How wonderful and sweet is our God

My friends, let me share with you some scripture I read recently in my time with God that has been nourishing my soul greatly. Jeremiah 9.23-24 says, "Thus says the Lord, 'Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the Lord."

Shoooweeeeeeeee! That is good! Our God is not impressed with how enlightened, or intelligent we are. He doesn't care about the number of degrees we have or how many clever euphemisms we can spout out.

He is not impressed with how strong we are. Last night I went to some amateur fights of the variety like you see on UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). It is called MMA fighting (mixed martial arts), so it is a mixture of just about any fighting style. There was a lot of fights at the event, but one fighter was sixteen years old. Before last night he had been in and won four amateur fights. Last night he handily won his fifth. God doesn't care how strong or powerful we are. His delight in David was not in his skill at slinging stones or skill with any weapon in battle. God's delighted in David because David delighted in God and trusted in Him, and not his own abilities.

God is not impressed with how much money we have accumulated through toil, trade or treachery. I am not one to really think about money much, which has its up sides and down. But recently I opened up an account with a new bank. I discovered a bit more about myself as I found that I was much more concerned with the safe transfer of funds from my old account to the new one. What was I going to do if I lost that money I'd saved? I probably would have freaked out. But what would it have mattered? God gives and He takes away. Money is no great thing for God. The condition of our hearts in the matter of how we handle it is of importance to God.

No, God is not particularly focused on any of these things, wisdom, might, wealth, or a great many others, beauty, body shape, style, hobbies, popularity, wit, creativity, musical abilities and a great many other things that we constantly find ourselves and the rest of the world bowing down to in worship, consciously and unconsciously.

Rather our God is not on interested in and delights in, but also "exercises" lovingkindness, justice and righteousness! How awesome, sweet and wonderful, how trustworthy, beautiful and perfect is our God! Do things things not sing the most wonderful music to your soul? That the Almighty God would treasure and act out these things! And what is more, that He true desire for us, and the thing He wants us to boast in if we are to boast in anything, is that we KNOW and UNDERSTAND Him! This is His desire! That we know Him. That we understand Him. What could be better? What could be a greater reason for us to exist and from which to draw our meaning and purpose? What greater God could we serve?

And these are but two verses among so many from God's precious Word, which reveals who He is to us. That we may know and understand Him. That we may delight in Him, the one person, power and thing that is worth all of our time, energy, devotion, adoration and love. Dig into His Word! As Piper says, "swim in His Word!"

Oh, the depths, twists, tunnels and caves that make up the catacomb of the mind!

Let it be known that after months of trying to remember a word, God has finally let me come to it! The word eluded me for some reason. It was a word I often heard in my literature classes but never really knew exactly what it meant. Then for some reason within the last couple of months I had some need to use it, but couldn't for the life of me remember it.

It came to me as I was talking with my two dear brothers Mike and Chuck. We were discussing several things of eternal value and the topic of justice came up. I was sharing that I've been thinking about the issue of late, and particularly that God is a God of justice. And often there is nothing that can be done to achieve justice in an unjust situation. All that can be done is to trust in God. As my dear friend John Piper said, "we must know the SUPREMACY of His justice. He will render ALL ACCOUNTS SETTLED in the end, in the universe, either on the CROSS or in HELL. NO injustice will remain, when Christ is finished with His supreme justice!"

But then there are times when God uses us to be agents of His justice. And when I said that, agents, it came to me. AGENCY! That was the word I'd been searching for these months. Let it be known, agency can mean this: (a) the state of being in action or of exerting power; operation: the agency of Providence. Or: (b) a means of exerting power or influence; instrumentality: nominated by the agency of friends (as defined by dictionary.com).

Now go forth my friends, trust in God's supreme agency, be His agents of justice when possible and He guides you to be so, and use the term 'agency' to impress your friends, co-workers and fellow students of academia and life!