Tarsus is a mixture of old and new. Below back by the big waterfall. There is this stage which I seems to be used for community events.
I can imagine the Apostle Paul speaking here maybe….. 🙂
Some major renovations in the old part of the city
Great place for wedding pictures!!
Previous 26. Unusual Turkish cuisine
Next 28. Flight home from Adana
Fomented carrot juice. This really looks tempting. Ahem. Especially when its a colour different to what you think carrots should be. This was from a road side kiosk shop that sold cigarettes and newspapers.
These market carts are popular in Tarsus selling all kinds of wares. I bought a jar of honey for 12TL (£3) which I later had confiscated in the airport as I had in my carry on, as honey is a type of liquid. Bah. Wasn’t impressed.
As well kebabs and mezes which are found in Turkish run places all the big cities in the UK, Turkish food can also be refined also, I like the fact there are many places to eat outside with nice gardens and fountains. This restaurant back in Goereme provides meals on hot plates not dissimilar to candle powered heaters in Indian restaurants I have seen.
Previous 25. Museum of Tarsus
Next 27. Buildings in Tarsus
Ok, time to get back to final parts of this. Tarsus doesn’t seem to promote itself very well to Christian visitors. But there is this museum, I didn’t get a picture of it from the outside, so heres this Streetmap view.
This concrete building, has market outside to buy home made local foods.
Inside the museum, there is a lot of early Islam like this grave stone and these rooms of how Ottoman people lived. There is a quite creepy severed hand of a woman that was dug up which was quite macabre.
There a large number of coins on display from the Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Akkadian – but not from Jewish people.
This sign board was quite shocking. Bad English, whited out bits, and ‘Cult Christianism’ and ‘showed the characteristics of a secret cult’ Umm, ok…..
This was the most disappointing museum I have seen in a long time.
Previous 24. Tarsus’s fairly small tourist market arcade
Next 26. Unusual Turkish cuisine
I wrote a letter to Christian publisher IVP to re-consider stocking Sizer’s books which I got a kind but generic response about 5 years ago. So I was surprised to see this link a friend sent me last week.
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2016/11/breaking_intervarsity_press_in.html
He likes to meet up with holocaust deniers, and have tea with Ayatollah of Iran’s family and got disciplined by the church of England for in 2015 for saying Israel was responsible for 9/11. With a bit of Googling, you can see this man is a menace and a truly dreadful example to the church and witness to Jewish people.
Sizer looks like a typical gentle spoken silver haired vicar of a church in a village in Surrey but is obsessed in attacking Israel and the Jewish people, under the guise of some kind of false middle east peace project.
https://www.bod.org.uk/sizer-set-to-end-clergy-career-under-cloud/
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/165549/stephen-sizer-warned-after-attending-anti-israel-meeting
It seems in recent months Sizer is completely unrepentant on his hostility to Jewish people, not stopped by being threatened with being fired, and as he is about to finish up from his church in Easter, he is planning another faux peace project. All the people in yellow are Palestinians or have been involved with spreading hate about Israel pushing a Palestinian state at the expense of weakening Israel’s security.
from statement from Bishop of Guildford’s web site here;
“It is therefore my decision that Stephen’s work in this area is no longer compatible with his ministry as a parish priest.
“In order for Stephen to remain in parish ministry, I have therefore asked for – and received from him – a solemn undertaking, in writing, that he is to refrain entirely from writing or speaking on any theme that relates, either directly or indirectly, to the current situation in the Middle East or to its historical backdrop.”
I would be curious to know what the Bish thinks about Church of England buildings being used for high charged political events after this warning which the reverend has blatantly violated?
I have driven through this main road in Virginia Water a few times to an away day with my church at a hotel 4 miles away. Virignia Water is a idyllic looking English village that hides a pastor obsessively bent on hurting the nation of Israel. Spin your mouse around to see the church behind.
For the gospel to successfully go out to the Jewish people, church leaders who are hateful to Israel and Jewish people are not fit to serve and should be removed as soon as possible.
Peace to Jewish and Arab people will only happen as per the bible’s framework. Attempting to divide up God’s land which is not to be offered to any other part apart from the Jewish people comes with a catastrophic warning. Joel 3:2
There’s a lot of cults on London where I live.
I’ve seen the Hari Krishnas, The Moonies, Falong Gong, Scientologists, evangelical Islamists telling us we need Shariah law and also one or two self style Messiah figures, around the streets of London.
In Israel, the Falong Gong, Hari Krishnas and Scientologists are there too, and a few other weird ones.
So when some folks tell me all religion is the same and there is a select bad bunch of a few, I tend to roll my eyes and shake my head. Its no surprise that Paul spoke about it a lot, as did Peter, and Jesus said himself, there would be false Messiahs, false prophets and false religions would deceive people. In this particular time and age stuff like this is increasing. The Black Hebrew Israelites are some of the very worst groups I think around. They are racist and stir up hate.
I first so these folks actually in Oxford Street in London. They might seems like a limited fringe group, but they seem extremely active on the internet and they seem to be growing. Among forums and Facebook groups, they seem to pop up quite often.
On the surface, BHI appear to be just some young black men who love the bible and have an interest in Israel and Jewish people and practices.
‘Teaching material’put in front of these men. Not my foot, a few people watching seemed quite astonished by them.
The group of 5 young black men preaching in Oxford Street had a cartoon showing that Jesus was a black man, and that traditional Christianity is worshiping an imposter.
I didn’t get a closer picture of these guys for obvious reasons. They are bigger then me and crazy.
I’m trying to help and encourage a friend who has got into very similar teaching to this. Let me tell you this. I am going to no mince words here, this teaching is a lie from the pit of hell that breaks families, churches and communities. If you ever see folks from this teaching in your congregation or bible study remove them straight away and pray for protection on you and your family.
When you delve into their teaching they think that they are a lost tribe of Israel, or, and heard this quite a few times that ordinary Ashkenazi (white European Jews) are imposters, and that they should be the ones living in Jerusalem. They also read out a passage from Revelation 3:9 to reinforce this. They are driven by extreme arrogance and pride, I think they could easily turn nasty.
Some of these people are frequent speakers in London, one of these is close to Stratford station and some are in cult/weirdo-magnet ‘Speaker’s Corner’ in Hyde Park.
There are real black Jews of course. BHI is nothing to do with them. I’ve met many of the Ethiopian Jews in Israel, and be to some bars and restaurants owned by them. They are kind and gentle people.
Really enjoying this new album by Miqedem, a new bad from Israel, featuring the former worship leader Jamie Hilsden from my old church, Israel’s largest congregation King of Kings Jerusalem.
This is an entirely Hebrew album, with traditional Middle East/Israel style sound with one song with Arabic style melody.
This is well worth spending $7 on the download.
https://miqedem.bandcamp.com/releases
http://www.miqedem.net/
I heard from two people I know that some Christians were following some really peculiar teaching that the world is flat. This sounds silly but this odd idea have been growing in popularity recently. Flat Earth followers consider the world to be a flat disc and that the sun and planets revolve around us.
Here’s some examples of the Old Testament (I’ve used the NIV here, some bits but not all look more sensible actually in KJV) that Flat Earth people might use to justify this weird idea;
Ezekiel 7:2 2 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel:
“‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land!
Jeremiah 25:32 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth.”
Job 37:3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.
If you look up these links for Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Job you can see the word אָֽרֶץ (Eretz or H’aretz, land or the land)
The word Eretz is used a lot in Judaism, its used in the blessing of the bread that traditional Jews do on Shabbat.
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam Hamotzi lechem min haaretz.
Blessed are You, L-rd our G‑d, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.
Israel has always been known as Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) too. There is even a newspaper in Isrel caled Ha’aretz. (The Land)
We know from the Hebrew language this word is a little ambiguous. The word can be the ‘world’ or it can mean the ‘land’
Meanwhile, in the New Testament, here is a wonderful message of Jesus to his followers:-
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.“
Lets now look at the Greek here: You can see the Greek word: γῆς (pronounced “ge”)
Strong’s Greek shows just like the Hebrew, this word can also have two meaning. Land and Earth.
So what the bible is telling us the corners of the earth, are the corners of the continents of the earth.
For people to think that space agencies are lying and the world is a flat disc or square with Antarctica is a radial edge, and that the bible is supposed to say so, only makes look a bit silly.
Science and the bible do work together very nicely!
This is a long but great teaching. There several other parts afterwards.
In the last few years I’ve come across situations where I need to pray in a different language (gift of tongues) over a dangerous situation. I’m still fairly new to this, and my current regular church doesn’t speak on it. In the past I’ve been put off by other teachings on this subject.
Derek Prince is one of the best teachers on this and this is great resource for ordinary Christians looking to move forward in their spiritual life, not just for those in academia or theology circles.
I find it best to copy this to your iPod or other MP3 player using something like convert2mp3.net and listen on a bus ride as I have done.
This is an old article I wrote in 2012 whilst in Israel, which I never finished, not previously released. Here is Part 1.
After meeting up with and chatting to a gent who commented on my previous blog post about Peace monuments, here is another selection of gifts from foreign nations have had as well intended but often headscratchingly worthless items that are put on street corners. As I mentioned before, Jesus talks about ‘false peace’ and its true to say there are plenty of examples of this. Here’s one over the West Bank: 
Some well meaning people in Italy gave this monument to the Palestinian people in Bethlehem. Think they could of got someone to do a better poem than this. This artwork reminds me of all those tacky digital countdown clocks that were in pubs in the UK in 1999, did they all go in the bin I guess?
This bell comes from Japan! Its in Gan Sacher Park, Jerusalem. Here is another not so legal way of trying to get peace: 
This poster was in a sleezy looking street in downtown Tel Aviv. I did see before certain types of drugs that promote a legal high, that are yet to be outlawed, and that exact impacts of health and not yet known.
Back when I last visited my home city of Portsmouth, UK, there is this: 
A traditional style church, next to it is a large mosque that used to be a bingo hall and previously a cinema. This new Peace design in English and Arabic on the wall seems quite eye catching. However, I don’t really see peace in Islam, but I do know that Jesus loves the Muslim people and wants them to find him as Lord and savior. There are a few believers in Portsmouth too who left Islam behind.
For a while now, I have had an urge to pray for Asian and Arab people in Portsmouth who peace, fulfillment and eternal life are only found in Christ, this serves as a good reminder for me to do this.
Ok what’s weird about this picture?
I’m sure the shop I went past during my lunch break near Camden Town in London didn’t notice. This particular company selling fruit, in this case nectarines (which were very nice, as I did buy one) The box is marked “Gog and Magog”
Ezekiel 38 : 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal.
Revelation 20 : 7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
These are the only two bits of scripture that refer to Gog and Magog. I’m thinking the Italian company who export their fruit probably consider Israel’s own agriculture to be a big competitor and calling themselves a biblical enemy think it would be hilarious. It seems sad and quite bad taste.
