JULY 28 JQ#21-2 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JULY 28   JQ#21-2  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, Forgive me for not doing more with the provisions and understanding you have given me. Lord, Your Teachings have given me “Spiritual Insight” to the world that I am living in and issues that “my generation” is facing and I have done so little with those precious resources to make the world a better place — forgive me and Lord may I truly take this “second chance” and do that which will honor and glorify our Father in heaven as Your Spirit has shown me that “His purpose is the process itself.” Give me grace then to be a good steward of the understanding imparted by the Holy Spirit and uses whatever circumstance presented to bring Glory to God. {{Once again, the Holy Spirit has brought to my attention to a prayer written on July 28, 2004 that shows the timelessness of God’s Understanding and this prayer — once there is an issue, it will remain an issue until we use every resource available to us to bring the issue before God and enter into His Work with Him for He has chosen to do His Work through those that chose to follow Him.}} Please read the following prayer written 12 years ago and see if there is something you personally could do, pray about it, and then let the Lord lead you in doing His will for your life so that others will be helped by your obedience. Prayer from 2004: “Jesus, Lord how I seek to live my life in a way that is pleasing to You, and not for my sake and all my old selfish reasons but for Your sake and for reaching this world with Your Message of Repentance. Lord Jesus, as a nation and as a people, and as individuals we have turned from God, and we have “leaned on our own understanding” and that also is a sin against God. We have sat silently by and let abominations to You gain popular acceptance. Lord, we have not fought the battle of freedom for our rights as Christians and our nation is losing the freedom of religion, we have not fought for the sanctity of marriage and we are losing our families, and worst of all, we are killing our own babies and we let the courts legislate the sins of our generation into the “law” of our nation!?!?!?!? Forgive us Lord and drive us to true repentance and the path that will bring us back to serving the true and living God”!!!      AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JULY 28   JQ#21-2  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)   Jesus, in this next ‘section’ of scripture, addresses several issues that seem lighthearted at first but then this is God in the flesh asking us to “think” about issues and He has just previously warned us that there are those that seek to “destroy” our souls, therefore lets try and understand the Truth of God that is always uncovered when we seek it. The first such lesson is found in Matthew 17:24-27 and the lesson starts with question from “those who received the temple tax” asked Peter, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” (Matthew 17:24) My first thought when I read this is “Wow, Jesus had to deal with tax collectors too” so I was very interested how Jesus would handle the situation. Peter handled the situation like we should handle circumstances where we find ourselves having to “defend” our following Jesus — Peter answered “Yes” and then he went to ask Jesus about what had happened but as Peter entered the house we read that “Jesus anticipated him, saying, ‘What do you think, Simon?’” (Matthew 17:25) This is the beginning of a very valuable lesson and the revelation of another Truth of God in that before Simon Peter had a chance to ask Jesus the question about paying the temple tax, “Jesus anticipated him…” and then to make it a one-on-one personal relationship Jesus called Simon by name and then God Himself looked a mortal in the eye and asked “What do you think?” !?!?!? Wow again, God who knows everything and can “anticipate” our questions yet He stops and asks us what we think about the question we have not even asked Him yet?!?!? Before you continue it is a good time and stop to ask yourself this very same simple question but answer it only after you fully realize that it is God Almighty Himself asking the question directly and personally to you!!! — “What do you think, {add your name here}?”