FEBRUARY 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 

FEBRUARY 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#06 

“Do men gather grapes from thornbushes 

or figs from thistles?”

(Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, thank You Lord for Your Grace so freely bestowed on such an

 undeserving sinner such as I Lord, (But by the GRACE of GOD I am

 what I am…1 Corinthians 15:10)— Lord, it matters not what other men

 do with the knowledge of Christ, but it is of Eternal Importance what we

 ourselves personally do with the knowledge that Jesus came to earth, 

took on flesh, lived a Perfect Life, and allowed Himself to be the Lamb of God,

 offered for the sins of each individual as an atonement for those sins in

 order that we can be “Forgiven our sins” and through the Sacrifice of Christ

 we can exchange our guilt for the Righteousness of Jesus Christ, our Savior! 

Lord, what does matter in our lives is that we ourselves “Believe 

in God and His Righteousness” and that we “Believe” it significantly enough

 to share the “Good News” with other men that they too can have

 the Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ! Lord, I pray that all the remaining

 days that You choose to GRACE me with that I will use each day to point

 others to the Truth of God that He so Loved the world that He sent 

His Only Begotten Son to become flesh and dwell among us and show 

us the “Way” to the Truth of God and His Great Love for us!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS took a simple Question about

 “grapes” and “figs” and pointed us

 to the Truth of God that 

God will make His Truth “obvious” to us

 if we will use our God-given common logic —

 of course we don’t get “grapes” from anything but grape vines,

 nor do we gather “figs” from anywhere but fig trees, 

so why do we go to the world of men to learn of God? 

Jesus warned us “beware of false prophets” which tells us that there

 are “real prophets” and there are “false prophets” and to keep us safe

 Jesus tells us how to tell the “good” from the “bad” and that is simply to 

see if the bush has “thorns” or “grapes” 

or does the tree produce “thistles” or “figs”?  

Jesus then made it clear that 

we will be judged by the fruit that we produce 

and not by what we profess to be with our mouths, 

and the penalty is rather severe,

 if we do not produce good fruit in the eyes of God, 

then our tree will be 

“cut down and thrown into the fire”! 

God never asks us to do anything that He does not provide everything

 we need to accomplish with our lives that which He calls us to do and God

 always gives us very clear detailed instructions not only

 “How” but “Why” we should follow His instructions! 

Such as is this case as Jesus Teaches we should produce “good” fruit

 then He immediately Teaches us a parable on “How” — and if we use our

 God-given logic we will also easily understand “Why”! Jesus had just warned,

 “Not everyone that says to Me ‘Lord, Lord’ 

shall enter the kingdom of heaven…” 

(Matthew 7:21a) 

and Jesus then illustrates the 

Truth of God 

that 

we are not to just “say” Jesus is “Lord” 

of our lives but

 we must “live” our lives and “do” those things that prove 

that He IS the “Lord” of our lives. 

Jesus was blunt in His “Consequence” of our lives producing “fruit” of 

the world and of men rather than the “fruit” of following Jesus as

 “Lord” and producing kingdom fruit when He proclaims: 

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;

 depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"  

(Matthew 7:23) 

Jesus then starts His Teaching The Parable of the Two Builders:

 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,

 and does them, 

I will liken him to a wise man 

who built his house on the rock: 

and the rain descended, the floods came, 

and the winds blew 

and beat on that house; and it did not fall,

 for it was founded on the rock.”

 (Matthew 7:24-25) 

When we look at the simple 

Truth of God 

through simple

 God-given common sense, 

we will not try to gather grapes from thornbushes

 nor will we try to build our refuge from the world

 on the shifting sands of the doctrines of men 

that change with the prevailing winds of popularity,

 nothing worldly provides any real shelter from the storms of life. 

Jesus tells us that there will be storms and struggles in our lives but 

we should build our life 

on the strong foundation of Faith in God 

found in trusting the “rock” —

 a house built on Faith in God and the Rock 

“will not fall” — 

if you build your house on the shifting sands 

of the ever-changing doctrines of men

 and the lies of the world, when the storms of life come,

 your house will fall, 

“And great [will be] its fall!” 

(Matthew 7:29)   

FEBRUARY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 

FEBRUARY 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#06 

“Do men gather grapes from thornbushes 

or figs from thistles?”

(Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, the Only Begotten of the Father, Son of the Living God,

 my Redeemer, Savior, You are the Christ! You Lord are the fulfillment

 of Prophecy, You lived the Perfect Life, You Suffered as the Perfect Sacrifice

 and Paid the Penalty that I could not pay, You died in my place, Your side 

was pierced as You were hanging Dead on the Cross, 

Your Body was Broken, Your Blood was Shed, You were laid in a grave! 

You Lord, being Loved by the Father was Obedient even unto death

 and the grave and on the Third Day You AROSE 

and the Greatest Testimony ever given was proclaimed: 

“HE IS ALIVE”!!!  

As a follower of Jesus Christ there can be no greater 

TRUTH OF GOD 

in our life — 

Jesus is the Resurrection!!!

 Praise God!!!    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS began JQ#06 with a simple Question about gathering “grapes from

 thornbushes” and “figs from thistles” that may seem totally out of

 context for a Truth of God Question but it makes perfect sense if you

 consider the warning Jesus gave us before asking the Question

 about “grapes” and “figs”:

“Beware of false prophets…” 

and then telling us how to identify them,

“…you will know them by their fruits…” 

(Matthew 7:15-16) 

On the surface this seems like a mundane Question but consider that first 

of all that it is Jesus who is asking and secondly Jesus never asked a 

Question that did not point us to a Truth of God  to help us live a 

successful life. Of course, we don’t get “grapes from thornbushes”

 nor do we get “figs from thistles” but if we are not careful and 

discerning about where we get the sustenance of our daily lives then

 we could end up prey to “ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing”! 

Jesus then applies simple logic: 

“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, 

but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, 

nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”

 (Matthew 7:17-18)

Then Jesus gives us the 

“Divine Spiritual Caution”  

when He tells us,

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is

 cut down and thrown into the fire. 

Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” 

(Matthew 7:19-20) 

Once Jesus gets us to thinking in terms of God’s Truth that we can know

 if a tree is “Good” or “Bad” just by observing

 the “fruit” produced by that tree,

 Jesus then proclaims that a tree that does not bear “good fruit” will be

 judged by God and the penalty for producing nothing but “bad fruit” is

 that the “bad” tree will be “cut down and thrown into fire”!

 Jesus is Teaching us with this simple Question that

 we will be judged by the fruit that our lives produce, 

not what we “say” we are going to do, 

but did our actions actually produce “good fruit” or “bad fruit”???

 

“Good fruit” gives nourishment and the bearer of good fruit will be

 rewarded with an abundant life,  but bad fruit produces no good results

 and simply consumes the nutrient from the soil without providing any 

benefit to others; therefore, the tree must be cut down and burned so that

 the life giving nutrients will be returned to the soil and will be used by

 the good tree to provide life to those that consume the good fruit 

from a good tree. Jesus has us focused on our producing “good fruit" 

for the benefit of others then He really gets “Real” when He then amplifies 

this Lesson about not just “saying” we will do good but by actually 

“doing” good when He says,

 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’

 shall enter the kingdom of heaven, 

but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” 

(Matthew 7:21) 

Wow, Jesus took us in a matter of minutes from thinking “of course we don’t 

get grapes from thistles” — to clearly telling us that

 

“it is the Will of [our] Father in heaven” 

that we “produce good fruit” 

and join Him “in heaven” 

but if we don’t produce good fruit and suck up the nourishment for ourselves

 only then we will be “cut down” and “thrown into the fire”. 

In simple terms —

 If we follow Jesus and His Teachings 

we will know the will of God 

and 

if we know the will of God 

we will produce “good fruit” 

but if we simply declare we are followers but do not produce any good fruit,

 our Father in heaven will judge us, not by what we “said” we would do, 

but what “fruit” we produced with our actions in the way of “good fruit”

 for the kingdom and for the sake of others. 

This Lesson sounds simple but how quickly

 

Jesus, the Master Teacher, 

 transforms  the “simple” into the “Sublime” —

 That’s what Jesus does with our simple lives — 

but only if we do “the will of [our] Father in heaven”!!!