Perfect love casts out fear

Dan Brown led devotions today, sharing from Genesis 3. The first negative results of sin were fear and blame. He then shared from 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” Jesus has taken our blame and His love casts out our fears.

We took a beautiful ride out of Jerusalem and headed east into the Judean wilderness and down to the Dead Sea. We passed bedouins with their sheep and goats along the road. We traveled along the Dead Sea to Masada.  The group took a cable car high up to the top of Masada. I happened to walk the snake path. King Herod built on top of this mountain plateau and during the revolt of Rome, almost 1,000 Jewish Zealots; men, women, and children took over the place. There was enough food and supplies to stay up there for years. The Zealots and the Romans fought hard with the Romans finally breaking the wall. The next morning as they went to take the people, they found everyone dead except for two women and five children. The men killed their families and then themselves so they did not have to go into slavery and be humiliated. It’s a tragic story that shows the determination of the Jewish people. After the tour of Masada we headed down to the gift shop and lunch area where it was nice and cool.

Driving back north we visited the Qumran Caves. This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known copies of the Old Testament were discovered in 1947 by a young bedouin shepherd. We then headed to the Dead Sea to swim. “Swim” is probably not the best word to describe what you do in the Dead Sea. You bob around in the dense salt water. It was a memorable experience and it’s fun to brag that you swam in the lowest point on earth.

This evening we welcomed in shabbat (Sabbath) at the Western Wall. What a moving experience to watch orthodox Jewish people in their best shabbat finery praying and dancing and reading the Torah and Talmud. Many of us were able to go to the Western Wall and offer our own prayers, many praying for the peace of Jerusalem.

After dinner we had the opportunity to hear Meno Kalisher, he is the pastor of Jerusalem Assembly and the son of the late Zvi Kalisher one of Friends of Israel’s first workers in Israel and Holocaust survivor. Meno shared his testimony and told us about his growing church in Jerusalem. We were also surprised to have Anna and Mareck Pluta come to the meeting. Anna is a Friends of Israel worker in Poland who was visiting some friends and ministering to some people who moved from Poland.