New Life Among the Ruins

Our tour to Israel earlier this year, included a most wonderful place, a place that I had not visited before. We went to see the ruins of an ancient city built on the site of Shiloh. You know, the place where the tabernacle was located, with the hills all around it. These hills are the place where the children of Israel lived their lives, and the Bible tells us that each person could see the tabernacle from his or her dwelling. The Lord told them to place the tabernacle in the midst of the camp, and He told them that He would dwell in the Holy of Holies, that was inside the tabernacle. You can stand there and still see all of the hills surrounding the area, and imagine yourself in a tent up on the hill, looking down into the valley and seeing the tabernacle, and being reminded that the LORD was with you.
The photo that I have posted here I have titled, "New Life Among the Ruins." It is an appropriate title, not only for this area, but an appropriate metaphor of my life! In the OT, the tabernacle was a "mobile" temple, and the children of Israel, during their wanderings, would "pack it up" and move it to each new place they went. When their wanderings were over, and they were in the Promised Land, Shiloh became the religious capital 300 hundred years before the temple in Jerusalem was built. I LOVED being there! We had a Bible study out of Joshua and it was very inspiring to me.
The NT likens Christians to the tabernacle, and so we are "a mobile temple" so to speak, because the Spirit of God lives in each Christian, and we take Him to the world as we go about our daily lives. And just like the red poppies that bloom all over the hills of Israel in the spring, I too am a "new life among the ruins"..........of my old life, and of the lives of those I come into contact with on a daily basis, those who do not know Jesus, and are living a life that is so far from what God desires for them. May I always remember that I take Jesus with me wherever I go, and may He use me to show others, that there is available to them a "New Life Among the Ruins."