The Temple at Jerusalem was a magnificent structure. The original temple that Solomon had built around 950 BC had been destroyed by the Babylonians when they conquered Israel and deported them to Babylon. But when Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon, he returned the people of Israel to the Promised Land and helped them rebuild the Temple around 550 years before Jesus was born.

It was the sort of place that people wanted to maintain and improve over those centuries, and 30 years before Jesus was born Herod the Great embarked on a massive building project to restore and refresh the Temple that had been in place by that time almost 500 years. He enhanced it by building massive plazas, colonnades, porticos and gardens all around it.

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Salisbury Cathedral stands on a plain in Wiltshire, England, a couple of hours west of London. That area has been inhabited by people for thousands of years. It’s just 9 miles south of Stonehenge, which is 5,000 years old (1,000 or more years older than Abraham) and built by the people who lived in that area. Christians evangelized the area during Roman times. The old city was called by its Latin name of Sarum, and it remained a vital religious and economic center perched on a high hill for defensive purposes.

In the early 1200’s, they got the bright idea of moving the city down from its hill onto the plain near the river. In 1220 they began to construct this amazing and stunningly beautiful cathedral. The first wall went up that year and remains at the very east end, which is Trinity Chapel. They completed it in just 38 years.

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It’s a bit of a cliche, but it has happened to me many times and I suspect it has happened to you. A well-meaning Christian will approach me, often a bit too close, and ask, “Have you been saved?” My answer is yes, I’m a baptized, believing Christian. For a long time I thought of that as a yes or no question about my faith in Jesus, and since we are saved by grace through faith, I get to go to heaven. But it’s not that simple. Salvation in Jesus also means transformation, an ongoing process of becoming more and more like him.

On our trip to Israel last June, an optional stop on our itinerary was Jericho. I wanted to see Jericho very badly for several reasons. First, it is the lowest city in the world, by that I mean it is 864 feet below sea level. It is also one of, if not the, oldest cities in the world to be still active. Its biblical history goes all the way back to the exodus, and of course Joshua when the walls came tumbling down.

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