Campus Blogs

Galilee-ward today... We will be staying in En Gev for the next couple of days,I think we are all pretty excited. Before we can go to En Gev we have a day filled with adventure. We started our day off over looking the Jezreel Valley. The lookout point is right outside of Nazareth so we had a fantastic view and spent some time telling Bible Stories. The land is so rich with stories of the past, both biblical and historical, so over looking the land while telling these stories brings so much life to them. [caption id="attachment_170" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Bible Stories with Brian![/caption]   [caption id="attachment_171" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The view was gorgeous!![/caption]   [caption id="attachment_174" align="aligncenter" width="300"] It was nice and windy...[/caption] Our next stop of the day was the Church of Annunciation. This is thought to be the location of Mary having the angle come to her. The bottom of the church has a grotto that represents her place of dwelling. The church is surrounded by pieces of art by a multitude of countries depicting Mary. It is interesting to see the diverse perspectives within the countries who hold the same, or similar traditions. Our next destination was Sepphoris or Zippori. This site has many important possibilities into the life of Jesus. We sat around the site and discussed the Bible for awhile and tried to uncover different aspects of Jesus' younger life that led to his adulthood. [caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Story/Discussion time!!![/caption] It is so interesting to learn about cities that were around during Jesus' time but not specifically mentioned in the Bible. It gives a lot of insight into the diversity of the land during his lifetime, between Jews and Gentiles. At this sight there was a lot to uncover. It has features that date back to the time of Jesus but also features of how the city may have looked and how people lived after the time of Jesus. There were a multitude of mosaics that were uncovered in churches. Due to the finds in the area it was thought to be a Jewish site, but the mosaics reveal a different side of the story to us. They were filled with pagan gods. Scholars have come up with different arguments as to why the pagan gods would be represented in such places, even a synagogue. As a class we got to look at different idea's and even pull out scripture to try and uncover why the gods may have been there. [caption id="attachment_176" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mosaic with pagan gods[/caption] Our last stop of the day was the water system at Sepphoris, I went through parts of them but the tunnels did not suit me well so I returned to the bus...small dark places do not go well with me. The bigger tunnels were fun to roam around in. We parked it for the night at En Gev, a beautiful resort right off the shore of the Sea of Galilee for a peaceful nights rest...

What the world needs today is more biblical men. (Men that God could Use) Biblical men who believe the bible are rare and hard to come by. Every now and then you run into a fellow who is crazy for God and feels as if God can do anything but fail. Dr. Henry Blackaby, one of the greatest minds in Baptist circles commenting on this passage says that “Caleb’s faith in God never wavered though everyone around Him doubted. God had convinced Caleb that the children of Israel should enter the promise land that God had in store for them. But the people were intimidated by giants that possessed the land and the fortified cities.” (Numbers 13: 28-33) According to biblical history it was the people’s unbelief that forced this soldier “Caleb” to wait for 40 years in the wilderness before He finally entered into the Promised Land. Even after all those years, Caleb was as confident as ever in God’s power. Sometime good men have to suffer because of the unbelief of others. Sometime good men have to wait on the blessing of God because the congregation is saddled with unbelieving hearts. Sometime good men can’t move forward in ministry, because unbelief will hold them back. Caleb in today’s charge is a picture of the Man of God who has faith in God. Caleb represents a soldier with a great determination to follow and obey the will of God. Caleb is a picture for us of a man with God’s vision and heart, who believed that with God he could not fail. The Amazing thing about this verse is, he kept the word of the LORD. He did not allow the disobedience of a previous generation to stop him from completing the assignment once given to him by his GOD. This was a man who was committed. This was a man who was focused. This was a man who understood GOD”S sovereign rule and reign in life. It was after Joshua had become Israel’s leader, and God had given them the Promised Land. Caleb his fellow soldier and friend came and appeared to him as an older man (40 years later). When God was dividing up the land among the Israelites, the people were asking for the lush valleys and grassy plains (They were seeking a life of ease). Caleb came in and asked for the MOUNTAINS! This request was abnormal; he was up in age and he should have asked for the easy assignment. He should have asked for the least amount of work, then went on into retirement. But Caleb’s heart was the heart of a soldier for God. He wanted what nobody else wanted, the place where the enemy of the Lord might still be hiding. At this time in the story, the Israelites had driven the enemy into the mountains and there they built fortresses to fight against Israel. But this did not intimidate Caleb-He wanted the challenge, and he wanted the Lord to be glorified and praised. Caleb was a man’s kind of man, who belonged to the faith club! He saw what couldn’t be seen! He believed what couldn’t be imagined. He wanted what was best for God’s people and what would honor God the most. Caleb did not trust in his own strength but he trusted in God’s presence. He knew that with the Lord on his side, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Caleb longed to see the LORD work in power; I believe he knew he would less likely see God work if he settled in the easy places in the new land! Caleb chose a place where he would have to trust God; A hard place, a difficult place, an uncomfortable place. His assignment was not for the weak at heart. Henry Blackaby said; “If you always choose the easy way, asking for the peaceful valleys, you will never see God’s power displayed to enable you to take the mountain.”

• The man who wants to please God ought to think like this.
• The man who wants to please God ought to be driven by the impossible.
• The man who wants to please God ought to love living in the abnormal and long to see God do miracles through Him.

Having faith was no problem for Caleb! Trusting in the power of God’s might was not an issue! God knew what kind of man he had in his hands with Caleb, and I believe he was pleased to no end at what this old man desired! As a modern day Caleb your responsibility is to seek out the mountain type assignments. The mountains of opportunity. The mountains of service, evangelism, discipleship and faith in order that you may witness God doing great things through your life that can only be explained by HIS presence and HIS Grace. So go ahead and ask God for the hard assignments, and watch Him give you the desires of your heart! Dr. Wilson, Univ. Pastor

7/12/14 Elijah Roth Our first stop on today's journey was at the lookout of Tayelet. This was just outside of Jerusalem and we could look out and get a very good sense of the Topography from here. It was beautiful. Since it was Sabbath there were barely any cars on the road and it was so quiet. The most interesting part of this stop for me was when Brian pointed out something that looked like a telephone pole with a wire coming off of it, like we would see in America. However, this was not a telephone pole but a wire that goes around the entire city indicating the city limits. This way people will know when they've left the city so that they do not break any Sabbath laws. I had never heard of something like this before and thought it was so cool. Anyways, our first real site visit was the Herodium. I went to this site during the previous class and it was still just as interesting. This time we discussed some more of the modern politics, given the recent events. Brian made a very interesting analogy, with respects to the Palestinians that I really appreciated. He said to imagine that we were living in a city that came under communist control. We hate communism and so we want to break off and have our own government, however, when we accomplish that, we suffer a huge economic crisis and the standard of living goes way down. What do we do as a community in this case? We can either live under a government we despise or govern ourselves in poverty? The only other option is to try to remove the communist government entirely and reestablish a government of our own. I had never heard something like this. I know I won't be forgetting it. Our next stop was the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. This church is incredibly ornate. I believe it is a Greek Orthodox Church that shares the grotto where Jesus was born with the Catholic and Armenian churches. The icons that cover the church made me really uncomfortable. I believe that God meets people where they are, and I believe that He meets them in this kind of worship, but it just feels wrong to me. I'm not pushing any judgement. This is just a simple, humble opinion made by an undergraduate chemistry major. Anyways, before we went into the church, Brian read the story of the Nativity and discussed how Joseph was a righteous man because he was going to divorce her quietly. In the Bible, adultery is any sexual relations between a man and a married or betrothed woman. Since Mary was betrothed to Joseph, this would have been considered adultery. Instead of putting her in a criminal case according to Jewish Law, by divorcing her quietly, Joseph would have made it an issue of morality. We also discussed why it is that scholars believe Jesus would not have been born in December, but would have actually been born as early in the year as May. The Bible says that the angel finds shepherds in the fields with their sheep. Farmers would not have allowed the sheep to be grazing in the field between fall and spring, since that is when the rain falls and the crops are growing. The sheep would have been in the fields during the summer when there is no rain, where they can eat the leftover crops and fertilize the fields for the next season. Therefore, Jesus would have most likely been born in the summer. Our final stop today was at the Israel Museum. The Shrine of the Book was incredible and the archeology wing of the museum was so interesting, especially since we were following Brian around. One of the coolest exhibits in the archeology museum, was the metal amulets with the priestly benedictions engraved on them. These are the oldest pieces of scripture we have been able to find, dating back to the 600 B.C. This was absolutely incredible to see right up close and in person. This trip has been so amazing!

Thursday July 10,2014 Today was one of the first days that I was physically exhausted but I was able to power through and get to lecture this morning! Where Rabbi Moshe was our guest speaker he talked to us about rabbinic literature and parables. It was interesting to hear the thoughts from a Jewish Rabbi’s perspective! We then went to lunch and packed up to go on a field study! [caption id="attachment_156" align="aligncenter" width="300"] at the Inn of the Good Samaritan[/caption] [caption id="attachment_157" align="aligncenter" width="300"] At mt. Sataf listening to Rabbi Moshe[/caption] We went to the inn of the good Samaritan where we sat and listened to Rabbi Moshe tell parables and talk about them. We were given some time to walk around the museum on the site as well. Today was one of our days that did not involve a ton of walking! I personally was thankful because my body needed some rest! We ended our day at mt. Sataf with a beautiful walk with a great view  (which is the norm here). Rabbi Moshe was really a pleasure to listen to and to be around! He was cheerful and I enjoyed singing with him on our walk!  I loved how he had his super man shirt on while he came to teach us! We had a wonderful day today and we continue to pray for the peace of this country as we have been daily!

[caption id="attachment_522" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Dr. Angulus Wilson[/caption]

Today’s text begins as an actual prayer. It is the prayer of the Apostle Paul for the churches scattered through Ephesus. He is in prison writing this letter. As he sits down in prison, confined for preaching the gospel he’s got the churches on his mind.

These churches were special to the Apostle. They had a grip on his heart and special place in his mind. He loved Ephesus, and thought of her often. She was sentimental to him,  sacred and special to him. Here we get a glimpse of the awesome relationship that he had with her. Paul’s thoughts for them are revealed in his prayer request for their spiritual growth and development in Christ.

• Paul asks God to give them the spirit of wisdom
• Paul asks God to give them the spirit of Revelation and knowledge of Him
• Paul asks God to give them eyes of understanding

Paul desired that they would know the hope of God’s calling and know the riches of God’s glory that is reserved for the inheritance of the saints in God. Paul ends up meditating in this verse on what God had already gave to the Church (Jesus) and he is caught up in the revelation of Christ Power, Position and Pre-eminence.

The Apostle wants the church to know the power of Christ. (The power that God the Father raised Jesus His Son with from the dead.)

He is writing to you and I also, that  we would know that Christ power supersedes whatever is affecting us today. In Jesus we have the answer to the problems of this old world.

• In Jesus we have the assurance of heaven
• In Jesus we have the hope that all will be alright
• In Jesus we have the assistance in the time of need
• In Jesus we have the assurance after awhile every thing will be alright

Paul is encouraging the Saints with the good news of Christ everlasting Power. God has set him (Jesus) at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion. Jesus is seated in the heavens as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

1. His seat there indicates his glory,
2. His seat indicates that the work of redemption has been completed.
3. His Seat indicates he is in Charge
4. His seat indicates that he has made all things well
5. His seat indicates there is no greater power any where in the universe
6. His seat indicates that HE IS GOD

In short these verses remind us that Jesus has all power. According to this passage all things have been placed under his feet, and God the Father has given him to be the head over all things to the church. I don't know about you, but I am a member of His church. He has all authority over my life, and I am glad today that Jesus is the head of my life. When I get to heaven I am going to tell Paul thank you for writing this letter, and for teaching me about prayer.

Because he prayed like this for the Ephesians, I want to pray like this for you. I’m So glad that somebody prayed for me, aren’t you? I love you and I love being your Pastor!

For Christ and His Kingdom