I love your past, present, and future.

View from Church of the Redeemer

O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption.  And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. 

(-- Psalms 130:7‭-‬8 ASV https://bible.com/bible/12/psa.130.7-8.ASV)

My title is directed toward Jerusalem again.  I got to visit Jerusalem for about four hours on my last Thursday in Israel. Once again, it was incredible.

I can't do it justice, I'm afraid. It is amazing and fascinating, and most incredibly, Jerusalem is timeless.

I am fascinated by its past. Living in Europe for this short amount of time has given me a new perspective on history. I feel like being here has brought me closer to history. I am more able to imagine people walking the same steps I'm walking, only 700 years earlier. When I go to Jerusalem, it's not only 700 years as most of the museums near me seem to focus (except the archaeological museum, which goes back much further), but 2500+ years. It's awesome.

I am fascinated by Jerusalem's present. Are you watching what's going on? The fact of President Trump moving the embassy to Jerusalem is a BIG deal. Whether you agree with him or his decision or not, this move could have biblical implications. We will wait and see.

I'm most fascinated with Jerusalem's future. Do you see those verses from Psalms in the Bible? God is going to redeem Israel from all his iniquities. 

Redeem.

I visited the Church of the Redeemer in the Old City while I was there. It had a tall tower that we were able to go up and see some great views of Jerusalem. It also had a beautiful congregation area. I wish I could attend a service here. I think it would be beautiful.

I'm thinking about the word redeem and how it applies to me. 

Talking about Jesus Christ, Titus says this: ...who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.

(-- Titus 2:14 WEB https://bible.com/bible/206/tit.2.14.WEB)

Not only is He going to redeem Israel from all iniquities, He is also going to redeem us from all our iniquities. He's going to redeem me.

For what purpose? So that I can belong to Him, and be zealous to do good works.

God's been talking to me about works lately. I think I'm to the point in my life when I have to stop excusing my lack of good works due to the fact of having four little kids. I enjoy doing good works, but I haven't really devoted myself to any since I was the treasurer of a small church in MD before we moved to PA. So now what? This is becoming my latest challenge.

Will you pray for me about it? What are your good works? How do you fit them into your busy life? How can I do good works even while I'm often away from my home base for the work that pays my salary? These questions are on my mind a lot these days.

I am getting so excited. Mom's ticket is bought and she will be coming in March after I leave. I'm very close to buying Dave's ticket to come while I'm there. He has no idea how good it will be. I mean it. No idea. I'm way more excited about him coming than he is about it. But he'll understand why once he gets there.

And I want to offer this to my female friends and perhaps any of my blood relatives: If you want to share my hotel room so you can visit Israel more cheaply, email or text me. I have my dates between now and until I leave Germany, and it's possible they could work for you.

It's taken me so long to write this. I'm going back soon. I hope the weather is calmer, but no matter what, I know that this is a blessing from God that I surely don't deserve. I will praise Him and worship Him forever.

Delicious falafel

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

On the way

Church of the Redeemer

Also Church of the Redeemer, nearly halfway up

Graduation at the Western Wall

Market mosaic and store

Leather at a market stall

Crazy weather. See the water coming past the pavilions?

It was at this point that I departed for the airport

The Western Wall

On October 1st, 2017, the United States had a very bad day. A very sad day.

An acquaintance of mine (Judy Chatterton, whom I regret not knowing better!) wrote this about Las Vegas:

Last night ONE person chose evil and HUNDREDS of first responders chose to put others before themselves. Today MILLIONS of people are praying. THOUSANDS of people are lining up to give blood. DOZENS of surgeons are working overtime to save lives. HUNDREDS of nurses are loving & caring for the wounded. An ENTIRE NATION grieves.

This is what you tell your kids... in every tragedy the light overcomes the darkness. We weep for the broken hearted. We pray “Jesus come soon” and we keep on being the LIGHT!

I keep thinking about the millions of people praying. What exactly are they praying? With victims and families of victims, I always pray for peace and healing where possible. With people I pray for but don't know specifics, I always pray for God's will in their lives and for them to have a closer walk with God.

I placed one short prayer in the Western Wall in Jerusalem last Thursday. It reminded me a little bit of the story of King Solomon (1 Kings 3), where God told him to ask Him for anything he wanted. By the accounts we have, Solomon didn't even hesitate, yet he asked for the most perfect thing!

I've never been able to convince myself that I would do so well in King Solomon's situation. But I had heard that people wrote their prayers on paper and tucked them into the cracks in the ancient Wall. I had intended to write my prayer in calligraphy on high quality paper, but of course that didn't happen. Instead, I wrote it out the night before on the hotel tablet, and rolled it up with thread from the free sewing kit they provided. David joked with me about this to remind me that God wouldn't deny my prayer on account of cheap paper and poor handwriting.

I touched the Western Wall. I prayed one prayer. I walked away. 

I had been thinking about my prayer for at least two months. I couldn't actually leave a sheaf of papers behind, so I had to narrow it down to only one. One prayer.

In retrospect, I'm afraid that even with two months of thought, I didn't choose so well. I wonder if, although my prayer wasn't about me on the surface, was it still actually selfish if you took a closer look? I'm not being intentionally enigmatic about my prayer. It was very personal, between me and God, and I don't want to publicize it. But I keep thinking about this one prayer that I have. I pray it all of the time. It's always at the front of my mind. It's one of my most frequent prayers. But having gone to the Western Wall with it as my prayer of choice has made me ask myself what is my true motivation behind this prayer?

If you had to pray only one prayer, how would you choose? Do you think you would have regrets? What would you pray? I'm not really asking you, but I'm asking you to consider it. Isn't it hard?

Maybe not for some. Maybe some have been asking the same one prayer for the past ten years and still haven't seen evidence of an answer. I have some prayers like that, that I just won't give up on. Or maybe some have one obvious, huge thing chipping away at your quality of life that is always your number one prayer. Or maybe some are waiting for your spouse or your sister or mother or father to accept Christ as Savior. Maybe it's all of these for some.

One of the most beautiful things about our God is that He answers prayers! And He gives us no limit! I took one prayer in paper to the Western Wall, but God hears all of the prayers in my heart. He is a prayer-answering God! So don't give up! Pray that prayer. Pray for Vegas. Pray for your loved ones, for our country, for healing, for financial stability! Pray more! Pray without ceasing! Pray, pray, pray! Stop reading this for two minutes and say a prayer. Tell God how good He is, if you can think of no requests. Talk to Him. Say something, anything! Are you angry at Him? He can take it! Do you doubt that He cares about you? Tell Him! He listens, I promise! I have 37 years of prayer behind me, and I can say confidently that there hasn't been one time in my life when I've taken a problem to prayer and not felt reassured afterwards. Praying helps remind us that God's in charge. So go. Do it! Do it poorly or do it well, it doesn't really matter as long as you're doing it!

Pray!

The Western Wall

Initial View of the Western Wall

Near the Western Wall

Description about the Western Wall