(We’ve covered lots of Capernaum-area ground in recent months and there will be even more this month. I think this one is worth a re-run! Remember Capernaum was the headquarters of Christ for his ministry. It’s where Peter lived and it’s where Jesus taught in the synagogue. )
Capernaum. Place of miracles. It was a place where Jesus cast out an unclean spirit in the synagogue. . He looked up and saw a paralytic man coming through the ceiling of the house where he was teaching and then both forgave the man’s sins and healed him. He raised a little girl from the dead. He healed Jairus’ daughter. He stopped a bloody flow in the body of a woman who merely touched His garment. He healed Peter’s mother-in law. He healed two blind men. He gave a discourse in the synagogue about the Bread of Life. Capernaum is a place from which the miracles of the Lord just exploded and his fame spread abroad Matthew 4:23-25).
When the woman who was bleeding reached out to touch his garment, our Lord said he could feel that power had gone out from Him. Capernaum, in a larger sense, was a city from which great power from heaven emanated.
the black basalt underneath the synagogue. This is the first century synagogue that was covered in the Byzantine period.
If these walls could talk! That’s how you feel when you walk through the ruins of the ancient Greek synagogue of Capernaum, likely built on the very same site as was the original synagogue in which Jesus did teach. You see the plausible site of Peter’s first century house. Whether this early Christian home was the exact one Peter inhabited is, of course, uncertain; but you do know that both he and the Lord walked this street and you know you are in the place where blind men saw and where that woman who had the issue of blood touched the garment of the Lord. Those of you who went with us in 2019 have not forgotten. The little city was on the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee and, apparently, the Lord made this town, the home of Peter, Andrew, James and John, his home for a time after leaving Nazareth. Thus it became the meeting-place of the miraculous and mundane aspects of the everyday life of the Lord. This strategic location was along a major trade route, so it was a perfect location for the miracles of the Lord to be published and In spite of the amazing events that were readily available to evidence the deity of Jesus, in this little town, Jesus, amazingly said that Sodom, the city burned for its extreme wickedness in Genesis 19, would have repented and been spared if the residents had seen the mighty works done in Capernaum.
And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day (Matthew 11:23).
May we look to those mighty works and fear his judgment. May we never be so distracted by the unbelievers around us that we ignore the superhuman feats He has wrought so that we might have salvation. May we keep in mind that the Lord lived right in the middle of the worst of the world’s wickedness and yet his light from that dark place is still shining. And, even in the midst of the blackness caused by sin and disbelief, may we constantly remember His provision and blessings.
Passages about Capernaum:
Mark 2:1-12
Mark 5:35-43
Matthew 11:20-24
John 6:28-59
Luke 4:31-49
Matthew 9:20-22
Matthew 8:14-15
Matthew 17:24-27
I really hope you are coming along for the Dig that starts in September. There are lots of great ways to grow in Him, but Digging Deep is surely one. I wish you could be as encouraged as I am. I routinely see groups spawning more groups and I hear words like “life-changing” often. None of this is me, though. The Word is just that: life-changing! We are transformed by it in the renewing of our minds. I read that in a Book, somewhere! Make up your renewing mind and come on along!
It’s writing week again and there is not a moment to spare! But here’s a blurb from this morning’s study. I want you to be excited with me. Last weekend, I was in Branson, Missouri, with a group of God’s women at a retreat. There were 165 women there and there were very few of them who had ever heard of Digging Deep. There were about three who had ever heard of Polishing the Pulpit. This made me excited. Why? Because Digging Deep and PTP has not finished growing. 
At the end of the day, there were at least twenty new women in the group and lots of past studies had found their way into homes in Springfield, Missouri. Once more, let me emphasize: You do not have to do Digging Deep or attend Polishing the Pulpit to dig deep and attend heaven! But how exciting it is when we can put tools in hands and hearts for eternity. Here’s a tiny blurb:
Lily Annette Colley weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces at birth. Lucky Jody Trone guessed that she would weigh 7 pounds, 11 5/8 ounces. She only missed it by 3/8 of an ounce. That’s less than a half-cup of water weighs . Pretty close! She says she submitted the birth weight of her third child, so I guess she’ll have to split the prize with that third child!
The podcast is tonight. Hope you can join us! Those three shunned women teach us some very pertinent 2025 lessons. We need your comments, too, for the maximum podcast potential. Get in the word with us! You can watch on the Digging Deep facebook page or at 
This one will be brief, but it will be game-changing for those of you with hearing loss or other auditory issues. Jen found, and we purchased, a great program to bring you transcripts for the Digging Deep podcasts, both the Dig-a Bits and the monthly live podcast. So many of you have been asking for this for a long while, so it makes us happy to make these available. They are also great for adding to any notebook you may be keeping.
To be transparent, I feel a bit of trepidation here, because…well, I am sure that there will be lots of “um”s and “oh, that was the wrong verse”s, etc…. Further, the auto-tech doesn’t know exactly how to punctuate correctly and divide the paragraphs. Most daunting, if I make an error (and I will make many)… then, whoosh…there it will be in print forever and ever! But, maybe you (and I) can ignore these kinds of scary little things, for the greater good of the diggers who want/need this technology. . (I just looked over the first transcript and I am not sure I will be looking at these very much. I think I’ll be too hyper-aware of every word and pause and mistake.)
