Archives For Temple Mount

The Widow’s Mites and the Value of Your Heart to God

The true value of our hearts is hidden.

But sometimes we reveal its value by how we give—not by how much. That’s the currency God cares most about.

The Widows Mites and the Value of Your Heart to God The Widows Mites and the Value of Your Heart to God

(Photo: The widow’s mite(s) were like these 2000 year old copper coins. By Royce Bair / Creative Commons license)

On His way out of the temple for the last time, Jesus sat down in the Court of the Women and observed those who made donations to the treasury. To be sure, this seemed an odd place to pause.

But the Lord had a lesson to teach His disciples.

It’s a lesson on how He values our hearts.

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The Temple Mount—An Ordinary Hill Made Holy

Abraham saw the acreage. David bought the lot. Solomon built the house.

Nebuchadnezzar tore it town. Zerubbabel rebuilt it. Herod the Great expanded it. Titus flattened it. Before these temples stood on Mount Moriah, it was nothing but a hill used for threshing wheat.

Hardly worth noticing.

Temple Mount aerial from north bb00040095 2 The Temple Mount—An Ordinary Hill Made Holy

(Photo: the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

But today, the Temple Mount remains the most precious piece of real estate in the world. And the golden shrine that graces its crest has become the icon for the Holy City of Jerusalem itself.

How did this ordinary hill become holy? Not through battles or land bartering or by popular vote.

God chose it.

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Obama’s Prayer . . . and Mine

I remember in the 2008 election when Barack Obama conducted his world tour as part of his presidential campaign, he visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

You may remember that he inserted a prayer in the wall. The Jews consider this a sacred act—even if the individual represents another faith.

1338477585449.cached Obama’s Prayer . . . and Mine

(Photo: Paul J. Richards / AFP – Getty Images)

After Obama left the Western Wall Plaza, someone scrabbled out the prayer—written on King David Hotel stationary—and took a picture of it.

Here’s what Obama’s prayer said:

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Connecting Cisterns, Rain, and Reading the Bible

Where there is water in Israel, there is life.

And where there isn’t water? The rule in antiquity was simple. Dig a cistern.

cistern Connecting Cisterns, Rain, and Reading the Bible

(Photo: Water reservoir beside Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Photo by Vladimir Naykhin, IAA)

While excavating a first-century drainage channel and street that led from the City of David to the Temple Mount, archaeologists recently found a massive water reservoir dating from the First Temple period. The discovery of the reservoir, just west of the Temple Mount, gives silent testimony to the importance of water in the spiritual lives of God’s people.

The Jewish holiday today, Shemini Atzeret—and Simchat Torah—offer a fascinating connection to this ancient cistern.

More importantly, they reveal a truth we live by every day of our lives.

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Echoes of Rosh Hashanah at the Place of Trumpeting

Whenever I visit the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, I’m eager to walk to the southwest corner of the Temple Mount.

I’ve never been to this corner on Rosh Hashanah or during the Feast of Trumpets, but I’d love to go there then. Archaeologists have uncovered a large portion of the first-century street that stretched north along the original Western Wall.

Excavations below Robinsons Arch from north tb122006922 1024x546 Echoes of Rosh Hashanah at the Place of Trumpeting

Photo: The southwest corner of the Temple Mount at left. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

One hundred meters north of the corner is the part of the Western Wall where locals and tourists pray. But beneath the ground, Jerusalem’s Central Valley has been filled in with the rubble of the Second Temple’s destruction in A.D. 70.  As a result, the beautiful modern plaza stands about 30 feet above the first-century street uncovered at the southwestern corner.

There at the corner lies a reminder of something Jesus predicted 37 years before the temple’s destruction.

And of a promise He made that could be fulfilled at any moment.

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The Walls of Jerusalem through the Centuries—a Timeline

I’ve heard it said, “If you want to understand the history of Israel, then learn the history of Jerusalem.”

Many books depict the expansion and contraction of the walls of Jerusalem, but I thought a timeline might illustrate it well.

(If you can’t see the timeline in email or RSS, just click here.)

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Revealing the Lies of Temptation

Congratulations, Mr. Stiles, you’ve just won an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii!”

“No thanks.”

“You mean . . . you don’t want it?” I hung up. It was a short conversation.

No soliciting Revealing the Lies of Temptation

Photo: Design Pics, via Vivozoom

A solicitor does not call to give anything—unless he or she ultimately gets more back in return.

I have discovered the devil is the same way. Satan knows how to market to people. He’s been doing it a long time. From the beginning, in fact.

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