Israel, Day 5

On Day 5, we started our day on the Mount of Beatitudes for a sermon by Pastor Mark. He of course went through the Beatitudes and talked about how these are people that have their identity in Christ and not in this world. Our sinful selves are marked by idols. On our own, we can go from one idol to another. We conquer one idol only to gain another. For example, you can go from being an alcoholic to overeating (glutony) or smoking to arrogance in overcoming your battle with smoking. So, on our own or even taking advantage of the world's resources, we can conquer one area of idolatry only to cling to another. However, to go from idolaters to worshipers can only happen by Jesus. That was powerful to me. Jesus turns us into worshipers not idolaters; loving Jesus and not ourselves! Awesome! How I need Jesus!

After the service, we took a "cruise" on the Sea of Galilee. That was really fun. I had remarked to a few of my friends that I didn't see how it was possible that the Sea could have gotten so stormy in Jesus' day, when He calmed the waters. It just didn't seem that big. We aren't talking Lake Michigan, here :) Well, God has a way of showing you things. On our cruise, the water was very choppy and the air was very windy. We were blowing all around...nothing dangerous but just a reminder that if it had been storming, those would have been scary waters to be on! We had a blast on our cruise, singing and dancing to some Jewish songs.

Back on land, we had the opportunity to see a 2ooo year old fishing boat that was recently found in the last 20 years. It was really interesting to learn about. Afterwards, we had St. Peter's fish for lunch. It was my first experience having a whole fish on my plate, bones and all! It wasn't that tasty, unfortunately.

The last part of the day, we spent at the Jordan River baptismal site. I'm not going to lie...I was a bit turned off. We had a service here and Pastor Mark baptised quite a few people. That was all really good but the place itself was what I had a problem with. The tourism just got to me. You pay to use their restrooms. You pay to use their white baptismal robes. You are given a postcard when you come that says you have visited the Jordan river baptismal site. You can buy little tubes to be water in from the Jordan River as a souvenir. It just screamed of, "Lets see how much we can make off of Jesus being baptized here." It goes back to what Pastor Mark kept reiterating to us: Its not the place that is holy, its Jesus. It is He that we worship!

More to come...