While we were up at the Church of Visitation this morning, it was very fitting to have a morning devotion with the ladies about the woman from Titus 2. Verses 3-5 say "teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or must not drink too much wine. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God."
These verses are packed full of wisdom for women and I can just hear Elizabeth giving kind instruction to Mary during their visit. I love the picture of Nurture that Lisa Bevere gave in her book on how important it is to have the grandmothers, mothers and daughters involved in our lives. We need each other and we have so much to learn from each other. So with visiting this church here and being a group of gals in a variety of ages, this was a perfect devotion for us. I challenged them through the analogy of a blank piece of paper with a small dot on it. That dot is our life and the rest of the page was eternity. What are we doing with that dot and how will it affect our eternity. Mary and Elizabeth left a good legacy of obedience to God ....my prayer is we would do the same.
From here we went to the Holocaust Museum. This is always a difficult place to visit. After this visit, I will have been here with each of my children. Kyrstin really did not want to come here, and part of me doesn't blame her. But it's an important part of history, especially for the Jews. It was on my heart to ask Arie, our tour guide, to share a bit of his personal holocaust story as both his parents were survivors of the Holocaust. Both of them had many loved ones who perished and they had come together out of need, but not love. Each Jew in Israel has their own personal testimony of how it affected their family. It's absolutely heartbreaking to hear and to see the evil that took place. One German soldier had told a woman from our group that he met the Devil during the war. What the human is capable of with a heart not filled with God's love is downright freaky and inhuman. That is why we need God's unconditional love to fill us on a daily basis.
But hearing Arie's personal story just made walking through the Museum so much more meaningful and real. And as we watched the numerous military youth take a tour of it as well, the importance of knowing this history became more vital, because those horrific events would have happened to their grandparents, great uncles and aunts, and their own parents would have been greatly affected by it all. Often one of two responses come from people when horrible things happen in life. Either they draw closer to God or they become more athiest in their beliefs and say there could never be a God because He wouldn't allow this to happen. So how will we respond my friends? Do we blame God or do we hold on to Him with everything we got. It's our choice but that choice will affect the rest of our life and those that follow behind us.
The last stop for us today was the Jerusalem Museum and the Dead Sea Scrolls. I always enjoy seeing the scale model of the whole city of Jerusalem. I told Kyrstin that it reminded me of the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids. :) She thought it would've been so cool to live in there! It's amazing how a guy had originally built this in his back yard years ago. Now it's part of this museum site. And being at Qumran earlier, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and now coming here to see the scrolls at the museum was really neat.
Well that's it for another day my friends. We're beat and emotionally spent especially after being at the Holocaust Museum. It was nice to be back at the hotel earlier on this day. Some ladies were bored right away and went to the nearby mall to shop some more. I stayed back to keep working on the blog for you. :) Besides, my feet have really been feeling all the walking and have had enough. Time to rest them.
While we were up at the Church of Visitation this morning, it was very fitting to have a morning devotion with the ladies about the woman from Titus 2. Verses 3-5 say "teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or must not drink too much wine. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God." 
From here we went to the Holocaust Museum. This is always a difficult place to visit. After this visit, I will have been here with each of my children. Kyrstin really did not want to come here, and part of me doesn't blame her. But it's an important part of history, especially for the Jews. It was on my heart to ask Arie, our tour guide, to share a bit of his personal holocaust story as both his parents were survivors of the Holocaust. Both of them had many loved ones who perished and they had come together out of need, but not love. Each Jew in Israel has their own personal testimony of how it affected their family. It's absolutely heartbreaking to hear and to see the evil that took place. One German soldier had told a woman from our group that he met the Devil during the war. What the human is capable of with a heart not filled with God's love is downright freaky and inhuman. That is why we need God's unconditional love to fill us on a daily basis.
But hearing Arie's personal story just made walking through the Museum so much more meaningful and real. And as we watched the numerous military youth take a tour of it as well, the importance of knowing this history became more vital, because those horrific events would have happened to their grandparents, great uncles and aunts, and their own parents would have been greatly affected by it all. Often one of two responses come from people when horrible things happen in life. Either they draw closer to God or they become more athiest in their beliefs and say there could never be a God because He wouldn't allow this to happen. So how will we respond my friends? Do we blame God or do we hold on to Him with everything we got. It's our choice but that choice will affect the rest of our life and those that follow behind us.
The last stop for us today was the Jerusalem Museum and the Dead Sea Scrolls. I always enjoy seeing the scale model of the whole city of Jerusalem. I told Kyrstin that it reminded me of the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids. :) She thought it would've been so cool to live in there! It's amazing how a guy had originally built this in his back yard years ago. Now it's part of this museum site. And being at Qumran earlier, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and now coming here to see the scrolls at the museum was really neat.
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