Join the LAND OF THE BOOK channel to access weekly video releases over the next year totaling 50+ EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS featuring weekly in-depth Bible Study lessons with John & Bonnie. Clips are taken at just one of the places where we are taking our virtual journey through all the Lands of the Bible & Great Museums of the Bible on the Paul's Life & Letters Course. Plus all the assigned HOLY LAND, Paul's Life & Letters Course STUDY RESOURCES, and John's two most loved books--David's Spiritual Secret & Living Hope for the End of Days at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVK6dN-9kLDnQhYBFuES09A/join Follow Discover the Book Ministries to stay up to date: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoverthebook/ DTBM Academy Courses: https://dtbma.com/Default.aspx Purchase John's Books, Mp3 & DVD resources: E-Books: https://tinyurl.com/y3wbhlxy Here are links to our Amazon Pages-- https://www.amazon.com/shop/dtbm Donate to the ministry: https://dtbm.org/donations/partnership/ For more of Dr. John Barnett's Bible teaching messages, go to: https://dtbm.org/ https://youtu.be/HU4jib0cp7M ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU4jib0cp7M

One of the most enduring experiences for me from the Holy Land is Ein Gedi. When you get to the lowest spot on the face of the earth, the shores of the Dead Sea, you immediately notice that it is hot most of the time. It is also dry, sun-baked, and salted with minerals and chemicals that combine to make it quite inhospitable for most forms of life other than bacteria. In every direction, there is lifelessness, death, and scorched rocks. That is in every direction but one. Sprouting from the rocks like a modern-day Garden of Eden is a Dead Sea oasis called Ein Gedi. From the earliest times, Ein Gedi has been known and inhabited by desert travelers. From the rocks there flows the coolest, sweetest, and freshest waters imaginable. The contrast between the stark and barren and lifeless shores of the Dead Sea and the sun-baked mountains that ring it – and the lush green gardens of Ein Gedi are almost beyond words. Most people have to experience it to fully feel the side-by-side contrast of life and death. Hungry, exhausted, hot, and thirsty -- it was to this place that David and his men ran in flight for their lives from King Saul. It was here they stayed and refreshed and renewed their bodies and souls. And it was from here that David marched. And it was this wilderness “a dry and thirsty land” that prompted David’s mighty 63rd Psalm. For David meditation was taking the God he longs for with him -- no matter what was going on. Meditation meant David “seeks longingly” Psalm 63:1-2 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek (to seek early or earnestly, look early or diligently for) You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs (to long for, faint, faint with longing; The word seems to mean “has gone blind”, or “gone dark”. How vivid Hebrew poetry is! Then seek is the most revealing verb. Basically, it means longing for the first light of the dawn. ) for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Meditation is a soul that thirsts and drinks of God in His Word; that longs for the waters of life and drinks them of God in His Word; that drinks from an ever-present oasis in the arid, sun-baked, lifeless deserts of life through finding and communing with God in His Word. We need an EnGedi oasis throughout each day. The way to bring cool rivers of refreshing water into the driest of times is to meditate upon God through His Word. As Ray VanderLaan says : Where can you find an “En Gedi,” a place where you can become restored with God’s shade and living water, amid your busy days? Just as David and his men needed the life-giving, living water of En Gedi to survive their time in the wilderness, God’s people today need God’s life-giving, living water to serve Him in the wilderness of life. When we are nourished and filled with His living water, we will overflow with streams of living water that we can share with thirsty, needy people who live in a spiritually barren world (John 7:38). But to have anything to give, we need to have an En Gedi times of devotion, Bible study, prayer, retreat, a meditation where we can meet with God to satisfy our own spiritual thirst. What will you do this coming week to guarantee that you will have time with God your “oasis” who will give you what you need to flourish? Accept no substitutes for living water! Although many things in our culture may look like living water, they all fail to give us life, to satisfy our thirst for God. As a shepherd, David had learned the secrets of desert survival. Sheep know how to make it in arid and parched lands. (DYG-19; 030608AM) Join the LAND OF THE BOOK channel to get access to weekly video releases over the next year totaling 50+ EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS that feature weekly in-depth Bible Study lessons with John & Bonnie. Clips are taken at just one of the places where we are taking our virtual journey through all the Lands of the Bible & Great Museums of the Bible on the Paul's Life & Letters Course. Plus all the assigned HOLY LAND, Paul's Life & Letters Course STUDY RESOURCES, and John's two most loved books--David's Spiritual Secret & Living Hope for the End of Days at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVK6dN-9kLDnQhYBFuES09A/join Follow Discover the Book Ministries to stay up to date: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoverthebook/ DTBM Academy Courses: https://dtbma.com/Default.aspx Purchase John's Books, Mp3 & DVD resources: E-Books: https://tinyurl.com/y3wbhlxy Here are links to our Amazon Pages-- https://www.amazon.com/shop/dtbm Donate to the ministry: https://dtbm.org/donations/partnership/ For more of Dr. John Barnett's Bible teaching messages go to: https://dtbm.org/ https://youtu.be/35LzQY_HPFw ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35LzQY_HPFw