I have returned from my journey to the Middle East. It is great to be near my lovely wife and amazing children. It is also nice to have unlimited Internet, Dr. Pepper, and home-cooked food. As I sit back and think about the many memories I now have, I am humbled. That was such a great opportunity and I encourage this sort of trip to anyone. I cannot wait to go back. In the next few days, we begin celebrating Holy Week, kicking off with Palm Sunday. While I was in Jerusalem, we made a walk down from the top of the Mount of Olives towards the Garden of Gethsemane. This long, winding cobblestone road was laid out at a steep incline. The guide told me that this was the path Jesus took for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

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Hello!

I am having a terrible time finding reliable (and cheap) Internet access, but I have found some here in Bethlehem. I clearly have way too much information and the pace is so rapid, that I will be unable to post updates as I thought. But I will eventually… This is an incredible experience and I appreciate your prayers. Talk to you soon… (Here is a picture I took of the great city of Petra.)

-z

The back of my mp3 player says this, “Prolonged listening at full volume may damage your hearing.” I appreciate the irony of that. Looking at bright lights will damage our vision. Breathing in hot smoke will damage our lungs. There may be nothing we can do with our bodies where excess is appropriate. Without moderation, we will destroy ourselves. This certainly is not true spiritually, though, right? Jesus certainly never taught that we should moderate our obedience to God or our evangelism efforts. Paul taught us to pray without ceasing. But what about where our physical lives and spiritual lives intersect?

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In the book of John, Jesus and His disciples see a blind man and the disciples ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Jesus replies that the man was born that way in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. That, in itself, is a fascinating concept, but I want to look at the concept that the disciples immediately assumed that a parent’s sin could affect the child. Interestingly enough, the topic was addressed several hundred years before this blind man was born.

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