A Ride on a Boat in Special Waters....

Today we started in a wooded ship in a port of Tiberius. We set sail onto the Sea of Galilee. Once we were in the middle of the sea, the captain cut off the diesel powered engine. Now, we were floating in the middle of the sea that Jesus Christ had been on. The Scripture was read about how Christ asked Peter to get out of the boat and walk to him. Keeping his eye on Christ he began his walk. Losing faith, he began to sink. Oh, how we must keep our eyes on Jesus Christ.

We sang christian songs and then i was asked to be the DJ on the boat. I began by playing the Zoe song "all who are thirsty", played a few more Zoe songs and then reached deep into my Southern roots and played Ralph Stanley " Angell Band".

We ported in a town call Capernaum. This settlement is located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.

From Capernaum Jesus chose many of his apostles from fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James, John) or publicans (Matthew.)

From the Scriptures we can learn that Jesus taught with authority: Mark 1:21-28; and that Jesus and his followers went into the town of Capernaum.

We learned that when the Sabbath day came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed by his teaching and appreciated his ability to teach with real authority; unlike the teachers of the religious law.

Amazingly, we entered the synagogue where, a man who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting at Jesus, "why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One sent from God!" Jesus stopped the man and said. "Be quiet! Come out of the man," he ordered. Hearing that, the evil spirit screamed and threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him. The audience was amazed, and they began to discuss what had happened. "What sort of new teaching is this?" they asked: "It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders!"

News about Jesus spread very quickly throughout the region of Galilee. Scripture says that Jesus heals Peter's Mother-in-Law and many others: Mark 29-34. Later that evening after sunset, many sick and demon possessed people were brought to Jesus. The entire town gathered at the doorway to watch Jesus. Jesus then healed many people.

The remains of Peter's house in Capernaum can still be seen; including the inner room which was probably used as the very first Christian. There is now a church built over these remains.

We also entered the Monastery where Jesus preached the beatitudes. We left these beautiful gardens for lunch and guess what for lunch......you got it....Fish from the Sea of Galilee (fried head & all)

After this, we headed for the Golan Heights, a heavily disputed area of the Middle East. As we traveled Hwy 98 toward Syria, we were able to see the road to Damascus where Paul was spoken to by God. Active mines were present along the road and pointed out by signs. To the west, we were able to see Mt. Hermon, the suggested place of the transfiguration because of the elevation. This is a snow covered mountain.

After leaving the northeastern most point of Israel, we headed south back to the Sea of Galilee on the south west corner, where probably 20 of our travelers chose to be rebaptized into the river Jordon. This was a special evening event seeing so many restate their faith and be rebaptized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcA4ccYFAg&feature=youtube_gdata_player


A couple corrections: the lights I saw last night were NOT the Jordan. Also, Seleba, our tour guide does speak Aramaic. His church, The New Syrian Christian Church prides itself in using the same language of Christ.