October 30, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Monday, October 30.
The weather has turned cold here today! And so, just on the threshold of Halloween and the month of November, we're getting in the holiday spirit! First Baptist Center is busy preparing our holiday event, Journey to Bethlehem, and you can find out more about it on Shelby County Today website.
This morning, however, we focus on a different Bethlehem. It's located just five miles from Jerusalem, but has the feel of an entirely different place. Modern Bethlehem is part of the West Bank, that area where three million Palestinians live, fifty thousand of them Christians.
Bethlehem, today, is surrounded by walls, fences, gates, check-points. It is something of an armed camp, filled with soldiers, filled with danger, filled with despair. In typical years, thousands of pilgrim-tourists journey to Bethlehem during the holidays. But this year, at Christmas, the hotels may very well be empty.
Pray for Israel. Pray for Bethlehem.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
