Arrival

After a short layover in Istanbul, we boarded our plane to Tel Aviv (pictured below). We landed in Tel Aviv around 4pm on the 11th. Tel Aviv is the modern city of ancient Joppa from the Bible, the land of the Philistines. From Tel Aviv our bus took us from the green fertile lowlands up into the Judean hills where we will be staying for a few days. Everything in the lowlands and Shephelah is so green. The hills have forests and in many places have been terraced for small growing plots. The ground is a hard limestone, excellent for building. 

We had a short orientation, helping us once again understand  the geography we’d just seen with the mapping we’ve been doing. 

We were also introduced to the basic methodology of how we will be learning throughout this trip. Basically there are three parts: (1) Events, (2) Concepts, and (3) Personal Appropriation. 

1. Our Judeo-Christian faith is first and foremost based in Events (not on sacred writings like most religions). This is significant because these events reveal to us a personal God who works through human agency. He made us. He provides for us. He protects us. He became the incarnate Son of God and dwelt among us. These are actual events, rooted in history first, recorded in Scripture as concepts second. 

2.  As the events are recorded in Scripture they become concepts for us to believe and by which we develop our systematic theology. For example, as the Israelites entered into the promised land, we read the events of how God fought their battles for them. In Joshua 10:11 God kills more with hailstones than the Israelites did by sword. The concept or belief we draw from this are things like “the battle belongs to the Lord” or “trust in the Lord and not in horses or chariots.”

3. Personal Appropriation is about applying the events and concepts to my personal life. Most people want to skip right toward personal application, but faith development is much richer than that. Time and time again we may hear encouragement like “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Trust in the Lord.” But without events and concepts to build upon, the words are shallow. Like God’s people throughout all of history, God is working in real time, in our story. So faith comes as we read these events and see how God has always cared for His people in the past, believe that he cares for me too, and then I can apply that to my present circumstances. 

There is a beautiful cognitive progression both in childhood development but also in faith development with this learning method. For example, a child literally has no concept what it means to “trust in the Lord.”  Cognitively, it’s just too abstract to comprehend. In fact, that cognitive ability isn’t fully realized until around the age of 25. Why? Because through life events a person is learning concepts such as trust to come to a place in life where he or she can actually apply these belief systems personally. So faith development begins first with learning the story. God’s Word is a story. His story of salavation in real time and place for every generation. 

Shalom

(Yes, I’m posting this at 5am because I’m wide awake. My internal chronometer has not yet adjusted to the Isaraeli time zone.)