Thursday, February 24, 2005

So how was Israel?


Well I'm back in the "unholy land"(Canada) from the "holy land" (Israel) and no doubt people will be asking me, and others on the team, frequently - How was it?

I think my univeral answer is 4 simple words:
"Better than Bible College"
Now that is not to knock Bible college in any way. I think Bible college is a good thing and people should go there. My Bible college - KLBC, www.klbc.ca - had a profound impact on me as a young christian. It gave me a foundation to build on top many years of study.

But by way of analogy, I'll quote the archaeologist from the "Nazareth Village" who said:
Reading the Bible is like watching a black and white TV. When you come here to Israel and see the sites (Nazareth village, etc), it's like someone has replaced the black and white TV with a colour TV in your mind. You can see things you never knew where there before.
So while Bible college gives you the foundation to build upon, Israel gives you the materials, the architecture, the paint, the floor, to understand the "grand design" of God's Word and the desire to study it for many many years. Honestly that was one of the best experiences in my life. It took Bible reading from letters on a page, to 3D, living, colour pictures in my mind. There are so many things that us here in the west CAN NOT understand about scripture without an understanding of Israel.

So today I'll be recovering and uploading ALL my pictures, as well as rounding off the reports and filling in details. I guess I should call this the Israelblog instead of the athensblog :)
Hopefully some day you too will see what I mean by visiting the Holy Land for yourself.

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