JULY 09 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, Your Peace is freely offered yet we struggle
to release ourselves from the chains of our past sins which
You have already won the victory over?!?!?
Lord Teach me as only You can that when You died on the cross
that it was for ALL sin, EVERY sin of the past,
EVERY sin in progress today, and EVERY single sin
that we WILL COMMIT in our future!!!
Lord let me hear Your words as You gave Your last
drop of Precious Blood for the atonement of my sins —
“It is finished!”
— Yes !!!
The Work of God has been accomplished,
our sins ARE FORGIVEN !!!
Lord do not let me go on trying to drag my sin around with me,
I am powerless against it and it is nothing more than dead weight
of guilt and shame that drags me down,
Lord I lay my sin at Your feet and pray for the spiritual strength
of weakness to not pick it up again!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus Teaches us a Lesson and we should pay close attention
but if Jesus Teaches the same Lesson more than twice it is
VERY important that we “think” about it long enough
and from the right “spiritual” viewpoint to see the
Truth of God
that God Himself has declared important enough
that He would send His Only Begotten Son to Teach us!
It should impress us that God would allow His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON
to be born of flesh and suffer innocently through all the temptations
that the creation must suffer in this world that was once a paradise
but through our own iniquities the world has become a cesspool of sin.
Jesus makes it clear that the world is in deep trouble with God
and there is an upcoming judgment because of sin
— and this is not the first time Jesus has Taught this Lesson!
In this section Jesus gives us several warnings,
first Jesus tells us that we must change our direction of our convictions
of how we live our daily lives when He states:
“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)
Jesus continues stressing the importance of us entering
the kingdom of heaven through Him when He says plainly:
“Whoever receives one little child like this
in My name receives Me”
and then Jesus tacks on a warning,
“But whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe in Me to sin,
it would be better for him if a millstone
were hung around his neck,
and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
(Matthew 18:6)
So there Jesus says that the “unconverted sinner” will be judged guilty!!!
We should note that Jesus Teaches we should “convert” from
being men seeking personal “greatness” to being humble
like innocent children and if we “think” about that for a minute
we will see that when we are “innocent” that we do not seek “greatness”
and the problem with seeking “worldly” greatness is that the
“road to worldly success” leads down the path of destruction
that is paved with sin
and that pathway is very broad for our sins are many.
Jesus Teaches this same Lesson in the next verse as He warns more severely:
“Woe to the world because of offenses!
For offenses must come, but woe to that man
by whom the offense comes!”
(Matthew 18:7)
No one can read this section of scripture and escape the fact that
our sins are an “offense” to God and that
there is going to be severe penalties to pay
for our transgressions against God
for Jesus continues to warn us by listing the consequences for our sinful actions.
Jesus already listed one consequence
(C1) “drown in the depth of the sea” and now Jesus throws in
several more “visuals” for us to imagine in the form of punishment —
(C2) “if your hand or foot causes you to sin,
cut it off and cast it from you” (Matthew 18:8) —
(C3) “if your eye causes you to sin,
pluck it out and cast it from you” (Matthew 18:9)
Then to make sure we understand that it is sin
that causes us to lose our direction
Jesus makes a clear definitive statement of why
He is on earth Teaching us about sin when He says:
“For the Son of Man has come
to save that which is lost.”
(Matthew 18:11)
This section should Teach us that we should “repent” of our sin
(which Jesus used the term “convert”)
to avoid the penalty of sin that will be judged by God Himself and as always
Jesus tells us how to resolve our sin problem
and paints a “positive visual” of the judgement
when He says that “if” we “convert”
we will “see the kingdom of heaven”
and twice Jesus used the term “enter into life”
then Jesus promises that if we “become as children”
we will have “angels” assigned to guard us
from sin and that the “Father” in heaven
will always look over His “converted” children
— and the picture I got was that if I become as a little child
that I will have a personal audience with [our]
“Father who is in heaven”
and be rewarded with eternal life rather than staying lost
in my sin and end up with a
“millstone hung around my neck”
and
“drowning in the depth of the sea”.
Which vision fits your spiritual eye,
being cast into hell fire
or
entering into life
being protected and provided for
by our Father in heaven?
