MAY 10 JQ#13.4 The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MAY  10    JQ#13 - Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, each day is a new day in Your Grace, Lord I give You praise for Your Infinite Grace because of the great need in my life for it, what a glorious thought that both Your Compassion and Your Grace are without limits. Lord Jesus, give me the desire in my heart that I will live Your Grace daily and share it with others at every opportunity that souls in need of Your Great Compassion will come to rest in the Shelter of Your Grace. Forgive me when my flesh weakens, grant it Lord Jesus that my spirit will continue to abide in Your “Grace, Grace, Marvelous Grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.”     AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JQ#13.4 — “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?” (Matthew 12:24-37). The “legalist” that were constantly plotting against Jesus would devise schemes in which they hoped to trap Jesus with the man-made laws that the Pharisees had memorized to the “letter” and were only interested in wielding the “power” that they stole from God’s law  by enforcing on others the  “letter” of the law instead of the “Spirit” of God’s Law. Jesus spent a lot of His Ministry addressing this very issue for the problem then is the same problem we see today, man wants “power” and since there is only One True Power in the universe, men must “rob God” when they seek to use that “power” to gain control over others. The method that has proved most successful in “robbing God” is through the passing of laws that give themselves “false authority” over others. The original intention of the Pharisees was to make sure that the Israelites were following God’s Law but there is a law of nature that exists which states: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This “power” to corrupt actually comes from God and can be demonstrated as follows: (1) All POWER is from God, no “power” exists in the universe that does not come from God (2) God gave man “Free Will” which is really nothing more than man exercising “responsibility” to use the “power” of “Free Will” to make choices that honor God. (3) God gave man “Free Will” which gives man the “Freedom” to “choose” but God reserves the right to determine the “Consequence” of our actions. (4) This determination of “Consequences”  is God’s Law and God’s Law will NEVER CHANGE therefore every generation and each individual have equal opportunity to exercise the “power” God bestowed on us in the form of “Free Will” and every choice we make in life either honors God or it defiles God’s “Spirit”. Since the Pharisees were the perfect example of taking God’s Law and making it man’s interpretation of God’s Law,  Jesus time and time again demonstrated that the “Spirit” of the Law is the only True Power. The fact that Jesus is pointing us to this “Power of the Spirit” and that there is no “power” but that which comes from God can be seen in the next series of questions Jesus asked the Pharisees when they accused Jesus of using “power” that originated with Satan!  Let us look at the accusation and then see how Jesus teaches His accusers that there is “No Power aside from the Power of God!” The Pharisees had been following Jesus trying to trap Him. They had been watching Jesus do miracle after miracle and could find nothing to “accuse” Him of so they decided to “manufacture” a “problem”. Matthew recorded this effort of the Pharisees to find fault with all the good Jesus had been doing when Matthew writes: “Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This [Jesus] does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’ But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them,…” (Matthew 12:24-25) and that there was no doubt about the point Jesus was going to make, Jesus identified the author of the problem as “Satan”. (Matthew 12:26) Jesus knew that the Pharisees were addressing the “Power” issue and Jesus therefore is going to point us to the “Truth of God” that all “Power comes from God” and that not even Satan himself has any power but what power God allows him to have! Have you ever questioned this Truth of God yourself? Come on now and be honest, after all, Jesus knew the thoughts of the Pharisees and don’t you think He knows your thoughts as well?