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Traditions, Truth, and Praying with Your Eyes Open

Most Americans find it difficult to identify with the Jews who rock before the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I know I did at first.

It seemed, well, just . . . odd.

Then I thought about my traditions. Are they any less bizarre?

Traditions Truth and Praying with Your Eyes Open Traditions, Truth, and Praying with Your Eyes Open

(Photo: men praying at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Oddness just comes in different flavors. They’re called “traditions.”

  • Jews pray with their heads covered; we take our hats off.
  • Their prayers are public and loud and showy; ours are private and quiet and restrained.
  • They rock back and forth and mumble from a book; we bow our heads, close our eyes and utter unrehearsed words.

It’s easy in the familiarity of our own traditions to shake our fingers at the oddities of others. Jews pray while rocking, Muslims kneel with their bottoms in the air, and Christians bow our heads and close our eyes.

Blend any tradition—bowing, standing, prostrating, rocking, kneeling or jumping—with no personal relationship with the true God, and it’s totally pointless.

Maybe we Christians should open our eyes during prayer for a change.

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Jesus’ Birth in a Barn Had You in Mind

It must have seemed really strange. Honestly, it still does.

Two thousand years of waiting for the Messiah, and He is born in a barn and laid in a feed trough.

Shepherd with lamb in Negev riverbed tb010303618 Jesus Birth in a Barn Had You in Mind

(Shepherd in modern Israel, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

If it had been up to us, we would have given God’s Son a room in the finest five-star hotel in Bethlehem. But Jesus got only a one-star motel—and God had to provide the star!

When the shepherds hurried into Bethlehem to find the baby of whom the angels spoke, the wonder of God’s power must have seemed a strange contradiction to the conditions they found.

  • No halos hovered over Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.
  • Instead, they saw a poor couple surrounded by animals and the smell of manure.

Actually, the crudity of Jesus’ birth story offers really good news.

Because it had you in mind.

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Pools of Bethesda—God’s Kindness and Our Repentance

Very few people are drawn to God by intimidation.

Instead, the Lord urges us to come to Him by revealing the kindness of His mercy.

Pools of Bethesda and Crusader chapel tb011612845 Pools of Bethesda—God’s Kindness and Our Repentance

(Photo: Pools of Bethesda and Crusader chapel, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Once we comprehend the depth of our imperfections, and the futility of our own efforts to remove them, we are in a position to respond to God’s kindness.

Jesus revealed this simple truth one day in Jerusalem with an act of mercy at the Pools of Bethesda.

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When God is Not Fair

Unfair. That’s how it feels.

Remember that childhood Christmas when your sister opened the gift you wanted? Or when your brother got a T-bird for graduation and you got stuck with the family Nova?

Not fair.

800px Tears When God is Not Fair

(Photo by Rob from Sydney, Australia (CC-BY-2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Fast forward to today and ask yourself how it hits you when:

  • A coworker gets a raise but you do more work—or perhaps, his work?
  • A neighbor decorates her home from an unrestricted budget and you’re gluing the peeling wallpaper back on the wall?
  • Your job reduces your salary because of the economy, but another business gives raises and bonuses?

We find ourselves kids again pouting around the Christmas tree.

There’s a reason Scripture has to command us not to covet. It’s in our nature. It’s systemic. If we can’t have more than others, at least we want it equal.

But less than others? Uh, no. That’s not fair.

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Timna Park—A Portrait of Your Atonement on Yom Kippur

Tucked away among the steep sandstone formations in Israel’s Arabah Valley sits a place most visitors never see.

Timna Park’s best-known attraction is called “Solomon’s Pillars”—beautiful Nubian sandstone formations that have nothing to do with King Solomon. But they’re fun to climb. The park also features relics from Egyptian idol worship as well as interpretive signs about ancient copper mining.

But the best part of Timna Park is its least-known exhibit. Or perhaps, it’s the least-mentioned.

Tabernacle model tb030807091 Timna Park—A Portrait of Your Atonement on Yom Kippur

(Photo: Tabernacle model at Timna Park. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

A full-scale replica of the Tabernacle stands in the very wilderness where Moses and the children of Israel wandered for forty years.

It is like entering a doorway to history—and viewing a picture of your salvation.

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Messianic Prophecies Change a Life

Why can’t I just pray to God without Jesus in the middle?” asked a Jewish friend of mine in Israel.

The lady to whom he spoke answered, “Why don’t you just pray that God will reveal to you who Jesus is all about?”

amir Messianic Prophecies Change a Life

Photo: My friend Amir at Masada, Israel

So for the first time, Amir sat down, wrote out a prayer, stuck it on the wall where he could see it—and prayed. “And I made sure I said every word,” he said.

The next day changed his life.

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Is Jesus the Only Way? [Podcast]

Is Jesus really the only way to heaven? What about other religions?

How can Christianity make such an arrogant claim that it is the only right way to God?

Listen now:

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Is Jesus the Only Way? [Podcast]

This message (from John 14:6; Romans 1-2) examines Christianity’s exclusive claim and the absolute necessity of fulfilling the Great Commission.

Here are the main points of the message:

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