After Christmas!

The last car door has closed on family. Tired children almost asleep in their car seats as they head off towards the motorway and their journey home. As I turn into the still, quiet house. I thank God for the blessings Christmas has brought me. Relationship, fun, laughter and love, so much love! The house needs a bit of TLC, but that will be sorted in a few hours with all the decorations back in the loft.

I was thinking how Mary felt after the angels had gone back to heaven, the shepherds had danced back to the fields and she was left with Joseph, her new baby and her thoughts. Something had to be done, she couldn't stay in the stable, they had to move on. She moved on to the day to day nurture and mothering of Jesus. It was interspersed with some more issues for her to ponder. Simeon's prophesy in the Temple and the visit of the wise men. Then she had to dodge Herod, with divine guidance of course! But most of the time it was Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

In our Christian lives, we love the moments of the 'felt' presence of God. The shared joy of worship as a congregation. The inspiration and challenge received as we listen to God's word being shared by an anointed leader; but most of our Christian life is spent alone, just me and God.

I was very challenged by a quote I read by Mother Theresa, 
'Do not wait for leaders; do it alone person to person'.

That's my aim for 2015

I wish you a happy and productive new year 
x

Easter Reflections from the Garden Tomb Jerusalem 2013

Easter Reflections from the Garden Tomb Jerusalem 2013

We were so delighted when we found we would be at the Garden Tomb for Easter. We had seen the services on the web, but there is nothing as good as being there.

Palm Sunday, however, came first! We are worshipping at the historic Anglican church in Jerusalem called Christ Church. The teaching is great, the organisation is 'interesting', but it is refreshing to be part of a liturgy we are unfamiliar with. So, when we arrived on Palm Sunday, we found we were locked out! Eventually the doors were opened and the leadership led us into the church waving huge palm branches, which, of course we cannot grow in England!! There was also a trumpeter playing Hosanna. We all entered the church singing 'Hosanna in the highest!' It was a memorable occasion. In the afternoon we went to see a procession of 1000's of Christian coming down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. Palm branches waiving and people singing as they came into the city.

Easter here at the Garden Tomb is the highlight of the year and the celebrations are meticulously planned. As our director says, 'Good organisation is invisible, but bad organisation is seen everywhere'. 

On Tuesday evening of Easter week, our Director's wife Rosalind, took the Volunteer Fellowship through the biblical narrative of the Easter story. We started in the Garden Tomb bunker which is prepared in case of emergency. It contains everything needed for to live for 2 weeks if there were to be chemical bombs dropped on Jerusalem! We moved all through the Garden with our lamps and torches, stopping at one place for communion, then readings and worship songs that took us through the Easter story, finally arriving at the tomb where we sang 'All hail the Lamb' as we thanked God for the risen Christ. It was a special time for us.

Good Friday dawned and the garden welcomed all who would come and share with us. The service was led by Paul and Steve Bridge the Ass. Director preached a wonderful message entitled 'The Victorious Victim'.

This was the beginning of a day of quiet reflection. People came to have personal moments of meditation and prayer in a beautiful place, thinking of the huge sacrifice made by the Lord Jesus to bring us back into relationship with God. One of the last visitors was an AOG minister called Richard. He was so surprised to see us there, as are all the other AOG ministers that arrive.

Saturday brought a visit by a Korean group who, for me, brought the resurrection atmosphere into the Garden. The strains of the old Ron Kenoly song filled the air! Hallelujah! Jesus is alive, death has lost its victory and the grave has been denied, Jesus lives forever He's alive... I danced with them because Jesus is the conqueror!

Sunday came. I just had to peep into the tomb, it was 5.45!

I wrote on FB 'The tomb is empty!' 'Phew,' said one of my respondents, 'That's a relief.'

The rush  of people into the Garden at 6.15 was so exciting! It wasn't long before it was full. Seeing so many people keen to celebrate the resurrection was glorious. And it went on all morning, 3000 people coming to worship the risen Lord in our Garden. The different services reflected the styles of worship and the cultures of the people who had come. It just gave us a glimpse of what heaven sees.

Finally, as the garden was emptying and we met the Korean worship leader again. 'Will you pray for us?' he asked. What a privilege to pray the blessing of God on the lives of 2 young people.

'And Lord these 2 junior seniors want your blessing on the rest of our days too'. Was it all worth only having 1 day off Easter week? What do you think? :)

The Judean Wilderness

The Wilderness

On our day off this week, we decided to go to En Gedi.
The  first challenge of this trip was that Paul hadn't driven in Israel before, and we are not familiar with navigating around Jerusalem roads because we walk everywhere within the city. However, Richard, the GT Director told Paul 'Everyone here drives fast, take your time and don't try to race them!' Richard didn't know how instructive his words were to this new volunteer!!! We were also told not to stray into Palestinian territory. We were using a car with Israeli number plates, so it was safer to stay on that side of the divide. So we set off. We were soon driving away from Jerusalem on the Jericho Road, past the Inn of the Good Samaritan and into the desert region of the Dead Sea.

En Gedi is located on the edge of the Judean desert, on the shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth (approximately 400m below sea level).


The scenery in the area is stunning! Mountains, the colour of sand, with little or no vegetation and amazing rock formations. We saw some Ibex wandering round with their babies and they were hardly discernible on the mountain side. Their colouring camouflaged them, protecting them from predators.

When we arrived at En Gedi, the area was full of families picnicing and the sounds were of happy children having fun. We heard shouts of 'Abba' from the children calling their fathers. It reminded me that our 'Abba', Father God, enjoys hearing from us too. It also reminded me that as we like to see our children move through childhood to maturity, so does God. In Hebrews 5 and 6 the writer encourages us to get past the 'milk' stage of our Christian lives and become 'mature in our understanding'. The writer is encouraging us to take responsibility spiritually and to move on.

With our water bottles, hats and sunscreen we set off on the trail of Wadi David (no, not pronounced David but Daveed) to find a waterfall. The sun was hot and the terrain was very uneven, rocky and rising. Yet, I saw many mothers with very young babies in slings climbing the path. They were willing to take the risk to let the baby enjoy the time out with the family. God sometimes allows us to get into risky situations, because it helps our growth and teaches us that God is with us through the times of difficulty and danger enabling us to become stronger.

Every so often we came to a place where there was a waterfall and a pool of water. The children loved being in the water and the Abbas loved standing under the waterfalls!! It was so refreshing. The families played here for a while and rested from the heat of the exposed places. This enabled them to climb higher to the next waterfall and pool of refreshment. The higher we rose the climb became more difficult, but the views surrounding us were more beautiful.

As we were climbing, I thought about David. It was in this area that David was running away from Saul. The caves in the mountains were visible all around us. It would be a good place to hide from someone. David was holed up in a cave one day and Saul came to the very cave and used it to have a sleep. David's followers wanted to kill Saul, but David wouldn't let them, using the words 'It's a serious thing to attack the Lord's anointed one'. David was confident that his time would come. It is good to remember that God's timing can be different to ours; but God has a bigger picture in view. David trusted God in the most difficult of situations and kept to God's plan. That is maturity.

The Garden Tomb

Today, I would like to take you for a walk round The Garden.

 

It is situated in East Jerusalem near The Damascus Gate. On entering the Garden you walk up the path to Skull Hill. There, you can see the old rock face that first excited archaeologists to look at this area as a possible place where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. It is Mount Moriah where Abraham promised his son that God would provide a lamb. It is known, that executions took place here at the time of Christ. Jews and Romans used execution sites where people would be passing by, because they wanted people to see the fate of lawless. Also, it was customary for people to shout at the victims as they were dying. This area was such a place as 2 roads met here. The road from Damascus and the road from Jericho. So, there were plenty of travellers, as there are today, because now, it is an Arab bus station.

The area was known for 'stoning'. Stephen was stoned here. So this was a known place of execution. Can you remember the time Jesus was taken by a crowd to a high place and they tried to push him off. That was an attempt at 'stoning'.

When Jesus hung on the cross, he had been subject to the cruelest of physical abuse. Beatings, that made his back like a 'ploughed field'. The pressing of the 'crown of thorns' into his head. Those thorns were not like rose thorns in your garden, but very long thorns that would have done grave damage to the head of Christ; then his beard had been plucked out. Isaiah said He was 'unrecognisable'. He would have been covered with blood.There was also the indignity of total nakedness as he died.

All humanity was represented at the cross. Christ, central dying because he loved us. The thief to his right asking Jesus to remember him, and the one on his left wanted nothing to do with him. That is just how it is now, with all who look at the cross.

When Jesus died, a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a closet disciple, decided he could hide no longer. He asked permission to take the body of Christ from the cross before the Shabbat began. He removed the body and wrapped it in linen to restore dignity to the broken, torn body of Christ, and he laid it in a garden tomb he had bought for his family. The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem is just a short way from the execution site know as Golgotha and it was here 2000 years ago. Gardens at this time grew produce and in our Garden there is a wine press that predates the death of Christ. This garden was a vineyard, and there is an empty tomb that bears signs of Christian burial and other features that give it credibility.

Is this the tomb Christ was laid in? We can't be certain, but we do know that Christ was buried in this area. We also know that after 3 days God raised him from the dead and he vacated the tomb, met with his women disciples, and then the men, and even barbecued breakfast for them on a Galilean beach. So, it's not the place that matters, it's the person Jesus Christ.

So in this beautiful garden here in Jerusalem, we celebrate Christ. We remember his death in communion, but we his followers know he lives.

On Easter morning there will be a service here in the Garden, when 2000 people approx will worship the risen Christ. It will be live streamed. Link: event.cbn.com/eastersunrise It will also be available on the cbn website if you are still sleeping at time of transmission.

Holy Land??

Holy Land??

March 2013 finds me in Jerusalem.

It all started about 1985. Paul was the leader of New Life Church in Scunthorpe, and he wanted to go to Israel to experience the land of the Bible. I didn't want to go as I thought commercialisation would have spoilt it, so I told him to go. Quite a lot of people from the church wanted to go as well so plans were made. One Sunday morning, the church treasurer announced that the church were going to bless someone that morning. That someone turned out to be me! They were paying for me to go to Israel with Paul. Not only paying for me, they had also contacted my work to make sure I could have the holiday time, and my mother had been asked to come and look after our children. So I found myself having to say 'thank you' for something I didn't really want!

When we arrived in Israel, I was totally blown away. I never anticipated the experience having such a profound effect on me. It was simple things at first like seeing a blue motorway signpost to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Then sitting in a boat in the middle of Galilee one morning and sharing communion, was an experinence I wanted the whole church to share. There was little that could have changed there from the time of Christ.

Many years and many trips to Israel later, I find myself working in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. I feel very blessed to have such a privildge.
All those years ago I left my children with my mother. Now, my children have children themselves and I have left children and grandchildren.

The other day, we were walking through the souks in the old city of Jerusalem; one of the stall holders had a sign beside the coffee he was selling 'Coffee better than Starbucks'.