JULY 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JULY 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-05  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

183 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, thank You God for Your Patience with me and I pray to be more like Jesus that Your Patience will be perfected in me for Your Perfection is only possible by being like the Perfect Example — Jesus! Only Jesus has been declared “Beloved” by God and only Jesus has also been declared by God as “My Son in whom I am well pleased” and it is only Jesus whom God says that all who would try to please Him that we should “Listen to [Jesus]” for it is only Jesus who has instructed us that we can be “One with the Father” if we will become “One” with Jesus for Jesus and the Father are “ONE”! Lord Jesus, teach me Your Patience that I can become “One” with You because in order to become “One”, I must completely get rid of “self” and learn to patiently “serve others” as You came and served the world.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-05  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)    Jesus should have really grabbed our full attention when Peter walked into the room and Jesus told Peter in effect: “I know what you are going to ask Me so let Me ask you a question and show you that I AM God and I am able to both ‘anticipate’ your question and ‘answer’ your question while demonstrating the Power of God to ‘provide’ everything you need to solve all your problems just by listening to Me and obeying My instructions!” I know that when we read the account of Jesus sending Peter fishing to get the required “temple tax” found in Matthew 17:24-27 that Jesus doesn’t say exactly those words but if we look at what Jesus did “Say” then we can see that Jesus is revealing some very important Truths of God to us. First Jesus started revealing that God wants us to be involved in being the solution to our own problems which is an example of God’s Supreme Self Sufficiency. God is the only uncreated entity and does not need any outside help to be “who” God is and since God is Spirit we can say that to accomplish everything He wills to do, that God does not require any “physical” entity to accomplish His Will — this can only be explained by God having a “Spiritual Power” we cannot comprehend and this “Spiritual Power” exhibits itself through a “Supreme Intellect” that cannot be explained but it can be observed, and these “observations” of God’s Supreme Intellect are the foundation of our “Faith” which is based on observing the “physical” universe which is only here because God used His Superior and Supreme Intellect and merely “Spoke” everything except mankind into existence (God reserved His “Hands On” Method for Creating mankind in His Image!). God is Supremely Self Sufficient because everything He needed to Create the Universe was contained within God Himself and that is what Jesus is showing Peter when Jesus asked JQ#21 “What do you think, Simon?” (Matthew 17:25a) I am sure that Peter was taken aback by Jesus, first because Jesus “prevented” Peter from blurting out the “problem” which Jesus did in order to demonstrate that God “knows” what we need without even asking and also to demonstrate that we are made in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:26)  and part of that “image” is that God wants us to develop the kind of “Faith” in Him that we will know that if God allows a problem into our lives that He will provide within our own abilities what we need to solve that problem. Just look at this passage, we read that the solution to Peter’s “problem” was a solution that Peter already had and the ability to resolve his problem was within Peter’s “comfort zone” because Jesus knew that Peter was a fisherman and therefore the “solution” was customized to those things Peter knew how to do as we read Jesus stating to Peter, “Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.” (Matthew 17:26-27).  Peter had done these very actions for his entire life and probable had caught literally thousands of fish but only when Peter did what he had been doing all his life the “way” Jesus told him to do it and for the “purpose” that Jesus intended for Peter’s life, did Peter’s day-to-day life produce the “miracle” that became the solution to what had become a problem in Peter’s daily life! Jesus is demonstrating that He KNOWS our problems and that He will PROVIDE within our daily lives and our natural abilities the solution if we will TRUST GOD. I am sure that Peter had never considered that he had everything in his daily life that he needed to solve life’s problems. It was probably very comforting to Peter to know that he didn’t have to learn any new skills and I know that Peter’s “Faith” grew leaps and bounds as soon as he reached down and grabbed the “fish that [came] up first” and “[opened] its mouth” and found a single coin that was the exact amount to pay the temple tax for both Peter and Jesus and thus Peter demonstrated his “self sufficiency” (because we are created in the image of God)  to resolve his problem but only when Peter did what he did day-in-and-day-out “in the Power and Name of Jesus” did Peter realize God is the God of our daily lives and that God will never require anything of us that He hasn’t already equipped us for, and we should Trust that God has us doing what we do in our daily lives because that is what we need to be doing to Honor and Glorify Him! Faith comes from observing God at work in our daily lives so if your “Faith” is not growing maybe you should stop and “think” more about the abilities God has given you and look for your solutions within those abilities or do you think God doesn’t know what you need to solve your problems?  

JUNE 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-04 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-04  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

182 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, another day You have given me breath and life, I pray that everything I do and say will be a reflection of the Grace so freely bestowed by the Loving Father to a sinner such as I. Lord there are so few things that we can do that really Honor and Glorify You so I pray that I will Trust and Obey You today and do that which You have planned and willed for my life and my family which I lift up to You now in humble prayer, You know the needs in the depth of our heart and soul and so I place them in Your Healing Hands. Lord Jesus, You have told us that if we believe on You that we will become “One” with You, just as You and the Father are “One”. Grant it Lord that we see the Heavenly Prize of Belief, the Daily Comfort of Faith, and the Joy and Peace of Your Forgiveness.           AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JUNE 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-04  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)    Jesus is the “Way” and He certainly has a “way” of Teaching that makes the Lesson stick with us and with this “fishy” Lesson Jesus teaches us some valuable Truths of God about “Faith” using a “fish” and a single “piece of money”. The scene is set when Peter is approached by the temple tax collectors from the Capernaum synagogue and they in effect inform Peter that Jesus is delinquent on His “taxes” and they are wondering if and when Jesus is going to pay the temple tax? (Matthew 17:24) Peter told them “Yes” and then went to tell Jesus. When Peter entered into the house where Jesus was staying, that even before Peter could ask Jesus if He was going to “pay the temple tax”, Matthew records that Jesus “anticipated” that Peter was going to ask Him about taxes. (Matthew 17:25) This simple word “anticipated” tells us volumes about God and we should pull over at this point and examine all the connotations surrounding the meaning and reality of the fact that even before Peter could say a word, that Jesus KNEW what Peter was going to ask. The popular translation for the word used for “anticipated” in Matthew 17:25 is “prevented” and is used in the sense that when Peter started to speak that Jesus in effect said “I know what you’re going to ask me so let me ask you a question first” which further identified and confirmed the deity of Jesus Christ as only the Omniscient God knows everything that happens without having to depend on reports from outside sources. Not only does Jesus demonstrate He is God and has all the Powers of God, He reveals the omniscient character of God to us as another Truth of God. The fact that God knows everything about us is considered by some to be an invasion of privacy but to those that have nothing to hide, it is a comfort to know that not only does God KNOW everything that happens to us, that God CARES about how those events affect our eternal soul and uses each circumstance to prove that He is a Loving and Caring God and that He only wants the best for our future.  God uses every circumstance to point us to the Truth that God will “Teach” us how to “learn” kingdom wisdom from everything if we will Trust God to decide what is “Right” and “Wrong” in our daily lives. Therefore when we read that Jesus “anticipated” what Peter was going to ask, we should read that as God telling us “I Got This!” and Trust and Obey Him when He tells us how to handle the situation — even if the solution seems as “far-fetched” as “going fishing” in order to “pay taxes” and add to that the fact that all we have to do is take the first fish we catch and look in the mouth of the fish and find in a single coin the exact amount to pay taxes for two, not just one! This is the Truth of the Economy of God that God always provides the simple solution and that when we depend on His Provisions that we always have “enough” — regardless of the size or quantity needed, GOD ALWAYS PROVIDES “ENOUGH” !!! God never solves a problem without putting His Signature on it and that “Signature of God” is that the only possible explanation to the “solution” is the unexplainable “Mystery” of God. When was the last person that could tell you your problem before you spoke a word and then solved your problem by some outrageous solution like getting the exact amount needed to pay your taxes in a single coin from the mouth of the first fish you caught when you went fishing instead of paying your taxes? I know, I know, it doesn’t make any sense at all, and I think that is just exactly the point, if we can make sense of it then we will take credit for it but I can just imagine Peter laughing while dropping the coin into the tax collectors hand along with several fish scales and then going home and having himself a big fish fry wondering — who’s going to make the tartar sauce?!?!?

JUNE 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-03 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-03  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

181 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, no other name but the Name of Jesus carries the weight of eternity for every soul that ever lived! Every soul ever created by God has uttered or will utter the name “Jesus” and Lord we know that when Your Precious Name is spoken from the heart in true humility that You will respond with Peace, Love, and Joy that can only come from speaking that Name given by the Father Himself that every soul that utters that Name with Respect and Honor will be Respected and Honored in return by adoption into the Family of God through God’s Plan of Salvation. O Precious Name, Jesus, Jesus, JESUS!!! May my life reflect the Glory and Grace and the Mercy that has been extended to this sinner because of the Power of the Name of JESUS!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JUNE 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-03  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)    Jesus Teaches us so many side Lessons while He is Teaching a specific Lesson that we must always stop and look at all the circumstances involved with each Jesus Question and we must also keep in mind that the “Question” is being asked by One that has Supreme Knowledge of all things, and knows the deepest desires of our hearts as well as all the thoughts we think inwardly and even though those thoughts are so deep in our selfish desires that they do not even surface to our own consciousness — yet He still knows every thought that we have!?!? This knowledge is revealed to us if we will look at the circumstance surrounding this specific incident and the most unexpected way that Jesus resolves the issue and the most unusual use for fish and faith that we will ever encounter. First we must look at the “characters” involved and they are: (1) Jesus, (2) Peter [Simon Bar-Jonah], (3) Tax collectors from the temple at Capernaum, (4) a fish, and (5) a piece of money. Let’s look at each “character” separately to get the full impact of this scenario and the miracle produced from the most unlikely source of tax revenue ever recorded! First to consider is Jesus — Jesus has been casting out demons, raising people from the dead, feeding the multitudes, giving sight to the blind, healing every sickness brought to Him, walking on water, calming storms, and teaching about the “Spiritual” life being lived in our “eternal souls”, our “physical” bodies being temporary, the eventually of standing before Almighty God and the Final Judgement, and the reality of both Heaven and fellowship with the Father and of Hell and our eternal separation from God Himself, and the scary reality that our eternity will be determined by how responsible we are with the Gift of Free Will bestowed upon us unconditionally by the Supreme Power!!! So when we look at the Life lived in the flesh by Jesus so far, we can only come to One Conclusion, Jesus is the Christ and is the Only Begotten Son of the Father, and Jesus is both “fully man” born of flesh and “fully God” for He is the earthly embodiment of God’s Holy Spirit!!! So the first “character” is “God’s Son” on a Mission from God, Jesus is a Gift from God because God “so loved the world” that God has given “His Only Begotten Son” for a single purpose, that by belief in Jesus being God’s Son that all those that “believe” will never “perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The second “character” is Simon Bar-Jonah whom Jesus named “Peter” when Jesus called Simon Peter the fisherman to follow Him and be His disciple. Peter is the first one to declare that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and it was Peter that got out of the boat during a great storm at sea and actually walked a couple of steps on the water himself before sinking beneath the waves and crying “Jesus save me!”.  Our third character is a “tax collector” sent from the synagogue at Capernaum to collect the temple tax from Jesus and it was the tax collector that started the miracle by asking Peter if Jesus is going to “pay the temple tax?” — just another innocent “tax collector” doing their job of tracking down and collecting “taxes” from everyone they can find?? The fourth character is the most unusual of all when considering God, His followers, and tax collectors hunting down God and collecting taxes from Him, and that character is almost as slimy as the tax collector — enter character #4, the “fish”. The last character is not usually thought of as a “character per se” but everyone knows that all our personalities are affected by “money” and so we are going to give “a piece of money” the status of a “character” in this scene that denies human explanation anyway. Now that we have all the “characters” identified this would be a good time to exercise our individual intellects and without reading the scriptures further that we at this point stop and consider the circumstance and ask the cliche “W W J D ?” and just try to “imagine” why in this circumstance with these really odd characters that Jesus would first ask Peter JQ#21 — “What do you think, Simon?” (Matthew 17:25) Don’t cheat by reading ahead just try to imagine a scenario using all these “characters” and put yourself in Peter’s shoes and use your own intellect and answer how you “think” Jesus is going to handle this tax collector?!?!? In other words, fill in the blank with your name as Jesus asks YOU, “What do you think, ________________?” (Matthew 17:25)

JUNE 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-02 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-02  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

180 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Forgive me for not doing more with the provisions and understanding you have given me. Lord, Your Teachings have given me “Spiritual Insight” to the world that I am living in and issues that “my generation” is facing and I have done so little with those precious resources to make the world a better place — forgive me and Lord may I truly take this “second chance” and do that which will honor and glorify our Father in heaven as Your Spirit has shown me that “His purpose is the process itself.” Give me grace then to be a good steward of the understanding imparted by the Holy Spirit and use whatever circumstance presented to us to bring Glory to God. {{Once again, the Holy Spirit has brought to my attention a prayer written on July 28, 2004 that shows the timelessness of God’s Understanding and this prayer — once there is an issue, it will remain an issue until we use every resource available to us to bring the issue before God and enter into His Work with Him for He has chosen to do His Work through those that chose to follow Him.}} Please read the following prayer written years ago but still current and see if there is something you personally could do today to honor God, pray about it, and then let the Lord lead you in doing His will for your life so that others will be helped by your obedience. Prayer from 2004: “Jesus, Lord how I seek to live my life in a way that is pleasing to You, and not for my sake and all my old selfish reasons but for Your sake and for reaching this world with Your Message of Repentance. Lord Jesus, as a nation and as a people, and as individuals we have turned from God, and we have “leaned on our own understanding” and that also is a sin against God. We have sat silently by and let abominations against Your Holiness gain popular acceptance. Lord, we have not fought the battle of freedom for our rights as Christians and our nation is losing the God-given right to worship You freely, we have not fought for the sanctity of marriage and we are losing our families, and worst of all, we are killing our own babies and are losing our future and our hope -- and we let the courts legislate the sins of our generation into the “law” of our nation!?!?!?!? O Forgive us Lord and drive us to true repentance and the path that will bring us back to serving the One True Light and the Living God”!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JUNE 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-02  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)    Jesus, in this next ‘section’ of scripture, addresses several issues that seem lighthearted at first but then this is God in the flesh asking us to “think” about issues and He has just previously warned us that there are those that seek to “destroy” our souls, therefore let us try and understand the Truth of God that is always uncovered when we seek it. The first such Lesson is found in Matthew 17:24-27 and the Lesson starts with a question from “those who received the temple tax” when they asked Peter, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” (Matthew 17:24) My first thought when I read this is “Wow, Jesus had to deal with tax collectors too” so I was very interested in how Jesus would handle the situation. Peter handled the situation like we should handle circumstances where we find ourselves having to “defend” our following Jesus — Peter answered “Yes” and then he went to ask Jesus about what had happened. As Peter entered the house we read that “Jesus anticipated him, saying, ‘What do you think, Simon?’” (Matthew 17:25) This is the beginning of a very valuable Lesson and the revelation of another Truth of God because before Simon Peter had a chance to ask Jesus the next question about paying the temple tax, “Jesus anticipated him…” and then to make it a one-on-one personal relationship Jesus called Simon by name and then God Himself looked a mortal in the eye and asked “What do you think?” !?!?!? Wow again, God KNOWS EVERYTHING and can “anticipate” our questions yet He stops and asks us what we “think” about the “question” we have not even asked Him yet?!?!? Before you continue, it is a good time and stop to ask yourself this very same simple question but answer it only after you fully realize that it is God Almighty Himself asking the question directly and personally to you!!! — “What do you think, {add your name here}?” (Matthew 17:25)

JUNE 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-01  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

179 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Glory to the Only Begotten Son that became sin for the world that through one death all could be saved! Only by living a Perfect Life could One die for all, for as great as the sins of the world is, that is how Greater Still was the Life of the Only Begotten Son! Praise God for life and Free Will, praise the Son for eternal life to live freely forever and praise to the Holy Spirit for teaching and comforting us when life in the flesh makes us fall short of God’s purpose and we try to resolve it by selling our freedom to sin!?!?! Lord Jesus, I bow myself to Your Magnificence and lean on the Holy Spirit for a Greater Understanding!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JUNE 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-01  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)     Jesus never misses even one of the smallest of details in our “spiritual” education and JQ#21 seems like one of those “lite” Questions that we can answer pretty easily but then we have to consider the “Source” and then we will come to the logical conclusion that there are no “free passes” to answers nor “insignificant” Questions forthcoming from the Master Teacher that gave up His Divinity and Glory in Heaven to become flesh, suffer and die, and sacrifice His Holy Self for sinners!!! No, you can bet that if Jesus asks a Question that He has a very good  Lesson in store for everyone that will take the Question seriously and give Jesus an honest answer. If we will follow the progression of Jesus Questions and think about how Jesus asks one question to lead into the next we will gain an understanding that will take the serious disciple “deeper still” into the knowledge of “the Good, Good Father” that Loves us and sent His Son to die for us that we may have fellowship with Almighty God Himself, and the Jesus Questions, each and every one, gives us another glimpse of the Glory of God and how to live our daily lives looking forward to the day that we stand before God and give an account of what we did with the Lessons that the Only Begotten Son imparted to us while living His Life on earth.  Jesus started this new section of our “spiritual vs. physical awareness” with JQ#18 when He asked “Who do you say I am?” and then JQ#19 Jesus asked “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Once Jesus gets us to thinking it is important to think about Him, He gives us “incentive” to think seriously when He tells us that if we don’t take Him seriously that we are in danger of losing our “own soul” when we stand before God and have to offer something in “exchange” for the soul that we have sold to the world while trying to seek “profit and physical things”! Then Jesus really ups the ante by telling us to face the truth with JQ#20 as He rebukes us and calls us a “faithless and perverse generation” and makes us consider the reality that His “Physical” Time with us is limited and we should consider that the Master Teacher Himself is the One asking “how long shall I be with you and how long shall I bear with you?” which should make us buckle down and get the Lessons as He presents them. Then as we decide to get down to business, Jesus asks His next Jesus Question JQ#21 that is Divinely designed to make us put our “thinking caps” on when He asks simply: “What do you think, Simon?” (Matthew 17:25) Just like every other Question Jesus has asked He makes it clear that each question is “personal” as He is teaching that by “thinking” about His Question and then giving an “honest and truthful” answer that we will be developing a “personal” understanding of and a relationship with the “Good, Good Father” and this is illustrated by Jesus directing the Question at a unique individual and calling that individual by name, as in this case Jesus asked Simon Peter to give a response directly to Jesus Himself on certain matters — Jesus is calling each of us by name and in this next section is asking us to consider for the good of our “own souls” to “Think” about the topics Jesus covers from Matthew 17:24 through Matthew 18:35 — don’t get distracted by what seems absurd at first like “fish and taxes” but just remember that if the Master Teacher asks the Question, it deserves a serious answer and we must make every effort to avoid the “physical” trap the world sets and look for the “Spiritual Truth” that awaits everyone that keeps their personal focus on Jesus!!!

JUNE 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20-07 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20-07  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

178 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Precious Jesus, Lord where would this wretched soul be without Your Salvation? Lord Jesus if You had not changed the direction that I was going, I shudder to think where my deceitful heart would have led me, I just know that it would have been destruction and darkness and not Your Glorious Peace and Light. Lord I also thank the Holy Spirit for daily reminding me that I am always just one wrong decision away from the broad way that leads to that place of destruction where I once was headed but the Holy Spirit reassures my spirit that the Father has me in the palm of His Hands and there is no power able to remove me from His Protection — no power that  is except my own Free Will and my personal decision to leave the Path of Light that leads to the Narrow  Gate — so Lord I thank You that each sunrise is a reminder that without You we choose the darkness but with You changing our hearts and comforting our souls, there is True Peace and we can enter into Your Rest.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JUNE 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20-07  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)     Jesus with this JQ#20 question is pointing His disciples to what they must do to be successful in doing kingdom work after Jesus departs and returns to the Father. Jesus is telling the disciples that the Power of God is available to us and that His Life on earth has been an example of how to live our daily lives in such a manner that God will accomplish His Work through us. Jesus was equally Teaching about the Power of God with His Death as well as with His Life for it would be after the world took its best shot and had Jesus crucified, dead, and buried that God would demonstrate His Great Power and Glory and give Jesus Victory over death and the grave and raise His Only Begotten Son on the Third Day, just like Jesus had been teaching and prophesying all along! Also with JQ#20 Jesus draws our attention to the Truth of God that what He has been Teaching us about the “Spirit of God” will remain with us after the “physical” Jesus returns to His Spiritual form and that the Truth of God is eternal. The Holy Spirit has led me to conclude this JQ#20 Lesson with a commentary from Oswald Chambers written for JULY 24 in his “My Utmost for His Highest Daily Devotional Journal”. Oswald uses Matthew 5:20 “…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” and then Oswald writes: “The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, ‘If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts in your mind.’ Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child…no one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations — He gives us His teachings what truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places with us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ’s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature — He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.”  Jesus knows we will remain a “perverse” and “faithless” generation until we learn the Lessons that He has been Teaching by His Life and is about to Teach with His Death, Burial, and Resurrection! The only way we can see the kingdom of heaven is to accept the Gift of Righteousness offered to us by Jesus Christ who proves the Love of God by sacrificing Himself for our sins. The only way to have the Righteousness of Christ is to have Christ Himself and the change that He imparts with His Holy Spirit which will dwell in us “eternally”. Only through Jesus can we have True Eternal Security and that seems like a pretty good thing to take and present to God at the Final Judgment don’t you think?!?!? 

JUNE 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20-06 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20-06  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

177 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Lord as I awake to a new day there is great Peace in my soul as I turn my thoughts to sitting down with my Bible and can feel the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, sometimes and especially today it is almost like I am sitting and listening to the Holy Spirit with His “still small (and very comforting) voice” reading me stories of You Jesus. Lord I, nor can all the voices that have ever been lifted up in praise to You ever be able to praise You enough! Your Eternal Presence which You have graciously bestowed on each individual that will “receive” You is worthy of ALL Praise, and Lord I pray for the Holy Spirit to Teach me how to make my spirit and soul an honorable place for you to reside in!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JUNE 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20-06  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)     Jesus uses each “Question” that He asks us to Teach us a fine point about our “relationship to God” and JQ#20 has been preparing His disciples to consider the eventuality of Jesus returning to the Father, but only after Jesus Himself will have to suffer and die!?!? Jesus has been “Teaching” the disciples how to “live” their life in a manner in which God’s Power will be exhibited through them and now Jesus is Teaching that fine detail that there is no “Power” in the “physical” body but that “ALL Power” is in the form of the “Spirit of God” and the “physical” body is only a vessel that contains the “spiritual conduit” through which the “Power of God” will flow through our soul to others in which God chooses to do His Work. Jesus has previously Taught that the body and soul are separate and that we are not to “worry” about those that can “kill the body but cannot kill the soul” and immediately Jesus makes it clear that only God has the “power” to “destroy both body and soul in hell”  (JQ#10 — Matthew 10:28). Jesus with these two statements draws our attention to the fact that there are “forces” in the world that can “kill the body” but “cannot kill the soul” therefore the distinction is that our “physical” bodies are temporary vessels that contains our eternal “spiritual” souls and that our real concern should not be about our “physical” bodies which can be killed by worldly forces but we should be really concerned about our “spiritual relationship” to the “One” that can “destroy both body and soul in hell” and by that statement Jesus is warning us that there is a “Coming Judgment” for every individual at which time the ONE THAT CREATED our soul will make a decision if HE WILL DESTROY our soul!?!?! The Lessons Jesus Teaches us is that His Purpose for taking on a “body of flesh” is to Teach us how to “preserve” our eternal soul through a “relationship” with “our Father in Heaven” and that “relationship” is “Spiritual” in nature. In JQ#20 Jesus is telling us again not to worry about the “physical” body which the world has power to “kill” for that is nothing compared to the “Power of God” to preserve our “Soul” as Jesus reminds us at the start of JQ#20 that His “physical” body is going to be “killed” but that the “Power of God” will preserve His Eternal Soul by raising Jesus from the dead on the third day thereby demonstrating that God alone has the “Power” over our souls which are “eternal” so we should not worry about our bodies but be totally concerned about our souls —— — remember when Jesus Taught not to be concerned about “physical” things that He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) which now makes sense that we do not find God by looking for “physical” things but we must “seek” God with our “Spiritual” nature which God has imparted to our “souls”.  Now in JQ#20 Jesus tells us the “key” to a “spiritual relationship with God” is through our “Faith” or “Belief in God” as Jesus answers His disciples when they asked Him why they had failed to cast out the demon in the boy as Jesus ends the JQ#20 Lesson by stating to His disciples why they failed when He answered them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”  (Matthew 17:20) Then Jesus concludes JQ#20 just as He introduced JQ#20 with a reminder of His upcoming death and “resurrection”, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” (Matthew 17:21) Jesus is Teaching that God will demonstrate His Glory and Power over death and the grave by “Resurrecting Jesus” but we are so brainwashed by the world that we fail to see the “Spiritual Glory of God” and focus only on the “physical” death and we feel just like what Matthew recorded in this statement about the reaction of the disciples when Jesus told them He would be “killed by men” ———“And [His disciples] were exceedingly sorrowful.” (Matthew 17:21) Jesus in the same sentence stated that “men” would “kill Him” and that “God” would “raise Him the third day” so we must answer the personal question that surfaces here ——— why do we worry more about what “men” can do to the body than what “God” can do to the “soul” ????? — —— you don’t think it could be Satan trying to scare us with his threats of “death” just like He has been doing every day since God told him “because you have [deceived Adam and Eve], you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:14) ———well I know that if I had been cursed to crawl on my belly and eat dust that I would attack everyone that walked upright on two feet, wouldn’t you?