MARCH 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

MARCH 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another new day, another “Son” rise in my heart, the air is fresh with Your Mercies and Your Grace and my soul sings a new song and all these wonderful things are the Fruit of Your Divine Love. Lord let us decrease in our selfishness and darkness and let Your Light shine through us into a dark world just as the rising sun shines forth to dispel the night, may our “Light of the Risen Lord” burst forth so that those in need will be showered in “Hope” that the new day will be filled with blessings from the “True Light” which gives “life” to men!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS started us with JQ#08 on a very personal inward journey straight to the point of revealing that the source of a significant amount of the evil in our lives comes from “[thinking] evil in [our own] hearts” and just that quick Jesus lets us know that He is interested in every detail of our lives ——— Jesus doesn’t want us to be “hearers only of the Word” but He wishes to “transform” our view of the world through knowing the “Truth of God” about ourselves!!!  Yesterday we looked at how personal Jesus makes His Teachings as we looked at JESUS Question JQ#8 in Matthew 9:4 — and to answer His Question honestly we must first consider the Truth of God that He KNOWS that we have “evil” thoughts and they are not just in our “heads” but there is “evil” in our “hearts”!?!?!  Here again we find that in order to find the complete “Truth of God” in His Teachings we must look at the “Big Picture” and as Sharon Anderson said when we started this journey through the JESUS Questions — “context is king!” Also, in the completeness of His teachings we must look at every aspect that Jesus touches so we must dig deeper into the scripture to find those “gems” of understanding that can always be found by “digging deeper”. One tool that is helpful in going deeper in God’s Word is using “The Law of Choice and Consequence”. From the beginning God has been very clear that He KNOWS everything we do, say, and think — and He is very clear that our “Choices” will result in “Consequences” that God had “predetermined” before the foundations of the earth. {See JQ#06 “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)}  and God makes it very clear that our “actions” that are the “fruits” of our “Choices” and our actions will result in those predetermined “Consequences”. God has reserved the right to determine the results of our actions but He has also made it very clear that He allows “Free Will” and He will never interfere with our “Freedom of Choice”! One of the big problems with this modern philosophy of “tolerance” is that the world has decided that God doesn’t exist, therefore His Laws no longer apply, and the world has established a new set of laws, the real problem being of course, is that God is “the everlasting God” and has not had His Supreme Power lessened by man’s evil desires. Remember that God looked at the world in Noah’s time and “saw the the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6) God brought a great flood upon the earth as the “Consequence” (a form of punishment) for the “intent of the thoughts of [our] hearts [being] evil” and only 8 people in the whole world survived — so when Jesus, who is the Son of God, asks us point blank: “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) don’t you think that we should be very concerned that we have “grieved…[the Father’s] heart”!!! ———The Bible teaches us from Genesis to Revelation that God will always have Control and Power and will always KNOW THE INTENTS OF OUR HEARTS, therefore each generation is personally responsible for making the “Choice” that determines the “Consequence” of an individual’s eternity, and that “Choice of Eternity” is simple, (1) We “Choose” to Trust God and live according to His Law and we will inherit eternal life with the Father or (2) We “Choose” to make and live by our own laws and ignore God’s Law and live according to our selfish nature and we will inherit eternal separation from God. Let us look at the context of JQ#08 in terms of “Choice” and see if God is “consistent” in His “Consequences” as He has written them down in His Holy Bible for us to read and KNOW His Holy Word. In Matthew 9:2 we read, “…they brought [Choice] to [Jesus] a paralytic…And when Jesus saw their faith…” Jesus said to the paralytic “Son…your sins are forgiven [Consequence]”.  The Law of Choice and Consequence can be observed by looking at the actions of an individual and then seeing that our actions are simply the results of the “Choices” each person makes. It works well to make a list of who-did-what-actions from these JESUS Questions and then see the result of the “Choices” that made them take those actions. For deeper learning purposes read Matthew 9:1-4 and list the person, the choice/action each person made, and then write the result (Consequence) of their “Choice”, for example in Matthew 9:2 we read “they brought to Him” which means “they” “Choose” to take the paralytic to Jesus so in the “Who” Column write “They” then in the “Action/Choice Column” write “Brought to Jesus the paralytic” and in the “Result/Consequence Column” write “Jesus both healed the paralytic and forgave him of his sins because of their faith” . You have just dug deeper into the Word, what do you think the “Consequence” of that action will be?