AUGUST 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

AUGUST 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#24  “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?””  (Matthew 21:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

Jesus, Your grace is sufficient for all our needs, Your Love covers all our sins and iniquities — Your Resurrection has forever sealed the promise of God to His Creation therefore our Eternity is secure through our belief in the shed Blood of the Lamb of God!  God has gone through such great efforts to supply our needs, both physical and spiritual as we read about God’s efforts and promises in the Holy Scriptures, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) and from Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures document all the faithful promises of God and His great work in His Creation so that the Scriptures close with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (Revelation 22:21) Indeed You Lord are the Alpha and the Omega and Your Mercy and Grace is all we need from the beginning to the end. So this believer also looks forward to the last promise “Surely, I am coming quickly.” and I pray “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)   AMEN

AUGUST 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is addressing the greatest problem of every generation that ever lived, from Adam and the forbidden fruit to our modern day worldly desires to “do our own thing” — we are self-serving and are constantly declaring that it is our “right” to control our own destiny but in our self indulging demands we all make the universal mistake of failing to honestly ask ourselves, “Who and where does the Supreme Authority to declare ‘right and wrong’ really come from?” Then when we are confronted with the Truth of God that He and He alone has already established and maintains “righteousness” and has already given mankind a set of commands by which we can know “right from wrong”, mankind rebels and reverts to making up our own self-serving rules and doctrines. We are all guilty, every generation looks with lust at God’s Power and Authority and each of us fall to the temptation of listening to the Original Great Lie of the serpent as we hear, “For God knows that in the day you eat [of the forbidden fruit and decide for yourself what is “TRUTH” that] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…” (Genesis 3:5).  Each of us in our desire to have “authority and power” look to be like the True Power and Authority which is God and fail to see that with great power and authority comes great responsibility and that is where we fail miserably, for we all desire to be “God-like” and desire in our fallen heart to wield the “power” and look grand and glorious in our self assumed “authority”. We assume it is our “right” and then immediately we abuse both “power and authority” and end up short of meeting our responsibility to the world and others as we blindly serve our selfish desires and lusts.  Jesus asks the “from-heaven-or-from-men-true Authority” Question to each of us in order to make us stop and consider what we see in the world for there is sin and death all around us — we recognize that there is “evil” that consumes everyone and everything yet we do not recognize the Truth of God that God Alone is Sovereign in His Creation and that ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY is from GOD! Simple Spiritual Blessings of God that we encounter in our daily lives like “Forgiveness”, “Love”, “Repentance”, and “Grace” are not bestowed upon us by the “doctrines of men” but we know they exist therefore we must acknowledge the True Spiritual Source! Therefore Jesus is pointing out the “simple” Truth that mankind ALWAYS falls to the temptation to assume personal “power and authority” for our selfish needs and each fallen generation tries to justify our weakness by proclaiming the Great Lie — “If there is no God, then there is no ‘right’ but that which our “selfishness” declares as ‘right’!!!”   We however, by choosing to partake of the forbidden fruit, fail to recognize the Truth that it is God Himself that declares that the fruit is “forbidden” and that God Himself has declared the “consequence” of our actions — we have the “right to choose” our actions only because God Himself has granted us “Free Will”— but the Truth of God is that as the Supreme Power and Authority, God has given us the “right to choose” but He has reserved His Divine Right and Authority to determine the Consequence of our actions and choices — we are free to choose but God determines the consequence of our choice — the only way we can ever truly “be like God” is to choose to live our lives and make our choices based upon the “choices and standards” of God through His Holy Word in which God Himself has declared already the acceptable way to live, and has provided for us the Perfect Example in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, who is reminding us with this Question on “power and authority” that we must decide for ourselves if we are going to usurp God’s position or are we going to let God be God and provide for our daily physical needs and our eternal spiritual needs — if we stop and think we will have to admit, we cannot create “the heavens and the earth” nor do we have any control over “eternity” so what makes us think we should have “power and authority” over them?!?!?!?