Floating in the Dead Sea is a pretty amazing experience. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal. I didn't think it would be. But there is a feeling of weightlessness. It is like being an astronaut. I could sit like I was sitting in a chair and rub the mud off my feet. I turned over on my stomach and put my arms out in a superman pose and it just made me laugh out loud. Anyway, when I was done I went up to a changing room. I was one of about 7 men in the room. No one knew each other and it was pretty apparent we were all different nationalities. One guy close to me who must have been around 60 years old suddenly said, "Does anyone here speak English?" I was the only one who spoke up and I said, "Yeah, I speak English." I thought he might have some kind of clothing emergency or something. Instead he just looked at me with his eyes wide with boyhood excitement and said, "WAS THAT COOL OR WHAT!!?" That's it. That is all he wanted to say. He needed someone to share with and that person needed to be able to understand one sentence. It made me laugh out loud. Here was a 60 year old man who was so excited he just had to tell someone. I happened to be the one. It made me wonder how many times that happened through out Israel when Jesus walked the earth. Men walking along after the feeding of the 5000 and suddenly turning to someone, anyone, next to them and saying, "WAS THAT COOL OR WHAT!!" Healing a leper or a blind man or turning water into wine, or all the other things Jesus did had to have hundreds of people looking for someone to share with. The morning after the Dead Sea I received an email from a friend I had been praying for. He was letting me know that he finally took the step of asking Jesus into his life. He said he was "all in". After I got the email I looked around for someone to tell. I found several. Jesus is still doing things that compel us to respond by finding someone to tell. My guess is if you keep your eyes peeled then before the end of the week you will have something happen to you where you will need to find someone and say simply, "This is what Jesus did. Is that cool or what!!" I think it still makes Jesus smile when we do that.
Friday, April 23, 2010
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6 comments:
Reading this post makes me so excited and I want to tell everyone I know to come and read it. Thanks for expierencing this, writing this, and allowing God to use it.
I firmly believe that things like this come to us on its way to someone else.
Welcome back.
Prayers have been answered recently for a job for our soon-to-be son-in-law, and for the almost married couple to find a house. When we look at all the little details that worked together to direct them in both situations, we all said, "How cool was that?" And I do imagine that God is watching, smiling, saying "isn't this what you prayed for?"
Walking, seeing,Touching, many of the sites and Biblical places that you have read, studied, and preached to all of us here back home, what an awesome time for you and Karen. Some of those roads and hillsides you were walking were the areas where the feet of our Savior, Jesus Christ and the disciples walked 2,000 years ago!
Although when my wife and I were there in 1985, our guide would always repeat, "This is where these things took place....just remember that the same road that Jesus walked is now 10 feet below the ground after 2,000 years."But that doesn't matter...you ARE here where He spoke...where He touched the leper...where He was raised from the dead....the exact spot isn't important....you ARE here in Israel where He walked".
And you had the opportunity to Baptize some in the Jordan and then a couple days later an e-mail from a friend who has received Jesus Christ into his heart.
"How Cool was that"??!!
Tremendous Birthday present Joe!
I love the Dead Sea. I'm not Christian but I have found it to be a very spiritual place to visit.
Dead Sea Treatment.....
There is nothing spiritual about a body of water that is dead. No life exists in it. In fact, all of Israel is full of dead, spiritual people, worshipping all kinds of different gods. Jesus-on-a-stick is a very popular souvenier making tons of money. Paying ten dollars to get dunked in the Jordan, and then heading to the gift shop for bottled Jordan water is a sure way to make it to heaven.
Jesus said to a spiritual man of the day that "You must be born again." Nicodemas was probaby the only Pharisee to repent and believe.
Unless we repent and beleive we will all perish.
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