APRIL 8 The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

April 8 / Day 40

365 Prayers to JESUS

Jesus, Lord there is a peace that the world just cannot offer, there is nothing in the world, not fortune nor fame, that can provide the Peace that comes from knowing You, for Your PEACE is PRICELESS. Lord Jesus, I praise You for knowing my heart and my thoughts for You in Your Lovingkindness knows just how to speak those well placed and perfectly timed Words of Grace just when we need them most and this morning as I awoke with a cloud on my spirit You spoke to me through the inspired verses Deb made for my desktop as I read this “personalized” verse: “You will have perfect peace if you keep focused on Me, Lanny.” (Isaiah 26:3) 

The Jesus Questions

JQ#8 - Each day as I study JQ#8a&b (Matthew 9:4,5) and read ahead to find JQ#9 the Spirit keeps revealing new ways to look at the whole project of “The Jesus Questions” from the viewpoint that Jesus never teaches just one lesson. Because of His Infinite Knowledge and Love for us, Jesus always gives us more than we expect. As He opens our Spiritual Eyes we naturally see different aspects of His Divine Nature. As I examine the context surrounding each question encountered so far in the Gospel of Matthew an underlying pattern is emerging that demonstrates that Jesus is building our understanding of the Father by teaching us “precept upon precept” and “line upon line” but He is also developing an “Outline” to living the Christian Life if we but follow His Example, the key verse for that concept emerged today as I was looking to conclude JQ#8 and move to JQ#9 when the Holy Spirit directed me to use Matthew 9:9-13 as the conclusion of JQ#8 and a summary of JQ#1-JQ#8. Let’s start with Matthew 9:9 where we stopped yesterday with Jesus calling Matthew, a tax collector, with these two words: “Follow Me” and it was noted that as soon as Jesus called Matthew that Matthew immediately responded: “So [Matthew] arose and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9) What started me on the “Summary of JQ#1-8 was the opening line in Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus passed on from there…” and the opening line in Matthew 9:10 that reads “Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table [with] many tax collectors and sinners…” and these were tied together with the last line in Matthew 9:13 which Jesus Himself summarizes “why” he has been healing, demonstrating the Power of God, and forgiving sins when He clearly states: “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13) A parallel verse is in John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Therefore the Spirit showed that in JQ#1-8 Jesus calls us personally to get involved in His Work which is to do the Father’s Will and we know from John 3:16 that Jesus is God’s Gift to those that BELIEVE in the work of Jesus. Belief in the Work of Jesus as a Gift of God results in “Eternal Life” and JQ#1-8 teach us that Jesus came to “heal” the “sick”, give “sight to the blind”, enable the “lame” to “walk with God”, and that Jesus came to call “sinners” to “repentance”. In these first 8 Jesus Questions Jesus clearly has presented His Gospel which is to personally recognize our need as sinners for a Savior, then we are to “believe” that Jesus is the Son of God and has the Power of God to “forgive us our sin” and lastly once we have been “healed” we are to “Arise” and “follow” Him. In our modern church vernacular (1) We admit we are a sinner (2) We believe Jesus is the Savior and (3) We confess before men we have decided to “Follow Jesus”. Have you made your personal decision to live your life for Christ?