Random Ramblings

This morning we board our coach for a trip to Nazareth. Now a large town, we are dropped off near the suk and walk through the narrow streets to a small synagogue - now a church. Possibly near where Jesus would have come as a youngster. This is a building dating from Crusader tgimes and commemorates Jesus first public declaration about himself. Jesus returned to Galilee  in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.     He was teaching in their synagogues,  and everyone praised him.      because he has anointed me      to proclaim good news  to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners      and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19       to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”   He went to Nazareth,  where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the sy...

No too early a start today! After breakfast, around 10.00 a boat arrives and moors alongside the hotel garden and we embark. It is a much larger replica of the kind of boats that fishermen have used for centuries on this lake. Once we are aboard we motor out to the middle of the lake, which today is reasonably calm: squalls can whip up very quickly because this lake is surrounded by ranges of hills and winds can sweep down unsuspectingly! But today we are safe. The boat heads out into the middle (It is about 6 miles wide at this point). Suddenly it goes very quiet as the engine is switch off and we drift silently on the breeze. We listen to the sound of silence and then quietly we sing Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways! Re-clothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives thy service find, in deeper reverence, praise; In simple trust like theirs who heard, beside the Syrian sea, the gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word, rise up an...

  Today we get off to an early start for it is Easter Day.  Hallelujah! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah! We begin with a sunrise service; we go to the Garden Tomb where we can imagine Mary meeting her Saviour near the Empty Tomb. We sing “Jesus Christ is risen today Hallelujah!” John 20 NIV Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2  So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3  So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.  4  Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  5  He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.  6  Then Simon Peter came along behind him and wen...

The last few days have been full of emotions and spiritual discoveries as we have encountered the people of the land of the Book, with its historical links, buildings and sheer spiritual vitality. Yesterday we concluded with a dead and buried Jesus, laid in a tomb. So today we are going to visit one of the deadest parts of our planet! We have an early start because on the way we are stopping at an amazing place – Qumran – a large archaeological site where, about 70 years ago ancient manuscripts were found by a young shepherd boy in a cliff face. These scrolls date back to the first century CE and tell us about the religious community who lived at Qumran. The teaching from these scrolls echoes some of the things that both John the Baptist and Jesus said. The style of John reflects some of the Scroll’s teachings. Jesus spoke about darkness and light which the Qumran focussed on. Was John the Baptist a member of this Essene community?  Did Jesus spend time here – h...