We began our day with a wonderful breakfast here at the Caesar Hotel in Tiberias on the beautiful Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias or the Genneseret). This is all the same Sea and it has not moved! We know that Jesus sailed on this Sea and that he spent much time in the towns around this Sea.
We left the hotel this morning at 8am and walked down to the dock to board a small wooden vessel that easily held our group of 27 plus the guide and 3 workers on the boat. A Christian company owned this boat so we they had familiar songs for us to sing along with. We sang “How Great Is Our God” and “Here I Am To Worship”. Dr. Mike Goforth brought a wonderful message from Matthew 14. After our wonderful time of worship we had some Israeli music and dancing for all who wanted to participate. It was the traditional dance where you make a circle, dance around, go to middle and etc. We enjoyed some good Christian fun! We spent about an hour on the Sea this morning, another gorgeous day!
We docked and went to a museum to see a boat that had been excavated from the time of Jesus. Then we headed to Nazareth where Jesus grew up. It is about a 45 minute drive from Tiberias.
On the way we stopped in the town of Cana where Jesus turned the water into wine. We visited a church to commemorate that miracle and had prayer for those who needed miracles in their lives and family. Jordan Grisham, a 17-yr old from our church who is facing brain cancer for the 2nd time was a focus of prayer, along with others. We know our God is in the miracle business and we ask for a miracle according to His Will. It was a special time for our group and we ended this special time by singing “Amazing Grace”.
In Nazareth we visited the Church of the Annunciation which is commemorative of the angel telling Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. It was a beautiful church and the largest church in the Middle East.
We then had a lovely lunch of falafel sandwiches, swarma sandwiches or lambwiches (Scotty’s term).
We drove then to the highest point called the Mt of Precipice (?) where the mob took Jesus planning to throw him off for claiming to be the Messiah. They knew He was Jesus son so they accusing Him of blasphemy. They did not get to do their evil deed because the Bible says in Luke 4 that “He passed through them”. Here it is called “The Leaping Mountain” and the plaque says that he leaped and stayed in a cave below for several years. This is a very corrupted account of the Biblical account. It was very windy and cold up there but a beautiful view of Nazareth, Mt. Tabor and the Jezreel Valley.
We then made our way back to Tiberias for a time of time of rest and now it is almost time for dinner at 6pm.
Today at 6pm begins the Sabbath so many Jews are here for the Sabbath so they can enjoy it without having to work (cook).
It has been a gorgeous day in Israel to walk in the footsteps of our wonderful LORD and SAVIOR!
Time to eat so SHALOM MY FRIENDS!
No comments:
Post a Comment