Places of Birth to Ascencion

Bethlehem

Olive Trees in the Garden of Gethsemene.

Trees resurrect with new branches growing out of the dying trunks.  Trees are dated back to the time of Christ.

Looking up from the pit, an unused water cistern that was modified for lowering a man down under arrest while deliberations carried on in the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest.  Psalm 88:6, "You have laid me in the lowest pit.  In the darkness, in the depths."

Original stone stairs leading up to the courtyard of Caiaphas from the valley floor.

Perpective from the House of Caiaphas.

Ascending the Mt of Olives.

Jewish Cemetary

Ps. 24:7, "Lift up your heads, O you gates!  And be lifted up you everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in."  The ancient doors are sunk in the ground below that concrete sealed facade of the Golden Gate.

Haggai 2:8, "'The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the Lord of hosts.  'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the Lord of hosts.  'And in this place I will give peace.'"

A tomb of one of the first Messianic congregations on the Mt of Olives.  James, the brother of Jesus, was discovered to be buried here.

Descending the Mt of Olives, peephole to the Jewish cemetery.

Israel Past and Present

Beth Shean - an ancient wall among these ruins held the slain body of Saul.  It became Roman city, Skitopolis, with "Wow factor" as part of the 10 city Roman Decopolis.

Road to the Acropolis.

Look at this sidewalk!

On the way south, a stop at Harod's well, the spring where Gideon chose the men that knelt and lapped water from their hands to go against the Midianites at the base of Mt More behind.  300 men with shofars, clay pitchers, and torches against 135,000.

Where He chose for His Name to dwell.  Resting Place - Shilo.

The sun came out on Shilo.

Temple Mount, Jerusalem

Could this be the place where the ark once stood?  Plausible theory that this the was place of the Holy of Holies, not under the Dome of the Rock.  Shrine known as the "Dome of the Tablets."

The Bedrock of Mt Moriah outcrops right here.

Pool of Siloam stretched vast and wide with stairs to the temple.

Herodian stones along the Western Wall underground tightly fitted.

Northern Israel

Tel Dan - The tribe of Dan took Laish up north for itself.  A beautiful place of springs and lush vegetation.  They were far from Shiloh and made their own place of worship, falling into the sin of idolatry.  Thus, a temple laid waste, a city of ruins.  The first tribe of Israel taken by the Assyrians.

Northern border with Lebanon.

The Mud Gate - Laish.  Abraham pursued his nephew Lot's captors and brought Lot home through this gate!

Original pavement of a northern city of King Jeroboam's time.

City Walls

The king sits in the gate and all the people come to him there.  II Sam. 19:8

Caesarea Phillipi where once stood the dark pagan Temple of Pan.

Banias - Caesarea Phillipi where Simon Peter-Cephas-Petros-Little Stone confessed his belief in the revelation of Jesus-the Christ, the Son of God-Petra-Big Rock.

View towards Damascus from Mt Bental, Golan Heights.

Kibbutz, successful Israeli communal life at the base of the mountain, protected from missile fire.

Damascus to the left on the horizon.  Syria begins where the farmland stops.

Beautiful Golan Heights full of landmines.

Fun jeep ride!

March in Israel

Arrival in Tel Aviv, on the shore of the Mediterranean sea, in the distance.  Took a walk in the currently over 800 year old physical city of Jaffa or Joppa.  Jonah was called by God to go to Ninevah and instead found a ship from Joppa, bound for Tarshish.  Peter came to Joppa to pray for Tabitha who had died, and she arose.  Peter was staying with Simon the Tanner, and received the vision and commission to go to Cornelius' house, a gentile.  The Gospel is sent forth to the Gentiles from Joppa.

Caesarea Maritima where Paul was tried before Festus and King Agrippa, appealed to Caesar, and was held in a cistern, awaiting a ship to Rome.

Hastily built walls of a crusader city in Caesarea.

Ancient defense walls and aloe in Bloom.

Roman Aqueduct

Synagogue of Korazin, one of the three cities that Jesus declared, "Woe."  Korazin, Capernaum, and Bethsaida were ruined and never rebuilt.

This is a replica of the original Moses Seat, seat of the rabbi.  Jesus would have sat in the original to read from the scroll.

Reminds me of the verse:  Matthew 18:6, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

A thorn from the tree traditionally held as the source of thorns for Christ's crown.

On the beautiful Sea of Galilee.

By the shore of the Galilee.

On the Galilee with Tiberius in the background.

Ruins of Capernaum.

400 year old olive tree in Nazareth Village.

Nazareth Village shepherd recreating the period of Jesus.

Pastor Rick on Mt Precipice.  Jesus passed through the midst of those from the synagogue of Nazareth who led Him up that they might throw Him off the cliff.  Luke 4:28-30

On the brow of Mt Precipice overlooking Nazareth.