A Place of Influence

“As you come to him, the Living Stone, rejected by humans but chose by God and precious to Him – you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:4-5

It was over a year ago that most of our group committed to Israel. Now, with a few more members, we are finally here! Most of the group arrived around 3:30 this afternoon while a few arrived in the wee hours of the morning. These few early arrivers enjoyed the exoctic, first hand Israelie thrill of airport sleeping, hunting for cheap coffee, and playing intense games of dice. Needless to say they were thrilled upon the arrival of the rest of the group! Everyone was greeted by the “Welcome to Israel“ sign. Shortly after, we met our tour guide Marty O’Connor, along with his helper Navad and our friendly bus driver Egal. We introduced ourselves to our leaders and to the old and new friends and we kicked off our Israel tour!

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Some of the early arrivers were a little bit tired…

In no time we had arrived at our first location: Gezer. Here we learned why this ‘tel’ (town) was important and how it controlled one of the most influential trade routes in Israel. Thus we also learned that because of its economic influence, it also was subject to battle quite often. There were 26 layers to this tel. That means there were 26 different civiliations that rested on this small piece of land!

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Tour guide Marty teaching us how, like Gezer, we too are put in a position of influence. We all live at the crossroads of the world and its culture. Where did God put us? How can we influence those around us in our context?

From the city’s gate we could see a low valley known as the Aijalan Valley. This is most commonly known as the valley where Joshua and the Israelites fought the five king of the Amorites. To jog everyone’s memory, this is the battle where the sun stood still (Josh. 10).

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The valley where it is thought that the sun stood still.

Just a short walk from the tell of Gezer we came to a plot of land where stones had been erected, some as high as fifteen feet. It was a high place; a place where people worshiped pagan gods, a place God told the Israelites to destroy. Here we had a faith lesson challenging us not to be inanimate dead stones but living stones. Stones that people would see and think what is different about this person? What is difference has God made in our lives that make our neighbours take note, our friends notice, our business acquaintances respect. If this is not evident what must we do to change?

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How many living stones do you see?