Greetings from Israel!  I hear you’ve been having snow in Pennsylvania today.  Over here we’ve been sunny and in the mid 60’s… winter in Israel can be quite mild.  Please make sure things warm up before Pam and I get home.  Ok?

What a wonderful experience it’s been walking where Jesus walked.  We’ve visited Nazareth, Capernaum, sailed on the Sea of Galilee, walked the Via Dolorosa, visited the Garden of Gethsemane, walked the road of the Triumphal Entry and so much more.  I’ve posted a few pictures each day on Facebook, so if you are on social media, perhaps you can check it out. Pam and I are so blessed to have the Bible come alive as we see the places that we’ve read and taught about our entire lives. But now we’ve seen them with our own eyes. Thank you, Bethany family & elders for allowing us this once in a lifetime experience.

One of the highlights of our days has been a daily worship gathering, where the entire tour group, all 275 of us, sing songs of praise and then are blessed by the teaching of Max Lucado.  The organizers of the tour have done a fantastic job with logistics and they’ve generally kept the location of the worship service a secret until we arrive.

So far, we’ve had a worship service on a boat in the middle of the sea of Galilee, on the shore of the sea of Galilee near Capernaum where Jesus called his disciples, on the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus taught the sermon on the Mount, in the theater of Caesarea where Paul gave his defense before Herod Agrippa, on the steps of the Temple where ancient worshippers would sing the psalms of ascent (Psalm 120-134) as they prepared to enter the temple complex at the Beautiful Gate, and the highlight- an early morning communion service beside the garden tomb.

Each of these gatherings has been special and has worked well… except for the one on the Temple steps.  Unfortunately these steps were immediately outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem and fairly close to a city street… and it was rush hour.

Now just a word about Jerusalem traffic and middle eastern drivers.  Can you say C-R-A-Z-Y?  In Jerusalem the streets are impossibly narrow and are pretty much completely snarled with buses, cars and trucks of every imaginable size and kind. We even saw a family driving in a golf cart.  But no worries, they could easily keep up with the painfully slow traffic.  Layered on top of that are dozens of sightseeing groups crossing the streets with tour buses loading and unloading, while motorcycles and bicycles weave fearlessly in and out of the slow-moving cars.  Let’s just say that in Jerusalem, traffic lanes are merely a suggestion and Judges 21:25 is the operative verse: “In those days, there was no king in Israel, everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.” The streets are somewhere between chaos and mayhem.

So, as we got that worship service going that morning with a stunning view of the Mount of Olives and standing where a hundred generations of Jewish pilgrims sang praises to God, rush hour was in full fury.  And as the streets ground to a halt, drivers started laying on the horn.  Not just a warning “beep, beep”, or an angrier “honk”, but a full throated “whaaaaaaaaaa” that went on for 2-3 minutes.  And not just one driver but a half dozen at a time.  It was like the millennia old Arab-Jewish conflict was being fought on the street in front of us with car horns.

Still, we pressed on. After all, 275 people make quite a choir. And as we sang, I made a remarkable discovery.  When I joined in the singing with everyone else, I couldn’t hear the blaring horns… at all.  It was as if they didn’t even exist. But when I stopped singing, the horns were all I could focus on.

“You’re the God of this city, you’re the king of these people… whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… There is no one like our God… whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

Suddenly it hit me.  I do this all the time in life.  There are a thousand distractions in our world… the media, Netflix, relationship struggles, the war in Ukraine, rising prices, personal temptations, you name it.  But when I focus on my relationship with God and really engage, I have peace, joy, and stay centered. I’m hardly distracted at all.  It’s when I stop taking the time to pray, worship and hear God’s voice that the tsunami of this world threatens to overwhelm me.  Like Peter walking on the water, when I keep my eyes on Jesus, everything is well.  But when I get distracted and focus on the tumult around me, I sink like a stone.

We may not be able to control the noisy, angry honking of the world around us- whether it be trials, pressures, or temptation. But we can control what we focus on.  When we stay centered on Jesus, the problems of this world fade away.  Loose that focus and it’s all we see.

As the old gospel song says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face.  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”

Shalom and see you soon!