God's covert agents

Reading in Jeremiah today, I was reminded about how much bigger God's Kingdom is than I consciously imagine.

In Jeremiah 25:8 and 27:6, the Lord Almighty calls the king of Babylon, Nebuchandnezzar, His servant. His servant, the title God gives to the ruler of the most wicked nation on the planet at that time.

Read in context, we discover that God is going to use Neb's natural inclinations and activity to accomplish His purposes and further His agenda by allowing him to invade, conquer and capture the people of the nation of Israel.

All this to say that we must be careful and prayerful about what we attribute to the devil at work against us and God's Kingdom; it may just be the covert activity of God accomplishing his Kingdom purposes and plans in our lives and our world.

The "Reality" of Hell

Let me know what you think!

Knowing God

In my daily reading, I came across a passage in Jeremiah (22:16) that stuck out to me. Speaking of Josiah, king of Judah, Jeremiah says,

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?"
declares the LORD.

"Is that not what it means to know me?" says the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah, "to defend the poor and the needy."

So this begs the question in my heart, what does it mean in our day and time and in my personal life context to defend the poor and needy?

What expressions are there that would fulfill this mandate of the Lord, and fulfill this dimension of the Lord's heart? My prayer today is that God would reveal to my soul what this looks like for my life.