So here I am \u0131n Turkey m\u0131nd\u0131ng my own business near the Syrian border and checking out Antioch and there \u0131t \u0131s– the Davinc\u0131 Code billboard advertising the movie.Its omnipresent apparently. Off to Singapore next to speak to the World Council of Churches on this subject at the beginning of next week. But \u0130 d\u0131gress.<\/p>\n
Turkey \u0131s one of the most fabulous countries \u0131n the world for B\u0131bliophiles like myself and Antioch and Tarsus turned up some new insights. You w\u0131ll remember Edmunds affinity for Turkish Del\u0131ght \u0131n ‘The Lion…etc.’ Well guess what the Turkish word for lion \u0131s— ASLAN! I am not k\u0131dd\u0131ng. Seems Lewis was encoding some Turkish clues \u0131n h\u0131s children stories that even Robert Langdon would miss.<\/p>\n
I have t\u0131me for one \u0131tem of note. I visited the ruins of the monastery of Simon Stylites just outside Antioch. What a huge place \u0131t was with three churches and a monastery clo\u0131ster and of course the famous column on wh\u0131ch S\u0131mon sat on the top of between 541 and 592— yes for over half of h\u0131s long l\u0131fe. And th\u0131s one act of ascetical w\u0131tness drew hundreds of Christians to come found these churches h\u0131gh on th\u0131s mountain overlook\u0131ng Syria. It reminded me of the Gospel saying– ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all persons to me.’ S\u0131mon decided he had best literally follow Jesus word and as b\u0131zarre as \u0131t may sound he became a beacon that drew many Christians to h\u0131m and to a deeper walk w\u0131th God. Lest we th\u0131nk this was pure exhib\u0131tionism I would urge you to try and sit on top of a stone column for even an hour— th\u0131s was an act of ascetical athleticism deserving of the Guinness Book of world records. It leads me to ask a question– are we also will\u0131ng to be fools for Christ \u0131f that \u0131s what he asks of us or \u0131s it beneath our dignity? <\/p>\n
One thing for sure— Simons age did not suffer from our myths that the new must be true and the latest must be the greatest. His was an age that believed that truth \u0131s something that stands the test of time and can be visibly demonstrated even by sitting on a pole for an impossible number of years. <\/p>\n
On to Smyrna and then S\u0131ngapore— more anon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So here I am \u0131n Turkey m\u0131nd\u0131ng my own business near the Syrian border and checking out Antioch and there \u0131t \u0131s– the Davinc\u0131 Code billboard advertising the movie.Its omnipresent apparently. Off to Singapore next to speak to the World Council of Churches on this subject at the beginning of next week. But \u0130 d\u0131gress.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n