Be Thou Exalted

Last Saturday my son-in-law, Clay, drove my daughter, Susan, my wife, Sherri and me to Quality, Kentucky where Sherri’s relatives met for their family reunion. We traveled the back roads of Warren and Butler counties. For forty minutes I observed the farmland, with fields of corn and tobacco crops which, by the way, were in great need of rain. I saw farm houses that were somewhat isolated from other farm houses. At times our journey took us where there was nothing but acres of dense forests. I saw no gas stations, no restaurants or grocery stores. There were no businesses at all, not even in Quality, which is three miles from where I pastored my first church almost 47 years ago. I loved the many people I knew in the five years I served at these communities. They were a blessing for this young preacher boy who often didn’t know what he was doing. But if you ever wondered where the boondocks are, this beautiful area is it. 

I’ve been to many places and have seen a lot of wonderful sites all over our nation. I have flown to many of these places and from thirty thousand feet watched the vast land below. I often wonder what’s going on in the lives of the millions of people we pass over. I wonder how many really know Jesus. 

Sherri and I have been to several Latin American countries. We have been to Columbia, South America and several islands in the Caribbean Sea. I have friends from our church who are now in the Chec Republic on a mission trip and friends who recently traveled to several countries in Europe, one of which was Norway where their relatives live. I have a Facebook friend who lives somewhere close to Sicily. She posts pictures of beautiful places on the Mediterranean Sea, pictures of her lovely family and of people swimming and sunning at the beaches. I have friends from seminary who served as missionaries all over the world and some who were or are serving as pastors in places all over our nation. 

The point of my wandering from Quality, Kentucky to cities and farmland across our nation, to points all over the world concerns the desire in the hearts of the people who live in these places. What is their purpose in life? All of us have the same purpose no matter where we live. We were all created by our God. He created us, all of us, to exalt him. “God’s desire for the sons of men and more particularly toward those sons of men who will make the  once-for-all decision to exalt Him over all. Such as these are precious to God above all treasures of earth or Sea..” (A.W. Tozer) 

Tozer also wrote, “Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join continually to say, ‘Be Thou Exalted,’ and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once.” What will it take for us to reach this place of continually exalting our God? May God’s desire become our desire. Only those who are able to say as Paul spoke, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” will be able to live each day earnestly proclaiming to God, “Be Thou Exalted”.