Day 03 - A Journey Through the Desert

Our guest blogger today is Penny Nirider. 

We started the day overlooking the Dead Sea and surrounding desert so aware of the harshness and hopelessness of death.  But God.  

I imagine the valley of dry bones, the wandering of the Israelites, and the one place that satan chose to temp Jesus (Did he think it was the most hopeless place on Earth, so surely Jesus would take the bait?).  

The Dead Sea was so pretty and vast. You expected to see people swimming, fishing and boating.  And maybe birds flying around.  But nothing.  You might see a few people  floating near the beach (awesome experience by the way) but nothing like any large body of water I’ve ever been.  

We stopped in Ein Gedi and saw the caves where David and his men hid from Saul. Again surrounded by desert. But suddenly life!! A small pool fed by a spring and a waterfall!  Surely David and his men were refreshed by this living water.   

At Qumran:  More caves!  Only some of these caves contained the Dead Sea scrolls. These scrolls confirm the contents of the Old Testament, written thousands of years later. (My faith is good, but anytime I can get backup…IN YOUR FACE!! 😂)

Our last stop was the Lower Jordan. I can’t quite describe the emotion of being in the area where Elijah and Elisha parted ways, and Moses looked out at the Promised Land from Mt Nebo and then passed on the leadership of Israel to Joshua, and John the Baptist baptized Jesus!!! Wow!  The river is more like a creek right now, and pretty dirty, but I had to touch it!  It was just water, but the history!  Incredible. 

We got to go through Jericho on the way to the next hotel.  We saw the ‘Zacchaeus Tree’ on the main road. (Yep, the wee little man Sycamore tree!). Maybe not the actual one, but one alongside the main road. We didn’t see the wall, but as our guide pointed out, ‘that’s because it came tumbling down’.  😉

So as we left the desert we started seeing signs of life.  Signs of Living Water.  It felt lighter and happier. But, I wonder if that was only because I wasn’t seeing things through the eyes of faith.  

Finished the day with a group of wonderful new friends being baptized in the Sea of Galilee. I’m choking up as I write this. I was literally standing in the water Jesus walked on.  

Some of the best things have come after desert times.  Need for God - humility (you can’t survive without help), deeper faith, or maybe just rest.  As for the Dead Sea?  Nothing can live in it, but God!  WOW the minerals they are getting from it!  Health and beauty (and big business - jobs😉). 

I was in the desert and like the Dead Sea, but praise God, He can even make something good come out of something like me!  So my job is to let that Living Water flow to others.  

So, if you are reading this and haven’t already given your life completely to Jesus, I hope you’ll do that right now and as soon as you can, take it public and be baptized!