JULY 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-13 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JULY 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-13  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

Daily Prayer to JESUS    

Jesus, Your Peace is so freely offered yet we struggle to free ourselves from the chains of our past sins which You have already won the victory over?!?!? Lord Teach me as only You can that when You died on the cross that it was for all sin, every sin of the past, every sin in progress today, and every single sin that we permit into our future!!! Lord let me hear Your words as You gave Your last drop of Precious Blood for the atonement of my sins — “It is finished!” — Yes !!! The Work of God has been accomplished, our sins ARE FORGIVEN !!! Lord do not let me go on trying to drag my sin around with me, I am powerless against it and it is nothing more than dead weight of guilt and shame that drags me down, Lord I lay my sin at Your feet and pray for the spiritual strength of weakness to not pick it up again!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-13  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)    Jesus Teaches us a Lesson and we should pay close attention but if Jesus Teaches the same Lesson more than twice it is VERY important that we “think” about it long enough and from the right “spiritual” viewpoint to see the Truth of God that God Himself has declared important enough that He would send His Only Begotten Son to Teach us! It should impress us that God would allow His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON to be born of flesh and suffer innocently through all the temptations that the creation must suffer in this world that was once a paradise but through our own iniquities the world has become a cesspool of sin. Jesus makes it clear that the world is in deep trouble with God and there is an upcoming judgment because of sin — and this is not the first time Jesus has Taught this Lesson! In this section Jesus gives us several warnings, first Jesus tells us that we must change our direction of our convictions of how we live our daily lives when He states: “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) Jesus continues stressing the importance of us entering the kingdom of heaven through Him when He says plainly: “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” and then Jesus tacks on a warning, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) So there Jesus says that the “unconverted sinner” will be judged guilty!!! We should note that Jesus Teaches we should “convert” from being men seeking personal “greatness” to being humble like innocent children and if we “think” about that for a minute we will see that when we are “innocent” that we do not seek “greatness” and the problem with seeking “worldly” greatness is that the “road to worldly success” leads down the path of destruction that is paved with sin and that pathway is broad for our sins are many. Jesus Teaches this same Lesson in the next verse as He warns more severely: “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:7) No one can read this section of scripture and escape the fact that our sins are an “offense” to God and that there is going to be severe penalties to pay for our transgressions against God for Jesus continues to warn us by listing the consequences for our sinful actions. Jesus already listed one consequence (1) “drown in the depth of the sea” and now Jesus throws in several more “visuals” for us to imagine in the form of punishment — (2) “if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you” (Matthew 18:8) — (3) “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you” (Matthew 18:9) Then to make sure we understand that it is sin that causes us to lose our direction Jesus makes a clear definitive statement of why He is on earth Teaching us about sin when He says: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost.” (Matthew 18:11) This section should Teach us that we should “repent” of our sin (which Jesus used the term “convert”) to avoid the penalty of sin that will be judged by God Himself and as always Jesus tells us how to resolve our sin problem and paints a “positive visual” of the judgement when He says that “if” we “convert” we will “see the kingdom of heaven” and twice Jesus used the term “enter into life” then Jesus promises that if we “become as children” we will have “angels” assigned to guard us from sin and that the “Father” in heaven will always look over His “converted” children — and the picture I got was that if I become as a little child that I will have a personal audience with [our] “Father who is in heaven” and be rewarded with eternal life rather than staying lost in my sin and end up with a “millstone hung around my neck” and “drowning in the depth of the sea”. Which vision fits your spiritual eye, being cast into hell fire or entering into life being protected and provided for by our Father in heaven?