Proclaiming God's Story at the Crossroads

Written by Maria Tchakarov

Today we started at the Mountain of Zorah and talked about how the Isrealites and Philistines were fighting for control of the Shephelah –also known as the crossroads of the land. Shephelah literally means “low” or “to bow.” Geographically speaking, when you start at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, you would see the Coastal Plain which was inhabited by the pagan Philistines. When moving your way toward the other side of the land, you find yourself in the Judah Mountains where the Israelites lived –God’s people. The space in between the Coastal Plains and the Judah Mountains is called the Shephelah because the mountains quite literally bow down into the Coastal Plains. In order for people who were traveling from one place to the next, they had to pass through that area, making it the Crossroads of the land. This explains why both the Philistines and the Israelites wanted to have control; everyone who passed through the Shephelah was influenced by the culture of who owned the land. In other words, if God’s people owned the land, then God would be the influence, but if they didn’t then it would be the Pagans. Next, we went to the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath, and later on in the day got our historical fix in when we visited two awesome museums!

Growing up, I wasn’t a practicing Christian, so being here in Israel and going over the simple, Sunday school stories is really eye-opening for me in a lot of ways. For example, today we talked about a pretty interesting guy named Samson. Basically, before today, I knew him as the guy with the hair, but now I know him as the guy who had a gift and used it to glorify himself and not the Lord. Long story short, he was called to be a Nazarite before he was even conceived. To be a Nazartie means that you take a vow of separation from the world and refrain from drinking anything from the vine (alcohol), cutting your hair, and touching the body of people who have passed. Within the short, young years of his life, Samson willingly defiled that call on his life. He killed, drank, and cut his hair. However, God did not all at once take away his gifts –specifically his gift of strength. In the same way, we are all given gifts. No matter if we are using them for good or evil, they are still ours because God has chosen before we were conceived to give them to us. I was left with the question on my heart of how am I using my specific gifts? To build myself up, or to build the kingdom up? After chewing on that for some time, I came to the conclusion that it’s a little bit of both, but I want the scale to be tipping toward the end of glorifying God more. We have a choice every day to encourage people for praised, or to do it so that they might see God’s love for them. To speak wisdom to be recognized as knowledgeable, or to lavish on people words of truth for the sake of the kingdom. To serve others so that they might see your capacity to be hospitable, or so that they might know that you serve because God first served you. Now finishing up time in one of the greatest crossroads of my life, college, I have come to see the fruit of using my own gifts for God’s glory and the way that others have done the same. I’ve met people of all types of backgrounds, stories, and opinions. A lot of those people have heard about God’s love because of the genuine pursuit of their hearts by myself and dear friends. Though not perfectly done, through God’s faithfulness to honor a love for His people, our gifts were used and used well.

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