JULY 16 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

 

JULY 16  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

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 Prayer   

JESUS, ALL Praise be to the Only Begotten of the Father that is the Light

 of the world, and to the Son that is the Hope of all who believe. 

Jesus, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, I bow not only my knee to You, 

but I also bow my heart and my head that I may fulfill Your command

 to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind. Lord Jesus, thank You

 for Your Presence among us when we gather in Your Name 

and Lord we lift up praise to You for the lives that You and You alone

 can change. Lord teach us to draw others to You and to share Your Truth

 with those that are stuck in that worldly rut and secular darkness

 that they will come to know You and their lives will become Light 

and that they may experience the “Peace that passes all understanding”. 

Forgive me when I fall short and when I turn to the right or left, 

especially when I fall back into self, You Lord and only You 

can still my soul, so Lord grant it that my spirit will yield completely

 to Your Holy Spirit so that it will be Your Light that others see in me.    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus with JQ#21a and JQ#21b has started both Questions with the phrase

 or lead-in Question, “What do you think?” and then Jesus follows 

the lead-in Question with the topic Question.  JQ#21a (Matthew 17:25) 

was about “kings of the earth” taking “taxes” as part of our daily lives

 and in JQ#21b (Matthew 18:12) Jesus asked about “lost sheep”. 

We should note that after JQ#21a Jesus “Divinely Empowered” 

Simon (whom Jesus had named Peter) with the ability to pay the tax

 with what Peter did on a daily basis — Peter was a fisherman 

when Jesus called Peter to follow Him. 

Then between JQ#21a where Jesus made Peter stop and “think” 

about his daily life and trusting God for his daily provisions while Peter

 had to deal with the “kings of the earth” and JQ#21b where Jesus

 then drew our attention to the man that had a 100 sheep and lost one

 whom the man (or shepherd) left the ninety nine to rescue the one lost sheep that 

Jesus Taught His disciples about sin in our daily lives 

and how important it is that we solve the problem of sin! 

First Jesus “called a little child to Him” and used the child as an example

 as Jesus Taught: 

“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted 

and become as little children, you will by no means 

enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

 Then to make sure that we knew He was beginning 

a Lesson on what will keep us out of the 

“kingdom of heaven” Jesus introduces the main problem as He declared,

 “But whoever causes one of the little ones who believe in Me to sin…” 

thereby Jesus introduced sin as the main problem 

as Jesus tied “entry into heaven” with being like a “little child”.

 Jesus then established a consequence of dire proportions if we caused 

“one of the little ones” to “sin”, 

the dire consequence was worse than being

 “drowned in the depth of the sea”!?!?! 

(Matthew 18:4-6) 

The picture that is painted in this illustration is a basic presentation 

of the Gospel and God’s Plan of Salvation. First we have Jesus “calling”

 and saying 

“come to Me”. 

Jesus then took the “little child” that came to Him and put the child

 “in the midst of them” 

so that everyone could see how even a 

“little child” 

could be accepted by Jesus Himself! 

Then to make it clear Jesus said “Assuredly” which is a word used that

 means the speaker is telling an important truth 

(and in this verse Jesus is speaking a most important Truth of God ) 

then Jesus states emphatically 

“unless you are converted and become as little children” 

and Jesus again states the consequence of our failure to 

“become as little children” that we “will by no means”

 (which says that there is no other way possible for us to) 

“enter the kingdom of heaven”

 except by the way that Jesus is illustrating with the “little child”. 

The only “WAY” to see the kingdom 

is that we come to Jesus when He calls. 

He will accept us if we are “converted” 

(or “repent/turn from” our sinful life) 

and return to the innocence of a little child who is without sin. 

In Matthew 18:6 Jesus says that if we cause a

 “little one who believes [in Jesus] to sin” 

then we will not enter into the kingdom but we will perish the same

 as if we were “drowned in the depth of the sea”!?!?! 

Therefore we can see that the picture Jesus presents is if we humble

 ourselves before Him and come as innocent little children, then and only then, 

will we enter into the kingdom of heaven ———

 but if un-repented sin is involved in our lives 

then the consequence of our un-repented sin is death 

— —— it is clearly understood that death is the penalty God declared for sin,

 therefore it is logical that un-repented sin is not a pathway 

to entering the kingdom of heaven!?!?!?! 

The big problem we have in our modern culture is that the enemy 

has been deceiving the “lawmakers” into writing laws that are 

“outside of God’s Moral Standards” 

and then the “lawmakers” lead the public to believe that because something

 is “legal” by man’s law that it will be “morally” acceptable to God!?!?!?

 But who are you going to trust your eternity with, 

someone who seeks personal power 

and worldly fame and profit through “politics”, 

or will you trust your eternity to “One” that went to great trouble 

to save that one lost sheep? 

Once again we are placed in the uncomfortable position to

 “think” for ourselves, so don’t you “think” 

it would be wise to listen to the 

“One True Light” 

that is trying to promote

 “everlasting life” 

instead of the those in darkness

 that promote the “death” of the unborn?!?!?!?

  

         ***********************************  

“A LIE doesn’t become TRUTH, 

WRONG doesn’t become RIGHT 

& EVIL doesn’t become GOOD, 

just because it’s accepted by a majority. “  

(Author Unknown)  *

**********************************

JULY 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

 

JULY 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

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 Prayer   

JESUS, keep my eyes always on You, keep my focus on the Hope

 that You lay before us as we follow Your Way, keep my heart longing

 to be “One” with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
as I know that You will keep me showered in Your Mercy and Grace

 that my life will be Abundant with Peace and Joy. Lord Jesus, 

You are Gracious and Forgiving so keep me centered in Your Will. 

Give us each day our daily bread and keep me ever mindful 

that if God be for us, who can be against us!    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, being the Master Teacher, spends as much time on a 

particular subject as is necessary to bring His disciples to the point

 that they “understand” what He is “Teaching” with His Question-Lessons.

 This section of Scripture has been a Lesson on sin 

and He has again

 made the crystal clear point that if we fail to “understand” to perceive the

 Truth of God 

in the Lesson that the “consequences” of our misunderstanding

 will have an impact on where we spend our eternity. 

When Jesus says 

“Woe to the world because of offenses.” 

(Matthew 18:7) 

and in the very next sentence He points to our personal 

responsibility for our sin by the example, 

“If your hand or foot causes you to sin, 

cut it off and cast it from you” 

(Matthew 18:8)

 then those verses leaves no doubt that it is ourselves 

that is the originator of our sin;

 it is not “the-devil-made-me-do-it” myth ——— 

the devil himself has deceived us with his rebellious suggestions 

which are nothing more than lies ——— 

but, 

the originator of our sin is us, 

our sin is personal 

and we should be well aware that the 

Truth of God

 about sin is what King David wrote:

 “Against You, You only, 

have I sinned 

and done this evil in Your sight.” 

(Psalm 51:4) 

The other worldly myth this verse destroys is the myth that

 if we have not involved someone else and that what we are doing

 is “personal” then it is not a sin (???) then we miss the point

 that sin is against God 

and we do not have the right

 to decide what sin is 

or what sin isn’t. 

We suppose wrongly that without God there would be no sin

 and that is what the world is trying to get us to believe, that there is “no God” 

and that whatever we want to do with our own bodies that we 

have the “right” to “choose” what we will do with this earthly body 

because we are wrongly assuming that there is 

no “sin” because there is no “God”!?!?! 

When your mind is turned away from God and His Standards of Morality

 then you have committed the “unpardonable sin” —

 for God has ordained each soul with Free Will and if we “choose” to turn 

from Him and live without Him then His Hands 

are tied because we tied them with our wrong-thinking about God! 

God will not force Himself on us, 

therefore if we turn our mind from Him

 then He will respect your 

God-given Free Will 

and therefore our “sin” cannot be pardoned because

 the only One that can “pardon” sin is God 

and if you turn from God and refuse to acknowledge 

His Power of Forgiveness 

then God cannot forgive you; hence, the

 “unpardonable sin”. 

The Truth of God is that the definition 

of sin is being disobedient to God, 

and the enemy of God lies to us and says that to free us from 

our responsibility to God all we have to do is believe the “lie” 

that there is “no God” ———

 but a world without a Fair and Just God making the rules 

must take on the awesome responsibility 

of making our own “rules” 

and being our own “god” ——— 

and all of us has proved with our own lives

 that we cannot take care of ourselves properly,

 much less take care of the moral good of everyone else!?!?! 

 Here is the reality facing mankind: 

There is no “life” without God 

for life without God 

leads to death and destruction!!! 

God is the Creator and there would not be a reality without Him

 and regardless of what the majority decides is a “law”, 

that does not have any impact on the 

Reality of God and God’s Moral Standard 

that He has established ———

mankind cannot make God go away 

nor can mankind legislate “morality” ——— 

HERE IS TRUTH

God has declared what is “good” and what is “evil” 

and God has declared what is “Right” and what is “Wrong” 

and those that refuse to follow God’s declarations 

are in Truth the “lost sheep”. 

JQ#21b asks “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, 

and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine

 and go to the mountains to save the one that is straying?” 

(Matthew 18:12) 

So the world-without-God will tell you that since “there is no God” 

that your answer must be that if you are “lost” then “tough luck”

 because there is “no shepherd” and if you can’t find your own way back 

then you will have to accept your own “fate/destiny”.

 Jesus is pointing out with this Question that God is going to take care

 of ALL of His “sheep” and that if we “stray” from 

His Protection and Provisions that He will do whatever is necessary 

to bring us back into the “fold” and keep us safe.

 “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven 

that one of these little ones should perish.” 

(Matthew 18:14) 

Jesus says back in verses 8-10 that 

we are going to be held personally responsible for our sins 

and that our sins will lead us astray but then Jesus concludes

 with the “Hope” that if we listen for the Voice of the  “Good Shepherd”

 that we will be “found” ——— 

our “Eternal Hope” is that He is searching for us 

and is calling for us to let Him save us from our sin against God, 

but if we refuse to hear Him then we will be “lost in our sin” 

which leads 

“into the everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8) 

Do you want to take the responsibility of providing for your own eternity

 based on a “worldly myth” that man invented for his own selfishness ——— 

or do you want to Trust the Creator God 

who unselfishly gave Himself that we 

might “not perish but have everlasting life” with Him? 

The voice of the 

Good Shepherd 

is asking in that 

“still small voice”: 

What do you think?