Dead Sea or Galilee

I've been to Israel 4 times in my life. Each time I go is better than the time before. I guess that is because I'm older every time I go and that gives me a greater appreciation for what I am seeing and experiencing. You should go if you ever get a chance. Anyways, there are 5 main bodies of water that are connected to Israel: 1) The Mediterranean Sea, 2) The Gulf of Aqaba, 3)The Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberias/Lake Gennesaret, 4) The Dead Sea, 5) The Jordan River. It is the last three that have been on my mind recently.

The Jordan river has several tributaries that run into it but the main one is the melted snow that runs off Mt. Hermon. The Jordan flows down into northern Israel and enters at Dan and then proceeds into the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is today as it was in the time of Jesus; full of fish and surrounded by life. Men still catch nets full of fish today just as Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee did two millennia ago. Then the Jordan flows out of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee toward the Judean wilderness. Even then it is still full of fish and life. Groups that visit Israel will get baptized in the Jordan here. I have video of Melissa being baptized in the Jordan by my father and you can see the fish all around here in the water. It was also along this stretch that Joshua lead the people into the promised land for the first time. Then the Jordan comes into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the entire planet at over 1300 feet below see level. In the center of the Dead Sea it is over 1200 feet deep. It is also the most poisonous body of water on the planet. If you drink just two ounces of it's water it will kill you. It will destroy your kidneys and liver in a matter of minutes. Question is, how does that happen? What makes these two bodies of water so dramatically different? The Galilee is teeming with life and abundance while the Dead Sea is, well, dead. Both Seas are feed by the same great river. Both are in the same country. Why does one contain life while the other contains poison?

Outlet. The answer is that the Sea of Galilee has an outlet while the Dead Sea has none. Life comes into the Sea of Galilee and life flows back out as well. When the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea it ends there. All that flows into the Dead Sea just gets more concentrated and more potent. You can see the same effect take place in the lives of Christians. There are so many people that are a part of our churches that are just like the Dead Sea. They receive and receive and receive but there is never any outlet from them. They come and listen to good teaching and the Word of God preached, but they never do anything with what they hear or learn. They are plugged into discipleship groups and they go on retreats and to seminars, but still there is nothing coming out from them in an outlet of ministry, missions or service. I applaud and encourage an academic pursuit of the truths of God's Word. We need to know what we believe and believe what we know. But, we also need to put into practice all that we learn. If we learn and believe that Jesus loves us without limit and yet fail to pass that truth along to others in practical ways, then we are really just poisoning ourselves. This is the essence of Pharisee thinking. Learning and knowing so much good stuff but never sharing that goodness with anyone else. We are hanging onto and hoarding something that was never meant to be bottled up. I want to live a life like the Sea of Galilee. I want to receive all of the great things from the Lord (love, peace, grace, blessinsg, etc.) and I want to be conduit of those things as well. All that He brings in, I also want to put out towards others. We should be asking ourselves, "What are some practical ways that I can show others the incredible things that God has put in me?"