Walking with Jesus

I promised you folks another Israel story from my first trip there in 1996, and here it is. We were undergrads working in a consortium and getting Bible credits. Each morning we’d wake up early and head out from Kibbutz Snir (near the recently bombed Kiriyat Shimona) towards the border to Banias, the heart of the New Testament villages of Caesarea Philippi. We’d dig all morning, take a brunch break, and then dig until about 2PM. By that time the sun was too hot to work, but it was usually too hot for bugs as well, so the walk home was usually relaxing. This excludes, of course, the walk home I wrote about in my last “A Day in the Life” blog. If you haven’t read that, be sure to do so after this. Anyway, our evenings were spent in the classroom, learning the history of the region, discussing our reading, and getting the latest update on our team’s preliminary conclusions from what we were unearthing every day. On the weekends and on a few occasions during the week, we toured. Of cours

I’d like to tell you a story about one of my most memorable experiences in Israel. It happened when I was there as an undergraduate doing archaeology. The year was 1996… We lived up in the Golan Heights, in a kibbutz (communal village) named Snir. It was on the road that ran through the boundary of the occupied territory along the borders of Lebanon and Syria, an area which has been contested and fought over more than once in Israel’s modern history. The site we were excavating is called Banias, which is a derivative of Panias, and is the location of the Cave of Pan, where the Satyr-like god of the pagans ate his victims alive. In the New Testament it is called Caesarea Philippi. Actually, the Dan River (the tributary to the Jordan named after the nearby tribal city) once issued forth from a cave at the base of Mount Hermon. This cave was built up into a Temple for the festive and violent Pan, and people were thrown in alive, never to be seen again, though they were often heard bein

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle ofthe fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true

Today I saw a video from Mars Hill Church. It was called Dust, and started with the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter trying to walk out to Him. It's a great video, and I definitely recommend it, but at the risk of spoiling the message I want to share what I saw in it: Jesus believes in me! He called me to be His disciple, to live a life like His, to be like Him, to do the things He does. He believes I can. Somehow, God looked at my life full of pride, selfishness, and lack and He saw something in it that no one else saw. he did the same when He called His first disciples. He called men who weren't good enough to have been called already. They were the 'anybodys', the blue collar, the regular folks. They weren't anywhere near being the best of the best. They were t

Israel’s story begins 367 years after the Flood of Noah. God promised a homeland to the descendants of Abram the Hebrew (Abraham) in Genesis 12:7. But, the Bible tells us that the Canaanites, descendants of Ham, had already begun to live in the land. They maintained control until the Israelites entered the land 685 years after the promise under Joshua. This followed 400 years in Egypt and 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Peninsula with Moses. The tribes of Israel lived with Philistines and Canaanites mixed among them in a confederate government until the establishment of Saul as the first King of Israel. His Kingdom then went to David; whose son Solomon completed the famed Temple of YHWH almost 450 years after Joshua conquered the Land. After Solomon died, the Kingdom was divided into two portions, which warred with neighbors and with each other for hundreds of years. The northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 721 B.C. The Southern Kingdom of Judah fell to Babylon 135

The Good News, or Gospel, is really pretty simple… God is good. I am not good. I need help. God loves me and wants to save me. God is good. Somewhere inside of yourself you realize that already. In fact, it probably doesn’t surprise you at all to hear that God is more than just good; He is perfect. God doesn’t make mistakes. God doesn’t sin. God isn’t vain, or covetous, or lecherous. God is great, and His greatness demands our admiration (our worship). But, God is also holy. This means that God is completely other than anything in creation. God gets this distinction from being the maker of all things, including you, while never having been created Himself. He is the source of all life and defines both good and evil by comparison with His own character. Like God? Good. Not like God? Not good. So, how do we know what God is like? Well, it’s simple: He tells us. God reveals himself to us through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, through His incarnation in Jesus Christ, through

Hello friends, This is my new other site. My first is bryanbrigham.com. Depending on what year it is when you read this blog, I may not still have bryanbrigham.com. But, if I do, then you are welcome to check it out. I started this site so I could make comments on my wonderful wife Olivia's site. She's amazing, and I wanted to be able to tell her that. I love you Mrs. Brigham! Bryan