AUGUST 15 JQ#21-20 “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

AUGUST 15   JQ#21-20  “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, Praise to the Only Begotten of the Father that is the Light of the world, and  to the Son that is the Hope of all who believe. Jesus, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, I bow not only my knee to You, I bow my heart and my head that I may fulfill the command to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind. Lord Jesus, thank you for Your Presence  among us when we gather in Your Name and Lord for the lives that You and You alone can change. Lord teach us to draw others to You and to share You with those that are stuck in that worldly rut and darkness that they will come to know You and their lives will become Light and they may experience the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Forgive me when I fall short or turn to the right or left, especially when I fall back into self, You Lord and only You can still my soul, so Lord grant it that my spirit will yield completely to Your Holy Spirit that it will be Your Light that others see in me.     AMEN

The Jesus Questions

AUGUST 15   JQ#21-20  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)   Jesus, with JQ#21a and JQ#21b has started both questions with the phrase or lead-in question, “What do you think?” and then Jesus asked the topic question, JQ#21a (Matthew 17:25) was about “kings of the earth” taking “taxes” as part of our daily lives and in JQ#21b (Matthew 18:12) Jesus asked about “sheep”. We should note that after JQ#21a that Jesus empowered Simon (whom Jesus had named Peter) with the ability to pay the tax with what Peter did on a daily basis — Peter was a fisherman when Jesus called Peter to follow Him. Then between JQ#21a where Jesus made Peter stop and “think” about his daily life and trusting God for his daily provisions while Peter had to deal with the “kings of the earth” and JQ#21b where Jesus then drew our attention to the man that had a 100 sheep and lost one whom the man (or shepherd) left the ninety nine to rescue the one lost sheep, that Jesus taught the disciples about sin in our lives and how important it is that we solve the problem of sin! First Jesus “called a little child to Him” and used the child as an example and taught “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Then to make sure that we knew He was beginning a lesson on what will keep us out of the “kingdom of heaven” Jesus introduces the main problem as He declared, “But whoever causes one of the little ones who believe in Me to sin…” thereby Jesus introduced sin as the main problem for Jesus tied entry into heaven with being like a “little child” and Jesus then established a consequence of dire proportions if we caused “one of the little ones” to “sin”, the dire consequence was worse than being “drowned in the depth of the sea”!?!?! (Matthew 18:4-6) The picture that is painted in this illustration is a basic presentation of the Gospel and God’s Plan of Salvation. First we have Jesus “calling” and saying “come to Me”. Jesus then took the “little child” that came to Him and put the child “in the midst of them” so that everyone could see how even a “little child” could be accepted by Jesus Himself! Then to make it clear Jesus said “Assuredly” which is a word used that means the speaker is telling an important truth and in this verse Jesus is speaking a most important Truth of God  and then Jesus states emphatically “unless you are converted and become as little children” Jesus again states the consequence of our failure to “become as little children” that we “will by no means” which says that there is no other way possible for us to “enter the kingdom of heaven” except by the way that Jesus is illustrating and that is to come to Jesus when He calls and that He will accept us if we are “converted” (or turn from our sinful life) and return to the innocence of a little child who is without sin for in Matthew 18:6 Jesus says that if we cause a “little one who believes [in Jesus] to sin” then we will not enter into the kingdom but we will perish the same as if we were “drowned in the depth of the sea”!?!?! So we can see the picture Jesus presents is that if we humble ourselves before Him and come as innocent little children then and only then will we enter into the kingdom of heaven ——— but if sin is involved then the consequence of sin is death — and it is understood that death is the penalty for sin and that sin is not a pathway to entering the kingdom of heaven!?!?!?! The big problem we have in our modern culture is that the enemy has been deceiving the “lawmakers” into writing laws that are “outside of God’s Moral Standards” and then the “lawmakers” lead the public to believe that because something is “legal” by man’s law that it will be “morally” acceptable to God!?!?!? But who are you going to trust your eternity with, someone who seeks personal power and worldly fame and profit, or will you trust your eternity to one that went to great trouble to save the one lost sheep? Once again we are placed in the uncomfortable position to “think” for ourselves, so don’t you “think” it would be wise to listen to the one that is trying to promote “everlasting life” of everyone instead of the ones that promote “death” of the unborn?!?!?!?