JANUARY 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JANUARY  08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17) 

008 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus we thank You for Your daily Presence in our lives as we see You revealed by Your Holy Word and by Your Holy Spirit. Lord I pray that in my life that I will know that You are always there and if I fail to recognize You then it is my own flesh that is blinding me and upon the realization that it is my fault that I can’t see You that I will take up my cross and be crucified with You knowing that Your Spirit will be Resurrected in us and will illuminate our darkness with YOUR PRESENCE AND YOUR LIGHT! Lord, our daily walk is our “now” and is the only “time” we can experience GRACE but only if we decrease and You are allowed to increase in us that we can behold the Messiah! Forgive me of my daily shortcomings and my failure to see You working in my life — even so, come now Lord Jesus!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JANUARY  08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17) Jesus was revealed as the Messiah by circumstances beyond His control but though they were not controlled by Jesus Himself, events such as His “virgin” Birth or who His earthly parents would be, these events were obviously circumstances coming about as part of God’s Master Plan! Up to the point where Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river, the Messiah was validated by many witnesses to be Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, but now Jesus Himself with the statement “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15) will begin His public Ministry. His Ministry and the way Jesus lived His Life in the flesh was a “witness” to the TRUTH that JESUS IS THE MESSIAH for everything that Jesus ever did or will ever do, He does at the direction of His Heavenly Father. Before beginning the actual JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#1-JQ#33 that also reveal and witness to Jesus being the Messiah, let us look at one more detail of Matthew’s introduction of Jesus. The genealogy of Jesus  is also a separate witness to Jesus being the Messiah and what His “Mission” and “Purpose” was in being born in the flesh, at this particular time, in this particular place, to these particular parents. Matthew starts his Gospel of Jesus Christ with “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) and within this “genealogy of Jesus Christ” is a further “witness” to God’s Master Plan and to Jesus being the Messiah. Jewish tradition from the very beginning placed great importance on the “lineage” or family line perpetuated by the first born Jewish male and one of the main reasons the lineage was so important was that the lineage determined their “tribal inheritance”. Based upon the fact that at God’s directions each Jewish tribe had received a particular piece of land. For any person to inherit land in a particular area assigned to a specific tribe that the person had to produce evidence that he was from that tribe — and that “evidence” of inheritance was his birth into a “tribe” which came through the Jewish family genealogy. The genealogy of Jesus therefore will determine His Inheritance and a close look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ reveals some very important “signs” or “evidence” of some miraculous claims by Jesus as they relate to the “Purpose and Life” of the Messiah as revealed by Jesus being born “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) Now is a good time to revisit the “book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” as listed in Matthew 1:1-17 and ask yourself about what importance your personal lineage is in “inheriting” what has been set aside for you in “the kingdom of heaven”??? This investigation of your personal spiritual inheritance can really best be understood by reading what Jesus told Nicodemus in John Chapter 3 verses 1-21 which includes these statements that address your spiritual inheritance (1) “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and (2) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but [inherit] everlasting life.” (John 3:16) so by reading the “promise” of God for your inheritance you must ask yourself “Have I received Him and claimed my right to become [a child] of God” by “believing on the [Name and Person] of Jesus?” (See John 1:12-13) The Bible starts with 4 words that you must get past to be able to understand the rest of the Bible and those 4 words are “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) and this genealogy set forth in Matthew dealing with the lineage of Jesus Christ is another of those “faith/factual” declarations in God’s Holy Word that we have to accept to be able to understand the mind of God and the “faith/fact” that the genealogy of Jesus declares is that Jesus is a Jew, born into a Jewish family. The Life of Jesus was that of an Israelite and Jesus called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the endearing term “Abba Father”! We should keep in mind that “God did not send His Son [Jesus] into the world to condemn the world, but that through [His only begotten Son] the world might be saved!” (John 3:17) The consequence of our God-given Freewill “Choice” to “NOT believe in Jesus as the Son of God” is declared in the next verse: “…he who believes in [Jesus as the Son of God] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) The Bible only makes sense if you believe that “In the beginning” it was “God” that chose to create the world and that after creating the world and seeing mankind’s rebellion against Him that God would also choose to save the world through His “only begotten Son” whom God had announced through Jewish prophets over 700 years before His Birth, that the Messiah would be born of a “virgin” and in the line of King David from the family of Judah and would be called “Immanuel”, God with us!   God created all life and has the only right to declare how He intends to provide for our “salvation”!!!  We, on the other hand, only have the right to be THANKFUL that God even bothered with a mankind that continues to reject Him and His Love for us!!!   ———  Go figure!?!?!?