Friday, March 6, 2026

MARCH 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 


MARCH 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#08 

“Why do you think evil in your hearts?” 

(Matthew 9:4)


LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, all Praise, Glory, and Honor to the King of kings, who by

 His Great Sacrifice for all mankind has earned true Praise, Glory, and

 Honor from all mankind for there is no other name but the Name 

of the One that lived a Perfect Life before God the Father, 

even our Lord Jesus Christ! 

Only the Perfect Life of the Son of God was the Acceptable Sacrifice

 demanded by the Perfect Father and only through the Perfect Sacrifice

 of the Son of God can sinners be made Perfect before the Father.

Lord Jesus, I BELIEVE, make me Perfectly Acceptable to God!

AMEN


THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS always Taught us the “Truth of God” and

 Jesus demonstrated the Power and Greatness of the Father 

both in His earthly life and His Divine Death, Burial, and Resurrection!  


The world teaches mankind, “Do as we say, not as we do” but when Jesus

 came to reveal the TRUTH of the FATHER, Jesus Taught men,

 “Do as I do for I reveal the Truth of God 

but what a man does on his own 

in opposition to God’s Truth IS SIN.” 


JQ#08 is the first time in the gospels that Jesus directly challenged the “legal”

 authority that mankind had usurped from God. Some background here

 on the “scribes” is helpful ——— the scribes were used by the prophets

 and religious leaders of Israel to write down the words of God; therefore,

 by their association with the Holy Scriptures, the scribes were 

considered very important in Israel.  The Pharisees used scribes to write

 down man’s interpretation of what the Pharisees “thought God meant” 

when He spoke His Word. 


This is very similar to the situation today in America where we have a

 “Constitution of the United States of America” 

that was written down by our founding fathers but now there is a

 “supreme court” where officials appointed by the ruling political party

 write “opinions” of what they think the “Constitution” and America’s

 founding fathers really meant to say?!?!? 

It should be understood also that 

“blasphemy” was defined 

during the time Jesus Himself walked the earth, 

as taking from God the Unique and Divine authority

 “to forgive sin”


 Nowhere in the Old Testament writings studied by the Pharisees 

contemporary with Jesus had the Pharisees given even the 

Messiah Himself the “right” to “forgive sin” so when Jesus spoke to the paralytic, 


“Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” 

(Matthew 9:3)


 the Pharisees started quoting their interpretation of God’s Law 

(as the Pharisees had determined what God had “really meant to say”) 


{see paraphrase of Genesis 3:1 

“Now the [Pharisee] was more cunning

 than any [religious leader in Israel] which the LORD God 

had [put in authority] and [the Pharisee] said [to Israel] 

‘Has God indeed said…’ 

(Genesis 3:1)} — 


the Pharisees declared that Jesus, by “forgiving sin” 

had called Himself “God” 

because according to the Pharisees interpretation 

of the “law” in Holy Scripture

 and written “officially” by the scribes, 

only God Himself had the Authority 

to “forgive sins”. 


Do you not see that Jesus is confronting “legalism” here and in TRUTH,

 Jesus is revealing that the ones that are condemning Him of “blasphemy” 

are really the guilty ones for usurping the authority of God from God’s Law 

and making man’s law the “law of the land” that the people must live by? 


When I read passages like these, 

the Holy Spirit stirs me to ask my contemporaries; 

“How is our modern laws on abortion 

which usurp the authority of God, 

any different from 

the law of the Pharisees which

 condemned our Lord Jesus Christ of 

“blasphemy and to death on a cross?”   


If we as Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God

 who was sent by God Himself 

and promised by God 

that if we will believe

 that God sent His Son to us as a gift 

that we would not have to 

“perish but have everlasting life” — 

then how can we support a “man-made law” 

 made by the “opinion” of man that

 denies the unborn their right to receive God’s gift of life? 


An “aborted unborn” has “perished” 

and man’s legalism is responsible for 

taking God’s authority and Gift of Life

 away from the unborn, 

and the “legal” death of the “unborn” can be 

interpreted as nothing but modern day blasphemy by 

America’s lawmakers resulting in the taking away of 

the unborn’s God-given right to life!!! 


Jesus confronted the legalists of His day and the TRUTH is that not only

 did Jesus demonstrate the Power of God over the “physical” by healing

 the paralytic, He also healed the paralytic “spiritually” by “forgiving” his

 sins and the “verdict” of a “jury of the (paralytic’s) peers” was that 

“the multitudes saw [Jesus heal the paralytic 

and heard Jesus say that He could forgive sin], 

[and] they marveled and glorified God”.

 (Matthew 9:8)  


Let TRUTH be our judge and jury 

as to the “Consequence” of our “belief”

 that Jesus is the Son of God!

 

More importantly, let TRUTH guide the way

 we live our day-to-day lives and treat the unborn

 with all the dignity we demand for ourselves!  


Having a “position” in any governing body 

does not give anyone the “legal authority” 

to deny the “unborn” of their  

“God-given” Right to  Life!!!


Thursday, March 5, 2026

MARCH 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 


MARCH 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#08 

“Why do you think evil in your hearts?” 

(Matthew 9:4)



LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another new day, another “Son” rise in my heart, the air is fresh

 with Your Mercies and Your Grace and my soul sings a new song and

 all these wonderful things are the Fruit of Your Divine Love. 


Lord let us decrease in our selfishness and darkness and let Your Light

 shine through us into a dark world just as the rising sun shines forth to

 dispel the night, may our “Light of the Risen Lord” burst forth so that

 those in need will be showered in “Hope” that the new day will be filled

 with blessings from the “True Light” which gives “life” to men!    

AMEN


THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS started us with JQ#08 on a very personal inward journey straight

 to the point of revealing that the source of a significant amount of the evil

 in our lives comes from “[thinking] evil in [our own] hearts” and just that 

quick Jesus lets us know that He is interested in every detail of our lives ——— 

Jesus doesn’t want us to be “hearers only of the Word” but He

 wishes to “transform” our view of the world through knowing the 

“Truth of God” about ourselves!!!  


Yesterday we looked at how personal Jesus makes His Teachings as 

we looked at JESUS Question JQ#08 in Matthew 9:4 — and to answer

 His Question honestly we must first consider the 

Truth of God that He KNOWS that we have “evil” thoughts 

and they are not just in our “heads” but there is “evil” in our “hearts”!?!?! 

 Here again we find that in order to find the complete “Truth of God” in

 His Teachings we must look at the “Big Picture” and as 

Sharon Anderson said when we started this journey through

 the JESUS Questions — “context is king!” 


Also, in the completeness of His teachings we must look at every aspect

 that Jesus touches so we must dig deeper into the scripture to find those

 “gems” of understanding that can always be found by “digging deeper”

One tool that is helpful in going deeper in God’s Word is using 

“The Law of Choice and Consequence”

From the beginning

 God has been very clear that He KNOWS 

everything we do, say, and think

 and He is very clear that our

 “Choices” will result in “Consequences” 

that God had “predetermined” before the foundations of the earth. 

{See JQ#06 “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)

 and God makes it very clear that our 

“actions” are the “fruits” of our “Choices” 

and our actions 

will result in those predetermined “Consequences”

God has reserved the right to determine the results of our actions

 but He has also made it very clear that


 He allows “Free Will” 

and He will never interfere 

with our “Freedom of Choice”! 


One of the big problems with this modern philosophy of “tolerance” is that

 the world has decided that God doesn’t exist, therefore His Laws no longer

 apply, and the world has established a new set of laws, the real world 

TRUTH 

being of course, God is not “dead” 

but is “the everlasting God” and has

 not had His Supreme Power lessened by man’s evil desires.

 Remember that God looked at the world in Noah’s time and

 “saw the the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 

and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was

 only evil continually. 

And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, 

and He was grieved in His heart.” 

(Genesis 6:5-6) 


God brought a great flood upon the earth as the “Consequence” 

(a form of punishment) for the 

“intent of the thoughts of [our] hearts [being] evil” 

and only 8 people in the whole world survived — so when

 Jesus, who is the Son of God, asks us point blank:

 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) 

don’t you think that we should be very concerned that we have 

“grieved…[the Father’s] heart”!!! ———


The Bible teaches us from Genesis to Revelation that God will

 always have Control and Power and will always

 KNOW THE INTENTS OF OUR HEARTS,

 therefore each generation is personally responsible for making the “Choice” 

that determines the “Consequence” of an individual’s eternity

and that “Choice of Eternity” is simple, 


(C1) 

We “Choose” to Trust God and live according to His Law

 and we will inherit eternal life with the Father or 


(C2) 

We “Choose” to make and live by our own laws 

and ignore God’s Law and live according to our selfish nature 

and we will inherit eternal separation from God. 


Let us look at the context of JQ#08 in terms of “Choice” and see if

 God is “consistent” in His “Consequences” 

as He has written them down in His Holy Bible for us to read 

and KNOW His Holy Word


In Matthew 9:2 we read, 

“…they brought [Choice] to [Jesus] a paralytic…

And when Jesus saw their faith…”

 Jesus said to the paralytic 

“Son…your sins are forgiven [Consequence]”.  


The Law of Choice and Consequence can be observed by looking at

 the actions of an individual and then seeing that our lives are a sum

 total of the “CONSEQUENCES” resulting from the actions we have “CHOSEN” 

in our lives — life is simply the results of the “Choices” each person makes

 and the “Consequences” are Eternal and have been predetermined

 by The Sovereign God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  


It works well to make a list of who-did-what-actions from these JESUS Questions

 and then see the result of the “Choices” that made them take those actions.

 For deeper learning purposes read Matthew 9:1-4 and list the person,

 the choice/action each person made, and then write the result (Consequence)

 of their “Choice”, for example in Matthew 9:2 we read “they brought to Him”

 which means “they” “Choose” to take the paralytic to Jesus so in the

 “Who” Column write “They” then in the “Action/Choice Column” write

 “Brought to Jesus the paralytic” and in the “Result/Consequence Column” 

write “Jesus both healed the paralytic and 

forgave him of his sins because of their faith” . 


You have just dug deeper into the Word, 

what do you think the 

“Consequence” 

of that action will be?