Get the picture

(Picture: Mt. of Olives with the Church of Ascension)

Hello Fellow Travelers:

I was thinking the other day about an experience I had in elementary school. Our teacher was telling us about the Alamo. As she told the story, an image of the Alamo emerged in my mind although I had no idea what it looked like. Then I remember the first time I saw a picture of the Alamo. I have to tell you, the picture I had in my mind of the Alamo did not come close to the actual one. 

That very same thing happened to me many times when, as a young believer, I read the Bible. I read about Mt. Moriah, for example, or the Mt. of Olives and images of "Mt. Everest" or "Mt. McKinley" came to mind. And those images often clouded the Biblical record and made the Bible harder to understand. For example, how did Abraham in his old age have the stamina to take his bound son, Isaac, up such a high place? It was incomprehensible!

But a trip to the Holy Land is like putting on a set of geographical spectacles. They make a simple phrase like "going up to Jerusalem" leap off the pages of the Bible and make perfect sense. 

God chose a people and He gave them a land. It was in this land He chose and spoke to our forefathers. It was in this land He gave the greatest law code the world has ever known. It was in this land He taught His people to "trust and obey" Him. It was in this land God "became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." It was in this land that God in flesh, Jesus Christ, taught, healed, died on a cross, and rose from the dead. 

I've heard it was Ray Steadman who said, "A two week trip to the Holy Land is the same as ten years of Sunday School." After visiting the Holy Land you will not be the same and reading your Bible will never be the same again! 

Shalom.

Pastor Rick