What Matters Most? #three

no one wants to be played the fool.

nor should we willfully play the fool ourselves with our precious lives.

My little girl began thinking about the meaning of life very early...

Goodness knows, 25-plus years ago I was tucking her under the covers in her pretty pink bedroom when she said, "Mommy, can you just tell me why I'm here?"  I was stymied.  But then Amy has always been an old soul!

 

'what matters most' is knowing Jesus, as revealed to us in the living, divine Word of God--the 66 books of the Bible.  The Bible is not just inspirational, but it is true.  It tells the story of creation, humankind, the establishing of God's people 'in the land.' Scripture captures man's on again, off again relationship with God, and always, his unfailing love.  Fifteen hundred years after God created, he enacted the perfect plan of salvation for his rebellious children by sending Jesus.  Born as a baby in Bethlehem, Jesus taught of love and humility, modeled true life, and promised eternal life with him in Heaven. 

 

In the last briefing, I presented fulfilled prophecy as evidence for the truth of scripture.  Some of the prophecies written in the Old Testament are amazingly exact and fulfilled hundreds of years later . . . like those concerning Jesus of whom there were more than 60 major prophecies!

 

But let us look now to the land, the places mentioned in the Bible, as Scripture-both Old and New Testaments talk of real places that are still accounted for today.

 

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It was from Joppa Jonah embarked for Tarshish. Here, too, Peter rai...Acts 9.43.

 

      2.  And this - this is Ein Gedi - "spring of the goat" - still there, recognized as the place where David hid from King Saul, some 3000 years ago, recorded in 1 Samuel 24. Located on the western shore of the Dead Sea, it is a beautiful nature reserve.

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You remember the story where Saul was chasing after David and he and some of his men had gone in this cave to hide.  Saul went in to 'relieve himself', not seeing David, who was close enough he could have killed Saul, but instead spared his life, just cutting off a piece of Saul's robe.  That's the cave of Ein Gedi along the Dead Sea shore. 

3,4. This is the Pool of Bethesda . . . oh wow, how extensive is the excavation! The Bethesda Pool was excavated in the late 19th century, but it has taken more than 100 years for archaeologists to accurately identify and interpret the site. 

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Last November when I was there, we were able to walk all around it and down into part of it.  This is the setting for one of Jesus' miracles captured by John the apostle in the fifth chapter of his Gospel.   "Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic  is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.  

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 
I love that story!  I can only imagine the people lying around waiting for an angel to stir the waters so they could be healed.  It was a huge expanse that has been excavated, and yes, is known as the Pool of Bethesda.  It was powerful to see it. 

You see, the Bible is etched against a historical background of real places. 

Hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, several that I have cited in the last week . . .