Good news
I heard tonight in a span of a few minutes that 1) a believer away from the Lord for several years has returned and 2) that a long-time (70 years) rejector has embraced Christ. These aren’t random people, but ones we love. This is encouragement of the biggest kind.

Southern Jordan trip
I’m back from a week of exploring and photographing sites in southern Jordan. Most tourists see only Mt. Nebo and Petra in this area – I skipped both, but saw at least 40 other sites, covering 1100 miles and taking nearly 2000 photos. Unfortunately most of the photos look brown.

Here’s a photo of me with a dolmen near Adam (modern Damiya). There is a large cemetery here from the Early Bronze Age with these megalithic tombs. The mountains of Israel are visible in the background.

Baby in critical condition after hospital foul-up
This JPost article notes that the Israel 2004 state comptroller’s report describes “the fatality rate among premature babies as among the highest in the western world. The report cites bad treatment, unacceptable hospitalization conditions, a lack of trained personnel, dangerous and obsolete equipment in a state of disrepair and loose supervision on the part of the health ministry.” I have no trouble believing this given our experiences with Israeli hospitals. It doesn’t matter how smart the doctors might be, care is inadequate.

Calendar 5765
For the third year in a row, MessianicJewish.net is making a calendar with photographs I’ve taken in Israel. This year the theme is “Animals of the Holy Land.” The calendar hasn’t been printed yet, but the above link will take you to the page where you can see the cover photo and order once it is available.

From J. C. Ryle, “The Gospel of John”, via www.gracegems.org
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11

Affliction is one of God’s medicines!

By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin and the world, which would otherwise have perished everlastingly.

Health is a great blessing—but sanctified disease is a greater. Prosperity and worldly comfort, are what all naturally desire—but losses and crosses are far better for us—if they lead us to Christ.

Let us beware of murmuring in the time of trouble. Let us settle it firmly in our minds, that there is a meaning, a ‘needs be’, and a message from God—in every sorrow that falls upon us.

There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction. There is no commentary that opens up the Bible so much as sickness and sorrow.

The resurrection morning will prove, that many of the losses of God’s people were in reality, eternal gains.

Thousands at the last day, will testify with David—”It is good for me that I have been afflicted!” Psalm. 119:71

Pool of Siloam found
The ongoing excavations of Ronny Reich and Eli Shukrun have recently uncovered the Pool of Siloam from the time of Jesus (cf. John 9). Exactly the relationship to the pool at the end of Hezekiah’s Tunnel (historically known as the Pool of Siloam) is not clear. Unfortunately I’m going to be out of town and unable to check it out for more than a week.

How about a photo to spice things up? This is from our camping trip last night.

We spent the night on Zorah, near where Samson was born (and buried). The boys liked hearing the stories of Samson. Remarked Luke after one episode, “Sometimes it’s good to burn the foxes’ tails, and sometimes it’s bad.” :-)

This is for me and my one fan out there (whoever you are). It’s a tad roundabout, but Oral Roberts University has a “Librarian’s Web Pick” page. At the top is Jerusalem Perspective Online which links to a page of photos of Israel. Each thumbnail can be clicked to show a medium-size graphic. It really is quite a pleasing page, I think. They are photos I supplied for the rotating graphic on the front page of JerusalemPerspective.com. I just had never seen the whole batch together. End of self-promotion.

It’s been a busy but good month traveling around Israel. There is always something new to see, and old things good to see again. My favorite new stop was Nazareth Village, a reconstruction of the 1st century town where Jesus grew up.

I haven’t been able to do much reading, but I did enjoy this sermon, Wait on the Lord. A good video that explains the compliance (or lack thereof) of Israel and Palestinians to the Oslo Accords is detailed in Relentless.

If you’ve emailed recently and are waiting for a reply, give me some time to catch up.

Haaretz – Israel News – A campaign of denial to disinherit the Jews This article describes the recent Muslim movement to deny any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. This is not new to me – I’ve experienced such nonsense firsthand on the site. But this is a more careful exposition of the lies of some Arab leaders.