MARCH 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#8 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MARCH 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#8 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

064 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Thanks be to our Savior, our Redeemer, for without His Love we could not even love ourselves, without His Salvation, we could not save ourselves, and without the price He paid on Calvary we could not redeem ourselves. Lord Jesus we need You more than we know for without You we have no purpose, no reason, but with You we can “go” with confidence that You are the “Way” and the “Truth” and the “Life” and that we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens [us].” Lord I pray as I do each morning that Your Spirit will guide, lead, and direct me to the Narrow Gate.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

MARCH 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#8 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) Jesus was asleep in a boat as the disciples panicked during the storm and when Jesus awoke He calmed the “wind and the waves” and His disciples “marveled” and wondered “Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matthew 8:27) Next we read “When [Jesus] had come to the other side…” He encountered a storm of a different nature in the form of “two demon-possessed men, exceedingly fierce…” and Jesus did to this storm what He had done to the wind and the waves, He calmed them! It is interesting that even though the disciples who had seen Jesus doing the miracle healing and calming the storm at sea wondered “Who can this be” that the demons did not wonder “who” Jesus was for when they saw Jesus the demon possessed men “suddenly cried out saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?’” (Matthew 8:29) The disciples had wondered “Who?” Jesus was after seeing Him healing, teaching, and controlling the wind and waves but the demon-possessed men called Jesus by name and called Him the “Son of God”. Not only did the demon-possessed men know who Jesus was, they knew His purpose in regard to their personal situation as they asked Jesus, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29b) It is interesting to note that the demon-possessed men knew Jesus was the Son of God and that there was coming a time when there would be a “Judgement” and that their penalty would be “torment” at the hands of Jesus!?!? (Matthew 8:28-29) The disciples observed that the demons “begged” Jesus to let them “go away” which means that they knew Jesus had the power to free them so the disciples should have understood that Jesus controlled the wind and the waves which are “physical” elements and now they will observe that Jesus has control over the “spiritual” elements as He not only cast out the demons from the two men but then He allowed them to enter a herd of swine which is a combination of the “physical” and “spiritual” worlds. After that incident we read “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city…” (Matthew 9:1) which begins the context for JQ#8a & JQ#8b. The fact that Jesus is in His own city is going to make this Question rather personal plus Jesus is introducing the most important personal event that will take place in our lives, and that is “forgiveness of sins”! Jesus introduces “forgiveness of sin” in His “own city” and He asks for our personal opinion by starting the Question/Lesson with “Why do you think…”. Jesus really gets personal when He bluntly says what we are thinking is “evil”.  (Matthew 9:4) Jesus proves that He will not pull any punches with the “Truth” as He points out that the “evil” is “in [our own] heart”! It doesn’t get any more personal than this, we are at “home” and Jesus knows what is in our own “hearts” and He calls us out on our “evil” thoughts and desires! Jesus is pointing out with JQ#8 “Why do you think evil in your heart?” (Matthew 9:4) that He knows what we hold dearest to our hearts and He identified our selfishness as “evil” but the Good News is the context in which He meets us on such personal ground. We see that some friends had brought a paralytic laying on a bed to Jesus and “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.’” (Matthew 9:2) Sounds kind of personal doesn’t it? 

MARCH 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-06 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MARCH 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-06 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

063 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, You know our hearts and therefore You know our minds, our intents, and most importantly, You know our desires. There is no place deep enough or secret enough within our wretched souls that Your Knowledge cannot penetrate — but there is no place that Your Great Knowledge penetrates that is not also filled with Your Great Compassion — HAVE MERCY ON ME O GOD!! Lord Jesus, fill me with Thy Spirit, anoint me with Thy Love, send me Lord into Thy Service that daily I may “die with Christ” that I may “live as Christ”!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

MARCH 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-06 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) Jesus never asked a Question while on earth that was not asked without a Specific Spiritual Purpose and Divine Intent. Jesus is the Supreme Communicator and He uses these questions to motivate us to “know” Him {see Matthew 7:23} and His Divine Intent; it behooves us therefore to study His Divine Questions and “trust” that His Divine Intent will lead to Inspired Insight into the “mysteries” of God. It is a far greater advantage for us in these “earthen” vessels to gain a “glimpse” of “God’s Spirit” while on our soul’s journey to “Truth” than to have secular knowledge and “gain the whole world, [but] lose [our] own soul” (Mark 8:36). It is hard for us to see the “big picture” because our finite knowledge cannot wrap around the Infinite Knowledge of God so in His Infinite Wisdom He takes us a step at a time just as Isaiah proclaimed to God’s people as they were learning God’s Ways: “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little…” (Isaiah 28:13) Because knowing the Whole Mind of God is impossible for us, Isaiah reminds us, “His understanding is unfathomable…” (Isaiah 40:28) For example, if we take each “JESUS Question” we have studied and look at the path Jesus has taken us down so far, we can see that even though each Question has its own merits, that if we look at them together as a “Spiritual Progression” then we learn another valuable lesson — God has a Master Plan which will be executed “precept upon precept, little by little”! For example, the Holy Spirit has led me to give a personal summary title for each lesson as I review the previous JESUS  Questions before moving to the next one and this is what I have so far: JQ#1: “Salt & Light” —  JQ#2: “Unconditional Love” —  JQ#3: “Worry”  —  JQ#4: “Judge Not”  —  JQ#5: “Ask-Seek-Knock”  —  JQ#6: “By Their Fruits”  —  JQ#7: “Of Fear & Faith”  —  “JQ#8: “Arise And Walk”. If you read the Questions in order you will see that Jesus teaches individual lessons but He is fulfilling Isaiah’s Prophecy that the Messiah will reveal God Himself to us by teaching us “precept upon precept, line upon line”! Clearly the Divine Intent of the “JESUS Questions” is to give us Insight into God Himself and we will “know God” and our lives will become a “living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable unto God.” (Romans 12:1) The next “JESUS Question” is found in Matthew Chapter 9  and the context for JQ#8 is Matthew 9:1-8 with the Question being found in Matthew 9:4 where Jesus asks His followers to answer a very personal question, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) The Question itself shows us that Jesus expects us to “think” on our own and He never pulls His punches for He wants us to learn the “precepts” of God. By answering JQ#8 honestly we will come to a better understanding of the “source” of evil and it will make us take a serious “Truthful”  look inwardly at our own heart. Jesus knows that we will not “grow our faith” if our “faith is not tested” and the harder the test the stronger will be the results and through the “test” our “little faith” will enlarge to the point that we will have “great faith” like the centurion and enough strength to not only help ourselves but we will also be able to help others - Jesus commands us, “Arise, take up your bed, and go…” (Matthew 9:6b)

MARCH 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MARCH 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

062 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Lord I pray that Your Spirit will continue to consume me, Lord I proclaim as Paul did, I know that I have not yet attained the goal but I press on to the finish which is a race that I cannot run on my own strength, Lord I need You, I need Your daily Mercy and Grace and I do TRUST You to finish the good work You have begun in me. There is nothing in me that can move towards the prize of the high calling of service to the Kingdom so therefore refresh and renew in me a “Right Spirit” and “create in me a clean heart O God”!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

MARCH 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) Jesus is asking a  most revealing Kingdom Question with JQ#7 - “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) and we haven’t even really considered the context in which this Question was asked. We looked at the immediate circumstance of Jesus and His disciples being in a “great tempest” after they had followed Jesus onto a boat and when the tempest beset them the disciples panicked but Jesus was sleeping. Of course, we like the disciples, see the waves and the tempest and we consider the physical consequences of drowning but miss the spiritual consequences of (1) following Jesus and (2) trusting Him to “calm” even the worst “tempest” and (3) to know that our “faith” in JESUS is the only thing in our earthly lives with “eternal” consequences. The larger context of the circumstances of the “Teachings” of Jesus to the disciples should also be observed in terms of what were the disciples seeing Jesus do prior to them getting on the boat that should have built their “faith” in His Power and Divine Nature??? After Jesus taught the disciples the parable of the “two builders” (Matthew 7:24-27) which introduced the concept that we should build the “foundation” of our “faith” on “solid rock”, Jesus then laid the “ground floor” of our “faith in Jesus” by (1) healing the servant of a centurion as Jesus tied His Healing Power to our Faith Building when Jesus told the centurion (A) “I will come and heal him.” (Matthew 8:7) and (B) “Then Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go your way; as you have believed, so let it be done for you.’ And his servant was healed that same hour.” (Matthew 8:13). Jesus continued His lesson on His Healing Power when next He came to Peter’s house “ … He saw [Peter’s] wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.” (Matthew 8:14-15) That very same evening the disciples had witnessed the villagers where Peter lived bringing “to [JESUS] many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick…” (Matthew 8:16) So Jesus gives the parable of the two builders to encourage the disciples to “build their faith” on Him and then He immediately demonstrates His Divine Power and Compassion for all people by “healing” both their “physical” and their “spiritual” ailments! When the tempest arose, the disciples acted like they hadn’t seen these Divine Attributes of Jesus — all the disciples could see was the “physical world” as they got into a boat, and then the boat gets in a great storm, and the wind and the waves of the tempest makes the disciples go into full panic mode — and the first thing Jesus says upon awakening and seeing their panic is “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) ???  JQ#7 should awaken us to the “obvious” that Jesus is in control of both the “physical” and the “spiritual” worlds and that He also has control over the natural world in which we live our day-to-day lives. If we look at Resurrection Sunday we will see that He has control over our eternity as well so “Why are we fearful of the world and death” when all we have to do is to have FAITH in the ONE who died for our sins, rose the third day, sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us? Jesus gave us all the materials we need to build our “faith” but He wants us to hammer a nail or two ourselves.

MARCH 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-04 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MARCH 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-04 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

061 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, Lord I come before You this morning renewed and refreshed in Your Spirit and I praise You for Your Love. Lord, we deserve punishment but You Lord bore our sins and iniquities on the Cross which was the only Acceptable Sacrifice. Through Your Great Sacrifice our sins have been paid in full. Lord I know that I am not worthy of Your Love and that my unworthiness has been substituted by Your Righteousness and in the Father’s eyes I am an heir to the Kingdom because of what was accomplished by You, God, and the Holy Spirit on Resurrection Sunday — I pray that every day I will awake and arise to face the world and that I will keep full in my mind that You ARE RISEN victorious over the world and that You will walk with me every step of my Journey to Truth!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

MARCH 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-04 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) Jesus has begun Teaching the Importance of “faith” in our daily lives and the Ultimate Importance of “Faith in God” for our Eternal lives!!! Our “faith” cannot  become “sight” unless we understand that without the “Light” of Jesus we will remain blind. When Jesus asks a Question, He is challenging us to use our God-given intellect to open our spiritual eyes and exercise our “trust” in His Infinite Knowledge. In JQ#7 Jesus ties together two terms “fearful” and “faith” and His use of these two terms in such close proximity should get our attention. When I stopped and re-read the question trying to see the “Obvious”, I was rewarded by seeing that Jesus asked the “Question” but He also gave the “Answer” while asking the “Question”!  The “Obvious” that came to me was to look at JQ#7 in two parts but keeping them tied together like this: Part A (the Question) “Why are you fearful” and Part B (the Answer) “O you of little faith”. (Matthew 8:26a)  The Question is about being “fearful” and He answers His Question by directing our attention to our “faith”. Jesus puts the Question and the Answer together because He does not want us to over-think ourselves and therefore He makes it clear that we must grow our “faith” if we desire not to be “fearful”. There is no other way to grow our “faith” without “Trusting God” and if we do not see God’s “Obvious” world with our “spiritual” eyes we will not Trust God and if there is no “Trust in God” then our lives will be lived in fear of the world that we see with our “physical” eyes! I believe it is of great importance in our “Spiritual Growth” that we acknowledge the “Obvious” thing God did to address the problem of darkness in His Creative process —   for in Genesis 1:3 the first thing spoken into existence in the new Creation was  “Light” Which God introduced into the earth that was “without form and void” and was immersed in “darkness”. (Genesis 1:2a) The only source of power God employed was “the Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2b) and He demonstrated the Spiritual Power of God when in the next verse we read: “Then [after recognizing the emptiness and darkness] God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3)  From these first three verses we see that God assessed the negative which is “lack of purpose” and “darkness” and corrected the problem with  “the Spirit of God” speaking the solution with “let there be light”. Just as God saw “darkness” as the problem and “light” as the solution, Jesus saw “fear” as a problem and “faith” as the solution and the answer to all our questions and fears should be to focus our “spiritual eyes” on Jesus. Jesus told the most intellectual “Pharisee” named Nicodemus (who admitted Jesus was from God but wanted to know what Jesus had come to teach)  Jesus said “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and then made it clear that just as we have a “physical” birth into the world that we must have a “spiritual” birth to enter “the kingdom of God” when He tells Nicodemus “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) and in JQ#7 Jesus tells us to grow our “faith” to calm our “fears” therefore we should open our “Spiritual Eyes” to see the growth potential in what He accomplished in His Crowning Glory of Resurrection Sunday if we just “BELIEVE”!

FEBRUARY 29 ***LEAP YEAR*** THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-03 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

FEBRUARY 29  ***LEAP YEAR*** THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-03 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

060 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, in 2004 when You first started me on the narrow path You awoke in me the Holy Spirit to teach me how to pray and what to pray for and for that “spiritual awakening” I give You “Praise and Glory” for without those guidances from the Holy Spirit I know that I would not have been able to “know the Way” — Lord Jesus, I submit this March 30, 2004 prayer today FEBRUARY 29 because Your Truth is Eternal: “…Lord remember me when You come into Your Kingdom. For men there is no hope without Your Sacrifice, for there is no man that could keep all the points of “The Law” or live a perfect sinless life before Almighty God, we are all weak and have been born into a sin nature. Lord, I make no pretense anymore that there is any “Good” in me except for the faith that I have in the things You have done, Lord Jesus. Grant it Lord that I might grow in that “faith in Jesus Christ” day-by-day and that my “self” will fade into nothingness as You come into Your Kingdom in my very soul.”    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

FEBRUARY 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-03 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) Jesus always ties His Lessons together in an order that if we follow His Teachings we will be building our “Foundation of Faith in God” on “The Solid Rock” and today the Holy Spirit makes the connection between Resurrection Sunday, the Creation, and JQ#7: “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) and they will all be tied together by pointing out these similarities: (1) The Creation of All things “Physical” in Genesis (2) The Creation of All things “Spiritual” in Jesus on Resurrection Sunday (3) The lack of “faith” in those who overlook the “Obvious God” and (4) The growing of “faith in God” by belief in the things God has Already Done until that “faith in God” becomes “Spiritual Sight”. A thorough reading of the first 5 verses in the first Chapter of the first Book in God’s Bible will reveal things about God and the Creation of both the Physical World (Genesis 1:1) and His laying down the foundation upon which the Spiritual World (Genesis 1:3) is built.  These two worlds could only be built by an All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Almighty Creator God that can never be explained by man’s finite intellect which is bounded by man’s obsession with “self”. A thorough study of Resurrection Sunday will reveal the Creation of the Narrow Gate  whereby the believer that has grown their “faith” to the point that they can spiritually discern the will of God can see that the “Key” to finding the “Narrow Gate” is growing their “faith in Jesus”, the Only Begotten of the Father, to the point that their “faith in Jesus” has become “Spiritual Sight” to locate the “Narrow Gate” and once the “Narrow Gate” is located they will be able to use the “Key” to boldly “Enter by the Narrow Gate” into the Spiritual Creation realized by the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ! If one cannot accept that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) then their “faith” will not be able to accept that God planned Salvation from before creation and He accomplished His Master Plan through Resurrection Sunday. But if one is desirable of growing their “faith in God” until it becomes “Spiritual Sight” then the “Obvious God” will reveal how God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are One with the expressed purpose of “drawing all men” to the kingdom of God to be “One with Them”, and this “Spiritual Sight” comes from “Believing” the things that have already been accomplished by God so that we may enjoy the “miracle of being alive”. Further, we will see that God went through great lengths to accomplish so much good for our “life” that excitedly we will proclaim as did the disciples when they saw Jesus as He calmed the wind and the waves (that He had created): “So the men marveled, saying ‘Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 8:27) and then we can exclaim with our newfound “Spiritual Sight” — “We have seen the “Obvious” that this IS God, the Creator, who can do whatever He desires for His Creation, and He has chosen to give us Peace and Eternal Life through Jesus Christ!!!” God really is that “Obvious” and He really is that “Powerful” — just open your spiritual eyes!!!

FEBRUARY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-02 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

FEBRUARY 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-02 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

059 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, All Glory and All Honor ARE Yours and Yours alone, for the best of men with the greatest of intentions ALWAYS fall short of Your Glory. Yes, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that You are the LORD of lords and the KING of all kings. There is no one like JESUS, the Only Begotten of our Father in Heaven, who from the beginning of time had an appointment with suffering and death and this same Jesus gave up His Glory in Heaven, descended to earth, became flesh, met His Divine appointment at the exact moment in history God had predestined before the foundation of the earth to Raise His Only Begotten Son Victorious over death and the grave on the Third Day, never will another time in all eternity match the Matchless Moment of the Salvation for ALL  mankind as Jesus bore our iniquities on His Shoulders and died for our sins, the Perfect Sacrificial Offering of God the Father for the iniquities of the world!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

FEBRUARY 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-02 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) Jesus has raised two important topics for our consideration with JQ#7 and yesterday the Spirit led these writings to tie JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) into lessons from the Resurrection because how can one be fearful of our lives when God has demonstrated His Love towards us that while we were yet sinners God sent His Son to be the propitiation of those sins which should also give us “great faith (in God)”!  Today that example of “faith in God” will be expanded to give some specific details that teach us that God has done so many things to reveal His Greatness to us that we should never be fearful of life yet we overlook the obvious things God has done for us in our day-to-day lives and we still stand fearful of the world. Every chapter and verse in all 66 books of our Bible teach us a Lesson on who God is and what is His intention for the world. Mankind however, from the Beginning has been deceived by the world and each one of us has had to face the reality that God proves Himself to be a Loving-Forgiving God that Demands Justice, and is Jealous of His Glory. But each and everyone of us that faces that reality is given the most valuable gift anyone could receive and that pearl of great worth is that we are all free to choose God and Trust Him or we can also choose not to believe that God is who He says He is — The Pearl of Freewill is that we are free to choose our own god and but we must accept the responsibility of taking care of ourselves if we choose to believe in a false god of our own imagination which if we choose to not believe in God, then we are “casting our pearls before swine”! Freedom of choice is the single greatest “test of faith” we will face!  Let me give the most obvious reason that we should believe that God is who He says He is:  Our “little faith” is related back to Resurrection Sunday but has roots all the way back to Genesis 1:1-5. The first concept we can derive of God is from Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven’s and the earth.” The first characteristic of God is that He is the Creator (Provider) of everything that we have consciousness of, both in “heaven” and on the “earth”. What is overlooked about this passage is the obvious that if God “created” every thing “in the beginning” of all things, then God Himself was before the “beginning” and is Himself Uncreated. This is referred to by scholars as the “self-existence” of God.  A. W. Tozer wrote in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy” that “Aside from God, nothing is self-caused.” (Chapter 5 “The Self-Existence of God” pg.25) Only the Creator of all things can establish the laws governing all things and has control of all things and therefore we should recognize the obvious that He who controls all things is “in control of all things”!!! It is a simple concept but JQ#7 exposes that fact that we overlook the obvious as we read “…Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.” (Matthew 8:26b). The significance of the fact that the disciples were in a storm yet Jesus Himself was asleep, and when He awoke He immediately reprimanded them by asking His disciples in the boat with Him: “why are you fearful” (Matthew 8:26a)? After rebuking them about their “fear” of the world’s circumstances and their lack of “faith”,  Jesus turned and “rebuked the winds and the sea” (Matthew 8:26b) !!! Only the Creator of all things controls all things and can take a “”storm” and produce “a great calm”. Think about all that God has done and documented in His Holy Word commanding us  “be anxious for nothing” and then answer the question: “Why are you fearful?”

FEBRUARY 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

FEBRUARY 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

058 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, today You have revealed a glimpse of the “Divine Obvious” for us to ponder as we simply observe that we are in yet another day that has been provided by Your Grace and Faithfulness for if You were not Faithful to keep the stars in their place then we would not be experiencing another sunrise. You Lord control the entire universe and we can observe the “Divine Obvious” if we but open our eyes and see Your Glory being revealed by Your Creation, using our God-given “senses” we can see “YOUR FAITHFULNESS” being displayed daily in the Miracle of Life. Lord Jesus, I pray that I will never close my eyes to Your Truth but keep my eyes wide open and my heart softened to the myriad of ways You reveal Your Faithfulness to us on a daily basis. Lord as I contemplate another year of serving You, I pray that You would fill me daily with that desire to do those things with my life that truly serve and Honor You and Glorify the Father.  Lord I pray with my heart of hearts that I become one with You and the Father and that my life will be lived totally “in Christ alone”.  Forgive me of my many shortcomings and guide me in Your Truth.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

FEBRUARY 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-01 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) Jesus has been Teaching with His Lessons so far how we should view ourselves from a kingdom of God perspective with what Matthew describes as “sayings” of Jesus, then Matthew documents that what Jesus had been Teaching with these “sayings, that the people were astonished”! (Matthew 7:28) Matthew begins the next series of Lessons of Jesus with “When [Jesus] had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.” (Matthew 8:1) Remember that this series of Lessons started as Matthew had written about Jesus: “And seeing the multitudes, [Jesus] went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:” (Matthew 5:1-2)  —Jesus began His teaching on the mountains with the Beatitudes and followed with the Lessons that “astonished” the people and now Jesus is coming down from the mountain and begins healing, first a leper, then the servant of a centurion who Jesus commended for having “great faith”, then Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and Matthew records that the multitudes that had observed Jesus doing these works of God that “they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself [the Messiah] took our infirmities and bore our sickness.’” (Matthew 8:2-17) Since Jesus has introduced the term “faith” when He healed the centurion’s servant, and the next JESUS Question is JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)  we should pause and think about “faith” in general. How the Holy Spirit has led me to teach “faith” to my third graders in Sunday School is to first ask them how they themselves define “faith” and then to take their definitions and show them how phrases like “belief in God” and “trusting in God” points to the basic Truth of “FAITH”. “Faith in God” is best taught by answering the simple question “What do you believe about God and why do you trust Him?” However, we can have “Faith” in just about anything. We can believe in whatever we chose to believe so I then move to this elementary question about “Faith” — “What causes you to ‘believe’ and what causes you to ‘trust’?”  When we think about “faith” and “trust” we must admit that both can be applied to anything or anybody that we chose to have “faith” or “trust” in!  The degree to which we trust can be a measure of our belief, for example each time you go to sit down is an expression of trust in the ability of the chair to hold your weight. Some of us look a little closer at the particular chair we are going to “trust” with our additional weight but over time our “faith” in chairs has been built upon exercising that faith by sitting in different chairs and  having that chair hold us up.  Our “faith in God” can only be strengthened by exercising that “faith” in Him by trusting Him with various areas of our lives and letting Him prove Himself to us. Resurrection Sunday is one of those great times in our spiritual lives that we can build our “faith in God” because of all the great things God proved to us when He raised Jesus from the tomb, gave His Son Jesus victory over death, and completed the Divine Plan for the Salvation of a lost world of sinners! God has done many things to show us that if we will study His Word that we will see time after time obvious basic “Divine Truths” about God that will develop in us great TRUST in God. As we contemplate our “Faith in God”, let us remember the last words Jesus spoke from the cross: “It is finished!”. (John 19:30) Jesus trusted God with His Eternal Life and allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross to be Sacrificed for our sins — and If Jesus had that much “Faith in God” that He would Shed His Holy Blood and die on a cross for us, then we should have “Faith” in the One that has Provided for our Salvation!

FEBRUARY 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#6 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

FEBRUARY 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#6 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

057 of 365 - Prayers to JESUS    

Jesus, I praise You each day for the simple fact that You have given me another day! Lord, my prayer is first for others for I am finally learning that You have provided for my needs in abundance and that You have given the abundance for me to share with others, so Lord Jesus my second prayer is that I will be found faithful in giving of myself to serve You by serving others. Lord Jesus, it is a Mystery why You would come down from Your Glory in heaven to dwell among us for there is nothing that we can do     that You need for You exist without us, but Lord there is no way we can exist without You! So the Mystery remains as to “why” but Lord let my Praise rise to You daily  for the simple fact that you “DID” and it is not important “why” — thank You Lord for the glimpse into the “why” as we study Your Word and find the Truth of God to be simply that it is His Great Love that sent You to come to Share that LOVE with Your Creation.  AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

FEBRUARY 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06-05 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#6 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16) Jesus concluded His JQ#6 Lesson with a declaration which is actually a summation of His first 6 Lessons “JQ#1 - JQ#6 so let us look at that declaration and consider the Truth of God found in the Lessons as well the Truth of God revealed by the content and the order of these first 6 Question/Lessons. Jesus ends JQ#6 by warning us not to “say” that He is “Lord” but that we will prove that He IS the “Lord” of our lives if we DO “the will of [our] Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) Jesus then teaches a parable of two builders which is the summation of how we can determine if we are a tree that will produce good fruit or not and is also a summation of the first 6 lessons: “Therefore whoever hears theses sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; an it din not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25) Matthew then documents the effect of all that Jesus had taught so far in His earthly Ministry, starting first with the Sermon on the Mount and so far Matthew has documented these first 6 Question/Lesson as Matthew records: “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these saying, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matthew 7:28-29) So let us look at “His Teachings” and the Truth of God contained in “What” Jesus has taught so far, as well as the “Order” in which He taught them. The first Question/Lesson JQ#1 followed immediately after Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount (also called the Beatitudes) which was an announcement that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and what we should consider if we desire to be subjects of that kingdom. With JQ#1 Jesus makes a statement of fact about our spiritual heritage when He declares that we “ARE the salt of the earth” and that we “ARE the light of the world” and He then asks us to consider the state of the world if we do not use our “salt” and “light” to benefit others? Jesus continues with JQ#2 and again Jesus tells us that we are to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” (Matthew 5:44)— Jesus instructs us to “Love” others not just because they love us and we are to greet others that don’t necessarily greet us which is another way of saying that if we are going to be kingdom subjects then we should treat others as God treats us and not be like the world and their idea of who is worthy of our love or our greetings. Jesus then Teaches in JQ#3 that our life from a kingdom perspective takes on more value if we consider where our “life” comes from and we discover that we are made in the “image of God” and that “life IS more that food” and that our “body”, since it is created in the “image of God” is more important “than clothing”. Jesus then starts working on our “attitudes” toward other in more detail as He commands us with JQ#4 to “judge not” and makes it clear that our responsibility is to “love others” and let God do the “Judging” and in doing so Jesus introduces the “Final Judgement” that every individual will have to face at the end of our earthly existence and stand before God as God at the the “Final Judgement” lets the way we lived our life be our witness before the “Judge” as to our true guilt or innocence! Jesus does not leave us hanging but Teaches us with JQ#5 that as “subjects” of the kingdom of God that we are not just “subjects” but we are “heirs” and Jesus Teaches us that as “heirs” we have the privilege of declaring the KING of heaven  as “our Father” and are encouraged to ask of “our Father in heaven” and TRUST HIM to provide good things for His heirs. Jesus wraps up these first six Lessons by introducing what could be called “Divine Common Logic” with the “simple but obvious” JQ#6 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles” and our God-given logic tells of “of course not” and we glimpse one of our problems with living in this world and that is that even though we “know” that grapes only come from grapevines that we seek God in some unholy places or we buy the lie of the enemy and try to find nourishment among the thornbushes and thistles which the enemy tells us that grapes from thornbushes will give us “satisfaction” and we end up malnourished at best. Jesus teaches us Truth and He does so with “Ultimate Authority” and if we listen and learn from Jesus then we also will be “astonished” and our lives will be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” from the simple to the Sublime!