Together across space & time

So I must say: I love church.  Well I love church for many many reasons...but more than anything, it's a spiritual food for me.  Not that I don't "feed" spiritually everyday, because I do try to.  But Sundays are set-aside times available for us to embrace after a long week in God's field, among God's people.  Being a light in a progressively dark world is draining and that uplifting event each week is not just a "thing to do" or "item to check off".  Rather, it's an essential need that we have.  It boils down to the essential reason we were made--to have an intimate relationship with the Lord, our Maker.  And when you go to church, you are surrounded by people who have a relationship with the Lord as well...it's kinda like when you are introduced to a friend by another friend.  You can almost immediately become friends right off the bat because there is a connection there--you have a mutual friend who you both care for.  A commonality.  A foundation.  A reason you were introduced in the first place.  Church family members have that same commonality.  They become family only because of the fact that Jesus initially brought them together. 

I love this about church.

On to a completely different topic...I was doing a bit of research about where I'll be headed in T-2 days.  Dad was helping me with this and it's amazing to think I'll be in the exact area of so much history and where so many things took place.  Obviously, I'll be able to tell you more about the area and about the archeology once I get there, but as a pre-cursor here are a couple of maps of interest about the area.  Specifically, I'll be in Amman and Madaba, while digging on a site that's about 30 minutes from the Dead Sea.  I'm also close to the place where they think that Moses was buried.  Take a look:

^ This shows the actual dig site, "Khirbat Iskander".  It's a city from the Early Bronze Age (est. 3500-2000 BC).

 

^ This is just a slightly more detailed map--some places of importance that I'm sure I'll be writing about later: Amman, Madaba, Petra.

 

^ Oh, man.  I know this is hard to read, but I like it alot.  It shows sites of biblical happenings in present-day Jordan.  If there is a way to enlarge your screen or the font to look at this map closer, it might be of interest... #13 on the map is the place I mentioned earlier where Moses is said to have been laid to rest.

~ "God closes doors no man can open and God opens doors no man can close" ~