Our Boeing 777 landed on the runway of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. We were finally here! And on our way up the concourse, there was a sign that said “Welcome to Israel!” Take a a picture of me, I requested, hardly able to contain my excitement.Get passport stamped. Pick up luggage. A two-hour drive in the waning light to Galilee. Tomorrow would hold great promise, I thought.
Magdala was our first stop in the light of morning. In recent years, a synagogue dating back to the times of Yeshua, had been unearthed there. I thought of her, Mary (Mary of Magdala; you call her Mary Magdalene) and her life-changing encounter with Yeshua (Could this synagogue have been where He met her?) Her encounter with Him caused her to leave that little town and that local synagogue and follow the One who had cast from her seven demons. The guide pointed to a split in the surrounding mountains and said that Yeshua would have walked from Galilee over those mountains down to the city of Magdala. And she would follow Him, I thought, through those mountains, into Capernaum . . . to the cross . . . and to the grave!
Next stop–The Mount of Beatitudes: We walked past a garden of olive trees up an incline to to a grove of ficus trees. Under that grove, Bishop taught us from the Sermon on the Mount in the near vicinity of where it is believed to be the spot where Yeshua sat and taught the multitude! A gentle breeze, like the Ruach of God, blew off the Sea of Galilee and made that moment special. The breeze caressed us as we recited together the Lord’s Prayer, just as Yeshua taught His disciples to pray.
The teachings in each spot transported us from 2014 to the first century and allowed us to live those moments that we had read about! Living in the moment with Him enlarges us so that when the time comes, we can live as He lived when we are in less than ideal situations! His Presence is truly here!
Well, recording artists Mercy Me asked the above questions in wonderment! As I sit on the Boeing 777 plane taking thirty of us across the Atlantic on a tour of Israel, I am 2 hours away from my destination!