I have new inspiration!

I started this blog awhile ago. Wrote a couple silly entries. Didn't really tell anyone I had made a blog and quickly my efforts and enthusiasm died. Well guess what!? I now have inspiration! I am living in Jerusalem right now. The center of three major world religions. I still can't believe I am here. There is so much I want to record and share with family and friends and I am having a hard time getting it all down and to the people I want to share it with. I decided I am going to reboot this blog idea and use it as a way to share my experiences with everyone!
I have been here two weeks now. It feels like SO much longer, I am just so used to being here. I feel like so much happens in a day I don't know how to recap the last 14! So I am sorry but I am just going to start from the past couple days and move forward.
The subject that is forefront on my mind is all that I have learned about God through His dealing with the children of Israel. The Old Testament has always felt so foreign to me. Now, due to a wonderful Old Testament professor and corresponding classes that help me understand the history and culture better I have come to see that the Old Testament is a foundation for all the rest. The New Testament, The Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants all are beginning to have even more meaning added to them.
Some of the especially illuminating things I have learned lately concern the nature of God. I always felt a sort of contradiction between the God described in the Old Testament and the God described in modern revelation and in my own experience. I always saw God as a god of love and mercy. The God of the Old Testament seems so angry and even revengeful. This has always bothered me. I have come to understand this better. Brother Muhlestein (my Old Testament professor) pointed out that though we often focus on the mercy of God, He is also a god of justice. When we bring things upon ourselves He is sorrowful that the punishment must come. Moses chapter 7 is a great example of God's fatherly sadness in His children's poor choices. I also had a problem with God pushing all the other people out of the promised land for the Israelites. It felt so cruel, but a couple verses in the Book of Mormon clarify God's purposes (I am so grateful for continued revelation! It is beautiful to see how all God's teachings tie together creating a whole and perfect understanding.)  See 1 Nephi 17:32-35. God would not punish a people if they hadn't brought the punishment on themselves. God is loving and merciful but He is guided by the laws of justice. What a comfort that is.