in a different way.

We went from the Galilee where Jesus grew up and spent most of his ministry, to Judea where He went to the cross in Jerusalem. We saw much, cried often, laughed even more, shared deeply, prayed in some amazing places, and developed a love for this promised land. While we may not be Jews returning to our roots, we were pilgrims discovering a deeper part of our faith heritage that has a long history with the children of God. We are the adopted, appreciating the history to which we have been welcomed to participate. It's God saving history and it includes us because of the work of Jesus Christ!

Over the next many weeks and years, I'll be sharing some insights from my journal and inviting our other pilgrims to share as well for today I want to simply share an insight that I received early in the journey...

The first day was a rushed day where we played tag-team guides and traveled much throughout Judea. We visited Bethlehem (in the West Bank) and the Church of the Nativity, Shepherds field and had our first experience with street vendors who pounce on bus loads of tourists. We traveled down to the Dead Sea and went to Qumran where the dead sea scrolls were found and an Essene community once lived (another sect of Judaism like Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots that were common in Jesus' time) and then on to Jericho. We went to several places, stopped several times, we didn't see much. We missed some important places, were rushed at others and shopped way too much.

The saying is true on trips like this, "we run where Jesus walked."

So we slowed down, our group anyway. We sat in the lobby on Wednesday evening in Tiberias and I shared some insights that might help them in their discovery. The late Bargil Pixner, Biblical Archeologist, professor and author, wrote that the Holy Land is the Fifth Gospel because it speaks in its own way. That's what I wanted us all to experience, what the Holy Land says to us; To let God speak to us through these places through the scriptural events that took place to the very stones and trees who were witnesses to the greatest events of history.

And discoveries we made.

Experiencing the Holy Land is at times beyond words. The pictures (and there are literally thousands that we took together) tell a story, but not completely. And the insight isn't over as we return home. New ideas will come as we read the scriptures and I'll be sharing them as they come to me.

For now, I'm just glad to be home from my trip back home. That's right, I meant to say that. There's something about Israel that feels like home. It's our land, too, not that we are supposed to take our share or move there, but it's ours because of what happened there for us.

Peace ><>
pc

PS: Come on March 4th at 7:00 p.m. for a Travelogue on the Holy Land. Our travelers will be there to share some of their pictures and insights while we answer questions you may have about this amazing place.