Righteousness and Justice

One of the things that we are required to do as Christians is know the Scriptures so that we are not led astray by false doctrine.  The Bible tells us that we will be held accountable if we allow ourselves to be led astray. 

So how do we stop that from happening.  The first step is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Ask Jesus to come into your life and lead you.  Have you done that yet?  If not why not do it right now.

Just have a conversation with Jesus.  Let Him know where you are at in life and what you are looking for.  Get honest with Jesus.  "Dear Jesus…."

Once you have accepted Jesus you get the Holy Spirit to help guide you.  One of the ways the Holy Spirit guides us is through the study of Scripture.  Those of you who have already accepted Jesus know what I mean.  Those times when you are reading Scripture and all of a sudden something that had been confusing in the past all of a sudden makes perfect sense.  You have an "Aha!" moment.

Here is an "aha!" moment for me today.  A way of evaluating whether something is really in line with Jesus or not.  It comes from Psalm 89 and is speaking of Jesus.  Look at what it tells us. 

Psalms 89:14(NKJV)

14    Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;     Mercy and truth go before Your face.

I've written in the past about foundational verses.  Here is one that actually uses the word foundation.  Let's look at the definition of foundation. 

foun·da·tion

1. the basis or groundwork of anything: the moral foundation of both society and religion.

2. the natural or prepared ground or base on which some structure rests.

3. the lowest division of a building, wall, or the like, usually of masonry and partly or wholly below the surface of the ground.

4. the act of founding, setting up, establishing, etc.: a policy in effect since the foundation.

5. the state of being founded.

Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foundation>

Pay attention especially to definitions 1 and 2. 

The basis on which something rests.  The basis of Christianity rest on Jesus Christ and His kingdom.  Psalm 89:1 tells us that righteousness and justice are the foundation of Jesus' kingdom here on earth.

So where am I going with this?  As we go about our lives we are constantly bombarded with competing messages.  Some times those messages contain appeals in one form or another to religion and/or Jesus.  One of the more popular ways this is done is with the questions "What would Jesus do?".  Fair enough question, but how do you determine that?

Well Psalm 89 gives us a standard to start with.  Would the answer, solution, or whatever be righteous and just in Jesus' eyes?  I'm sure we can find even more Biblical standards to apply after that, but it just seems to me that if Psalm 89 tells us that the foundation of Jesus' kingdom is righteousness and justice; that is where we should start in our analysis.

Make sense?