MAY 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

MAY 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, there are so many things to thank You for and to praise You for just from the good hard days work You gave me yesterday. When I think of “work” from a “physical” viewpoint it doesn’t make sense how to get a blessing from being in the hot sun sweating and fighting off yellow jackets that sting and hurt so bad but when I think of the “physical” from a “spiritual” viewpoint I see that my blessings are overflowing as I was able to have the physical strength to do the physical labor and that I get to do it in Your beautiful Creation! Lord, I come before You again today seeking Your guidance in all that You lay before me and Trust You to give me the “physical” strength to accomplish Your tasks and the “spiritual” strength to give You Praise for Your Provisions!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has just walked on the water and demonstrated to His disciples that He will transfer His Power to those willing to get out of the boat and walk on the water with Him and He also Taught them the Truth of God that indeed we “can do all things through Christ Jesus” but without Him we will drown in the world! That great Lesson was summarized by the writer Matthew as he wrote about the Jesus/Peter encounter where both were walking on the water and Matthew documented that when Peter took note of the world around him instead of keeping his focus on Jesus that Peter began to sink beneath the waves, Matthew records how Jesus reacted: “and [Peter] beginning to sink … cried out, saying, ‘Lord save me!’ and immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught Peter…and when they got back into the boat, the wind ceased.” (Matthew 14:30-32) Matthew then recorded what our response should be when Jesus stretches out His Hand of Salvation from Heaven to all of us that are drowning in a world of sin: “Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, ‘Truly You {Jesus} are the Son of God’” (Matthew 14:33) Matthew continues his summary as he concludes this section “When they had crossed over… [and] the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out …[and] brought to [Jesus] all who were sick…[and all who were brought to Him] were made perfectly well.” (Matthew 14:34-36) So here is Jesus healing the multitudes, demonstrating that by His actions and the “Fruit of His Kingdom Labors” that Jesus IS “Truly…the Son of God” and yet there are those with a different agenda that refuse to believe the “Witness” of the “Good Works of Jesus”. Those that believed that Jesus IS the “Son of God” were all “made perfectly well” and we know that all those people could not have been in the boat with Jesus so their healing “Faith” had to come from “hearing” about the Mighty Works, “Works” that could only be accomplished by the Very Son of God Himself and the cloud of witnesses was so great that the multitudes “believed” and by their “Faith in Jesus” they were “healed”! So why do we see another group of people who have heard the same thing about Jesus want to attack Him? We read in Matthew 15:1-2 that once again it is the “scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem” that came to Jesus but instead of walking on water they were stirring up waves as they questioned Jesus: “Why do Your  disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” (Matthew 15:2) which set the scene for another great “Truth of God” and demonstrates why Jesus is “Truly…the Son of God” ——— or do you believe that just because you don’t believe that somehow your belief will have any affect on the Power of God? Jesus answered the challenge to His Lordship from the Pharisees just like He addressed the challenge from Peter but with completely different results ——— as soon as His Lordship was challenged with a question from the Pharisees, Jesus immediately answered their question with a Question of His own that made the Pharisees look at the Truth of God that Jesus Teaches and not the “lie” that men try to convince each other is “best for the common good?” ——— once again Jesus is making us answer that most important Question that every individual must answer in their individual lives: “Are you going to Trust God and His Truth or are you going to listen to men that tell you a “lie”  that they mistakenly believe is the truth?”