Walking Where Jesus Walked

Matthew 13:16-17 (The Message)
"But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance."

I am sharing my thoughts with those that care to read them because of this scripture. All my life I have been told the stories and read the stories in the Bible for myself, but always they were just that...a story. Now having seen with my own eyes the exact locations where these stories took place has changed forever the Word of God for me.

We visited the cities around the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberias or Lake of Gennesarat (John 6:1, 17:27, Luke 5:1), Sea of Chinneroth (Joshuaa 12:3), or as it is called today by most as Lake Kinneret.




View from Mt. of Beatitudes where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).  This small cover on the waters edge is where the people gathered in such a great crowd that Jesus had to get into a boat and teach the people on the shore (Matt. 13:1-2).

 




Tabgha is on the upper west side of the Sea of Galilee and the Church of the Multiplication (behind Ally & Tyler) is whwere Jesus performed one of his most significant miracles of multiplying the loaves and the fish to feed the hungry people gathered to hear him teach.  Tyler and Ally are along the edge of the Sea.  Less than 1000 feet from this location is the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter where after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee and bestowed the primacy upon Peter (John 21: 15-17).






This picture is inside the synagogue where Jesus taught in Capernaum.  Capernaum was known as Jesus' home town because he chose to be there.  This town is where he met Peter and other apostles and performed many miracles including the healing of Peter's mother-in-law (Matt. 8: 14-17), brought back the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5: 21-43), healed the paraplegic (Mark 2; 1-12), and the slave of the Centurion (Matt. 8:5-13). 

 


We took a boat across the Sea of Galilee to a restaurant called St. Peter's Fish.  From the boat we could see the mountain/cliff where Jesus exxorcised the evil spirits from a man possessed by demons and forced them to leave the man and enter the herd of swine grazing nearby.  The herd ran off the mountains edge to their doom in the Sea below.



Travelling with my Dad definitely had its advantages.  One of those was the explanations we got along our walks that gave us a better picture of what we were seeing.  He was great to point out the significance of the scriptures to where we were standing.  Here, along the edge of the Sea of Galilee, we were just down from where the loaves and fish were multiplied.  As Dad said, "here or not very far from here", Jesus approached the disciples in his resurrected form and found them attempting to fish in the warmer waters of the sea where the spring water joins the bigger water and warms it to make a better fishing spot.  Jesus asked them to cast there nets on the other side of the boat which was the exact opposite of what the professional fisherman knew to be right (into the colder water).   When they did as he said, they caught 153 fish which represents all the species of fish in the world (according to our tour guide) and represents all the different people of the world.  This is where the disciples learned what He meant by becoming fishers of men and of course they recognized Him as their resurrected Lord.



Friends in Israel

We left for Israel on January 24th, 2011 and returned on February 2, 2011.  We were there for such a short time, but we made some eternal friends.  Our tour guide, Tsippi (pronounced Sippy) is a Jewish woman that knows so many details about the land she calls home.  She can spill her knowledge in such a way that one of our fellow bus riders said it was like drinking from a firehose.  We all agreed.  Tsippi brought everything to life - she prepared our minds and hearts for what we were about to see and she brought the pages of the Bible to life for us in the process. 

Asod is a Palestinian Christian and was key in getting our tour group into Palistinian territory like Bethlehem and Jerricho.  The streets of Jerusalem are narrow and steep and the traffic is thick.  Asod was an amazing driver - always giving us curb service.  We called him the king of the hairpin curves.  In addition to being a great driver, Asod was a gentle spirited man.  He took extra time to make sure Tyler got just the right oil lamp when we were shopping.

Mr. Nissan is a Palestinian Christian that we met while visiting Bethlehem.  He is the owner of both the Olive Tree Factory and the largest restaurant in the city.  Mr. Nissan shared his faith with our group and also shared the Lords Prayer in Aramaic which could have been the language Jesus spoke the prayer in just after the Sermon on the Mount. 

The sites of Israel bring the Bible to life, but the life in Israel is the people.  Israel has become a melting pot of people, and not all are as wonderful as those we met, but we were blessed by Tsippi, Asod and Mr. Nissan and I will forever count them as friends.

This is our bus group - the Yellowmites.