Sent

If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.
For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are on the face of the earth? Ex. 33: 15-16

I was just looking over the word "sent" in the old testament ( as part of my bible study that I mentioned yesterday). And while you may notice that the above verses do not have that particular word in the them, I was reminded of that passage while looking at all the times God "sent" His people various places.

The thing is when God sends, He goes with... He's not a "go on ahead without me" kind of a God. He's always there. He is what distinguishes us from everyone else. He is the one that makes sense out of what seems to be otherwise crazy.

Exodus 33:15-16. Those verses were "given" to me by Billie and Steve when I graduated high school in 2002, they were a part of my scripture plaque that my church gave me. Man, that was the greatest gift! So many of those verses have been very important to me through the years. Anyway, the above verses have been crucial in helping me face the various moves that I've made in the past six years... I know that if I am walking according to His will, than He WILL be with me, and I have nothing to fear. Nothing at all.

We've all been sent, haven't we? I mean, you may not be physically "going" anywhere right now, but you are being sent....
Before I left Washington someone said in passing ( possibly not even to me..hahaha!) "Find your Jerusalem." and I thought that was really cool. They were, of course, referring to this verse: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
and I had never looked at it like that before. As though FIRST we've got to be a witness in our "Jerusalem" and then from there we can go to Judea and onwards...its not like we're expected to make this huge leap into the unknown. That first ( and foremost) we are sent to our next door neighbors, our work-mates, our families, our friends...

I mean, I know this is not a new concept, but its been a helpful reminder to me as I think about this new place. It seems to me that just because I am in a new "place" does not mean that my Jerusalem has changed, parts of it have ( the next door neighbors part for sure!) but overall the calling on my life is still the same.
I've been sent.