STORIES VS. LIFE
In 1962 I was given a trip to the Holy Land. Our tour began in Egypt, then continued through Jordan, Syria and Lebanon before ending in Israel. Morning and afternoon tours in Jerusalem took us to various holy sites.
One day our bus stopped before a bunch of huge stones in a tall wall. As I walked toward the wall, I was struck with the recognition of what it was. This is the Wailing Wall, a remnant of Solomon’s Temple! Jewish people come here to stick pieces of paper with prayer requests into the cracks between the stones, then to pray. A couple of pastors in my home area had been there, and I had seen their slides. What an awesome experience for me to recognize what I was seeing before the guide explained it to me! I had a realization, "This is that!"
A little over five years ago I preached a sermon on that topic. I’m going to dig it out and do it again. We need knowledge of the history of the Bible, but more than that we need experience in our individual lives of the events in the Bible.