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I know I don’t keep my blog up as much as many of you would like as well as much as I commit myself to doing, but we’ll attempt it again.  With new seasons of life come new seasons of commitment.

I would venture to say that I am officially settled in to Kansas City, Missouri now.  It’s a beautiful neighborhood with great community.  I’m learning how to act in this new culture as well as learning what intentional relationship looks like.  But what’s astounded me the most is the way recent Life Journal Scriptures have fallen into place here.  For those of you who don’t know, the Life Journal is a devotional reading plan that takes you through the Bible in a year allowing you to do your own devotions.  Many of the MBMS International staff as well as brothers and sisters from around the world are doing it.  The unity developed from reading the same Scriptures every day that hundreds of thousands are reading around the world is incredible.

Recently the passages have been getting me down it seems.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to have nothing but death and doomsday to offer and Revelation isn’t much different.  Then I realized some cautions that God is giving me.  Both Israel and I are going through a geography change that will (hopefully) change our lives.  Though I’m not here in Kansas City as an exile for all the horrible things I’ve done, I realize that we are both given second chances.  Israel was not only being punished but being given another chance to be faithful and reach towards God.  No matter our geography the choice to love God is always ours.

I would be ignorant to believe that simply because I changed locations means that loving God will come any more natural and that normal temptations wouldn’t also arise.  Throughout Revelation we hear warnings of what will come to those who aren’t faithful to God.  Love is key in our sojourning with God.  I tend to get distracted by dragons and stars being swept onto the earth with a single tail flick, God is sending a different message to me tonight.

The lost are all around me.  Duplex after duplex and street after street.  Those who will be crushed under the falling stars are waiting for their Savior whether they know it or not.  The urgency is always upon us and so is the victory.  Our greatest shields for those around us are found in Revelation 12:11, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

I was a little surprised when I read that Jeremiah chose to stay in the Promised Land with the few remaining land slaves instead of going with his people into exile.  Though I still don’t know how that plays out I know my place in the story.  God has called me to this place, Babylon of sorts, to proclaim the Word of the Lord to the lost.  God’s greatest desire is to see his people love him once more, after all, is this not the reason he sent prophets into the world?  Does he not send the same today?  We use different words like apostles, teachers, evangelists, but their purpose is all the same: to proclaim by the blood of the Lamb and by the testimony of our word the salvation of the King to nations lost, in the face of life and death.

–Thomas

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