Archives For religion

The Southern Steps and Psalms of Ascent Reminders

Who would have ever thought to use stairs as a memory-trigger?

At the southern edge of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a 200-foot wide flight of stairs represents both original and restored steps from the Second Temple period.

Southern steps with Psalms of Ascent tb n090599 The Southern Steps and Psalms of Ascent Reminders

(Photo: Reading the Psalms of Ascent on the Southern Steps. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

Millions of sandals (including Jesus’) shuffled up these steps in antiquity as Jewish pilgrims came from all Israel and the Diaspora to worship the Lord for the annual feasts.

Some suggest the pilgrims sang the Psalms of Ascent on these steps. If so, the place brought to mind critical themes.

The place echoes of our need to be reminded of what we already know.

Continue Reading…

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.

Continue Reading…

Caesarea Philippi (Banias)—From the god Pan to the God-Man

In a land where water is life, it’s no wonder one of the major sources of water would become a primary place of worship.

Regrettably, the god worshipped at Banias was not the God of Israel.

Caesarea Philippi tb032905240 Caesarea Philippi (Banias)—From the god Pan to the God Man

Caesarea Philippi forms the headwaters of the Jordan River. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

What an absolutely beautiful area! The flowing streams and the nearby waterfalls offer some of the most pleasant and inviting surroundings for tours, holidays, and family outings.

But that’s not why Jesus came here.

Continue Reading…

Clear Your Guilty Conscience in 3 Steps

I read somewhere that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once played a joke on twelve of his friends. He sent them each identical telegrams that read:

“Flee! All is discovered!”

Just four words. But within 24 hours, all twelve fled the country.

vivozoom 37391424 w 2 Clear Your Guilty Conscience in 3 Steps

Photo: Design Pics, via Vivozoom

What Conan Doyle did in jest, God does to us in all seriousness.

The Lord will use situations to awaken ignored or unresolved guilt, testing our willingness to come clean and clear a guilty conscience.

Are you willing? Here’s how.

Continue Reading…

Hebron—the Cave of Machpelah Stands as a Testimony of Faith

Towering like a fortress over the shoddy buildings that surround it, the ancient structure in Hebron covers a site sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Hebron Machpelah tb092204983 Hebron—the Cave of Machpelah Stands as a Testimony of Faith

Photo: The building that covers the “Cave of the Patriarchs” at Machpelah in Hebron. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

In elevation, Hebron stands taller than even Jerusalem.

And other than the Temple Mount itself, no other place remains as revered to peoples whose hopes and faiths could not be more diverse.

Few other places offer such a powerful lesson in faith for those of us still drawing a breath.

Continue Reading…

Staring Death in the Faith

Sometimes you hear crazy stuff at funerals.

I heard of one set of parents who tragically lost a child, and the minister told them not to weep—but to rejoice in faith. After all, their son was in heaven. It sounds so right—so spiritual.

But it was only half right. Therefore, half wrong.

800px 2012 04 Kietlice 17 Staring Death in the Faith

Photo: by Ralf Lotys (Sicherlich) CC-BY-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Bible reveals that when someone dies, the most natural and right thing to do—even in a life of great faith—is to weep. After Abraham’s wife died, we read:

“Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.” (Genesis 23:2).

Even Jesus wept at the results of physical death (John 11:35). So, that makes it okay for us too.

Why is weeping right, even if our loved one is in a “better place”?

Continue Reading…

Expect God to Test Your Vision

I sit still with my face in a brace, wide-eyed and waiting for that imminent blast of air in my eyeball.

“Now sit still,” the optometrist says. “Don’t blink.”

POW! I know it’s coming, but my whole body still jerks. I feel like an idiot.

visiontesting Expect God to Test Your Vision

Photo: Design Pics, via Vivozoom

Then we do it again with the other eye.

This unpleasant procedure has to happen each year. Without it, my vision isn’t all it can be.

The Lord does a similar thing with the vision He gives us in the Bible. We think we see it clearly until a blast in the eyeball jerks our whole frame of reference.

Continue Reading…

Get the Perspective You Need with 3 Truths

The Texas Driver’s Handbook has a diagram that shows when you sit in a parked car, you have a full 180-degree field of vision.

But then you start to move.

  • When your car accelerates to 20 M.P.H. that field of vision reduces to 66%.
  • At 40 M.P.H. your visual field shrinks to 20%.
  • At 60 M.P.H. your field of vision remains barely wider than the headlights.

perspective Get the Perspective You Need with 3 Truths

Photo: Andres Rodriguez, via Vivozoom

Simply said, the faster you go the less perspective you have.

The same holds true for us in our journey. If we never sit still, we never see the big picture—only the immediate right in front of us.

Continue Reading…

Your Rededication to God Can Begin Right Now

Anyone who has visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC has seen the etching engraved on the top of the steps.

The inscription marks the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” Standing on those steps, in the shadow of the great emancipator’s memory, gave greater force to the words Dr. King spoke that day.

The place of the message intensified the words.

rededication Your Rededication to God Can Begin Right Now

Photo: warrengoldswain, via Vivozoom

I’m convinced that’s why Joshua gathered the young Hebrew nation to Shechem. The geographical context of his words played a significant role.

What he said that day still applies to us.

Continue Reading…

The Jesus Boat—A Nof Ginosar Abandoned Ship Resurfaces

The Sea of Galilee will give us a treasure one day,” one man told his brother.

Turns out, he was right.

In 1986, Yuval and Moshe Lufan, two sons of a fisherman in Kibbutz Ginosar, were walking the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Discovery1 The Jesus Boat—A Nof Ginosar Abandoned Ship Resurfaces

Photo: Yuval and Moshe Lufan beside the Sea of Galilee. Courtesy of the Jesus Boat

The drought that year dropped the level of the lake lower than the men had seen in years. One brother noticed something odd protruding from the mud.

It was an ancient nail. As he poked around with his finger, he found another one. Then another. More digging unearthed pieces of ancient wood.

While they didn’t realize it at the moment, they had discovered a fishing boat that dated to the time of Jesus.

Continue Reading…