Have you ever heard of the city of Nain?
I’ve read the Bible for more than 35 years, but before today I would have answered the question, “No.”
Nain is where Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead. (Luke 7:11-17).
Before today, I paid no attention to the name of the city where Jesus performed this miracle because I assumed–wrongly–it had no relevance to an understanding of the story.
I now have a clear picture in my mind of where Jesus walked that day, from where he was coming and where he was going.
I now understand that when Jesus raised the young man from the dead He had already walked 20 miles that day, was probably very tired, but was still selfless, saw a need and met it. It adds an extra dimension to this event. What I’ve always characterized as an awesome exercise of Jesus’ power was an equally awesome exercise of his compassion.
The weather was terrible today, but we still managed to visit Caesarea (Acts 25-26) and Mount Carmel. I took the picture you see at the left while standing in the very place the Apostle Paul stood when he made his defense to Agrippa and Festus.
At Mount Carmel we stood on the roof of the building there and looked out over place where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal and the brook where Elijah introduced the same prophets to their Maker. (I Kings 18).
At Mount Carmel Arie brought us into the chapel out of the rain and gave a teaching on leadership, based on Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal. That, like most of Arie’s teachings, had so much substance it could easily fill a five part blog series.
All-in-All a good day. GS