Well, hello everybody. It's so good to be back with you. I am back in my hotel room and let's see, it's about 515 in the evening. I don't even know what day it is. I guess it's Thursday, but nevertheless, it's so good to be back with you today. Saw a lot of really, really incredible things. That's becoming a theme of this trip. Again, please bear with me. These are definitely different kinds of devotionals. I'm taking multiple videos at different sites and then kind of, mashing them all together but um if i had to choose I don't even think I could begin to choose what the best moment is of the day. I can tell you this much. I just got back from the Golan Heights, overlooking Lebanon and Syria, and it's remarkable what the Israeli people are going through here with terror and that sort of thing. So I want to encourage you to be in prayer for Israel, purely in a political sense, because they are fighting for their survival here. really isn't over, they say it's over, but it's just remarkable. But nevertheless, I'm so happy to be with you guys again. I hope that you enjoy today's devotional. I suppose this is the devotional for November the 7th, but nevertheless, I hope it is a blessing to you. If it's a tenth of the blessing I've received today seeing these places, then what a dramatic thing that is. But nevertheless, thank you so much. Well, good morning, everybody. Hopefully you can hear me. Perhaps you're wondering, where I am this morning, and this would be the Jordan River. I've got a cameraman. Say good morning, Kyle. Good morning. There's a little fish that's joining me, too, nibbling on my feet here, which is an interesting sensation. Hopefully it's not leeches. I don't know. Kyle, get kind of a zoom in of the river itself. If you're like me and you're seeing this for the first time, maybe what's come to mind is this doesn't exactly look like the Jordan River should look. You know, I don't know if you're like me, but when you think about it, you think kind of the desert, you know, the Israelites crossing, but realize in the desert, wherever there's water, you see lots and lots of vegetation, which is what's going on here. We're surrounded by olive trees that are, I don't even know how old. But, nevertheless, and there's also people around us here, things haven't really started yet. It's 15 bucks a pop to get baptized here. Of course, you all know that I'm Presbyterian and, you know, we don't do the rebaptism thing anyway. But also, it's a different kind of baptism that you see from John the Baptizer. You know, I don't even like to call him the Baptist. But John the Baptizer is giving a Jewish baptism of cleansing and repentance here. There are those that say only believers should be baptized, but only those that are professing faith in Jesus Christ. And yet I ask you, those that were baptized by John, did they know who Jesus was yet? Obviously not, because John talked about the one who was coming who would baptize with fire, whose sandals he was not worthy to untie. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating place. And it's not that there's no place for baptism. Certainly, we believe in baptism. This is a different kind of baptism, though. So it's a fascinating cultural thing to be here. But again, to know that it is in this river. Is it in this exact spot? Probably not. This is as good a time as any to tell you. Maybe I'll bring this up later today, but the different sites that I'm seeing, some of them They absolutely know for certain that's where the thing took place. Some of them, they're 90% certain. And some of them, they would consider them sea sights. They don't really know it all, but they say this is just as good a place as any. That's kind of where we're at right now. But nevertheless, it's a beautiful place. It's a fascinating place. But stuff is chewing on my feet, so I'm getting out of this thing. Thanks very much. Well, hello, everybody. It's so good to be back with you. Now, you see me walking around here and Lots of ruins behind me, right in front of us. really, really are actually behind a really big building. This is Capernaum, which is the Hebrew name for Capernaum, which is the city of Jesus. The last three years of Jesus' ministry, he spent right here in Capernaum, which is kind of the Greek anglicized version as we get in the American or the English translation of the Bible. But y'all, as we come into the synagogue here, I'm gonna turn it around turn around so you can actually see some things. As we come into the synagogue here, and as we walk around the different places, this would have been the synagogue where Jesus taught. Right out here, it talks about him teaching in the synagogue and around the synagogue. This area with trees behind me, of course, these aren't the original trees, but this is where so many important things would have happened. For instance, this is where the centurion sent his messengers to Jesus to go and heal his son who was sick. And this is one of the most incredible stories. They would have found Jesus right here, teaching outside of the synagogue or right inside this synagogue, right behind me. This is an A site. This means it absolutely happened here. And they were the ones that came and went back to the centurion and said, well, he's really busy, he can't come. Because all over, people would send their people here to be delivered of demons, to be healed of sickness, all these sorts of things. So Jesus gave words that I can't come right now. And that's when the centurion, they went back and told the centurion, and you can all read about this in Matthew and we'll get to it eventually. But then the centurion sent message back to Jesus. I'm a man that is in command. When I'm told something, I do it. When I tell one of my soldiers to do something, they listen to me, they do it. You can see the synagogue right behind me. said they'd do it. And he said, as a man that is in command, can't you just speak it? And it happened. You remember what Jesus said in response to this? Jesus talked about the fact that You know, there is, I've never seen such faith in anyone here. Remarkable, remarkable stuff, because he understood, the centurion understood that he could simply speak it, and it would be. So, incredible, incredible stuff. This is where the tax collectors would come from the temple. One of the things that we just learned about was that Jews are very organized when it comes to money. Maybe you knew that already. I can say that. My great-grandmother was Jewish, which by the way, I found out that I can immigrate to Israel. I don't have plans for that, but nevertheless, legally speaking, I could immigrate here and they would take me. because of that connection, but all that being said, they would send out scribes, they would send out tax collectors in order to organize for the Passover and for the three great holy days of the Jewish calendar year, because you couldn't have everybody come at once and you'd have to pay a tax. Well, they came collecting taxes and Jesus, right here in this spot, now right there is the synagogue, right behind me, perhaps you can see it in the distance, right over these trees right there, that's the Sea of Galilee. Jesus would have been right here at the synagogue when those tax collectors came and he told Peter, go, go to the sea and catch a fish. The first fish you catch will have a coin in it and it will be enough for the tax for you and me. It was a half a shekel. He found one shekel in that fish's mouth. Out of the millions of fish that are out there, warm water comes from these mountains right behind me and flows into the sea. If you know anything about fish, they like warm water. So it was easy to catch fish here. That's why there were so many fishermen. But Peter caught that fish. And y'all, it wasn't just a tax for the temple. That was the tax that Jesus needed to go to Jerusalem, to die on the cross, to suffer and die for you. It's such a humbling thing. to be in this place and to see these ancient ruins. It's such a humbling thing to be right here, for instance. And I'm gonna walk over to something that I think is extremely important. Y'all, this is the first church, period, ever. And why do I say that? Because this was the first place that Jesus really gathered his followers to himself. And why I say that is that seven of the 12 apostles were called here. When I get back on Wednesday and I'm gonna do a presentation, Behind me, there's a pillar that has the Zebedee family name, which, of course, the sons of Zebedee were the apostles. Right here behind me is the first church because this, right behind me, right over here, is Peter's mother-in-law's home, who Jesus healed. And this is where his followers started to gather together to meet in his name. And there is no doubt about this. This is not a guess. This is the actual place where all of these things happen. Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law right there. This is a large church that is built over the top of it. But y'all, again, to say that this is incredible, this was Jesus's town. Outside it says the town of Jesus. The last three years of his ministry were right here. This is where he called his disciples, right in this area. I'm gonna walk over to the Sea of Galilee, or at least to the gates of the city close to it. Because y'all, again, this is where Peter would go to catch the fish that had the temple tax in it. This also, remarkably enough, is where Jesus, in speaking to his disciples, would give them a new paradigm, a new calling, a new purpose altogether. You know, as Jesus is going around, they're wondering, who is this? What is he doing? This man, is he like Elijah? Is he one of the prophets? You know, there were so many things that were said about Jesus, and this would have been the place that they watched Jesus heal people. This would have been the place that, again, Peter's mother-in-law was healed here. This would have been the place where Jesus called seven out of the 12 of his disciples. This is where all the fishermen were. And y'all, to that end, As we think about the many things that Jesus said to his disciples and all the ways that Jesus called his disciples, it would be right here on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that Jesus would call to Peter and the others. Simon at the time, he hadn't given them the name Peter yet, but it would be right here that Jesus would say to his disciples, come with me and I'm gonna make you fishers of men. It would have been right here within walking distance of the synagogue where Jesus taught. To say that this is an incredible place is just putting it mildly. Hopefully, the next time I come to you, I'll actually be on a boat out here on the Sea of Galilee. I'll have to resist the urge to jump in. But nevertheless, what a blessing it is to be here and to have this time with you. Thank you. Well, hello, everybody. Here we are on the Sea of Galilee. Just think about the things that happened here. The 153 fish walking on water. Jesus calming the sea. It's just unthinkable, almost, when you think about the history of the things that took place on these very waters behind me. What a privilege. What an honor to be here. What an incredible place. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. Well, hello again, everybody. As you can see, I'm right here on the shore of Galilee. I just finished in the water myself and, you know, waiting out there, but I'm in a very special place. I'm going to turn the camera around. Some of you have seen me use this slide before on Sunday mornings and other teachings, especially when I did daily devotionals on the gospel according to John. Remember earlier, I talked about how there's different sites and some of them are And maybe it happened here, maybe it didn't. And some of them, we absolutely positively know it took place here. Well, this happens to be one of them. Right here on the shore of Galilee, you can see how rocky it is. I can tell you, I nearly ate it just a little while ago trying to walk out there because the rocks are really slippery. It is hard on bare feet. But this is the place that after Jesus was crucified and resurrected from the dead, that Peter looked at the other disciples and said, I'm going fishing. Now, we know that this was more than just casually throwing out the old Zebco rod and reel, right? This was a commercial venture. One might ask, why is Peter going fishing commercially speaking? Wasn't he called to be a fisher of men? Well, you see, something had happened to Peter, and that is Peter had denied Christ three times when Jesus needed him the most. And it was right here on the water behind me that Peter and the other disciples were fishing. And then they looked, and what did they see? They saw the risen Savior. John said, is that the Lord? And Peter didn't even bother to waste any time. He jumped out of the boat and he ran ashore here on these rocks, right up to where we are, right up behind us here, where Jesus had prepared breakfast for the disciples. That's where we are right now. What a spectacular place. What a glorious thought that the risen Lord came here. They cast out their nets and caught 153 fish. Read Psalm 150 verse 3 today. Read John chapter 21 as a matter of fact. But it's here that Jesus instills in Peter the necessity of feeding his fish three times, asking Peter if he loves him and thus restoring him three times. Three denials, three restorations. But what a glorious place this is as we consider the Lord's faithfulness You know, it's interesting. There's a lot of people here. A group of nuns just came by a few minutes ago. Some of my Puerto Rican friends are over here, and you probably can hear them on the camera too. But really y'all, what a spectacular place. All of this happened right here, and it was on this shore behind me, right back here, that Jesus prepared breakfast for his disciples. The risen Lord made himself known. What a blessing. Thank you again so much. Let me pray for us right now. Our Father, we thank you for all the ways that you have worked and for the ways that you have preserved history and heritage. And we know there's no sacred spaces. However, it is spaces like these and places like these that point us back to the validity of our testimony, the validity of what your word says about Jesus, that it gives us a reference point. It puts these things in time and space and all of these point to your faithfulness. So Father, As we read John 21, as we look at these different passages associated with these different places, we pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. And Father, I pray that you would convict us of the calling that you have for us as you restored Peter. So you call us, your people, to serve you faithfully. So let us be about your business. But again, Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to have this time with one another, that this technology exists, and we praise your name. for all of your goodness. And we pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you so much, everyone. Lord Willem will be back tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Take care.