FEBRUARY 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#05 “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

FEBRUARY 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#05  “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Praise You Lord Jesus for the work that You have given us to do in Your Name. We know that You can do all things and that in reality You do not need us but You chose to let us participate in the Kingdom Work with You! O Blessed thought that Your Spirit empowers us and we can proclaim because of Your Grace that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13) Lord I praise You because I know I have no value to the Kingdom unless I do my deeds in Your Holy Name — I praise You also because You value me because that is what You have chosen to do — therefore I can quote Your Holy Scripture with great joy, “I have chosen you, to be My own precious possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:60) Lord Jesus, I pray daily to be crucified that daily I may be raised with You for I pray as did John, “[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS in Matthew 7:9-10 Jesus asks Questions with obvious answers and I believe that Jesus does this to make us realize that we overlook the obvious about “our Father in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9). The most Obvious fact from Matthew 7:9-10 is that if an Almighty God that can do anything His heart desires, choses to send His Only Begotten Son to become one of us, that “our Father in Heaven” has only “good” intentions for us on earth!!! God would not give His Only Begotten Son a “stone” if the Son “asks for bread” and the Loving Father would not give His Beloved Son a “serpent” if He asked for a “fish”!!! This should make it obvious to us that the Father desires good things for us. Jesus almost reprimands us for not understanding the “obvious” because Jesus immediately scolds us with the answer to His two “obvious” Questions in Matthew 7:9-10 by stating the “obvious” answer to us: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11) The fact is that God desires good for all men and is Teaching us that to be like Him that we also should desire good for others as Jesus immediately follows with another Truth of God: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) If we study the teachings of the “Law” and the “Prophets” the main theme God Teaches us over and over through them is that we are to desire good for others and not evil. All ten of His commandments God gave as the “Law” through Moses are “God’s Laws” intended for our good and each “Law” deals with how to prevent being “evil” to God and to others! The “Prophets” deal with the history of man and the cycle of man choosing evil, the judgment of God that follows man’s choice, but then God providing a “Way” back to the Father through His Redemption and Grace — (more examples of the “Law of Choice and Consequences”) — Then we have Jesus stating emphatically that He came “to fulfill the Law” (Matthew 5:17”) and later Jesus connects “God’s Law” to “God’s Love” as Jesus proclaims: “A new commandment I give you; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34) One cannot read the Bible as a whole without seeing a Loving Father who wants only good for His Family! For God, through His Holy Word, has provided a “Way” for us to be heirs with Him! God came to the world of fallen man and offered us Grace and Kinship for He Promises that “…as many as [receives] Him, to them He [gives] the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who [are] born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13) It should be obvious that “our Father in heaven” Loves us and desires only good for His children—all we need to do is to “ask” the “Way” and “seek” the narrow gate, knowing with all “Faith in God” and confidence in His Goodness that our loving Father will “open” whenever we “knock”!!! (Matthew 7:13-14).