What to do when you have had it!

The Old Testament prophet Elijah had just had a huge victory over his enemies, the priests of Baal. They lost and he won, so he had them killed.

The queen of the land Jezebel was away when all this happened and she comes back and is really mad at Elijah because she felt she had lost her connection to god, and by losing her connection to god, she also felt she had lost here power. So she swore that she would kill Elijah. So he runs for his life and hides in a cave. (PLU's football coach, Frosty Westering, often said it was a short distance from the penthouse to the outhouse! I guest Elijah just found out how short it is.)

Elijah is in despair. He has had it and he is scared.

But God never leaves us alone. It may feel that way, but God is always close at hand. The same was true for Elijah.

An angel comes to Elijah, taps him on the shoulder, and gives him some food and says, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too hard for you." He eats the food of God.

The angel comes another time and does the same thing.

Now the miracle! He went out on the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights!!!!

Are you feeling like Elijah? The world is after you and crushing down on you? Your enemies seem large and intimidating? The world's food will not be enough for you to make it through. You have lost your strength.

There is a food that will give you the strength you need. It is a food that never stops. It is abundant and plentiful. It is the bread of heaven, Jesus. Cry out to Jesus! Ask for his help. Look for strength from God. Look for Gods angels to come to you in ways you do not recognize. Find this abundant bread at a worship service in Jesus' church. Look to the true bread that gives you strength forever.

I AM

When Jesus is coming to the disciples walking on the water in John 6:20, the disciples think it is a ghost. He says to them, "It is I, do not be afraid."

Actually, in the Greek, it is translated, "I AM, do not be afraid".

You may remember that Moses was once asking God for God's name. God responds with, "I AM".

Moses was trying to know God's name to gains God's power for the difficult job he was given by God. It was felt that if you knew the name of someone you also had their power. God gets around Moses' question by simply saying "I AM!"

Now Jesus, over and over in the book of John, calls himself, "I AM".  "I am, do not be afraid".

Jesus is God! He affirms this by suffering on the cross. God affirms Jesus as the great I AM by raising him from the dead.

Jesus can be trusted to keep his promises because he loves you and because he is God.

Scarcity and Abundance

In the 6th chapter of Mark Jesus is preaching and has a crowd of 5000 men. Other gospels say, "plus women and children. That is a lot of people. And, it creates a problem.

They are all far from home and there are no places to get food. The scarcity is making the disciples nervous. They bring the problem to Jesus and he asks what they can come up with? They ask around and come up with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Not much for all these people!

Do you ever feel that way? Like there is not enough to go around. Not enough resources, not enough time, not enough skills, not enough of you? Is there scarcity in your life?

If you are like me, there is a lot of scarcity in your life.

In the rest of the story, Jesus takes what they have, blesses it and breaks it and tells the disciples to start handing it out. That had to be nerve racking for the disciples!

When everyone had eaten, there was 12 full baskets of leftovers!

We always make it about us don't we? And, as long as we do, there will never be enough. But, when we make it about Jesus, then there is abundance. Because God is all about abundance!

The secret to all spirituality is to let go. Or, what usually happens is God breaks us, just like the bread. We are forced to let go. We learn to depend on him, (faith) and God provides the abundance in our lives.

Vatican Gardens and Palatine Hill

Behind the Vatican are the Pope's special gardens. Most of the Pope's walk and meditate here every day. This pope walks and prays here in the afternoon. That is why our tour was in the morning. Here are some pictures:




















The Pope's helicopter pad. I wondered hoe he got out of here.


We also went to Palatine Hill. This is where all of the palaces of the Emperors were. It is also where the English word "palace" comes from.


Here is a private courtyard of Nero and Karen. You see the walls in the background. The who area has these walls. They are from former Cesar's palaces.


This is Nero. He was the nasty guy who persecuted Christians. He burned down part of Rome so he could rebuild it in his own image and then blamed Christians.


This is the court of justice where Emperors would sit and listen to cases and then make a judgement.


This is where the Cesar's chair would sit.


No chair, but here Cesar stands holding his scepter ready to make judgements. Tomorrow we get on a jet and head for home.

Blessings to all,
Dave and Karen

Worship

Well first I want to say happy Mothers day to my wonderful mom. Thanks for having me and for all the sacrifices you made for me and my brothers throughout your whole life. I love you mom!

Some of you know that every year I get the pleasure of walking through flower gardens on mothers day. You might be thinking that I will not have that pleasure this year. But Karen has found a way even here in Rome. Tomorrow we are signed up to walk through the Vatican gardens. That is right, the Pope's garden...so look for pics of that on tomorrows blog. Sorry to miss you and Duane Peggy!


Today we took the subway to the Vatican to worship at the main service. It was in Latin, but they gave us a very easy to follow booklet that had it in English. This is me in front of St. Peters.


There were a lot of pastors / priests doing the service, not to mention 10 altar boys! The Pope is usually at some other church throughout the world on Sunday. On Wednesday, he does a service here. On nice days it is outside on the front steps. Bob Reindle actually met the Pope during WW II. You should ask him about it sometime. The guys in red I think are Cardinals.


I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room because my blister has gotten worse and Karen wants me in tip top shape for our garden walk tomorrow. Our room is smaller now that Kay, Marvin and Keriann are gone. It is also cheaper. But it is cozy and very pleasant.


We have breakfast here every morning while in Rome, a warm croissant, cereal, a roll, tea or coffee.


Looking down the hall toward the reception desk. There are about 12 rooms and Hotel Margaret is on the fourth floor. An old fashioned elevator takes us up or we can take the stairs.


A view out our window.

Well I have my foot up, Karen is out roaming the streets of Rome and should be back soon and we will go out to dinner. Tomorrow we go to the Garden and Tuesday morning we take the long flight home. It has been more than I could have imagined. I have learned so much that will be useful in ministry and I am looking forward to sharing it in both preaching and teaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Blessings,

Pastor Dave

Trastevere and Jewish Ghetto walks

The Trastevere area of Rome has not changed much over the years. It was a place where immigrants would live. Jews lived here till they were kicked out and sent elsewhere. I will show you that in a minute.


Beautiful walk!


This Catholic church was there.


It had beautiful mosaics on the ceiling. This is Jesus and his Mom.


Jesus being brought to Simeon.


Then we went to the Jewish Ghetto. It was along the Tiber River and it flooded all the time. It was the worst and muddiest place to be put.


This is a Jewish Synagogue in the Ghetto. It has been remodeled into a beautiful place. This is where John Paul II gave his famous speech apologizing to the Jewish people for the Catholics silence and persecution of Jews over the years......Lutherans were not much better. The most recent pope preached here as well and apologized also.


Saw these on a wall and a marker in the road stating that a Jewish man was killed there by a Nazi. The area has now become a trendy place to live. So only rich Jews can live here now.....ironic!

Tomorrow we are going to worship with the Pope. When I talk to him, I am going to ask him what he thinks of the Augsburg Confession. That is the Lutheran document written during the Reformation. We should have a good theological discussion!

Blessings to you all, and men, don't forget Sunday is mothers day!

Pompeii

Today we took this train to Pompeii. It travels at 170 MPH!


This is Keriann and Karen on the train.


The basilica or law building in Pompeii. Notice the columns going down the sides of the building. The early church used this same design and even called churches cathedrals.


Mt. Vesuvius, which caused all the trouble.


Someone caught in the volcanic ash. They found spaces when they were digging out and realized the spaces were people. So the filled the spaces with plaster to catch the horror of the moment.


Another poor soul.


A roman bath.


Each space had a both to change your clothes.


A resteraunt.


They flooded the streets each day to take away debris. The steps were to walk on when the streets were flooded.


A bakery with a grinding stone and a wood oven in the background.


From the "House of the Faun"


We had a wonderful time and learn a lot about life and death 2000 years ago.

Churches in Rome

This is Santa Maria Maggiore. It is Mary the mother of Jesus church.


Down here are the supposed pieces of Jesus cradle. Keriann and I were skeptics on this one.


This is San Giovanni in Laterano. I was surprised to learn that this is the Seat of Rome, or the Cathedral. (Cathedral means seat.) it is not St Peters. The part on the right used to be the Popes residence. This church dates way back to 325 AD. Although the building has been enhanced and expanded over the years.


These are the front doors. I was careful to duck my head. They are made from copper and were taken from the place where the senate met in Roman days. When Rome fell, the church took them and put them to good use. It is a good thing too because for sure the copper would have been melted down and used elsewhere.


This is the "seat" of the Catholic Church. The Pope must sit in this chair within 30 days of being chosen Pope. If not, then he is not the Pope. The last time that happened was in 2005 when Benedict sat here to officially become the Pope. I thought about jumping the barrier and sitting in the chair to become the first Lutheran Pope of the Catholic Church.


These pillars were in front of one of the temples to a Roman god at the Forum and moved here at the fall of Rome.


At every church is one or two beggars. This woman and others like her bend over in this praying position for hours with a cup in front, asking for money.


Karen and Keriann and I had dinner on the streets of Rome. Breakfast is at the hotel, bread cereal and coffee. Lunch is usually things we buy at a grocery store like bread, cheese and fruit. Dinner we eat out.

The Catacombs and Paul's Tomb

Today we went to the Apian Way. Have you heard the term, "All roads lead to Rome." we'll at one point they actually did! This is the road that led into Rome and from here to all over the world.



Above ground tombs lined the road where the Romans buried their dead. They had no concept of life after death, so immortality was to simply be remembered, so if you could be buried next to this busy road and everyone could see your tomb, that was immortality. This large tomb was built by the richest man in Rome for his daughter-in-law. It was right on the hill so everyone wouldn't see it. Her name was Caecilia.



Christians were buried in Catacombs all along the Apian Way. They did not meet there in secret as is widely and wrongly believed. It is just that Romans did not want to be buried in a hole where they would be forgotten and Christians wanted to be buried in a tomb just like Jesus.


They used symbols like the anchor, it looked like a cross and the disciples were fishermen, and the fish, which was the first symbol Christians used. The Greek word for fish was ichthus. Ichthus was the first letters for the Greek first letters for: "Jesus Christ God Son Savior." So the fish become an early symbol for Christianity. In fact, the cross was not used for nearly 500 years. This was on one of the tombs.



Karen and I have been following Paul all around Turkey, it seems fitting that we should be here where Paul is buried. This is St. Paul's Church. It was the biggest church until St. Peters was built. You are looking down at Paul's tomb. It was amazing to be here with Paul.


Looking into Paul's grave.


Supposedly the chains that were used to bind Paul. Keriann was very skeptical.


As we left St. Paul's Cathedral, in the lawn was this olive tree and plaque to signify better relations between Catholics and Lutherans! It was planted by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation.....pretty cool find!


This is a bust of Christ by Bernini. It was just sitting in the church above the Catacombs. This was his last work at the age of 80. He was very famous like Michelangelo. This bust would be worth millions, yet in Rome it sits in a church! Art is everywhere here. John Beck would be in heaven!