Upper Room Moment

I believe that God is always trying to speak to us and show us things that we often miss because we do not tune in to Him. When at the Upper Room in Jerusalem where the Last Supper was believed to have taken place, I felt like I was missing something. So I prayed and waited on the Lord as I strolled around the room. What is it, Lord? Is it something in the people that are here praying and observing? Is it something in the room itself, perhaps a detail overlooked? Then I felt compelled to look straight above my head. On the ceiling was this round disc that had a figure carved on it. The figure was actually raised. It looked more like a ram with wings. I tried several times to take a picture to capture it, but the flash seemed to wash it out. I tried holding the camera still and not use a flash and the imaged showed up much better.

The verses in Genesis 22 immediately came to mind. Abraham set out to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but God stopped him and provided a ram in the thicket to sacrifice. I thought of how Jesus became our sacrifice after the meal in the Upper Room. The carving on the ceiling became very significant at that point. The wings represented a divine sacrifice from Heaven for our sakes. It spoke very deeply to me of what Jesus went through for us.

Salvation is not free. We were bought with a price that only He could pay.

Who was and is and is to come

Shortly after arriving in Jerusalem I heard the Lord speak that we had come expecting an experience, but God was going to give us an encounter. He said that many had come to the land seeking the God that was and they left with an experience of walking where He walked. We had come looking for the God that was and is and is to come. That is exactly what we found.

We could see where Jesus had been as He lived on this earth and also what God was doing in the land and in the people today. He showed us prophetically what was to come in the fullness of His time. We knew we were a part of a bigger tomorrow.

This picture captures the word He spoke. In the background is the old city...what was. The center is the new city...what is. The flowers in the foreground express the blooming of what is to come. He holds the past, present and future...of the earth...and of our lives. May it be more than an experience...let it be an encounter with the Living God.

New Beginnings

Back from Israel. Amazing journey of a lifetime. So many things to capture that cannot be fully expressed in photos or words. Praying that the memories will not too quickly fade.

Even in the places of trama and toil with barrenness of land, there is a vibrancy of life that springs out of the most hidden of places. A beauty that cannot be described, only relished for what it truly is.

There is beauty in peace. Why do so many want to destroy that peace and that beauty? Why take away the essence of what is life and love? Hope is the springboard for the future. We can hope for understanding and tolerance. We can hope for love to prevail. We can hope that there will be enough tomorrows to reshape the world that exists there.

Shalom. More than a greeting. It's a prayer.