JUNE 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

 

JUNE 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

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 Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, Praise be to the One that was rejected 

by His own and yet willingly died the Only Death 

that was an Acceptable Sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. 

Lord I fall short of True Faith all too often

 as I fully accept Your Grace in most of my life 

but find that there is still in me uncleanness, 

not because I did not give my sin to You 

or that You were unable to forgive me of my sin, 

but I am unclean and fall short of True Faith 

because I did not leave my sin at the foot of Your cross 

where in my repentance I laid it!?!?

 Lord forgive me of the sin of “little faith”, You know my heart 

and You know my desire to serve You honorably 

and I pray that each day that I have remaining that there is no

 remembrance of my sin by me 

for I know You “forgive and forget” 

but Lord I fall prey to “pulling my sin out of mothballs” 

and then the Holy Spirit convicts me of my guilt

 of not leaving my sin at the foot of Your Cross, 

but it is obvious that if I can pull it out of my memory 

that either I did not let it go when I pleaded for forgiveness or 

when I laid it down I picked it up again!?!? 

Lord, You died for all sin, even the ones we “try to hide” 

in the recess of our soul, Lord, I pray that Your Light 

will expose every last sin that I have hidden away, little sins that 

even I am not aware of until they surface at unexpected times — 

Lord give me the strength to allow Your Light access 

to my hiding places so that I can be rid of this “excess baggage” 

and move forward into the True Faith

 that You died on the cross for!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus will not settle for anything to keep us from the 

Truth of God, 

especially our misunderstanding of one of His Lessons — 

Jesus was always stopping His disciples and making sure that they 

“understood” what He was Teaching 

and then to leave no stone unturned Jesus would tell the disciples

 exactly what the parable or the Lesson meant in terms that 

they could not possibly misinterpret what He was Teaching them.

However, all of us fail to totally “get it” the first time through His Word

 and we find ourselves falling short in one area of 

“True Faith in God” 

and we must be “called out” for it!  

Every time Jesus saw one of these instances with the disciples, 

Jesus would “tell it like it is” and then Jesus with only the Love that God bestows

 would use the reproach to “Teach” one of those “deeper still” Lessons.

 This is the case of JQ#20 where Jesus addresses

 a “shortcoming” of the disciples 

and then uses the opportunity to Teach another great 

Truth of God 

when He fully gets their attention. 

Jesus had just Taught them

 to consider their soul and the upcoming judgement 

and the importance of living their life in His Truth

 so now Jesus and His disciples are back in the “mission field” 

doing that which Jesus had Taught them to do,

 “And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, 

kneeling down to Him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son,

 for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; 

for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 

So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”

 (Matthew 17:14-16)  

It was at this point that Jesus responded in what to my mind 

was a rebuke for His disciples 

but before I lead the reader to any wrong conclusions,

let us look at this next Jesus Question and let Him Teach: 

JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, 

how long shall I be with you? 

How long shall I bear with you?” 

(Matthew 17:17) 

Let me ask you at this point to stop and consider the feelings stirred in you

 when you read Jesus saying 

“O faithless and perverse generation…”, 

did you cringe in guilt like I did and then almost tremble when I read, 

“…how long shall I be with you?” 

This is one of those Questions where our inmost feelings will surface 

and if we will but “hang in there” Jesus will guide us to a

 Truth of God 

and bestow on True Believers the Peace that passes all understanding. 

Don’t you think that this is a good time to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you

 in addressing the feelings stirred in you when Jesus 

declares this personal indictment of a 

“…faithless and perverse generation…”? 

Jesus would not have asked if He did not have something good in store 

for those that will stop and answer His Questions honestly 

so take an honest stab at answering  JQ#20, 

but I advise you to temper your guilt with 

“Trust in God” and pray for His Understanding of the

 Truth of God 

to “guide you” as Jesus  promised: 

“…I will send [the Helper/Comforter] to you. 

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, 

and of righteousness, and of judgement…

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, 

He will guide you into all truth…” !!! 

John 16:7-14) 

JUNE 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

 

JUNE 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#19  “For what profit is it to man 

if he gains the whole world, 

and loses his own soul?” 

(Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I start my day again by Your Word and today The Holy Spirit reveals

  the Truth of God that John proclaimed to start his Gospel,

 “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, 

and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God” 

(John 1:1-2) 

Lord Jesus, You ARE the WORD and the Holy Spirit revealed to John

 that it is the “WORD” that is the Creative Power and that the

 “WORD IS GOD” 

and that before there was a “beginning” the “WORD” already existed

 and the “WORD” has been revealed as being Jesus,

 the Only Begotten Son of the Father and it is by the “WORD”

 that all men have “the right to be called children of God”. 

Blessed thought that the “WORD” has been etched into our “soul” 

that if we follow the command of God and “hear Him”,

 we may truly know the 

“Eternal Way to Everlasting Life and Fellowship with God” !!!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus I start today with a prayer to the Holy Spirit to guide the words

 that will summarize this Jesus Question/Lesson on the reality of our 

“Soul” and the upcoming “Exchange/Final Judgment”  

for God has gone above and beyond to bring us into the knowledge of

 

(Truth 1) Who Jesus really is (See JQ#18) and

 

(Truth 2) Who we really are in relationship to God. (See JQ#19) 

Jesus is Teaching His disciples by 

“Word” and by “Life Example” 

and these Lessons are each Lessons within themselves 

but there is also the “revelation” to those that study the “WORD” of the

 “Divine Plan”— 

Jesus is Teaching that it is our “soul” 

that is at the center of God’s Divine Plan. 

Before we stop and insist that man is not the center

 of the universe therefore God cannot exist, 

let us consider these “observable” facts about what has been revealed

 about God by what is “known” by mankind and our written history.

 Since the objection raised by the detractors of God

 is that God cannot be explained then I respectfully submit 

that reality itself exists even though reality cannot be explained 

and even the fact that we can argue the existence of God 

makes God part of reality. 

These two Jesus Questions JQ#18 and JQ#19 

put back-to-back is a “Lesson” in itself and the reality IS

 that we are sitting here contemplating these two Questions! 

I know I exist, I know that reality includes 

“The Book” and all the “Words” printed in “The Book”, 

I know that reality includes someone that wrote the first words, 

and someone real has printed these words, and now someone real

 is reading the words. I can only submit to you this argument:

 “The Book” 

is real and the

 “intelligence to write and to read and to understand words”

 is real, and we cannot explain how we 

“understand”

 but that does not prevent us from 

“understanding” 

and being able to perceive the reality that there is an 

“Unseen Power”

 that can affect both our “physical” life and our

 “spiritual” life. If we can “understand” 

the words without being able to fully explain how we

 “understand” 

them, then it is logical to assume that being able to explain  

“The Book”

 is not a necessary requisite for us to understand 

“The Book” or for the “The Book” to be real! 

“The Book” IS GOD’S WORD to Teach us about HIMSELF, 

and because you may choose not to believe what “The Book” Teaches,

 your personal belief does not have the power to change reality 

——— “your personal “belief” can only affect

 “your personal understanding” of the reality of 

“The Book” !

 The “conclusion” of the matter is that God 

has revealed Himself to us through His Son 

and the Truth is written in “The Book” for all to read! 

God has promised that to all who read it that He will give them 

“understanding” 

and what God is saying with JQ#18 & JQ#19 is that 

His Only Begotten Son is Teaching us 

(T1) that “Who” we say Jesus is and “Who” we say we are 

in relation to Him determines the “Reality” of our “Eternity” and

 (T2) God places the PERSONAL responsibility to find the 

TRUTH OF REALITY on our  OWN “souls”, 

(T3) and God has placed a time-limit on our decision — 

by God’s Divine Plan our decision must be made 

before the moment of our “physical death” 

(no one can dare argue the “reality of death”), 

(T4) God has given us our “physical” finite time on earth

 to decide if we want to spend eternity with God 

or remain forever separated from Him !!! 

I know I can’t explain it, if I could then God wouldn’t be God, I would be God — for 

God is the Supreme Being and the only ONE 

that can explain reality is God!!! 

So consider your “final answer” as the conclusion of the matter:

 “Who do you say Jesus is and have you considered 

that God created you with an eternal soul, 

and as your Creator, God is going to require you 

to give an account of your life 

and what you have done with the gifts 

that He has offered to you?”