Journey to Israel - Chapter 13

Chapter 13 - Monday, 3/27/89

Today we loaded into the bus for a three day journey through the area of Galilee in the northern part of Israel. We drove through Tel Aviv, which to the world is the capital of Israel. The population there is 500,000. To the Jews, Jerusalem (population 450,000) is the capital.

From Tel Aviv we drove to Caesarea, a port Herod built on the Mediterranean Sea in honor of Caesar Augustus. It was styled after the Greek city of Athens, only larger. Herod did everything in a big way. For those of us who like to golf, it is in the Harbour of Caesarea where the only golf course in Israel is located.  We had a picnic lunch on the white sandy beach of the Mediterranean. It’s a beautiful blue-green sea.

We stopped in Megiddo and viewed the lush Jezreel valley, so fertile and green and peaceful looking. So many battles have been fought here, but there remains the big slaughterhouse of them all---the battle of Armageddon. It’s very disturbing to think that the beautiful, serene valley will be war torn and bloodied. However, we can rejoice because we know that our side wins!! Jesus will be victorious and will set up His kingdom to reign forever!!

“All hail King Jesus! All hail Emmanuel!

King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Bright Morning Star.

And throughout eternity I’ll sing His praises,

And I’ll reign with Him throughout eternity!”

Nazareth, the place where Mary the mother of Jesus was from, is a city of 50,000 people today. In the time of Mary it was a village the size of a football field with only about 200 people living there. It was a nowhere, no place, little insignificant village. It had the reputation of “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But where does God go when He chooses to use someone or to reveal Himself? Once again He chose the humble, the seemingly insignificant. In Nazareth God found Mary, who lived in a cave-like house over which a church is now built to preserve her home, the Church of the Annunciation.

When I saw those monstrosities built over the places of significance in the life of Jesus, I couldn’t help but feel Jesus would have been much happier if men would just give Him their hearts instead of building monuments to Him. The monuments will one day be destroyed, but the heart lives on forever. Today He still desires our hearts. It isn’t so much our action as it is our attitudes. Are we humble, are we submissive, do we have a servant heart? Can His love flow through us so that HE might be seen and not we ourselves?

Journey to Israel - Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - Thursday, 3/23/89

This morning started out with a time of conversational prayer in Shepherd’s Field, outside of Bethlehem. This is the area where the lowly shepherds watched their flocks. How touching that God chose to reveal the birth of His Son through angels to the humblest class of society. Today the Church of the Nativity is built over the place where Jesus was born. Not too far from there is the Herodian, a huge mountain that King Herod had constructed with palace like living at the top. It was to be his tombstone, for he wanted a shrine built for everyone all around to see and remember him.

King Herod had wealth beyond imagination....Jesus was born in poverty. Herod ordered men to serve him....Jesus came to serve men. Herod was cruel, killed maliciously, was hated by everyone, and people rejoiced when he died. His season of reign was finally over. Jesus came in love, came to die for us, and now He lives forever and will one day reign as King throughout eternity. He who is last shall be first...he who is least shall be greatest. I can truly worship such a God as that!

We journeyed to Bethany, a two mile distance from Jerusalem, located at the foot of the Mount of Olives. We went there to walk the walk that Jesus took on Palm Sunday. First we stopped at the tomb of Lazarus, where Jesus had wept over the death of His friend...or did He weep over the lack of faith and understanding of those He had spent so much time with? Does it break His heart today when we show that same lack of faith in Him?

We continued our walk up the hill to Bethpage where Jesus cursed the barren fig tree that represented the Saducees. Outwardly they were spiritual, but they bore no fruit. This disciples were not to worry about them, for the Saducees would perish even as the fig tree did. It was at Bethpage that Jesus mounted a donkey to ride into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9)...”Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

It was also on the Mount of Olives that Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. I believe He looked down through the ages and saw all that God’s chosen people, the Jews, and holy city of Jerusalem would go through. It was knowing they could have chosen Him and avoided their destruction that broke His heart. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” In their rejection of Him they marched on toward the Holocaust.

The Mount of Olives represented other events in the life of Jesus also. It was here that He gave His Olivet discourse. Here on this Mount he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrendering Himself to His Father’s will. And it was on the Mount of Olives that He ascended into heaven. Jesus had spent much time in this area, and as we sat in the church at the Garden of Gethsemane and sang “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine”, tears flooded my eyes. I thought of Jesus on that day of His trial, with the crowd jeering at Him, and all of the humiliation He went through. In quiet submission He faced His death to give me blessed assurance.

Thursday night we were served a Passover Supper in a very natural setting with low tables and oil lamps as our source of light. We were served unleavened bread, wine (grape juice), stew (beef in place of lamb), and bitter herbs (onions, radishes, peppers, garlic). This meal was symbolic of the last of the plagues in Egypt when the death angel passed over those homes with blood on their door posts. They were saved from the sorrow of their first born being killed, and were then let go from Egypt...freed from bondage. In like manner we are freed from bondage to sin by the blood of the Lamb. Thank you, Jesus.

Journey to Israel - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Tuesday, 3/21/89

Tuesday morning I awoke to sunshine and the beckoning hills of Jerusalem. All I could say was, “Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus!!!” This was our first full day in Israel. We started out by viewing how Jerusalem is situated on a hill with valleys surrounding the city, and then more hills. This makes Jerusalem like a bowl with mountains surrounding her for protection.  In the same way God protects His children, as though we are cupped in His hands.

Israel is a country that is 185 miles in length and 90 miles wide, smaller than our American states.  It is the doorway connecting three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Because of its strategic trade routes everyone wants to control Israel for their own economic reasons. That helped me understand why it has always been such a hot spot, a troubled and war-torn country.

The conflict between the Arabs and the Jews is better understood by knowing how each group believes. The Jews believe that God gave Israel to them in His covenant with Abraham. The Arabs, or Moslems, have a law that once something belongs to Islam it is theirs eternally. The tension between these two groups of people is very obvious. Hatred prevails. In fact, while there I met an American school teacher who is teaching elementary education in Israel, and she told me that the Arab children are being taught hatred as part of their religion. To throw rocks at the Jews is to earn brownie points. Raising children with that philosophy is not an indication of future peace, only war and strife.

We viewed the old City of David, which lies outside the current walls of Old City Jerusalem. Houses today are still built on top of each other on the sides of the hills. The roof of one house is a sidewalk or step up to the next level of houses. With King David living at the top, it was easy for him to look down on the roofs of the houses below him and see Bathsheba taking a bath. The question is, what was she doing taking a bath out on the “sidewalk” except hanging out a sign, “Available”.

King David was raised as a humble shepherd boy. Shepherds are considered the lowest class of society. However, God saw in David a man after His own heart. King Saul, full of pride, took large places and was brought down. David took a small place and God made it the great city of Jerusalem. This lesson of God using the humble continued to repeat itself over and over again to me in various settings during our stay in Israel. As God looks on our hearts, may He find them humble, available for His use.

Journey to Israel - Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In February (1989) I found that the campus pastor, Robert Sheppard, was the one who had canceled and made the spot available for me. It had been his life-long desire to go to Israel, but it was not going to work out financially for him to be able to go. When I discovered this, I went to prayer. I asked God to please make it possible for him to go on this study tour....to somehow surprise him. I did not feel it was right for me to go, and him not be able to. That would have left me feeling quite guilty.

My friend Brenda began to feel that the trip was going to be too much of a burden on her family since they had just bought a house. She wanted to back out if there was someone to take her place. Then I learned that there was going to be a collection on campus to raise the money to pay Pastor Sheppard’s expenses and send him on his dream trip to Israel. Enough was collected to not only pay his trip, but there was an additional $400 for him to use as spending money. The best part of it all was that it was a total surprise to him!!! They surprised him in chapel when the presented the money to him as a gift. God had answered my specific prayer to give him the trip as a surprise, literally! Wow!! What a God!!!!

Pastor Sheppard gave a sermon on God’s Best. He told how he had wanted to go on this trip. His family planned to pool their money together to pay his way, but there just was not going to be enough funds. His wife Gail, knowing how badly he wanted to go, suggested he borrow the money. He did not feel that would be right. He made the decision to wait for God’s timing for his trip to Israel. 

God had it planned all along to give him this trip. If Pastor Sheppard had borrowed money, he would have missed God’s best. The lesson is to wait for God’s timing. I want His best in my life. Sometimes I get too eager, too impatient, and I try to do things in my own way. It never works out the way it should. I have been learning to “wait upon the Lord.”

Journey to Israel - Chapter 3

Chapter Three

There were two reasons I felt called to Israel. I had answered God’s call on my life to get prepared for His full-time service. I do not know what I am preparing for, but I walk on in faith, one step at a time. I felt that Israel was to be a foundation for my ministry, whatever it is.

The second purpose for me going was simply to be with Jesus in a very intimate way. I went through a lot of agony in my depression. I felt everyone else was having all of the fun while I was trying to survive in life and find hope again through Jesus. It was as though He was giving me this trip as a gift, a reward for that faithfulness in the desert of brokenness. My God is a God so very unpredictable, but always faithful and full of adventure and surprises, “in His time”.

The excitement of Israel began to grow in me, even though I was only on the waiting list. I thought about it being such a small country, but THE most historical one on earth. I recalled the verse in Matthew 2:6, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” 

One man, born in a small country on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, changed the course of history as He stepped on this earth He had helped His Father create. Creation, Destruction, Resurrection.....what a difference Jesus has made in MY life!!!

Journey to Israel - Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I went to the Conn Center one night for a concert, and being early, I sat in my car listening to a Gaither tape. They were singing “Peace Be Still”. I closed my eyes and transported myself to that peaceful shore in my mind where I often went to be alone in the presence of Jesus.

I was standing on the white sandy beach watching the soft waves rolling into the shore, when Jesus came along and took my hand. We started walking along the shore. He waved His other hand toward the sea and said, “Carol, this is the Sea of Galilee. I walked on these waters. This is the sea where I calmed the storm. Carol, I love you, and I am going to calm the storms in your life also. I will always be with you.

We stopped walking, and as I stood there with my head bowed in adoration, He faded away. Then the tape started playing “Gentle Shepherd”. I looked up and realized that I now stood on a Judean hillside. I saw Jesus standing under a tree with a lamb in His arm, stroking its wool. All around Him were sheep, and I was in the midst of them. He looked at me as if to say, “Carol, I’m watching over you....I care for you.” I was so touched that Jesus would come in such an intimate way. I realized then He truly does meet ALL of our needs...even our need for intimacy.

Those visions were a reinforcement to me that God was calling me to Israel. Soon after that my friend Brenda felt that she too was being called to go on the trip. With only two slots left available, she felt we should sign up. Well, that meant one of my fleeces was answered...I had a female friend to go with on the study tour. However, the money had not come in. That left me somewhat confused, but my husband Paul felt we would be able to manage the funds somehow.

By the time I went to sign up for the trip, it was full. I was the first one on the waiting list. There was no disappointment. I did not want to go on this trip if God had not called me. I knew there was unrest in Israel, and perhaps I did not need to be there in the middle of trouble. Besides, the fleece of money had not come in. If God wanted me on the trip, He could still open the doors.

Journey to Israel - Chapter 1

A note of introduction...when I first started blogging in 2008, I used many of my writings as blog segments.  "My Journey to Israel" was good for several blogs.  One day I was criticized about my blog, and I just deleted it all.  When I got over that, I started another blog, and here I am today.  I decided that for the Easter season I would once again post my Israel Journal.  I'm pretty sure my current readers were not reading my blog back then, so this should be "new" material.  Even if you have read it before, it's worth a second read.  In this coming week we will be reminded of the passion of Jesus in many ways.  May this blog just be one more method of you focusing on God's Goodness, and the Sacrificial Love of Jesus Christ.  I will be posting more frequently for a few days,I hope.  Enjoy...

MY JOURNEY TO ISRAEL

MARCH 1989 JOURNAL

Chapter One

It was my first semester at Lee College, Cleveland, Tennessee, in the fall of 1988. I was sitting in my Foundations for Ministry class, chatting with a friend before class began. I told her I wasn’t sure if I would have enough funds to come back for a second semester at Lee unless God somehow opened some doors for me.

Class began and Mr. Boone, a Bible professor, began talking to the class about a Bible class being offered in the spring semester that would be going on a two-week study tour in Israel. At first I did not give it much attention, but the more he talked I began to feel this mounting interest inside of me. It seemed a Voice was saying to me, “Carol, you are going on this trip. I want you to come and see My land. I want to show you where I walked while on this earth.”

I had never even been interested in going to Israel before, but when this Voice started humming inside of me, I came alive. Every fiber within me was alert and listening---to the Voice, and to Mr. Boone. I thought, “This is silly! I just told my friend that I could not hardly afford to come back next semester, and here I am thinking of going to Israel to the tune of $1,400. Lord, what are you doing?”

I heard Him answer, “You’re going, Carol. This trip is for you.” I was so excited about it that when I got to my next class I started telling my friend Brenda about the trip, hoping she would be interested also. Then I told the Lord that I needed to know for sure it was Him talking, and not just my own imagination. If it was truly Him calling me, would He please give me one female friend to go with, and would He please send the down payment money as an indication He would supply the rest. That sounded reasonable to me. I did not want to go on a trip with all preacher boys, especially if I had to borrow the money to do so. Time passed and nothing happened. Meanwhile the 25 slots available for the study tour were filling in.