We’re Back, We’re Changed, We’re Challenged…

Hello friends . . . grace and peace,

Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you for all the comments via social media as well as here on this blog.  Thank you for trusting us when we said, “We are safe.”  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this amazing learning and growing experience.

If there is one ringing Truth that has come to us during this trip, it is that we’ve experienced the unexpected.  The political situation is not as clear as some of us may have thought.  The understandings and concepts we have about what things look and feel like in The Holy Lands were challenged.  We learned a lot about reading the Gospels in context which caused us to see that Jesus was, in many ways, not what the disciples expected him to be.  He didn’t fit their preconceived notion of who the Messiah is.  And that leads us to ask a few very important questions . . .

Are there ways in which we have molded God into something we want God to look like?  Is who Jesus is to us a reflection of who we want him to be?  Do we find that God tends to agree with all or most of our opinions on the various issues of the day?  Have we accepted (or worshipped) a version of God based on what others have told us?  Or on their understanding of scripture?  Have we read the text in it’s geographical, topographical, historical, cultural, political, AND spiritual context?

We don’t claim to have any special knowledge now that “we’ve been to The Holy Lands of Jordan, Palestine, and Israel.”  Far from it.  We’ve had an experience.  And we’d love to hear from you about your experiences while we’ve been away.  And, if you’re willing, we’d love to share some of our experiences. The bottom line is, we’re more in love with this God of the Universe and what this Jesus has done for us and how this Spirit of God has filled us.

It’s good to be home.