SourceFlix | Living Hope

Passion Week Archaeology

SourceFlix — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:35:34 +0000

This weekend brings us to the time of pondering and celebrating the two most important events in the course of human history – the death and resurrection of Christ. Today’s video shows some of my favorite archaeological discoveries that help to solidify the historical context behind those events.

Praise be to Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God and Risen Savior!!!

Blessings,

Joel

The Locusts

SourceFlix — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:59:53 +0000

Recently, I sat down in the early morning to enjoy a cup of coffee and my newspaper. The headline of the Jerusalem Post read “Swarm of Locusts Crosses Sinai Border into Israel”. I leaped out of my chair, grabbed my camera gear, jumped in my car and raced towards the Egyptian border. Within three hours locusts were bouncing off my windshield!

The estimated swarm of 120 million had been devastating Egypt for several days, but Israel was ready for them with pesticide-loaded planes and helicopters. So, while I didn’t get to see them in their full force, it was yet another experience in Israel that brought the pages of the Bible to life! I will never forget seeing these locusts carried in on the wind, eating everything in their path.

One of my professors called and asked me to bring back a sample, so I rolled down my car windows for a few minutes and watched it fill up with locusts. We are still finding stray locusts in the nooks and crannies of our car – much to my wife’s dismay!

Tonight begins the celebration of Passover in Israel. Jewish families are sitting down to their tables, partaking of their Seder meal, and recounting the Exodus story and the plagues that overtook Egypt so many thousands of years ago.

“Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.” Exodus 10:14

Some of those plagues affected the Israelites, but from many they were protected. Ultimately, God saved His people by the applied blood of the sacrificed lamb, and then He led them out of bondage into freedom. He gives the same salvation and freedom today…through the blood of His Son, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world to save us from death and give us life and freedom!

From Israel, grace and peace to you…through the blood of the Lamb.

Blessings,

Joel

The Mustard Tree

SourceFlix — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:12:13 +0000

The tree in this video, many believe, is the mustard tree mentioned in the gospels. We can see what Jesus was describing…a very small seed growing larger and larger. A tiny bit of faith in Jesus can grow into something extraordinary – increasing the kingdom of God, moving mountains and accomplishing the impossible!

Blessings,

Joel

Whiter Than Snow

SourceFlix — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:41:13 +0000

Yesterday morning, my eyes popped open at 4:20am. Looking out the window of my Jerusalem apartment I saw that it was snowing – heavily! Quickly, I packed up my camera and drove to the top of the Mount of Olives. There I sat for three hours waiting for the sun to rise and the snow to let up so I could get my shot. As I waited, I contemplated a snow-covered Jerusalem. It’s not the first mental picture we usually have when we think of this place. Yet, it is a picture that King David’s mind turned to in his plea for God to forgive him of his sin with Bathsheba.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7).

“Whiter than snow” we easily understand. But what is the Hyssop? The leaves of the Hyssop plant have very fine fibers which liquids can cling and hold on to…liquids like the blood of animals… the cleansing blood of sacrifice. David yearned to be made clean and cried out for forgiveness. Thousands of years later Jesus, the son of David, willingly poured out his blood as the perfect sacrifice for sin…David’s sin…our sin…the world’s sin.

My waiting paid off. The light came and the storm broke. There lay Jerusalem beneath me, blanketed in deep white snow. The words of the hymn came to mind…

What can wash away our sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is the flow,

That makes us white as snow.

After getting the shots I needed, I realized that another round of snow was coming. I had just enough time to set up the above time-lapse shot that captured the storm moving in.

Yesterday’s storm dumped around a foot of snow here in Jerusalem. While I waited and filmed…my car got buried! Two Palestinian boys were nice enough to help me dig it out and get unstuck. By the grace of God (and the fervent prayers of my nervous wife) I safely made the slippery drive back home. I understand much better now how David knew about snow…and I hope you do, too. Although it doesn’t snow frequently enough so that the people of Jerusalem know how to drive in it, when it does snow, it makes the city extra beautiful…but not as beautiful as it will one day be! One day, it will be washed “whiter than snow” and gleam, pure and white, with the radiance of the Lord. Come Lord Jesus!!!

Blessings,

Joel

The Shepherd Connection

SourceFlix — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 22:01:15 +0000

Some have asked why I have spent two years filming shepherds. The answer is that the Bible is full of them! Abraham lived as a shepherd in the land of Canaan. When Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, moved his sons and their families to Egypt, they were asked by Pharaoh, “What is your occupation?” “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” Genesis 47:3.

Centuries later the shepherd Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and the shepherd Joshua led them into the land of promise, where God anointed the shepherd boy, David, to be their king. Almost 300 years later the prophet Micah predicted that “one who would be ruler over Israel” would be born in Bethlehem, and “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD!” Micah 5:2,4. Then after another 700 years passed, the angels announced the birth of Jesus–not to the political or religious leaders, but to shepherds tending their flocks in the fields near Bethlehem.

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:11

My family and I rejoice and celebrate with you the birth of our Savior, Immanuel! God with us, seeking us for His own… “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:25. Today’s video short explains, in shepherding terms, why God was born a man in Bethlehem – he came to save us!

God’s richest blessings to you,

Joel