Jimmy - 3rd post

Well..., this is my last day on the Sea of Galilee. Tomorrow we are heading to the Holy City, Jerusalem!  I am getting back to my full strength just in time (I've been battling this cold since day one of this trip...been feeling pretty miserable on most of the excursions, but I told our tour director that I didn't travel 6,000 miles to be sidelined by a cold). **** Being on the sea has been incredibly peaceful and calm.  My room is literally 40 feet from the shoreline. **** This has been a fascinated time for me...a time of reflection, clearing of my mind, listening to God's voice as He calms my soul. **** Yesterday I went to Caesarea Philippi, now known as Banias (Or Panias in Greek, after the Greek god Pan).  We visited a magnificent waterfall that was breathtaking.  I'm posting video footage of my trip to this waterfall on my Facebook page (hint, hint, you should check it out under James Wilson, it will be there during the week Feb 13th).   Historians don't know why Jesus took the Disciples to this area.  Caesarea Philippi is not mentioned in any other place in the Gospels...it was a land filled with temples and idols to foreign gods.  Additionally, it is so far removed from the handful of cities that the Gospels reflect where Jesus did ministry.  My theory, however, is that Jesus goes to the heart of pagan territory and a land filled with falsehood to proclaim and affirm the authority of His Truth and the constancy of God's power in and through His church.  It is the ultimate in comparison and contrast. **** This trip is also helping me gain a better understanding of the humanity of Jesus.  In my earlier post I mentioned how Jesus might have been physically fit, due to the nature of this terrain and that poor people of this time would have walked from city to city.  Our tour guide gave insightful commentary on a theory of why Jesus left Nazareth to come to Capernaum as the basis of His Galileean ministry.   From a strategic standpoint, Nazareth was a small village of about 200 people.  If Jesus wanted to take His message of redemption to a wider stage, He needed a different marketplace.  Given the pivotal location of Capernaum, what better location could there have been?  It was a much larger multicultural community near a main thoroughfare of travelers. He called Peter, who, as evidence might suggest,  was someone that had the financial means and willing heart to further Jesus' movement.  Humanly speaking, Jesus was a clever strategist!  Hmm?  We, the Church, people of faith, businesses, individuals, social service agencies, local and national governments can learn a thing from the Master, the Ultimate Strategic Planner.   Jimmy