Old News
Over the past couple of days we have been having tours of the New City and the Old City. Both the Old and the New are considered Jerusalem, just different parts of the city. Obviously, the Old City is more of the original and the New City is modern. The Old City is surrounded by a stone wall that was rebuilt in the 1500's and is also divided up into quarters (the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, and the Christian Quarter). The wall is approximately 2.5 miles in total length. The is a lot of tourist type shops in there, but a lot of other amazing historical sights (such as the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, Holy Sepulchre, and much, much, more). The New City is very modern. There is a fantastic pedestrian only square filled with all sorts of quality eats and shops called the Ben Yehuda Square. There are street performers, beautiful lighting, and lots of people. On Sunday we got a tour of the Old City (which I am in love with), walked part of the city wall, saw all of the historical sights I listed above. Too many amazing thoughts and feelings to pen out...

...but I'd like to share one with you...

Such Great Heights
A little less than a year ago I was reading a book that made a profound claim that to this day continues to blow my mind. I researched this claim and discovered that it was 100% valid. In fact, I wrote a final paper with a piece of the research I did and included it in the paper..."so what is this claim" you might be saying aloud. In all honesty, this claim has come to mean so very much to me. In fact, it is so special that I want to keep it all to myself. I don't want to share it (like a toddler and his G.I. JOE's). Sometimes I even wish that no one in the world knew this information but me so I could have it ALL to myself. Yet, there is a peice of me that wants to share this new found insight. The only reason I do want to share this claim with you is because I have a dream that gives me hope. My dream is that the Bride of Christ (the living breathing one which includes you and me, not the building) would become what it was meant to be...what it was designed/intended to be...

First, I want to address a future potential issue. After reading about the information I intend to present, I can imagine ones mind doing one of two things...opening or closing. I can see one individual read this and have the same reaction I did. My reaction initially contained a little bit or fear (and it still does) but it opened my eyes to so many new ideas, thoughts, and questions.

I can see another person on the opposite side of spectrum read this information and maybe even research it, and discover how true it actually is...but will never except it as truth. With that in mind, I ask you to read an excerpt from the book Plato Rebublic (which was written in approximitly 390 B.C.) in my next post. Following that post, I plan to present the "claim" that had such an impact on my own thoughts and continues to do so...