LA Story – Shalom Salaam
Jerusalem is an incredible city. Three thousand years ago this year, King David captured the city and made it the capital of his kingdom. Since then the history of the world has been shaped and influenced by what has happened there. Most of the events described in the Bible occurred within a 100 mile radius. Now three major religions – Judaism, Islam and Christianity – consider this to be a holy city. “Holy” is not the best word to describe those past 3,000 years; “bloody” might be more appropriate. In that time nearly 100 battles have been fought for control of Jerusalem. The tension is no less today as the Palestinians are pushing for East Jerusalem to become the capital of the West Bank and the Israelis are just as determined to prevent that.
Over two hundred leaders of God’s modern-day movement gathered in Jerusalem this past May. We as disciples were drawn to Jerusalem because that is where it all began nearly 2,000 years ago. Jesus was born only five miles from there; some of his most powerful preaching and healing was there; he was crucified and resurrected there; and he started his church there. Then the word rang out from Jerusalem and was heard around the world in just one generation. Since the first century, the church has never again taken the message to the whole world, much to its shame. As disciples, we went back to Jerusalem to see our roots. God has done great things among us in the last eighteen years, but so much remains to be done. Being there,