Jesus Heals The Unclean

Jesus' healings were often done as he was traveling to  “unclean” places reaching out and touching the “unclean”. The “unclean” places and people in that time and culture were the places and people that were the outcast, feared, hidden, avoided. 

People did not want to go to these unclean places or to touch these unclean people. 

These unclean places and unclean people is where Jesus went, and who Jesus touched to bring miracles and healing. 

What and where and who are we afraid of? 

What is “unclean” (fears) in us? 

Jesus purposes to GO to the places we fear the most, touch the parts that are holding us back; the places and parts of us that are causing us to be “unclean” (afraid) and bring us out of hiding and heal us and change us.

 May we be the one that will be healed and changed right where we are, that we may share our personal space in 

His-story

 and be a part of the change in many.

Lessons I Learned In Israel.

Yesterday we sat on Mt. Arbel which is where Jesus prayed as he could look down and see his disciples struggling in a severe storm all night. We sat and prayed and could look down at the Sea of Galilee and imagined what that must have been like for Jesus to sit up there and know what is going on and yet not be in a hurry to finish His time alone with His Father. The thing that hit me was that Jesus didn’t go down and solve their problem or help them until he had prayed and connected and spent time with His Father. May we spend time praying and connecting with our Father before we go and solve any problems or help anyone struggling. We have to keep our connection with God first priority even in the storms of life.

Things I Leaned from a Jewish Teacher in Israel.

We went to Chorazin and learned the ways of the ancient Jewish people. We learned how they lived and how they worked and taught their children. We learned how the brightest and best students were the disciples chosen ones, to follow and learn from the Rabbi. Sometimes the Rabbi chose which disciples to teach and sometimes the disciples chose which Rabbi to learn from. Then we went to Tabgha which is where Jesus picked his first disciples.

 He picked them, not the traditional way, and not the easy way.

 Then, when Jesus came back to this same shore after His death and burial and Resurrection, and He found His disciples in the same place out fishing again, back in that same area doing the same thing they had known before they followed Him.

 It was a powerful and sobering message to me.... when Jesus has called us to be His disciples, and things get hard and we feel defeated, do we go back to what we knew before He called us, back to what is comfortable and familiar, or do we continue in the calling He gave us?

www - What Went Wrong

We just spent our 2nd full day in Israel! I have tried to put into words some of the high-lights or take-always from this trip. We are having a blast and the weather is amazing but none of that even compares to the Biblical teaching we are getting. I feel like I have just been introduced to a whole new Bible that  I’ve been reading in a different language and didn’t even realize it. The people and places and stories have come to life in a whole new way. God is so much bigger and greater than I ever imagined  and He is in every single detail of  this world and He has such purpose and meaning in every single word in His Word and in this world and we have barely scratched the surface.

One of the common themes as we have read scripture together as we travel to these Biblical sights is :  WWW. WHAT WENT WRONG??  So many stories that start a certain way and then it just goes sideways, so rather than just glossing over it or accepting it, as is...we dig for the answers of WWW?  WHAT WENT WRONG???  Every story is a little different but the bottom line is always the same...a wrong view of God? One example of this is:
What is the difference between Egypt and Israel?

Egypt depends on the Nile for water.  Israel cries out to God for rain.  Both the Nile  and the rain are from God but one realizes it and the other does not.

Whether we live by the Nile or live in the desert may we realize it all comes from God and may we cry out to Him, depend on Him alone, and thank Him for everything!

Hometown Week In Israel

The first sense I got as we arrived in Israel is that I am going to get to know Jesus as a man - as a brother - as a son.  It has become natural to see Jesus as Lord and as Savior but to see him as a man as  a brother and a friend are harder for me.

I remember as a kid my mom and dad would occasionally take us to their hometown in Dayville, OR and show us places and tell us stories of their lives before we were even born. We would go to old houses and churches and sit on the school hill that my dad burned down as a kid.  We would hear stories and picture their lives as they would share memories.

We love to take our kids by the “Love Palace” and show them where we first lived when we first got married and tell them stories of our lives before they were even born.

This is the sense I’m getting early on this trip to Israel. We get to see and walk on the land and remember and enjoy old stories of times and places and people that lived here much before our time on this earth but it has everything to do with our lives today.

I get the sense this next 10 days are going to feel a little like going home and participating in a Hometown Week and enjoying the memories and stories of a very best friend and getting to know more and understand more about Him because we visited His hometown, his old stomping grounds.

Matthew 12:47-49 New Living Translation (NLT)

47 Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak to you.”

48 Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 49 Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers.

We are extremely thankful for this amazing opportunity and pray God uses it to bring us closer and bring Glory to His great Name!

Saturday Sucks!

Good Friday – Sad Saturday – Resurrection Sunday

I’ve always been perplexed about how to feel about Saturday.

 The day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

Waiting in general, is a hard thing for most to do and do it well.

On Good Friday we think and reflect on the fact that Jesus died and what that means to all of humanity.  Friday was a world changing event.  It changed the world as they knew it then, and it changes our world as we know it today.  Even people who don’t believe in Jesus recognize that time(s) changed on that day.

 We record years and document time according to this time in history. 

The events on Friday, the death of an innocent man, the Son of God, an earthquake shook the ground, and the torn veil, were tragic and scary and sad, bet there was action, there were events, there was adrenaline, there was movement.

Saturday had to be so quiet.  I’ve often wondered what the people did on Saturday.  The time between

IT IS FINISHED

and

HE HAS RISEN.

Saturday was the first day they had to begin to mourn and process the Friday events.

Saturday is the time to recover from Friday and expect and prepare for Sunday.

Mourning and expectant are difficult spaces to occupy at the same time.

They didn’t understand what His resurrection would look like – they knew what He had told them, but they didn’t quite know what it meant or what it would look like.

They knew the horror they had seen on Friday, and they also knew when the sun (SON) rose on Sunday they could see Jesus again.

They thought they were going to get to see Him and pay their respects and anoint His body and see Him one last time.

Instead they got to see Him alive and glorified on that Resurrection Sunday.

How much of this life is lived on Saturday?

How much of this life is in the waiting, in the space between horror and resurrection?

The Saturday space between the end and new beginning, occupies sadness and expectancy.

How many times do we not understand what just happened, and yet we have a little hope that the worst is over and the new is dawning?

How many times are we exhausted from the events of our lives and the hope that there will be some healing following, some peace coming, and a new SON rise to see.

Saturday sucks, but it is a time to reflect and prepare for

WHAT is FINISHED and WHO is RISEN!

Not Faking It . Storm-Tossed part 3

Fake it 'til you make it.

This is the saying of the "church era/culture" I grew up in.  I love the church and era I grew up in but this little saying and practice just don't work.  It is totally not helpful to any part of our real lives.

I've always been a super bad faker.  I've been told my expressions give me away even when I'm trying super hard.  I've learned over the years, and the harder I try to fit in, or fake, to what others want to see in me, the more messed up, more contorted I become.

This time, this storm, I can't fake my way thru it, not even a little. 

Maybe it's my age, maybe it's the type of storm, but either way, there is no way I'm FAKING it.

 The TRUTH has set us free, so I'm skipping the fake and clinging to TRUTH.

 We are set free of the screwed up expressions, free of the fake.  It may look messed up, but if you keep pressing into the TRUTH, there is freedom and peace and order, not just for a moment, for eternity.

The storm still rages around us, but inside, there is peace.  Jesus is with us and His Word calms us.  We have tuned out the noise and the fear and tuned into Him and His Word.  

If I've learned anything in my life, it's that the things God is doing take time.  Yes, He can heal us in a moment, He can save us in a second, but the "time" getting to that moment, to that second, have been a lifetime of moments and seconds.  

I am learning to embrace my God - given identity and not the one I try to fit into on my own.   

God tells the truth, and the world gives me, FAKE it 'til ya make it.

The things in my life that I have most identified myself in, and felt the most called by God into, are the exact things that have been under the hardest attack, and looked like a failure.  When the storms hit, whether in my own heart and mind or in a storm that can be seen on the outside; these are the times when I seek God the hardest and I hear His voice the clearest after the noise and the turmoil has settled down because I'm tuned in.  The storms and failures want me to live in fear and shame, but when I step out in faith and hear His voice He tells the TRUTH, and I'm with HIM.  He made me and He paid for this trip around the SON, so I'm hanging close and tight to Him.

1 Kings 19:11-13 New Living Translation (NLT)

11 “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Taking pictures can be a real snapshot of life....you get a lot of chaos and adjustments before you get the one you were looking for.