Today was a special day.

Today was a special day.

We began by getting on a boat and slowly making the seven mile journey across the Sea of Galilee. This was a journey that Jesus and the disciples would have made many times. As we got to the middle of the sea, the boat slowed to a stop, we turned off the engines, and floated on the gentle morning waves. Terry used this time, in the midst of the sea, to give us a morning devotional. We read from Matthew chapter 8:

"And when he (Jesus) got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing." And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?"

The disciples had seen Jesus heal people at this point, but there was something different about seeing him control nature itself. Only God can forgive sins, like we learned in the story of the friends who lowered their sick friend to Jesus. But only God could control nature too. This miracle was another confirmation as to who Jesus truly was.

You can understand why the disciples would have been scared. We got to see a boat that had been preserved in the mud for 2,000 years. This boat was sunk during a battle with the Romans and the archaeological work shows us that it was a boat that was used for 80 years, during the time of Christ. If you look at this boat, which was a nice fishing boat for the time, there was only one foot clearance from the edge of the water to the side of the boat. When a storm comes onto the Sea of Galilee, the waves reach six feet. The disciples had a reason to be scared. Terry hit a major point, he said that when we are in the middle of a storm, it tests our faith. But our response must be to trust in Christ. As hard as we may try, we can not save ourselves from the storm. We must not try harder, we must surrender harder. We are never promised in the Bible that a life in Christ will remove us from the storm, but we are promised peace. Philippians 4:6-7 says:

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Terry closed our devotion by concluding that we can experience this peace, even in the midst of a storm, if we trust in Him. Prayer is where we exchange our anxiety for the peace of God.

We then drove on and got further away from the sea to an ancient area known as Beth She'an. In one spot, you could see the layers of conquering empires. You could see evidence of life from the early Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantine, and more. As we hiked up the tall hill where the original civilizations built their fortresses (height provided a military advantage), we were able to stand and see the mountain on which King Saul and his son Jonathan were defeated in battle by the Philistines. The Philistines then brought Saul's body to Beth She'an and fastened his body to the wall. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead (we could see this area in the distance) heard what had happened, they snuck into the area we were standing at night and took the bodies back to be buried properly. When David heard about what had happened, he mourned. He mourned for the man (Saul) who had tried to kill him and for his friend Jonathan. David lamented and he wrote the words you can find in 2 Samuel chapter 1 verses 19-27. And he said that these words should be taught to all the people of Israel. If you read the words David wrote, they are beautiful. What was incredibly touching for us, was to listen to a melody from our 65 year old, war veteran, Jewish tour guide as he sang in Hebrew the words that David had written. He told us that as children, that song is taught to them, they all learn it, because David said it should be so.

As you got to the top of this large hill, you look down and you see one of the most amazing sites. Down below is a very large, excavated city known as Scythopolis. Scythopolis was a Greek city that was built in the same relative location as Beth She'an, but because the Greeks were so strong militarily, they didn't need to build their city on the hill. And given they had to move in so much stone and supplies for their cities, keeping the city center off the hill saved a lot of time and money. This city was constructed by the Greeks, added onto by the Romans, and continued on with the Byzantine. It was even used by the Muslims until a major earthquake in 749 AD. This city was beautiful and it was massive. The city probably held 70,000 to 80,000 people. You literally could see each empire build on top of each other as you excavated down into the ground.

Before we dove into the lesson, it was important to contrast what we saw yesterday in the village of Chorazin vs. what we were observing from this city today. If you recall, the village of Chorazin was a very typical Jewish village. The synagogue (place of worship and teaching) was the center of the village. It was the only two story building and was the most beautiful. The homes then would surround the synagogue and the families would have these extended family dwellings where you would just add on a room to the area. The children would spend their mornings learning in the synagogue and then would spend the majority of the day with their family, even apprenticing with the family business. In your extended family dwelling area, you would eat together, socialize, tell stories, etc. What we saw from this Greek city was completely different. We stood in the center of Scythopolis in the agora. This is where trading and all types of commerce took place. As Terry said, "Geography of cities signals your values." It was clear by just looking at the layout of the city, that they valued money. Our modern cities today are modeled after the Greco-Roman city structure. Our cities today are designed to look like Scythopolis. What does that signal about our values?

We continued touring this ancient city and went into the theatron. This was the ancient stage and stadium seating that you can picture in your head (or see the pictures in the blog). This theatron was massive, it would hold 7,000 people. Terry again contrasted the village in Chorazin to what we saw here in Scythopolis. In Chorazin, the stories were told by the families, in the areas they lived. But in Scythopolis, the theatron was used daily so that stories could be delivered to the people regularly, to entertain them.

As Terry said, "Entertainment is not necessarily bad, but it is never neutral. It always has a moral value message. Make sure that you are the one that tells the stories that transmit the values you hold dear."

Especially for those of us with kids or grandkids, this really hit home. We live in a world where children have the ability to be told a moral narrative 24 hours a day, conveniently. As Christians, we are called to be more like Chorazin than we are Scythopolis. It is our responsibility to transmit our stories, our values, the things we hold dear to the generations behind us. It is easy to see how the city of Scythopolis could slowly disintegrate the importance of the family. In Chorazin, your education, your work, your leisure all tended to involve either your family or trusted members of the community that you surrounded your city with, the city of Scythopolis was just like our cities today, it is easy to get up, go to work, go to the gym, engage in entertainment, eat, and live a life that is separated from the ones we should hold most closely to us. God sent his son into the world dominated by the power structures of Scythopolis, but Jesus used imagery from Chorazin to describe Heaven. The ancient world is not very different from our world, and as Terry said, "If you go out into the world and people can't tell a difference in you and the world, you should really ask yourself why."

We ended the day at the Jordan River. The Jordan River is where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. From where we were standing, the river runs south and empties into the Dead Sea. It is a beautiful image to think about baptism wiping away our sins and then flowing down the river into a body of water where nothing may survive. Our group has grown closer together over this week and we got to experience something incredible as a group today. Everyone on our trip is a Christian and has been baptized at some point in their life, however, it was a great opportunity to get baptized again in the place that Jesus himself showed us the way. We split the responsibility and great privilege for baptism between two of the pastors on the trip and we all waded into the cold water. Each of those who were baptized confessed that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that He is Lord, that He is our savior. We saw tears, we heard shouting, we got many hugs. And for his very first baptism as a pastor, the author of this blog got to baptize the one whom God joined to him in marriage. There have been many special moments on this trip so far, but I doubt that one will be topped for me personally.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.