And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem...

This was written and never posted, sorry about that...

Tuesday Oct. 2, 2007

There is so much going on with elections and whatnot I’ve been thinking a lot about Kiev. I was talking to someone the other day who was saying that he never thought he would live in a big city and that there came a point in his life when he was in a big city and he thought “yeah, maybe I could live in a place like this” and now he does. Sometimes I look out my window at the apartments or listen to the street noise and think the same about myself “who would have ever thought I would live in a big city?”

Also, recently I have been trying to figure out where and what God is leading me to at this point in my life. A much smaller thought than the city thoughts I mentioned above…more personal…though hopefully it all ends in influence…which could, I imagine spread to a whole city :o) I mean, Jesus told the disciples to go to Jerusalem, etc.

And as I’ve listened to people at church and other friends over and over again I have heard a cry of “I just wish I knew what God wanted.” “I’m ready to follow Him, I just don’t know where He is leading.” “There are so many things I could do, if I only knew what to do.” And believe me, my heart is there too very often. And over and over again I hear Jeremiah 29:11 spoken to me or to others. Many of you are quoting it to yourself right now, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Reading the verse in context, I am curious as to of which ‘yous’ in the chapter would be a plural form of the word and which ones would be singular in the original text. God is speaking to the Jerusalemites exiled to Babylon…and maybe, to us Zion-ites displaced in this world. But the vision for plans and hope and future are perhaps bigger than us individually—directed at a city (maybe to the church) who should be both plural and singular. (many united as one, in both cases). And God goes beyond promising hope and future to promising prosperity. “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord, because if it prospers you too will prosper.”

Cherish the city God has placed you in for this moment. As you look to the future, find ways to serve in the present. I don’t know where God will take me tomorrow, but I do know that for this moment I am here.

I think I’ll go ask Momma Olya to pray for Ukraine with me while we wait for Dennis and Oksana to get home.