APRIL 17 The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

April 17 / Day 49

365 Prayers to JESUS

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus O just to say the Name above all names. Often Lord I just stop and say the Name JESUS and my soul is flooded with PEACE for I am uttering the Name as a greeting to the beginning of a conversation and I am overwhelmed that I am having a conversation with God! Just the thought that God exists and has good plans for my life and has planned for my future is mind-boggling! But when I think of the reality that I am calling Him by the precious Name above all names in order to start a conversation with the Creator, it is beyond any imaginable thought! The LORD of ALL, the ALMIGHTY GOD, the EVERLASTING FATHER both HEARS and ANSWERS — and my heart is melted by His Compassion and all I can do is utter again, JESUS, JESUS, JESUS!

The Jesus Questions

 JQ#10 — “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?” (Matthew 10:29a) can seem to the casual reader as an “outdated” question and would have no relevance in our world today of trillion dollar deficits and $15/hr minimum wages! The casual reader however must consider as we all do, the “Truth” that lies within both the answer as well as the “Truth” of “why” the question was asked. Jesus was not trying to get us to consider the product and the price, Jesus was calling our attention to a “deep Truth” of God, and that “Truth” is that God values everything in His Creation! We cannot casually read the question because God immediately reveals His Divine Intent when He asks the question and directs our thinking to His Divine Will when he finishes JQ#10 (Matthew 29a) with: “And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.” (Matthew 10:29b) When we add the immediate context of verses Matthew 10:28 and Matthew 10:30 surrounding the question of “value” posed by Jesus in Matthew 10:29 we cannot miss the seriousness of this question when in verse 28 Jesus reminds us that we have a “soul” and that “soul” can be “destroyed” and adds in the same sentence that having the soul destroyed is infinitely worse than the killing of the body. Verse 28 draws our attention to the fact that there is a “physical body” and a “spiritual body” but while the physical body is finite and has a time limit and can be killed, that the death of the body is nothing compared to the “spiritual body” which is our eternal soul. Jesus points out that our body can be killed by man but only God controls the soul which is eternal. Matthew 10:28 alerts us of the ultimate “judgement” when God decides where our “soul” will spend eternity — we will either please God and be with Him in Heaven forever in fellowship with Him or we will displease God and be found guilty of rejecting His gift of Grace and the eternal punishment of rejecting God will be spending eternity in Hell without Him. This Eternal Heaven/Hell subject should not be considered as outdated and we should consider  what God tells us in Matthew 10:30 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” God talks of Eternal rewards in verse 28, then two sparrows in 29, and then in 30 He  informs us that He knows the number of hairs on our head with the overall message being, (1) There will be a judgement and the reward/punishment will be earned by our decisions in life (2) Everything in God’s creation has a purpose and value in the eye’s of God and (3) God has planned out the details in our lives and we can rest assured His desire for us is “good” when He sums up with “Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:31) Jesus never leaves us hanging as He tells us how easy it is to please God in Matthew 10:32 — anyone interested in the “Truth of pleasing God”?