JULY 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-11 >>> 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 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-11  >>> 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, how did mankind make it before You came and sacrificed Yourself for our sins? We all have sinned and fallen short of Your Glory and yet there is always the “HOPE” that Your Sacrifice brings into our world. There is no night so dark that Your Light cannot shine through that darkness nor is there a pit so deep that Your Love cannot reach down and pull us up. Lord Jesus we have the Blessed Assurance that not only are you here for us in our time of need but that You have Promised to NEVER leave us nor forsake us, and that Promise is Eternal!!! Lord, Savior, Redeemer, take my life and make it wholly Thine and lead me in Your Paths of Righteousness for Your Name’s Sake.           AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-11  >>> 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 always Teaches in steps that lead us closer to God, but like steps that must be taken one at a time, we should take care to stand firmly and obtain our “footing” on the new step before trying to attain the next, lest we lose our “footing” and instead of drawing closer to God we stumble and fall away from God as we try to keep our own balance instead of relying on the Truth of God to keep our equilibrium on our Journey to find God Himself. It always helps my understanding of what Jesus is trying to Teach me if I stop and look at where Jesus had my attention focused in the previous Lesson and use that understanding to see the direction that the new Lesson is taking me. Jesus ended His last lesson by declaring in this order: (1) The disciples could not cast a demon out of a man’s son (2) Jesus pointed out their inability to “heal” the boy was linked to the fact that they were “faithless and perverse” because they were depending on their ability and not the Power of God. (3) “And Jesus rebuked the demon [in the boy], and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.” (Matthew 17:18) (4) Jesus then turned to His disciples and explained it was their “unbelief” that caused their weakness and they needed to work on their “faith’” [in God’s Power to work through us] (5) Jesus then referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” and reminded them that as part of His Mission on earth that He was to “be betrayed into the hands of men” (Matthew 17:22) and (6) He would be killed but that “the third day [Jesus would be] raised up” (Matthew 17:23) (7) Jesus performed the miracle of paying the temple tax with a fish Peter caught and demonstrated that God knows our needs without us asking (see also Matthew 6:8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him”) (8) Then Jesus ties the Lesson of working on our faith with Him casting the demon out of the boy with His Lesson on “Who’s the greatest…” by calling a child to Himself and saying that “whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest…” and to me that tied together JQ#20 lesson where Jesus cast the demon out of the boy and now here in JQ#21 Jesus is saying that if we will allow Him to cast out our demons we will become as innocent children in the kingdom of heaven and will be among the “greatest”. (Matthew 18:1-6) Step upon step we learn of God’s Truth just by taking those steps under the Guiding Power of the Teachings of Jesus! Jesus then continues the theme of us daily repenting of our sins caused by our worldly desires as He then reminds us that “offenses [to God by our worldly sins] must come” (Matthew 18:7) but that if we will repent and turn to God that we will “enter into life” — but if we don’t remove the source of sin and repent then we will “be cast into the everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8) Jesus then continues His Lesson and says a second time that we should do whatever it takes to get rid of our sin for “it is better for you to enter into life” than to “be cast into hell fire”!!! (Matthew 18:9) Jesus then reminds us that we must become as innocent children and announces that when we are “converted and become as little children” that “in heaven [that the angels of God’s children] always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10) Jesus then confirms His Mission and our path to heaven and the Father when He clearly states: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” (Matthew 18:11) Step by step Jesus has Taught us that we are lost in our sin and that we must repent of those sins for they are an offense to God and if we repent then Jesus will cast out our worldly demons and we will be converted to children of God and will have angels in heaven watching over us and we will have direct access to our Father in heaven! Can you “think” [there’s that command again] of a better future than to return to your childlike innocence and have a “Loving Father” take care of your every need? 

JULY 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-10 >>> 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 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-10  >>> 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, there is always praise on my lips when my heart dwells on You, God very God, being born as we are of flesh into the physical world and then by Your Life on earth You showed us the “Way” to being “Born of God”  into the “Spiritual” which is eternal. Lord I trust my soul to You, Lord Jesus I know my eternity is in Your hands and that puts a song in my heart and praise on my lips for the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Forgive me of my daily iniquities, truly I have not attained the “perfection” You cheer us towards but Lord You have given me that “Blessed Hope” which my soul holds so dear, Praise and Glory to the Only Begotten of the Father, MY JESUS.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-10  >>> 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 has used two questions from the world so far in this section to teach us multiple Truths of God by answering those questions from the world with Questions of His Own which come from Heaven itself! Remember in Matthew 17:24-27 the first worldly question came from “those who received the temple tax” and their question was to Peter as they asked him, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”. That is about as worldly as it gets and Jesus demonstrated the superiority of the spiritual over the physical world when Peter went to ask Jesus what to do about taxes? As soon as Peter “had come into the house [where Jesus was]” that “Jesus anticipated [his question]” and before Peter could ask, Jesus started revealing several Truths of God that only this worldly situation could create a circumstance that allowed God to demonstrate His Glory! Too often in life we fail to see that our “worldly problems” are just “spiritual opportunities” to glimpse the Glory of God and His Infinite Provisions of Mercy and Grace [“freely bestowed on all who will believe”] as God demonstrated to Peter the Truth of God that God KNOWS our need even before we ask and God will provide for that need in a way that cannot be mistaken as a “worldly” solution if we will just Trust and Obey the instructions of God. God also demonstrated to Peter the Truth of God that God will use our daily lives to solve our daily problems and that God will equip us with all the tools for success but we must live our lives to honor Him and then we must Trust Him for the results. Peter was a fisherman and though Peter had caught many, many fish before, Peter had never fished the way God told Him to fish and the result was quite a miracle in Peter’s life. The second worldly question came from the disciples themselves as the fell into the worldly trap of “one-upmanship” and asked Jesus, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1) This question from the disciples demonstrated they had not yet grasped the Truth of God that God is the Supreme Power of the Universe and it is the Power of God that had been the True Power revealed in every miracle that Jesus had been performing and His healing of the multitudes, the casting out of demons, and the Divine Power that could calm a raging sea! Yet the disciples were be so blinded by the world and the world’s lust for “power” that they could observe all the miracles coming from God and then have the audacity to ask, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” !?!?!? God however, demonstrated yet another Truth of God and instead of slapping a big knot on their dumb heads, Jesus showed His Great Patience with them and instead of a rebuke (which in my opinion they deserved), Jesus used the worldly circumstance to teach a great “spiritual” Truth by using a child as the answer to their question: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him…” and then Jesus answered their “worldly” question with this “Spiritual Truth” — “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4) and with one simple demonstration Jesus showed the superiority of “Spiritual Compassion” over “physical competition”. Now that Jesus had their attention again and knew they were back on the same “spiritual” page with Him, Jesus moved to His next lesson about pre-requisites for entry into the kingdom of heaven  which will reveal even more Truths of God. Just like we would never imagine a “fish” being a solution, we cannot imagine how God can give us insight into heaven using a “child” and then one of the greatest Lessons on Heaven as He introduces us to “lost sheep” — immediately we regress and ask the worldly question: “What in the world does a little child and lost sheep have to do with getting into heaven?” — my scriptural answer to that worldly question is with an angelic question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  (Luke 24:5)  

JULY 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-09 >>> 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 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-09  >>> 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, thank You for this day and I trust You for my daily bread, both physical and spiritual bread that You provide so abundantly that we may truly live. Lord You have demonstrated Your Love and Faithfulness to us both in Your Word and in Your Daily Presence in our lives and especially Lord for the extension of Your Grace to guide me through yet another difficulty in my physical life by healing me spiritually, only You Lord Jesus can know our need and make provisions for us without us expressing that need — You ARE LORD and I bow before You, humbled once again for the Mercy that You give to this sinner. Lord I pray that as I look into the future that my spiritual eyes will stay fixed on the “Light”.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-09  >>> 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 Taught Peter a multitude of Lessons with the “fish and taxes” miracle and lest we think it was only about how Peter could pay his taxes we should note that the Lessons Peter learned from Jesus surfaced as Peter turned from student to teacher and taught this: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem…Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:14,38). The point is that Jesus used each circumstance in Peter’s life to teach Peter the importance of looking for the Truth of God in everything in our daily lives and each Lesson will build upon the other until we can understand that God will reveal Himself to us through our daily circumstances, some may be as dramatic as the “fish and taxes” miracle and others may be as simple as going about our daily lives and Trust God to provide our daily needs and reveal His Glory through His Provisions. Jesus always has an “agenda” and is working in our daily lives to bring us to the Truth of God that if we want to “dwell in [the New] Jerusalem with God” that the “Way” to God is through His Son Jesus who became flesh, lived a Perfect life, and made the “Ultimate Sacrifice” that our sins could be forgiven. It is only through the substitutionary Righteousness of Jesus that we can enter into eternal fellowship with the Father — but only if we learn the Lesson Peter learned and we “repent” and are “baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ” and then we will receive the gift of the “Holy Spirit” which is the Ultimate Provision of God in our daily lives. The next Lesson Jesus Taught His disciples after the miracle of the “fish and taxes” was after the disciples “came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” (Matthew 18:1) When I read this I can see myself wanting to “keep up with the Joneses” and added to it the world’s addiction of “doing them one better” as our value system today is based on judging our success based on comparing ourselves to others. The devil has deceived us into not comparing ourselves to others less fortunate than us but we have been tricked into perpetual failure by always comparing ourselves to others that have “more stuff” than we do — this is the same pit even the wealthiest fall into and that “failure” is the desire for “more” instead of realizing we already have “enough”.  Jesus used this question from the disciples to move them one step closer to the “understanding” that true success is not found in collecting material possessions or gathering titles or accolades of men but in the approval of God on our daily lives! As soon as the disciples used the term “greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Jesus used that circumstance to demonstrate a great Truth of God and revealed true “greatness” as Matthew writes: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:2-4). Once again Jesus has revealed a Truth of God through a simple Lesson and demonstrated that when we look to the wisdom of the world that teaches us that “only the strong survive” that we are blinded to the Kingdom Truth that “humility and a child-like faith” are the true path to “spiritual survival”! We must listen to Jesus just like God said to do if we want to know the path to “kingdom success” or are you still one of those that “think” that “the one that dies with the most toys is the winner”?

JULY 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-08 >>> 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 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-08  >>> 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, another morning and another day to praise You for the “life” that You have abundantly poured out on us. Lord, may we never fail to see Your Glory in our getting up and our laying down and all the mercies that are poured out daily on such an undeserving world. Lord I pray that my heart will always be directed toward the Glory of God and that my Path will always be the “Way, the “Truth”, and the “Life” that is found only in living my daily life for Jesus. Guide my thoughts, Direct my steps, and Forgive me of my “spiritual” shortcomings for it is in Your Name and for the Kingdom’s sake that I pray.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-08  >>> 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 ended JQ#20 by announcing His Resurrection to follow His Death and was using JQ#20 to Teach us about ourselves as He pointed out that we are a “faithless and perverse generation” and in this next series of Questions Jesus is pointing out how to correct the problem that each generation faces, and that problem is how do we grow our faith and become Holy while living in the world that draws us away from God? Jesus never exposes a “wound” without applying “healing” and this Spiritual deficiency is no different. Jesus in JQ#20 said the root cause of our perverseness was our “unbelief” and that if we develop “faith” just the size of a “mustard seed” that we can grow our faith and increase in our Holiness and then Jesus announced again about His Resurrection. Then in JQ#21 we see Jesus Teaching us how to correct the problem that was exposed in JQ#20 and if we study what Jesus Teaches in the next passages that we will learn that Jesus points out a shortcoming in our life and then Teaches us how to make a “physical” weakness into a “spiritual” strength! The context for these Lessons is Matthew 17:24 through Matthew 18:35 and when this section of scripture is looked at as a whole Lesson we will see Jesus is Teaching us how to look at our daily lives and see how God is working and equipping us though our day-to-day existence to grow our faith and to become more like Jesus as we learn to see God in all that we do. This next Lesson starts with Jesus performing a miracle with a “fish” and “taxes” and then there are several Lessons that seem unattached but when viewed as a whole we see that Jesus is Teaching us how to relate to the world around us from a spiritual perspective and that always involves using the tools God has equipped us with to help others. God never promotes Himself but has always sacrificed Himself for our needs and now He has announced His upcoming death which if we will but stop and “think” about “why” then we will see the selflessness of His Actions that benefit others! With JQ#21 Jesus is Teaching us how to use our daily lives to Glorify God and instead of always “thinking” about ourselves and getting lost in our selfishness that we must learn to “think” about others and care for them and trust God to take care of us. Jesus started this series of “faith” lessons with a “miracle” fishing trip and demonstrated how God can work through our daily lives and then Jesus continues this “faith” Lesson by focusing our attention on building our faith by considering others as He directs us to “think” about daily things in our lives such as “lost sheep”, the act of “forgiveness”, and considering our “fellow servants”. It is important for us to remember that Jesus always Teaches a series of Lessons and then He checks to make sure that we “understand” what He has been trying to Teach ——— and in this section Jesus is telling us that to “understand” others that we must “think” of others. I am sure that when Peter pulled up that first fish and found in its mouth enough in one piece of money to pay the temple tax for himself and Jesus that Peter stopped and “thought” about Jesus giving him a solution to his problem without Peter having to lay out the problem to Jesus because Jesus already knew Peter’s need! Then Jesus solved the problem by telling Peter to use his daily skills and trust God for the results and there in place of a problem in Peter’s life was a miracle! We all know about “taxes” so we can easily relate to that lesson and the next lesson on how to live a life pleasing to God starts with another problem we all seem to deal with and that is the need to be “better” than the next guy — or have you never worried about “paying taxes” or “getting ahead”? 

JULY 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-07 >>> 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 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-07  >>> 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, we give You all the Praise for You are the One that is Worthy of All Praise. Lord Jesus, the more that I  study Your Word, the more I realize what a tremendous Sacrifice that You made and when I consider that the world has always turned from Your Sufficient Grace to the disappointments of the world, it really is amazing that You would become our Salvation at such Great Expense!?!  Lord, I shudder to think of the many times that I have rejected Your Truth and chased after the pleasures of this world and Lord, the scary part is that occasionally I will let my physical desires dust off old memories of my worldly life and for a moment I forget the despair that my disobedient spirit caused in my old life and I turn from Your “Way” back into the shadows of this world, but then Your Grace shines the Light of Truth on my iniquity and I can see and appreciate what Great Love You have demonstrated towards all sinners and I return to the well lit path of the “TRUTH of GOD” and the “joy of my salvation” and once again raise my voice in Praise to the One that Sacrificed so much to set me free from sin.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-07  >>> 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 addressed not only the Truth of God that we are “equipped” by God with the necessary tools to “answer” all the questions life presents to us but He also revealed in greater detail the difference between living a temporary life in the “physical” world with our flesh and preparing our souls for our “eternal spiritual” life in the “spiritual” world — Jesus has drawn us a clear picture so far that illuminates in our darkened mind that the “Spiritual World” is “Eternal” and that all “souls” will spend their “Eternity” either in the Presence of God in Heaven or those “souls” that choose to reject God will spend their “Eternity” separated from God in Hell. With JQ#21 Jesus is Teaching us that if we will use our God-given intellect to make good choices with our Free Will that we will be able to “reason” that the “world” offers us nothing “eternal” and the “eternal” offers us nothing “worldly”. Jesus points out to Peter with JQ#21 that if Peter will stop and “think” that Peter will see this distinction being played out in our daily lives as Jesus asks Peter “From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” (Matthew 17:25) Peter gave the correct answer when he said “from strangers” (Matthew 17:26) At this point we should stop and think about “taxes” and the fact that “taxes” are part of this “physical” life but we should also understand that Jesus is pointing out that if we follow Him that just by living our daily lives and looking at everything from a “spiritual” perspective that we will see God’s Provisions for us to be able to make our way through this “physical” world without compromising our “souls” — Jesus instructed Peter to pay the “temple tax” and fulfill his “physical/worldly” obligation but Jesus also instructed Peter to trust that God will provide his daily needs through his daily life which was fishing. We have a valuable Lesson to learn from “fish” and “taxes” if we look at this “miracle” from God’s Perspective! We can go about our daily lives and realize that God knows our needs before we ask but we must “trust” Him and do those things that He instructs us to do — Jesus used the “fish” because Peter knew about fishing, but God is able to provide our needs using the things we are familiar with but we have never looked at them from the perspective that God has placed us in that position so that when we open our “spiritual” eyes and “Trust” Him with our “Spiritual” hearts that He will be able to show us His Glory which is Always Surrounding our Daily Lives but we just don’t stop and “Think” about what we see from God’s Perspective! Who would have ever thought that paying “taxes” could be a way to Glorify God? 

JULY 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-06 >>> 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 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-06  >>> 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, forgive me for all the time that I have spent worrying about the things of the world that have no impact on my spiritual well being. Lord You have demonstrated to me time and time again the Faithfulness of the Father to Provide everything we need to live a Holy life and yet we succumb to the flesh and seek to live a “worldly” life and when we look to things of this world to give us happiness we are always disappointed. Lord Jesus You have never disappointed us and the Father has never failed us in any way so why Lord do we insist on holding on so tight to that which disappoints us? Lord I pray for discernment to know when I am letting myself drift back into the concerns of the world which is always in a direction away from You, for when we finally realize we are adrift in the sea of worries that we are in a boat without a paddle and that Lord is a sinking feeling! So Lord, open my spiritual eyes so that I can see my way back to the course you have set for me and I will rely not on my ability to row my own boat but on Your Promise to never leave us nor forsake us!!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-06  >>> 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 never lets an opportunity to Teach “satellite” Lessons go to waste as He seizes every opportunity to reveal several Truths of God to us just by asking a Question that makes us stop and “think” about the world around us, and when we have to use our God-given intellect to understand our own individual lives we learn that God has equipped us with two invaluable tools with which we can use to work our way through all our daily problems; God’s Tool #1 is our “Free Will” which is the characteristic we possess that is most similar to the “image” of God in that with our Free Will Gift from God we can see that our future can be influenced by the “Choices” we make using that Free Will which is our’s and our’s alone. By giving us Free Will and making us live with the “Consequences” of our “Choices”  God has given us the “Power” to influence both our future and our past and we cannot defer that Power to another entity, we must exercise our Free Will and demonstrate our God-given responsibility of self-sufficiency by using only our God-given abilities. God’s Tool #2 is our “God-given Intellect” which we must use in conjunction with our Free Will to make Godly-decisions that will affect our “Spiritual Well Being” thereby influencing our eternal destiny. If we abuse our Free Will by not using our God-given Intellect then we are in reality going against God’s Will for our lives and going against God is NEVER a good thing for the path away from God leads to the destruction of our soul, and that can never be considered a good thing. We see Jesus telling Peter to stop and use his God-given intellect to “observe” the “physical” world and make “Spiritual” sense out of our day-to-day lives when Jesus asked back-to-back Questions “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” [JQ#21a & b] (Matthew 17:25) Peter now has to use his God-given intellect at the insistence of God Himself because Peter is standing before God in the form of the “Son” knowing that the Question Jesus is asking Peter is because of a question Peter was going to ask Jesus. By Jesus “anticipating” what Peter was going to ask and “preventing” Peter from asking it, Peter now knows that Jesus is God because only God knows what we need before we even ask! Peter also knows that by Jesus asking the Question about where “…do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes…” that Jesus knows everything about him and now Jesus is instructing Peter to stop and “think” — Peter will find out that he already knows the “answer” to the Jesus Question but like us, we know the Truth of God but need instructions on how to properly apply that God-given knowledge to living our daily lives. Peter gave a one word answer to the tax collectors when he said “Yes” to their question about paying the temple tax and now Peter gives a two word answer to Jesus when Jesus asks Peter about “the kings of the earth” collecting taxes as Peter responds to Jesus “From Strangers” (Matthew 17:26). Jesus demonstrated to Peter that Peter has all the answers (consider that Peter got both answers correct and only had to use three words to answer two questions) if he stops and uses his God-given intellect to “think” — but what we all must learn from Jesus is how to incorporate the Truth of God with our daily lives. Jesus demonstrated that He is God by then performing the miracle of the fish and the coin through the daily life of Peter when Jesus sent Peter fishing. It was only when Peter obeyed God that the miracle occurred because Peter had to first cast his net in “Faith” in order to pull up fish in his net — this was an activity Peter performed thousand of times before but this time Peter was following God’s instructions and the results was the resolution of Peter’s problem with taxes! Only God can take our daily lives and solve our problems by listening to Him and simply keep doing those day-to-day tasks because God chooses to work His Miracles through us while we go about living daily for Him — can’t you see the Glory of God in your daily life or do you need to stop and “Think” about it from God’s Perspective?

JULY 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21-05 >>> 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 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-05  >>> 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, thank You God for Your Patience with me and I pray to be more like Jesus that Your Patience will be perfected in me for Your Perfection is only possible by being like the Perfect Example — Jesus! Only Jesus has been declared “Beloved” by God and only Jesus has also been declared by God as “My Son in whom I am well pleased” and it is only Jesus whom God says that all who would try to please Him that we should “Listen to [Jesus]” for it is only Jesus who has instructed us that we can be “One with the Father” if we “LISTEN to and BELIEVE in Jesus” we will become “One” with Jesus and the Father for Jesus and the Father are “ONE”! Lord Jesus, teach me Your Patience that I can become “One” with You because in order to become “One”, I must completely get rid of “self” and learn to patiently “serve others” as You Yourself came as a Man and served the world as a Servant!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JULY 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21-05  >>> 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 should have really grabbed our full attention when Peter walked into the room and Jesus told Peter in effect: “I know what you are going to ask Me so let Me ask you a question and show you that I AM God and I am able to both ‘anticipate’ your question and answer’ your question while demonstrating the Power of God to ‘provide’ everything you need to solve all your problems by you just listening to Me and obeying My instructions!” I know that when we read the account of Jesus sending Peter fishing to get the required “temple tax” found in Matthew 17:24-27 that Jesus doesn’t say exactly those words but if we look at what Jesus did “Say” then we can see that Jesus is revealing some very important Truths of God to us. First Jesus started revealing that God wants us to be involved in “being the solution” to our own problems which is an example of God’s Supreme Self Sufficiency. God is the only uncreated entity and does not need any outside help to be “who” God is and since God is Spirit we can say that to accomplish everything He Wills us to do God does not require any “physical” entity to accomplish His Will — this can only be explained by God having a “Spiritual Power” we cannot comprehend and this “Spiritual Power” exhibits itself through a “Supreme Intellect” that cannot be explained but it can be observed, and these “observations” of God’s Supreme Intellect are the foundation of our “Faith in God” which is based on observing the “physical” universe which is only here because God used His Superior and Supreme Intellect and merely “Spoke” everything except mankind into existence (God reserved His “Hands On” Method for Creating mankind in His Image!). God is Supremely Self Sufficient because everything He needed to Create the Universe was contained within God Himself and that is what Jesus is showing Peter when Jesus asked JQ#21 “What do you think, Simon?” (Matthew 17:25a) I am sure that Peter was taken aback by Jesus, first because Jesus “prevented” Peter from blurting out the “problem” which Jesus did in order to demonstrate that God “knows” what we need without even asking and also to demonstrate that we are made in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:26)  and part of that “image of God” is that God wants us to develop the kind of “Faith in Him” that we will know that if God allows a problem into our lives that He will provide within our own abilities what we need to solve that problem. Just look at this passage, we read that the “solution” to Peter’s “problem” was a “solution” that Peter already had within himself the ability already given to him by God to resolve his problem and “God’s solution” was within Peter’s “comfort zone”! Jesus knew that Peter was a fisherman and therefore the “solution” was customized to those things Peter “already knew how to do” as we read Jesus stating to Peter, “Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.” (Matthew 17:26-27).  Peter had done these very actions for his entire life and probable had caught literally thousands of fish but only when Peter did what he had been doing all his life the “Way” Jesus told him to do it and for the “Purpose” that Jesus intended for Peter’s life, did Peter’s day-to-day life produce the “miracle” that became the “solution” to what had become a problem in Peter’s daily life! Jesus is demonstrating that He KNOWS our problems and that He will PROVIDE within our daily lives and our natural abilities the solution if we will TRUST GOD. I am sure that Peter had never considered that he had everything in his daily life that he needed to solve life’s problems. It was probably very comforting to Peter to know that he didn’t have to learn any new skills and I know that Peter’s “Faith” grew leaps and bounds as soon as he reached down and grabbed the “fish that [came] up first” and “[opened] its mouth” and found a single coin that was the exact amount to pay the temple tax for both Peter and Jesus and thus Peter demonstrated his “likeness of God’s Self Sufficiency” (because we are created in the image of God)  to resolve his problem but only when Peter did what he did day-in-and-day-out “in the Power and Name of Jesus” did Peter realize God is the God of our daily lives and that God will never require anything of us that He hasn’t already equipped us for, and we should Trust that God has us doing what we do in our daily lives because that is what we need to be doing to Honor and Glorify Him! Faith comes from observing God at work in our daily lives so if your “Faith” is not growing maybe you should stop and “think” more about the abilities God has given you and look for your solutions within those abilities or do you think God doesn’t know what you need to solve your problems?