by Morgan Little
"We need ask ourselves who we say Jesus is and then realize who He actually is."
This morning we went to Mount Precipice, which was a cool experience for several reasons. It was very interesting to think about all the historical events that happened around the mountain. It was also cool to connect the true story in the Bible about the people in Nazareth that tried to throw Jesus off of the mountain. I gained a fresh perspective on this story along with the other stories we have been reading in the Bible this week; we have been talking about perspectives of Jesus and how we tend to expect him to fit our mold, even though that is not what we should be doing. Rather, we need ask ourselves who we say Jesus is and then realize who he actually is. This relates back to the story because the people’s actions reflected their view of Jesus (they rejected him because he did not fit their mold of who the Messiah should be like) just like our actions reflect our view of who we think he is.
We also visited two churches today: the Church of Annunciation and the Church of the Synagogue. The Church of Annunciation was a really interesting experience for me since I am not Catholic; it was cool to see how the Catholic Church emphasizes Mary. There were pictures of the Virgin Mary all over the church from different countries reflecting their view of her. There were also M’s on the ceiling that stood for “Mary.” It was also really interesting to see the ruins of where they thought Mary’s house was. Even if this was not her house, it still gave a good representation of what living would have been like back then. Though I feel that the Catholic Church overemphasizes Mary’s role, I also think that many Baptist churches underemphasize her for fear of being too much like a Catholic. I think it is important to have a healthy perspective of Mary because we can learn a lot about her obedience to God despite all of the opposition that she faced because of her obedience. We also visited the Church of the Synagogue, which is possibly the location of the synagogue Jesus attended with his family as he was growing up.
After visiting the churches, we went street shopping in Nazareth. I really enjoyed this because I bought cute earrings and some cool stuff for my family! After that we ate lunch and then rode in a boat on the Sea of Galilee! Again, we discussed the common theme throughout Scripture about who people said that Jesus was. On the Sea of Galilee Jesus calmed the storm and walked on water. Both times the disciples lost sight of who Jesus was and the power he has as God’s son. When we have the right view of God, our response to God changes. We also danced and had fun on the boat ride! Overall, it has been a great day filled with more great experiences that I will never forget!
