Help support our friends in Israel in their time of need.
Israel Study Tour with Riverside Community Church
June 20 - July 4, 2016
Subscription options are no longer available for this tour.
So that we would not have to...
Wow! Today was a powerful day! We went to the Mt. of Olives and walked the Villa Dolorosa, the path that Jesus carried His cross to Calvary. If we had lived during this time, what would we have thought? People had heard that the Messiah was coming to overthrow Rome and the evil empire, and to save His chosen people. Yet here he was, The Savior of the world riding in humbly on a donkey, going to be crucified to give His life for the sins of the world. Could we have trusted that He knew what he was doing? That he had a plan? That He would come back and redeem his people? The expectations of the masses were not met, and scripture actually says that Jesus wept because of their response. They wanted Jesus to come and overthrow Rome with power, yet Jesus came to us in humility.
Mount of Olives
Separated from the Eastern Hill (the Temple Mount and the City of David) by the Kidron Valley, the Mt. of Olives has always been an important feature in Jerusalem’s landscape. From the 3rd millennium B.C. until the present, this 2900-foot hill has served as one of the main burial grounds for the city. The two-mile long ridge has three summits each of which has a tower built on it.
As we made our way through the path that Jesus walked, we pondered on what He went through. I have always wondered: As Jesus walked this earth, if He lived totally as man filled with God’s spirit or as partially man and partially God? The scripture says he learned, studied, prayed and practiced obedience through suffering. Did He know the hour or the day that He would give his life for the sins of the world? Did he know He would be so mistreated, so scoffed at, so hated? Did He know that the sin would be so great that it would separate Him from the Father?
He took the cup of wrath and sin so that we would not have to. Because God the Father is a God of justice, Jesus took all of the punishment for my sin, and the sins of the world. Scripture says that Jesus bore the weight of all our sins; past, present, and future. Through His suffering on the cross, He has forgiven us of our sins, He seeks us out to tell us what He has done for us! He cries out “Le acharah” Come follow me, take up your cross and follow me! I am your rabbi and I will teach you and care for you! I will fill you and I believe in you and I will help you to learn how to follow me, to walk as I did when I was here. Yep, today was a good day!
Lyndi
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