Pilgrimage to the Holyland 7 - Garden Tomb

During our pilgrimage to the Holy Land, our group visited two Biblical sites which were supposely the location of Jesus' burial after His Crucifixtion.  Many of us were puzzled because on that day we visited the Holy Sepuchre in the morning and in the afternoon we visited the Garden Tomb.  Later when we listened to the tourist guide at the Garden Tomb explaining than we understood the stories to these two sites.

Traditionally the Protestants identify with the Garden Tomb as the place where Jesus was crucified because this place resembled the description in the Bible. Hebrew 13:12 says, "¹² And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood".  This location has always been outside the City Gate.  Also near to the tomb is an outcrop of a hill that resembles a skull.

On the other hand, many believed that the Holy Sepulchre is the real location of Jesus' Crucifixtion and burial as it was also outside the City Gate during the time of Jesus.  This location has been taken as the real site since the time of Constantine.

Nevertheless, like the tour guide explained whichever is the real site is not important, the important aspect is that the crucified Christ resurrected for the dead after dying for three days. It is also left to the pilgrims to decide which is the right one.  

At the Garden Tomb it was not crowded and believers can sit and pray to our Lord Jesus, and spend quite time with Him.

A video of our group at the Garden Tomb.

Launching NECF 40-Day Fast and Pray

 http://www.necf.org.my/
On 15th July 2013, NECF launched the 40-day fast and pray for Kuching at FBC, Kuching.  This year's theme is "Thy Kingdom Come".  We are going to fast and pray for this nation, praying God will intercede to put wrongs into rights.

Many people may have felt dispointed with the recently concluded general election but a speaker reminded the audience that indeed God has answered our prayers.  His answers may not be like what we wanted but He did delivered us from violence and blessed our country with peace after the elections.  Beside, many more citizens are much aware of their rights as citizens and as a people we can all make changes for good.  One other important result was that Chrsitians from all denominations united in One body to pray for our country.  This outcome was unprecedented.

The fast and pray will start from 7th August 2013 to 15th September 2013.

A booklet for this year 40-day fast and pray containing the topics to be prayed is available from NECF.  Many local churches have also ordered their copies.  In case you need it please refer to NECF website in the above link.

Let us continue to fast and pray for this nation of ours.

NECF 40-Day Fast & Pray - slideshows

Pilgrimage to Holy Land 6 - Baptism of Bro. Austin Neo, FBC

Our Bro. Austin Neo was baptized in river Jordan, Israel during our pilgrimage to Israel.  It was a very significant event for him and his wife as they have been waiting for this very moment for a while. As a church we are happy for him and we praise God for his baptism in river Jordan, Israel.

A few weeks ago Bro. Austin shared in church his testimony and prayers about his baptism.  Bro.Austin shared that he was afraid of the cold, so since arriving in Israel on 17 th April 2013 he had been praying for warm weather.  When we were in Israel, the day temperature range from 17 degree centigrade to about 19 degrees centigrade.  To many it may not be cold but to Austin it was cold beside he has to be submerged in the river during baptism.  Each morning when he awake he prayed for warm weather and he will look out of the hotel window to check on the weather outside.  He was supposed to be scheduled for baptism as soon as we reached Israel, but the tour guide said he has to postpone it as he had other arrangements.  Austin was relieved when he heard that because at that time the weather was cold.  He continued to pray for warm weather everyday.  Finally his time to be baptized came a few days after we arrived in Israel.  As the bus approached the river Jordan we noted the hot weather.  At that time we did not know Austin's reservation about the cold weather. When we arrived by the river Jordan, the weather was hot, it was about 32 degree centigrade.  But Austin shared that although he noted the sunny weather he did not know whether it was cold in the river.  He went to the shower in the shower room, and found that the water was hot because of the heat on the water pipes.  He thought to himself, "Well, the water is warm here wonder whether it is the same in the river".  He got ready and stepped into the water and felt that the river water was not cold.  From then one he had full confidant and went through the baptism ceremony without any issue.  Praise God that He had answered Austin's prayers!  Hallelujah!  Praise God!

Here is a short video of Austin baptism.

Seminar on the Book of Hebrews

From 21st June to 23rd June 2013, our church had the privilege to host Rev.Dr.King Long She from Melbourne Theological School to teach us on the Book of Hebrews.  In fact, it was the sponsorship of one of our church brothers that we had the chance to learn from expert like Rev. She.

Rev. Dr. She graduated from Dallas Theology School with Master and Phd.  He is an expert on the Book of Hebrews.  During his studies his thesis was on this Book.  He has also written several books on subjects in the Book of Hebrews.

The seminar was intensive because of the length as well as the dept of the Book that Rev She has to cover.  He said he was only able to cover pretty much the surface but good enough for our purposes.  Indeed, it is a difficult book with many theological issues that many would like to know.

One of the many issues that most Christians would like to know is whether a Christian is saved once, and he or she is always saved.  From Rev She's opinion he took both positions, that is it all depends on the situation of the believers.  There are two schools of thoughts, one said once saved always saved and the other salvation is not guaranteed. It was scary to learn about the many warnings to Christians in this book. Perhaps it is timely at least for me to learn about these warnings as a Christian trying to follow Jesus my Savior.

On Sunday 23rd June 2013, Rev.She also preached in our church.  His sermon was "The Test of Love".  He said all Christian will be tested.  There are 7 components to this test:
1. Tester
2. Time
3. Target
4. Tasks
5. Trial
6. Turnout
7. Telesis
For detail check here: http://fbcstaf.blogspot.com/

The seminar was opened to churches in Kuching.  Thank God that the turnout was very good.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land 5 - The Dead Sea

As part of the Holy Land pilgrimage we also had the chance to spend a night at a hotel by the Dead Sea.  This mystical lake is beautiful.  The lake is located at the lowest land point on earth, about 1338 ft below sea level.  We could see that the bus had to drive lower and lower near to the lake towards the hotel we were staying.  The Dead Sea is 34 miles long and 11 miles wide, so it is very large.

In terms of the Bible there were few references to the Dead Sea.  In the Bible this sea was called,  "Sea of Arabah", and "Salt Sea".  Pre-Biblical times, it was also called "Sea of Sodom" or "Sea of Lot".  The Ammonites and Moabites when advancing to attack King Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicle 20 ) of Judah had to cross over from a shallow section of the Dead Sea.  King David was known to have hidden in the caves at Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea.  Ezekiel prophesied that the sea will become fresh Ezekiel 47:8-9.  Zechariah had a similar prophesy Zechariah 14:8.

The now famous Dead Sea scrolls were discovered at Qumran near to the Dead Sea.  We had the chance to visit Qumran.

To the modern visitors to the Dead Sea one of the most sort after experience was floating on the Dead Sea.  Personally, I felt that if I did not try this out, I cannot say I have been to the Dead Sea.  We were staying overnight at a hotel next to the Dead Sea, so we tried swimming in the Dead Sea.  In fact one need not swim, one can float in it!  It was an amazing experience. Thank God for this experience.

Dead Sea - slideshows

Pilgrimage to Holy Land 4 - Petra Jordan

Prior to visiting the Holy Land, I did not realize that the Holy Land also includes territories outside of Israel.  If you examine the map of the Old Testament you will realized that the Holy Land was indeed a wide territory including the present country of Jordan.  Therefore in Jordan of today there are many Biblical sites like Mt. Nebo, Petra and others.

One of these places we visited was Petra, Jordan.

Background of Petra 

Petra is the Greek word for “rock”.  In biblical times it was known as Sela or Selah or Seir.  Between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba there is a valley surrounded by rocky cliffs, with a few narrow gorges leading inside.  Access to Petra is by a narrow crevice called the Siq.  The city of Petra was built inside this valley.  This was a natural protection for Petra as it was in a valley surrounded by high cliffs, with limited access via the Siq.  Petra is located about 170 miles from modern Amman.

Petra was extensively mentioned in the Bible especially as it concerned Job, Esau and Isaac.  Jacob tricked Esau of his birthday rights ( Gen 25-27 ), angry because of the betrayal he and his family left to settle in the new land of Seir or Petra.  From Esau came his descendants the Edomites.  The Edomites lived in this land when the Israelite came out of Egypt during the Exodus about 1445 BC.  The Edomites became the enemies of the ancient Hebrew together with the Amalekites, Moabites and Ammonites.

About 400 BC the Edomites were driven out by the Arabian Nabateans.  The Nabateans made Petra their capital and controlled the important trade routes between the East and the West.  Caravans passing through these routes had to pay taxes to the Nabateans who became very wealthy enabling them to build beautiful palaces, temples, theatres and tombs hewn out of solid rock in the valley.

In later centuries trade dried up as trade routes were conducted between the Orients and Europe.  Petra was forgotten for centuries and it became a legend.  Ancient people claimed that references to Petra were figment of imagination as this city was just a legend.  They claimed the non existence of Petra was the proof of unreliability of the Bible.  They were wrong.  God is never wrong!  In 1812, Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt disguised as an Arab Sheik discovered the lost city.  It was incredible that such a picturesque place existed just about 161 Kilometres south of Jerusalem! Due to unstable Middle Eastern political situations, visit to Petra was near impossible only in recent years this city is readily available to tourist visits.

Petra Jordan - slideshow

Pilgrimage to Holy Land 3 - Prayers and Worship

About a month before our group departed for the Holy Land, we spent time praying corporately as well as on our own.  Right from the start we knew that this trip to the Holy Land was not an ordinary tour but a special visit.  Each of us have our heart set on visiting the Holy Land as a pray and worship unto the Lord.

This discernment was confirmed when we reached Israel from Jordan.  As soon as we got onto the tour bus, our tour guide, Jack reminded us that we were in Israel not for a tour but for a pilgrimage.  Some how the way he talked to us was unlike a tour guide, more like a lecturer instructing us what we should do.  We accepted this tone of voice as we were there for a pilgrimage and not an ordinary tour.  We want to experience the places where Lord Jesus had walked, and also how the other people in the Bible had spent their lives in various Biblical sites we were to visit.

One of the highlights to this pilgrimage was that we had devotion every evening of the tour.  Each of us were assigned to take our turn.  I must admit that initially I was apprehensive about sharing a devotion.  Thank God I learned much more in preparing for the devotion.  Before the start of each devotion we sang worship songs. We could feel the presence of our Lord in each of these devotions.

Beside, prayers and worship during devotional time, we prayed in many of the sites we visited.  Many of these sites were located in churches, and that were appropriate setting for prayers. Each time we prayed in these locations, the Lord was with us, and many were overwhelmed with emotions, especially feeling of the suffering our Lord Jesus had gone through.  One example, was while praying at the pit where Jesus was locked up for a night before His Crucifixion in the house of Chief Priest Caiaphas.  It was heart breaking to witness this pit with a hole on top where Jesus was let in, that was the only entrance and exit.  It was total darkness in those days.  Just imagine that!

Each of us is not the same after this pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Certainly, reading the Bible presented new perspectives and understanding.  One could now imagine the places written in the Bible that we also visited in Israel.  Awesome! Yes, our God is A W E S O M E!

"Oh God thank you for this touching visit to the Holy Land, we felt your presence in this Land, our lives are changed forever as it is part of your plan for each of us.  Thank you Lord, bless you in Jesus Most Precious Name Amen."

Prayer and Worship - slideshow