Last night I worked on my blog for like 45 minutes and was ready to post pictures of Belarus, the SBC meeting in Indianapolis, and some information about our Israel trip. But before I could save and close my time ran out for being on the Internet here at the hotel, so I lost all that I was going to post! I will post what I have so far about the Israel trip and will have to go back and post pictures from Belarus and Indy. Here is goes--

ISRAEL TRIP JUNE 16-25, 2008

June 16-17, 2008 Monday and Tuesday (Travel and lose 8 hours)

Our group from FBC Lavaca met at church at 6:45 am and we drove to Dallas Fort Worth Airport and it only took 5 hours and we stopped for 45 minutes. We have a wonderful group of folks going from our church and I am so excited about spending these 10 days with family and church family. There are 14 of us on the trip and this includes Ashley, Hannah, Bryant, and Leighton. We met a group from FBC Colleyville, TX and also Pastor Woody Cumbie from Indianapolis is coming with a group from his church for a total of 37. We flew from DFW to Frankfurt Germany and this flight was 9.5 hours and then we flew from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv and this was 3.5 hours. We were met from folks from Discovery Ministries and they helps us greatly and then we boarded our bus and drove through the old city of Joppa where Jonah boarded a ship and tried to flee to Tarshish after God told him to go to Nineveh—he literally went the opposite way! This is also the city where Peter was staying in the house of Simon the Tanner when he received the vision to not call unclean what God has called clean. The delegation from Cornelius’ house met him and he traveled to Caesarea to meet Cornelius and his family. We spent the night at Tel Aviv and it is so pretty. We walked along the beach at night as the kids went swimming. We went to bed around 10:00 p.m. and I fell asleep in my chair as I was preparing for the next day of teaching. Fortunately I caught myself before I hit the floor. You know you are exhausted when!

June 18, 2008 Wednesday

We got wake up call at 6:15 am, ate good breakfast, and then we left at 8:30 am. We drove up the coast from Tel Aviv to Caesarea by the Sea, where Peter went to the home of Cornelius and shared Christ with him and he and his whole family was saved and baptized. This is also the city where Paul spent 2 years imprisoned waiting to meet with the authorities (Acts 24:27). Felix was the governor of Caesarea; Festus succeeded him as governor. Herod Agrippa the II the grandson of Herod the Great was the king of Caesarea. Herod the Great had a palace built near the sea. He began building the city in 22 BC till 9 BC and named the city after Caesar Augustus. It was a very pagan city. We went to the theatre where Paul gave his defense before the authorities and I was able to preach a few minutes about Paul’s defense in Acts 26 as he shard his testimony with the people who listened. Afterward while touring the area a man named Micah Askanazy came up and our guide Douron introduced him to us as the man who found the inscription Pontius Pilate inscribed on one of the seats in the theater. They took it to the museum in Jerusalem and placed a replica outside the theatre. This was a great archaeological find. Micah told us that we do not need this historical evidence for us who believe but is so good to have it. I got my picture made with him.

Then we went to Mount Carmel, and that was really neat standing up top and looking down on the Valley of Jezreel, and also down to the Brook Kidron where Elijah told them that to kill the prophets of Baal. The word Carmel is from 2 Hebrew words Carmel meaning vineyard and El meaning God. The place where they had the confrontation in 1 Kings 18 between Elijah and prophets of Baal is in this place on Mount Carmel. Ahab married Jezebel and she was wicked and brought her gds to Israel to be worshipped and her god was Baal. But Elijah did not wait for them to come to him; rather, he went to their stronghold where they were and confronted them in this eoic showdown as recorded in 1 Kings 18. Pastor Woody Cumbie shared devotion from this text and did a great job. I have a picture of the statue at Carmel of Elijah standing with a sword in his hand stepping on the neck of another person, and I assume that is one of the prophets of Baal.

We traveled to a Druze village and ate lunch. This religion broke off of Islam in the 11th century AD. They trace their origins back to Jethro the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law. The Druze are Arabs and serve in the Jewish military. We ate at this restaurant owned by Druze family and the food was really good. I ate a falafel a vegetarian food on bread. Before I left I shared a tract with the owner’s son and he was reading it after a few minutes and I shared with him the picture of the cross my favorite part.

Then we drove to Megiddo, and this was very impressive. This was an important, strategic city located on the Via Maris, literally “by the Sea,” as this road connected the south to the north or from Egypt all the way to Mesopotamia and Ur, Abraham’s home city. One cannot travel through the dessert so they had to travel this way for commercial and military purposes, and so to obtain control of the city of Megiddo was always an important feat. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt 25 times! The city is very old and dates back to 6,000 BC. David took the city, and under Solomon it reached its greatest heights. He fortified it in 1 Kings 9 and kept many of his horses here in the stables. The city has an elaborate tunnel dug underneath the ground and it takes 183 steps to go down to the bottom. They used this tunnel to go out to the water supply in case they were under siege, and the men would send their strongest to go and get the water for the people. It would be camouflaged at the end so no one could find it in the event of a war—very interesting and a strategic move because in a siege the people would have to get water or surrender. I preached in Megiddo under a roof with some pews and this overlooked the Valley of Jezreel and this is the very place mentioned in the Bible as Armageddon, or literally Mount Megiddo. The battle of Armageddon will take place in this valley as told by John in Revelation 14:17-20, 16:16, and 19:11-21. I spoke from these texts today and it was amazing preaching on this subject of Armageddon while the people were able to see the valley below. It is a huge open area and you can see how the armies of this world will gather right their in their attempt to defeat Jesus Christ, but one little word shall fell him, as Martin Luther says in his song, A Mighty Fortress. This was a hard message to share and it will be the toughest one I preach on this journey.

Then we traveled to a place I have wanted to visit—Nazareth. It was a small town with a bad reputation in Jesus’ day as Nathanael asked Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) This the city where Jesus was raised; He spent 28 years here (with 2 in Egypt after His birth, and 3.5 years of public ministry traveling.) He knew this area well and worked as a carpenter. I shared from Luke 4 as He began Hi ministry and went into the synagogue and told them He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2. They rejected Him and tried to kill Him but they could not for His time had not come to die and Jesus also said, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” (John 10:18)

We drove to Tiberius and checked into the Sheraton Hotel and wow what a beautiful site overlooking the Sea of Galilee. One of the things I have wanted to do was see this body of water, as so much of Jesus ministry happened in this area. Jesus called fishermen, Galilean fishermen to follow Him. These Galileans were looked down upon by the other Jews as seen in Acts 4:13. Tiberius had a population of 40,000 people during Jesus’ day, and Herod Antipas built it and it was built upon a cemetery.
We checked in to the hotel and kids went swimming, then we ate good dinner and had good share time with the group. We have such a great group on our trip. These are wonderful people and the ones the Lord wanted on this trip.

June 19, 2008 Thursday

Today is huge! We got on a boat at 8:15 and sailed northwest to Tabgha and Capernaum. I preached on the boat from Matthew 14 Jesus and Peter walking on the water. There is a mountain located in the northwestern part of the Lake and it is called Arbel, and our guide, Douron, told us this is probably the mountain that Jesus went to and prayed on after He sent the disciples into the boat to sail to the other side. This is also the mountain that Jesus probably referred to when He said a city set on a hill cannot be hidden as this mountain Arbel had a city on in Jesus’ day. Wow, that was so neat, as they turned off the engines and it was so quiet. The crew played the national anthem, sailed the American and Israeli flags, and even play some praise music for us. One of the crewmembers showed us how they would fish in Jesus’ day by throwing the net. We landed and went to the museum where they found a boat that dates back to Jesus’ time. It was a pretty major undertaking to preserve the wood when they took it out of water because the air would turn it to dust. We watched a good film at the museum on this boat, and they knew it was dated to Jesus’ time because of the nails. The nails pointed to the time and significance of the event! The nails of Jesus point to something far more significant—they point to Him and His death on the cross! We shopped at the museum and one of the ladies from TX told the guide that she had left her money on the bus, and then what I saw next was so neat—a group of folks from Lavaca gathered around her and offered to loan her money and one guy in our group just open up his roll of money and offered her whatever she needed. I was blessed by this just watching our church members reach out and try to help someone. The bus driver helped her back to the bus and she got her money. I just really appreciate our bus driver, Yossi. He is a really neat guy. He is always getting Ashley and me something to drink and taking care of us.

From the museum we went to the Mount of Beatitudes and this was one of the most spiritual times of the entire trip . . .