JANUARY 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-04: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JANUARY  04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-04: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17) 

Daily Prayer to JESUS    

Jesus, I awoke this morning with the need to pray first in my mind but when I started to pray there was some sort of “spiritual” distraction of unknown origin that seemed to prevent me from praying in “Spirit and in Truth” — and I was disturbed!?!?  I lay in bed and struggled to “commune” with God but the “perceived separation” caused me great uneasiness! After meditating on “cause” and coming up empty, I then thought about the “effect” and almost immediately I was confident that I was being given a “taste” of going on my journey alone. Jesus, I am also confident that I no longer want to walk by myself and be alone as I traverse this “valley of the shadow of death” and I praise You for the glimpse of where I could end up if I had not started following You.  Lord Jesus, You simply told Your disciples “Come follow Me” and You still today invite those that do not wish to travel this journey of life alone to “walk” with You. Lord Jesus, in going before us and walking the extra mile with us, You add the promise that You will never leave us nor forsake us! The “glimpse” today was a reminder to me that if we get separated it will be my fault — Lord Jesus, I pray with all my heart, keep me focused on following Your “LIGHT” and always staying on Your “paths of righteousness”!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JANUARY  04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-04: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17) Jesus and who Jesus “really is” was a topic of debate from time of His arrival on earth and who Jesus “really is” continues to be debated today. It is very interesting to note that there is a great “double standard” being applied to the debate on the “person and purpose” of Jesus  and whether or not He should be given the title of “Christ”. Today in our highly “legal” society here in America, our government is dominated by “lawyers” and it is a fact that our government now has more “control” over our personal lives than at anytime in the past — and in the debate on the “TRUTH of JESUS”, our society is  being forced to accept as “truth” what “elected” lawyers, “party-appointed” judges, and “self-serving legislation” passed by our “elected law makers” decide is “truth-for-the-common-good”????  These “anti-God” laws imposed on our modern “progressive” society today include the “legal-right” to kill the unborn, which should give us a clue as to what the main problem with our society “really is”!  For example; in our “double-standard” society today there are “laws” addressing “slander” (the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation) and “libel” (a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation) which directly apply to the debate on “who Jesus really is” and the “double standard” (a rule or principle that is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups) that is prevalent in this ongoing debate is that the government that has passed the laws on “slander and libel” are themselves the most guilty of both since they have legislated God out of government and will not allow God Himself, through His Holy Bible, to declare “who Jesus really is”!!!!! The “irony” in this “double standard” is that the legal system today will make witnesses put one hand on the Bible and make them “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help [us] God” and yet the same legal system has legislated God and the Bible out of the legal system and will not allow the Bible as a “witness” in the same courtroom that the Bible must be sworn upon to make a testimony valid!?!?!?!?  I am sure that in the highly legalist religious theocratic system of the Pharisees and Sadducees that there were many of the same such “double-standard legalistic self-serving laws” existing in Israel to protect the “power” of the “legalist elite” and therefore the New Testament writers would have been held accountable in the Jewish legal system in place at the time of Jesus. All the writers of the New Testament were not only “evangelists” that were clearly stating Jesus had addressed problems with the “legal authority” of the Pharisees and Sadducees but the New Testament writers wrote these claims as a matter of public record! Jesus Himself by today’s standards would be labeled a “terrorist” because He made “direct threats” against their “legal system” and said the temple itself would be destroyed — just imagine if someone today said that the U.S. Government, the White House and our legal system was going to be “destroyed” and this person was also directly claiming that the U. S. Government's “rule” would be “taken from them” and further, if that person was publishing public documents and writing letters (or emails) stating how the government would be overthrown, that person would be arrested and their statements and writings would be used to convict them of “crimes” against the government and these “crimes” would carry the severest penalty! However, in today’s society the very evidence that would be used to convict Jesus of being a “terrorist” would not be allowed in the same courtroom to prove that Jesus was and IS who the Bible documents Him TO BE!!!  So as we begin our Journey to discover “TRUTH” then we must agree we need a “reasonable unbiased Moral Standard” to be be used to determine the final verdict as to the validity of “TRUTH” itself!>!>!>! Because the Moral Standard itself is in the hands of biased legalist who control both the Moral Standard and the legal system  we can rightly assume that a government of “legalists” find it to their advantage to impose their will on “we the people” ———and we can readily see the problem of letting a “special interest” group decide on the Moral Standard to be applied to an entire society (by government force and legal action)!?! St. Matthew wrote a document dated C. A.D. 50 which puts his “eyewitness” account very close to the actual event of which he wrote about “who Jesus really was” and the “facts” that St. Matthew wrote down would have to have been highly scrutinized by the “legalist” of that era and all the claims of Jesus that St. Matthew put in his document would have been “judged” as to it being “libel” based on “slander” which was directed against the “reputation” of those that were in “power”! To be fair we must read Matthew”s document and ask ourselves, “If St. Matthew did not write what is true then why has there been so many printed copies of his testimony and why was Matthew been made a ‘Saint’ instead of being punished for his ‘crime’?”