By Mark Hopper

Some of my favorite movies are the ones with Harrison Ford as the lead actor “Indiana Jones”.  His first adventure was the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and another one was “The Last Crusade”.

I know that Disneyland has an Indiana Jones ride which is a lot of fun.  But, recently, my wife and I got to see the actual location of the closing scene of the “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” movie.

The location is in the mountains of southern Jordan in the city of Petra.  The word “Petra” means rock in Greek.  Petra was an important city along a couple of trade routes in ancient times.  Traders going north from the Red Sea would pass through Petra.  And, caravans going east and west would pass through here, too.

Petra has a number of building facades that are carved into the red sand stone in a narrow canyon.  Petra is listed as one of the seven man-made wonders of the ancient world along with places like the Taj Majal and the Great Wall of China.

The scene in the Indiana Jones movie is in front of what is called the Treasury building.  It is not actually a building, just the face of a building.  I don’t remember the demnsions but it must be at least 75-100 feet high.  This huge facade was carved out of the face of a cliff in Petra with hammer and chisel.  I don’t know how long it took the workmen to make this, but it is remarkable.

In our country we have Mt. Rushmore with the faces of four presidents.  It took a number of years to carve this imposing memorial.  They used pneumatic jack-hammers and other power tools to create Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of western South Dakota.  It is definitely worth seeing this man-made monument to some of our nation’s greatest leaders.

Petra is an even more remarkable man-made project created by people who did not have the power tools or modern technology that we have today. They basically used hammer and chisel to create this imposing project.  The workmanship and details are amazing.  It was a wonderful experience to see it in person.

There is a verse in the Bible that says, “We are God’s workmanship” (Ephesisians 2:10).  In the Living Bible it says, “It is God Himself who has made us what we are and He has given us new lives from Christ Jesus…and He planned that we should spend these lives helping others”.  God did not carve us out of stone, but he created us as living beings so that we would serve Him and serve others.

Places like Petra and Mt. Rushmore are remarkable to see and admire.  But, people like you and me have gifts and abilities from God to serve Him and others.  We were created to be living proof of a loving God.  I hope you will look for opportunities this week to serve God and serve others.  They will be glad you did and you will too!

Pastor Mark Hopper

Efree Church of Diamond Bar

3255 South Diamond Bar Blvd

909-594-7604

Sunday Services: 9:00 & 10:45 AM

Efreedb.org