Israel Flashback #2

This entry is dated 15 May.

What a trip! So much has been seen and experienced. If I had to sum up Jerusalem, and even Israel for that matter, in one word it would be BARRIERS. There are so many barriers here. Walls between old city and new, between ethnic groups and language, men and women, clean and unclean. There are certain places for you to live depending upon your ethnicity or religion. Where you can pray at the Western Wall depends upon your gender. One group controls the Temple Mount, while another controls the land around it. Even at the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulcher there are barriers between the different Christian groups. Barriers over doctrine, practices, and territory--but no love or unity. All of these barriers has made my heart ache. It hurts when I hear group members denigrate Arabs or other Christian sects. There is so much pride, and I know I am guilty too. If we don't have love or unity for our own brothers and sisters, then what good is our faith? The city of peace is a place where there is no peace.

My heart also ached today as we drove through the West Bank region and I saw the shanty homes the Palestinians lived in. Yes God, are not Your chosen people, but they are still Your children too. Who besides God is caring for them? (Could this be my people group?) They are getting scraps from the master's table. I pray that I would not cling to my religion so tightly that I would deny a fellow child of God dignity and compassion. There is a lot of sanctification for You to do!

Side note: As we were learning about the Temple in the time of Jesus, I realized that people at street level would not have been able to see it. Another barrier that is between God and His people. Why do we put them up? Pride? Control? Insecurity? Hatred?

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