Holy Land Reflections
A pilgrimage has been described as a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place. It is where a person goes in search of a new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good through the experience.
Sometimes a pilgrimage can led to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. Changed not necessarily in dramatic ways but nevertheless changed.
I am Marben Bland, a pastor and multimedia storyteller of Jesus. These are my daily reflections of my second pilgrimage to the Holy Land. My hope is to provide a brief sense of what it’s like to experience this complicated place. My desire is to provide these reflections in a clear, concise, and correct way worthy of this wonderful place and your valuable time. My prayer is to honor God via these reflections as a pilgrim in His Holy Land, in with what I see, with what I experience and with what I feel.
Reflection: Day One
A Holy Land Reflection: Jerusalem – The City Of Everything
Situated on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea is the city of Jerusalem. One of the oldest cities in the world Jerusalem is claimed as a holy city for three of world’s major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, and Christians like me make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see the capital where Jesus died and was risen.
It is in those claims of holiness that has led to conflict. Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured, and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times.
Through it all Jerusalem a city situated on a plateau still stands. A city of holiness, a city of conflict, a city where people of all faiths come, a city where people of all faiths worship, a city where people of all faiths live among each other yearning for peace in a land of war.
Jerusalem a city situated on a plateau still stands still stands because God said in Isaiah 56:7-8 that it would stand. The Message translation puts it this way: I’ll bring them to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. They’ll be welcome to worship the same as the ‘insiders,’ to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar. Oh yes, my house of worship will be known as a house of prayer for all people and nations. This is the Decree of the Master, God himself who gathers in the exiles of Israel: “I will gather others also gather them in with those already gathered.”
Today, I am honored to gather with pilgrims of all nations and faiths to Jerusalem the city of everything.
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