Sunday, November 22, 2009

ASK--Ask, Seek, Knock--a WOW!!! Moment

Mosaic of fish & bread in church on site of Sermon on the Mount
Standing on the hill in March 2000 where Jesus proclaimed the Sermon on the Mount, where He fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish, I suddenly remember a WOW moment in 1996 after my sweet cousin Patti Ann Brower Hatcher had given me a Bible study by Kay Arthur on the Sermon on the Mount.


One early morning about 2 a.m. I couldn't sleep, and I opened the Bible to the Scripture Matthew 7:7 and suddenly like a light from Heaven, the word ASK jumped off the page: "Ask, and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened to you"


Ask
Seek
Knock
The first letter of each of the three action verbs, Ask, Seek, and Knock spell the word, "ASK"


Hill overlooking Sea of Galilee site of Sermon on the Mount
WOW!! How amazing, how mysterious, at 2 a.m. the Lord would highlight the first letter of those three words in sequence.

He who spoke the world into existence, spoke these words in that sequence as translated into the English language, and He revealed it to my delight in the middle of the night...because I was seeking Him. Seek Him. Seek the One who called you. Seek to know Him. Seek a heart to love Him. 

Seek--the heart of the three words,
Ask, SEEK, Knock.




To walk on the ground where Jesus walked. To sit on the mount by the Sea of Galilee where He taught His disciples, where He walked on the water, where He calmed the sea.



From Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
The Sermon on the Mount is a call for getting to the core of life's meaning. 


For moving beyond the external to the internal. For discovering the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart...a matter of attitude, or as Jesus taught, our be-attitudes.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee

Capernaum was Jesus' home away from Nazareth, and the heart of Jesus' Galilean ministry. He spent some two years there, teaching and performing miracles. Situated on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum was the home of the two sets of fishing brothers whom Jesus called to be apostles--Peter and Andrew, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

One of the most impressive of Jesus' miracles performed in Capernaum was the healing--at a distance--of the Roman Centurion's servant.
"This man deserves to have you do this," the Jewish elders said to Jesus,
"because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." Imagine my excitement, then, at being able to visit what is the site of the very synagogue which the centurion had helped to build.
Virtually adjacent to t
he synagogue is another much visited site in Capernaum the home where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law of her fever.

On the way out, there are a row of columns taken from the synagogue. On one of the columns is an Aramaic inscription dedicated to "Alpheus the son of Zebedah, the son of John," who had contributed to the building of the second synagogue from the second or perhaps fourth century. It is altogether possible that there is profound significance in the names "John" and "Zebedah."



Given the location of Capernaum and the fact that family names were passed down for generations, these men may have been descendants of the apostle John, the son of Zebedee.

It brings
me back to a faith "built upon the foundation of the apostles, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone."

If that heritage of faith doesn't stir me to pick up the torch and run with it, nothing will!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Bethlehem--Glory In The Highest

Standing in the city of Bethlehem, looking out on the Shepherd's Fields I can just imagine the heavens opening up and the angels descending and shouting, "Glory to God in the highest, unto to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord."


Emmanuel, "El" means
"God," the rest of the word means
"with us," the "with us God."
He created us to be with us. He gave each of us a longing for Him by creating every single human being with a "with" need. While the world carried on unconcerned, the infant Emmanuel cooed and kicked and toddled His way to His feet. God, the Immortal Invisible, walked among His people, Israel, as they sojourned through the wilderness. But not until now did His invisible feet sink into the sand, shod with skin, making visible prints. And God was with us. Emmanuel.
"Glory In The Highest" by Chris Tomlin

You are the first
You go before
You are the last

Lord, You're the encore.

Your name's in lights, for all to see
The starry host declare Your glory.


Glory in the highest
Apart from You there is no god
Light of the world
The Bright and Morning Star
Your name will shine for all to see
You are the one
You are my glory

And no one else could ever compare
To You, Lord
All the earth together declares
Glory in the highest to You, Lord

All the earth will sing Your praise
The moon and stars, the sun and rain
Every nation will proclaim
That You are God and You will reign
Glory, glory hallelujah
Glory, glory to You, Lord
Glory, glory hallelujah
Hallelujah
















Thursday, November 12, 2009

Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives

2000 year old olive tree on Mount of Olives
Looking up to heaven from under the 2000 year old olive tree

Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives







It was Wednesday, March 15, 2000, the tour bus stopped at the top of the Mount of Olives. As I stepped off the bus, and my foot first touched the Mount of Olives, I became so aware of the presence of the Lord, I remembered God's Word in Zechariah 14:3-9..."on that day, His Feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west."
Walking down the Mount of Olives
My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ walked here, prayed here, ascended to Heaven here, and one day He will return here, splitting the Mount of Olives like the veil of the temple. As I begin to walk down the steep incline down the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane, my eyes begin to fill with tears for the sweat drops of blood pressed from my Savior as He wept and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet, not as I will, but as You will."


Standing beside this olive tree, estimated to be over 2,000 years old, I realize, He could have prayed here that night, beside this very tree, when He went further still, when Jesus was betrayed with a kiss.


In John 18:4-6, "Jesus knowing all that was going to happen to Him went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" When Jesus said, "I AM," they drew back and fell to the ground." I can hear my dear Lord saying, "I AM," here where I am standing now. My God and my Savior Jesus Christ, the great "I AM"...what knocked 600 armed soldiers to their backs? The God of all creation, El Elyon, the Sovereign and Supreme Most High God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stood before them in living, breathing flesh and uttered His perfect, divine, and holy name: "I AM!" In Acts 1:11-12, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives." I will never be the same again..."Lord Jesus, open the blocked artery that connects my head to my heart. Open my mind that I may understand the Scriptures, to have Your Feast every day until I see You Face-to-face. In the precious and holy name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen."
View of Jerusalem from walkway down the Mount of Olives


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