Well, hello everybody and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Saturday. Yes, Saturday. I'm actually recording one today too. Just got to our hotel in Jerusalem and y'all, this is a limited devotional, just a couple of short videos. given the fact that it's for Saturday. Maybe you'll watch it, maybe you won't, but I would hate for you to miss the fantastic things that I saw today. Y'all again, what a blessing it is to be here. Let me pray for us and then I'll just post those videos. They'll all be part of this one clip though. So let's pray. Our Father, we thank you so much for this time that you've given to us. What a blessing it is that you've given me to be here and I pray that this is a blessing to others. As we consider your son and our savior, Jesus Christ, what he faced, and as we look back to the Old Testament times, what took place when your people were unfaithful, and yet the promise that you give of the desert blooming, we pray that you would fill us with hope, and like the first church, like the first and greatest prayer of the church, let us pray. Come, Lord Jesus, come. And so we do now. Please bless this time, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you very much, everybody. I hope this is a blessing to you. Well, hello everybody and welcome back. I'm happy to be with you today and I'm coming to you from a very interesting place. I'm walking around here. There's a lot of prophecy throughout the Old Testament about a lot of different things, namely God's faithfulness to his people and how God is going to ultimately bring redemption. And I happen to be in one of those places where so many very, very important things took place. As you can see in Isaiah, it says, I think it's chapter 62, that the desert will bloom. that the valley of Achor will bloom. Now, does the valley of Achor ring any bells for you? Think back to the book of Joshua. And I should have looked up the chapter before I started recording this, but nevertheless, you can Google it. Look at the conquest of the promised land. You remember Moses and Deuteronomy has the retelling of the law and all these things, but Moses is not going into the promised land and he knows he's not going into the promised land. And instead it is Joshua, his great general, that will lead the people into the promised land. Of course, the first place that they encounter is that place that actually is the oldest city on earth. Dates back to 10,000 BC. And it happens to be right behind me. I hope that you can see it off in the distance. Oh, I really hope that you can see just barely. Maybe, maybe can you see it? It's really hazy behind me. But just behind me, you can see some of the towers and things perhaps over here. That's Jericho. Now, this is a very interesting place. Technically speaking, I'm not in Israel anymore. I'm in a place that some have called the West Bank. The legal name for this place that I'm at is the Disputed Territory, where they don't really know where this place is. Is it Palestine? Is it Israel? They don't know. It is this disputed area where there is so much activity, terrorist activity as a matter of fact, because right behind me in Jericho, there are Hamas operatives right now. And if you wonder about how dangerous this place is, Iran fired that missile here and it landed right behind me. Just down the road from me is a memorial to a group of soldiers, I think it was 27 that were killed in a helicopter that was shot down by Hamas. Y'all, this is a hotly contested area, and it has a perfect name, because if that's Jericho over there, right, and the Jordan River is right over there, then that means I'm in the Valley of Acre. Read Joshua, and you'll find out about the conquest of the promised land, where the first city they come to is Jericho, and yes, the walls came tumbling down. But it's after this took place that Achan, one of the Israelite men, decided to keep the spoils of war. Now remember, all the spoils of war, the gold, everything else that they got from Jericho, was supposed to be dedicated to the tabernacle, just like the spoils given to them by Egypt. Remember what happened to that gold? They gave it to Aaron to fashion the golden calf, but not under Joshua, not this time. Even so, Achan dug a hole in his tent and buried the spoils of war right there. Now, eventually it was discovered when they went to battle, they were defeated, and so they said, well, something must be going on here. What have we done? And it was discovered that Achan had committed this theft, tried to steal the glory of God. And so he and his family were brought right here behind me, right here around me, in the Valley of Achor, and were stoned to death. Achor means trouble in Hebrew. And the missile behind me really should indicate that. But y'all, it's not just trouble that we find in Achor, we also find the promise, not only in Isaiah 62, in Hosea chapter two. Now Hosea is a very interesting book. It's about Hosea the prophet, who marries a woman named Gomer, who prostitutes herself, runs around, on Hosea again and again and again, and it's an actual symbolic account of what Israel was doing to God. And so the book of Hosea is all about God's faithfulness to an unfaithful people group. Of course, we realize the full fulfillment of that is no longer Jews and God, that issue has been settled. Now, we know that something's gonna happen with Jews according to Romans chapter 11, but what Hosea ultimately points to is what Jesus does to build his church. And as it is there in Hosea chapter two, we get this promise of the desert blooming. So it is here in this place. I'm in a very interesting place. I think it's called the forest of life. where the intent is to plant I think a thousand trees something like that there's around 800 here now we just planted a clementine tree just over here the group that I'm with but It's remarkable what's going on. Also, interestingly enough, and not to get too political, we just met the woman who she and her husband run this farm, and they have seven children of their own, but they've had, I think, 420 foster children that have come here and have worked the land with them. If you watch some of the more left-leaning news outlets, they will refer to the occupiers of the West Bank, these evil colonizers, and they will often advocate for infantata, intifada, not infantada, intifada, right? That's an Arabic word. It means uprising The guy that was elected mayor of New York City refuses to speak out against intifada. And basically, the term global intifada means kill Jews everywhere around the world. And New York's new mayor refuses to say there's a problem with that idea. But nevertheless, when you think about the evil occupiers, the colonizers that are wanting to destroy and apartheid and genocide, yeah, they have foster kids here. They take in kids, they take in orphans. They have around 300 sheep. They're trying to redeem this land, and they're trying to hold it, to hang on to it. But y'all, to say that this is an important place, not only in the history of Israel's conquest, but also in terms of the ultimate prophecy of Jesus building his church. Hosea's wife was Gomer. That's where that name comes from. His wife, Gomer, ran around on him. constantly, and he'd keep going back to get her. That symbolizes what God did with Israel. But the fullness of that is recognized as Jesus redeems his bride, the church. And y'all, that's all what happened here, right here in the Valley of Acres, the subject of prophecy. It's the subject of hope. It's called the door of hope. And at the same time, there is still much trouble here. But what an honor to be with you. Thanks so much. All right, everybody, I finally made it to Jerusalem. There's a lot, a lot of people here. You're probably wondering where I am. I mean, when you come to a place like Jerusalem, where do you even start? Maybe this gives you some sort of an idea. Y'all, if you don't know what that is, and hopefully you can see it there behind me, that's an olive tree because I'm on the Mount of Olives. And right behind me is Jerusalem. This is a very, very important place. It's where Jesus came to retreat so many times. Sorry, I'm in the way of a group here. It's where Jesus came to retreat so many times. This is where the scripture says that Jesus will return. And in fact, When he does, the Mount of Olives will be split in two. So if it's today, I'm grateful I'm going to heaven. But nevertheless, beneath me down here is the Garden of Gethsemane. I'm going to be back here with you all. Notice that this is also where Jesus ascended back into heaven. This is where the Olivet Discourse was pronounced. When Jesus looked upon Jerusalem as he was entering in, And he said those words, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stoned the prophets, how I long to draw you to myself, but you would not have it. And my friends, this is the city where I'm at. And to walk in these footsteps is incredible. There will be much more. Hopefully, this comes through. Thank you.