My Journey To Jerusalem The Gospel According To Terrence
Walking in the Steps of Jesus
by Terrence G. Clark Chapter Eight - Day 7
My Father's House
Tuesday morning, I woke up fresh. Up around at 6, showered and dressed before spending time with the Lord. My prayer time wasn’t as intense as I thought it would be. I was listening expecting a word from the Lord. I had prayed this morning. “Lord be glorified in this day.” Getting up from prayer. I went to the window and looked out.
I like rainbows. The real ones. The kind God makes. They are part of a meteorological phenomenon and exact science of light reflection---resulting in the defining of color and wavelengths, arching across the sky, as one giant projection from multiple sources---rain drops.
You have to be in the right place to see one. I hadn’t seen one in about a year. I would jump in my car when I perceived the conditions were right---sun out while raining, and go rainbow hunting. Nothing in a year, with an exception of the crescent of a bow, sticking out of a cloud. I knew, when I would finally see one it would be a significant time and place
It had rained that night in the holy city. It was the seventh day of our tour in Israel. Out of my window, watercolor painted across Jerusalem was a rainbow. I grabbed the camera. Snapping pictures through the dusty, water-spotted, hotel window. I ran outside trying to get my bearings, but it was raining too hard at the hotel entrance. It was okay, God had manifested His word to me again. The year of prophetic fulfillment continues.
Today after breakfast the Jerusalem Archeological Park and the temple ruins. I would call this part of Jerusalem a Tel. It is a story here of two temples, destructions, rebuilding, towers, tunnels, history, nations, empires over thousands of years. Excavation by names such Robinson, Wilson, Kenyon, Warren contributed to putting it all together. Most notable are the remains of the glorious Hebrew temple although obtain this mount of time sits a Muslim mosque. We walked up the very steps that Jesus walked up, going into the temple. The steps where He walked going to the temple on holy days.
The steps He walked before chasing out the temple money-changers. These are the southern steps leading to the Huldah Gates –which comprises the Double Gate, and the Triple Gate. With zeal and His love for the Father, He turned over their tables and swung a whip, shouting.
“My Father house shall be called a house of prayer quoting Isaiah 56:--- you have made it a den of thieves.”
The Western Wall also known as the Wailing Wall has been the center moment of multitudes visiting Jerusalem. It is the remaining wall of the Herodian Temple destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. Jews and Christians alike come here to pray, stuffing their prayers on paper in the cracks of the stone.
Rainbow over Jerusalem---Por mi y Por tu
Terrence Praying at the Wall
Men and women have separate entrances and they pray at a different section of the temple wall. I along with the men in our team took (from the table) a kippa---the ceremonial Hebrew cap---wearing one at a Holy site is sometimes required.
Jason took the pictures when the others and I went. I held the camera while he prayed. I didn’t really know what to do. I knew my prayers were already answered, on high, in New Jersey, or wherever I was. I knew I was no closer to God here.
I boldly walked to the wall. My arms ready to shoot forward. It was part of why I was here. Saying, I came to bring Him home. I felt like New Testament was meeting Old. I placed my hands up on the wall and prayed. I prayed that the prayers of all those that had come before and those petitions left in the wall would be fulfilled---and Peace in Jerusalem. I believed something happen at that moment. Although, I am not sure totally what.
Men and women have separate entrances and they pray at a different section of the temple wall. I along with the men in our team took (from the table) a kippa---the ceremonial Hebrew cap---wearing one at a Holy site is sometimes required.
Jason took the pictures when the others and I went. I held the camera while he prayed. I didn’t really know what to do. I knew my prayers were already answered, on high, in New Jersey, or wherever I was. I knew I was no closer to God here.
I boldly walked to the wall. My arms ready to shoot forward. It was part of why I was here. Saying, I came to bring Him home. I felt like New Testament was meeting Old. I placed my hands up on the wall and prayed. I prayed that the prayers of all those that had come before and those petitions left in the wall would be fulfilled---and Peace in Jerusalem. I believed something happen at that moment. Although, I am not sure totally what.
The clock on and adjacent building, I noted, read nine eleven---9:11. Chronologically, it was 8:55 but the analog numbers, marked by the position of the hands, stood out. Billie said, where the women were at, some were having a Holy Ghost time. However, our connection manifested in God’s plan, I am sure He heard us. At the wall, we decreed the name of Yeshua. I spoke in tongues.
Many don’t know, but only a small portion of the temple wall is above ground. the rest is below and that’s where we would go, not just underground to the wall but to the water tunnels, pools, streets and other artifacts of the era.
When we went into the tunnel, we were walking under and through the temple mound, under the Dome of the Rock, collectively through Mt. Moriah. Mt Moriah yields to "other" history than just the temple. It is the mountain that Abraham offered up Isaac, in obedience to God, spared only in action by---the ram. Calvary, where God offered His only son, is also part of Moriah. Prophetically, for me, Mt Moriah was the name of the Baptist church I was raised in. As a child, I didn’t know that I would literally, one day, be in Mt Moriah. Its name means new beginnings.
The tunnel journey exits to the Via Dolorosa. A tour guide at the tunnel relieved Gershon for this tour. She pointed out certain stone and rock. The huge one----46 feet wide and 13 feet high, weighed over 500 tons only left the imagination how it was placed
We visited the pool of Bethesda, translated house of healing or mercy. It is where Jesus healed a paralyzed man. He had been waiting, at the pool, for 38 years for someone to simply put him in the water. An annual supernatural anomaly allegedly occurred. Some, call this outside waiting room, an asclepeion. A place connected to the worship of the Greek god of medicine---Asclepius. Nonetheless, for this man, there was no healing for all his patience. His answer to Jesus' question,
“Do you want to be healed?”
“I have no one to put me in.”
Jesus on the Sabbath day said simply get up and walk. The power of God manifested and the man picked up his bed and walked. This event had ticked off the religious establishment. How dare Jesus have someone carry his bed on the Shabbat. It wasn’t the Sabbath, but it was our seventh day. We continue to walk and carry our cameras. Onward, to the City of David.
I would have thought it is all called the city of David---Jerusalem where David loved. But the city that bears his name is only a part. It sits lower, next to the temple mount. It is an archaeological site as well. Here we visit also the Pool of Siloam where the blind man---born blind of St John 9, is sent to wash his eyes after Jesus rubs into them clay, made of Jesus' own spit.
Supplying the pool, is the Siloam Tunnel, also known as Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The tunnel was built during King Hezekiah reign—2 Kings 20:20 to assure water flow from the Gihon Springs into the city, in lieu of an Assyrian siege. Two teams of soldiers began the dig from opposite ends, amazingly meeting, completing the tunnel. The tunnel measures 1749 feet and our tour took us through. One portion of the tunnel tour is optional and best suited for shorts and warmer temperatures. It actually hikes through water.
Out last stop for the day was the new Friends of Zion Museum, a project of renowned author, journalist, and Christian Zionist---Dr. Michael David Evans. It is a high-tech museum, displaying the heritage of Christian Zionism, highlighting men, and women who have helped and supported Israel. We were honored to be of the first to visit and partake here. The stop was not a part of the original tour itinerary. This museum reflected the heroic side of Jewish history. Tomorrow's museum would shed a darker light.
The exhibit took our picture at the beginning in digital booths and displayed our image on the hall of Zionism. They were framed and ready for us as we exited the hall. We rested here a minute in the cafeteria. Then on the bus and back to the hotel for rest, dinner, reflection, and fellowship.
Rona's Report - Day 7
7th Day – November 10 (Tue)
Jerusalem Archeological Park – Davidson Center
- Temple mount excavations/ruins, including excavated steps and arches of the Second Temple period
Western Wall/Wailing Wall
- Area where people chant and pray; pieces of paper containing written prayers are stuffed on cracks on the wall
- What is visible is a small segment of the Herodian wall that once enclosed the Second Temple (only 57 meters of the total wall length of 488 meters)
Western Wall Tunnel
- Underground tunnels connecting the western wall prayer area to the north-west side of the Temple Mount, in which can be found huge base stones (largest is 14 meters wide and 4 meters high, weighing over 500 tons), water tunnels, pools, streets and other artifacts from the time of King Herod
- Also discovered was an underground gate facing the Holy of Holies and the foundation stone, which the Jewish people believe to be God’s sanctuary
- Exit through Via Dolorosa near the 1st & 2nd stations of the cross
Pools of Bethesda
- Ruins of pools near the Lion’s Gate where Jesus healed the paralytic (John 5:2-9)
- Bethesda is believed to be where Mary’s parents (Jesus’ grandparents) lived
- Adjacent to the pool is a basilica (Church of St. Anne) built in the 12th century and known for its acoustics, which was turned into a Islamic law school during the time of Saladin, but now managed by the White Fathers
City of David
- Archeological site of ancient Jerusalem going back over 3,000 years to the time of King David (2Samuel 5:6-7)
- Tunnels dug through bedrock to divert the waters of Gihon water into the city
- Pool of Siloam, said to be the place where Jesus healed a man born blind (John 9: 7)
Friends of Zion Museum
- Interactive high tech exhibition featuring men and women who advanced the cause of Israel