We Have No Other Business

February 16, 2017

We Have No Other Business

But the Lord is in his holy Temple;

    the Lord still rules from heaven.

He watches everyone closely,

    examining every person on earth.

Psalm 11:4

In the ebb and flow of life, we are always in one of three places: we are about to enter into a crisis; or we are in the midst of a crisis; or we are coming out of a crisis. When we encounter a crisis, our sense of order is upended. Sometimes the main consequence of the crisis is simply inconvenience, such as when our car breaks down. Other times, there are life altering consequences like so many people experienced after 9-11. Henry Blackby, in his book, Experiencing God, notes that these problem situations are always accompanied by a crisis of belief because, for the Christian, what you do next reveals what you truly believe about God.

In this psalm, David feels as though the very fabric, the foundation of his society, had been torn asunder. Sometimes that is a good thing, as in the Reformation when the people turned from the church to the Bible for guidance. But with the so called Age of Enlightenment, society turned from the Bible to reason. It’s pretty much been all downhill since then. David was in a crisis as he lived through a time when he was never sure who his friend was or who was a spy for those seeking to destroy him. I experienced a small taste of this when I was visiting churches in Cuba, as the government routinely sent spies into the congregations.

In this psalm, David responds to the apparent crumbling foundations of society by remembering that God’s throne is eternal in the heavens and will never crumble or decay. David trusted that God would come and judge the world, and the righteous would be vindicated. David believed such trust called forth a commitment to live for God; “For the righteous LORD loves justice. The virtuous will see his face” (Psalm 11:7).

If we take inspiration from David’s psalm, a commitment to live out John Wesley’s mission statement for the Methodist movement is an appropriate response: “We have no other business than to save souls and spread scriptural holiness across the land.”

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.