Why Turkish?

As I grow in the Lord, and understand more and more of His character and
what He thinks of me, I can no longer just simply accept what He gives me
and put it in a treasure box to keep as only mine. I now find that more
often than not what He gives me is prophetic and speaks far into the future,
not only for me, but for any He puts in my path as I go. Because of this,
I have in the past couple of weeks been wondering why He would speak to me in Turkish...teach me a special Turkish word and call me that. If you do not
know what I'm talking about...or should I say if you have not been blessed
by my babblings of things God has done for me, given me or shown me...several
years ago in a time of great questioning about my faith, my marriage, and so
on, I told God that I wanted to know Him more and that I wanted all He has
for me and want to do all that He wants to do through me. I went to sleep
and He gave me a dream/vision of a scroll with "goo loom" written on it. After prayer and some research...you know I had to Google it...I found that He
had given me the pronunciation of the word Gulum. Back then Google was not
nearly as good at translating and though I got hundreds of hits on Google, I could not find the meaning of the word.

I finally found a record album by Yildiz Tilbe and she is Turkish. I
knew that there are Turkish restaraunts and bakeries in the U.S., so I
found one in Chesapeake, VA and called them. They giggled when I asked
about the word and then told me it is a term of endearment and that some
even name their children this. It means sweetheart, honey, rose...and
now I learn from my new friend who is originally from Iran and now living in Australia, that in Farsi it also means my flower...gul = flower and gulum = my flower.


That was a major turning point for me in truly understanding how my
heavenly Father thinks of me. I was in awe (from the floor of course!).
LOL!



I wanted to know more about Turkey and I have never been an avid reader of
history, geography or any of that...but that seems to be changing as I find it fascinating with my new found "word". Below is something I found on the www this a.m. about Turkey. Many of you Bible scholars probably already knew this,
but humor me! LOL!



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Turkey

In the Bible and History

Turkey holds a place in Christian history right along side of
Israel/Palestine. Not only did events in the Bible take place here,
but it is the site of the early church centered on the Byzantine Empire.
Anatolia is mentioned in the Bible through the Hittites, a formidable
militant culture. The area was part of the Roman Empire at the time
Jesus was born.

Many cities in this area were represented at Pentecost (Acts 2),
which means the Hebrew religion had spread at least this far and
Paul's journeys took him through what is now Turkey several times.
The seven churches of Revelation are located in this area. When
Constantine split the Eastern and Western parts of his Empire, the
Eastern capitol was placed in Byzantium and called Constantinople
(It is known today as Istanbul).



Look at a map and note the familiar Biblical names of Harran where
Abraham lived; Mt. Ararat where Noah's boat landed; Antioch where
the believers were first called Christians; Ephesus where a significant
church was founded and where Paul's presence caused a riot; Tarsus where
Paul was born; Cappadocia where early Christian fled when persecuted;
and Myra where St. Nicholas was born. The early Ecumenical Councils
took place in this area and are known by the cities in which they were
convened. We hear of the Council of Ephesus, Council of Nicaea (Iznik)
the Council of Constantinople and the 451 Council of Chalcedon that
caused the great scism in the church. Even after Islam came to the area,
Christians remained in large numbers for centuries and it was from Turkey
that the Russians were converted to Orthodox Christianity.

Christianity Today

Today's Turkey is a secular state with clear limitations on religion
and religious institutions. Churches are allowed to sponsor lower
schools but not college or graduate education. Members of all
religious groups are prohibited from wearing religious garb in
public but Bibles are published and sold without restriction.

Istanbul is still the home of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the
Orthodox Church and an Armenian Patriarch. The Christian community
is less than 1% of the total population and includes Armenian
Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox, as well as the predominant Greek
Orthodox, all greatly reduced in number from the 19th century.
There are also a few Catholic and Protestant parishes.


In the southeastern parts of Turkey the remains of very old
Syriac churches are still present along with Syriac villages but
it is considered too dangerous to go there because of Kurdish
resistence groups. Mardin's Mar Gabriel Monastery is the most
famous and is still active today.



Special Sites to Visit

Ephesus (Ephes)This is an unusually well preserved Roman city
that was the site of an early Christian church. It was here
that Paul challenged the craftsmen who produced images of the
goddess Artemis,by preaching Christianity. The amphitheater
where this happened is still in good condition along with the
library and temples. Cappadocia (Goreme)Cappadocia is a region
where early Christians took refuge from Roman persecution. It
is dotted with natural volcanic rock formations that were carved
into homes, chapels and huts for hermits. Religious cave
paintings are still visible inside some of the cones known as fairy
chimneys.


Istanbul (formerly Constantinople and Byzantium)This city is simply
full of religious monuments and history and ought to be explored
primarily on foot.

Hagia Sophia Museum was built by Constantine the Great as a church,
and reconstructed by Justinian in the 6th century. For 1000 years
it was the largest church in the Christian world and is still is
overwhelming today. In 1453 when the Turks conquered Istanbul the
basilica was turned into a mosque, minarets were built and the mosaics
were covered over. In the 1930s Ataturk converted it to a museum as
a part of his secularization of the country.

Fascinating cities full of ruins are found all over the country but
even those with familiar names from the Bible have only a few notable
sites within them.



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Okay, so this morning, Sid Roth has this guy on his show talking
about the middle east and end-time prophecy. I get ready to
change the channel, because I truly do not like to hear about all
of that at this point. I'm not denying it all...I'm just in a
different place with it all than I ever used to be and refuse to
be freaked out by some of the things taught in "other than victorious"
eschatological teaching. But then he starts to talk about Turkey.
I listened and found it interesting, but if you want to hear that,
you'll have to tune in sometime this week to It's Supernatural.


THEN, Martha Stewart is showing video of her recent trip to Turkey
and her hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia and I'm sitting on the
couch crying like a baby! What's that about? It was like I SO wanted to
GO THERE and was possibly even homesick for a place I've never been.
How weird is that?



I have always been amazed that the "cradle of civilization" is in
Iraq, and have often thought about and prayed for the middle east as a whole, especially for the peace of Jerusalem....then God speaks to me in Turkish.

I can't wait to know more and to SEE where God is going with this!
All I know is I LOVE HIM and that's all I need to know. I can trust
whatever He is doing and rest in the joy of the knowing and experiencing
His overwhelming love for me AND YOU! More Lord!



Peace,
Teresa