FEBRUARY 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

FEBRUARY 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

FEBRUARY 02  LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Glory and Honor to the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are the Creator and man is but dust under Your Holy Feet. Yet You have made us heirs to the kingdom as we accept Your Invitation to join the Father and we become sons and daughters in the Family of God — to God be the Glory Forever! Jesus, You know my heart, search it and know my desire to have You draw our entire family to You. I know full well that only You can accomplish Salvation! Lord keep my heart burdened for the family!”     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is Teaching us to be concerned about the needs of others and the greatest need everyone has is “Love” — The above prayer was written 16 years ago as I was greatly burdened for my oldest son Robbie who had started down his own path in the world and was heading into darkness. He had no job, no future, and no ambition, only raw talent without purpose which is more dangerous and destructive than it is advantageous. This study in the JESUS Questions has already taught me many new things but most importantly it has highlighted and clarified in my mind some of the lessons that I know now that God had intended for me when I started the “365 Prayers for Jesus” in the year 2000. I did not know what the outcome would be when I committed to starting my day by writing a prayer to Jesus and praying for the family every day for an entire year which I accomplished first in 2004. I mention this during our study of “The JESUS Questions” because I did not know what I would learn or accomplish when I started the “365 Prayers for Jesus” but there has been so much fruit from the 2004 year of starting my day by writing the Name “JESUS” that it is still impacting my life and I am sure that there are new lessons and new blessings in answering “The JESUS Questions”! The prayer above is a prayer that I wrote in 2004 that was especially meaningful to me in 2016 because of the new “The JESUS Questions” project and the impact that it is having in my family.  It is not a random coincidence that I would read a prayer written in 2004 that still has so much relevance to my working on JQ#02. Yesterday I wrote that the context around JQ#02 was all focused on understanding the “Love of God” and how important “Love” is to God and then challenged the reader to consider answering JQ#02 which is 4 Questions effectively asking 1 Question.  God really wants us to stop and think about our answer so He asks the same question 4 different ways, which immediately reminds me of the story when Jesus appeared to Peter after the Resurrection and JESUS asked Peter three repetitive questions in John 21:15-17. The 3 Questions Jesus asked Peter can be translated as “Do you love Me?” asked from three different words used for “Love” with each one carrying successively more weight on the commitment to “Love God!”. My prayer in 2004 was a result or “fruit” of when I was first learning how to be a good follower and God had me looking down the path of “His Love”. In this 2004 prayer, I had prayed with the love of the best father I could be for my son Robbie at that point in my “Spiritual” journey and my heart was turned also to praying that our family would be healed. Since that first “family” prayer in 2004 I have prayed every day for our family and God has blessed and healed our family and God’s Grace has brought us all back together — we have a “Family Night” EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT —  and the entire family gathers for our weekly Family Meal — God is Good! Tomorrow in this blog I will try to put an answer to JQ#02 which is effectively asking each of us to consider where and how are we directing our “Love”? God is always Teaching  us about “Love”, and in God’s Heart “LOVE” is ALWAYS about GIVING TO OTHERS —“Love” is not “Love” if it is not given away! Stop and think where you would be today if at some point in life instead of feeling hurt you had chosen to “Love” the one hurting you instead of being the victim and having your own feelings hurt! Selfishness about “Love” will let your personal hurt drive you away, causing a separation in the relationship, but if you “Give Love to your attacker” you will find healing of relationships instead of hurt. Hold that thought as you read JQ#02 - Matthew 5:46-47.

FEBRUARY 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

FEBRUARY 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, oh how sweet the Name, oh how precious is the privilege to call on the Name Jesus and to know that You hear. Lord, to come to You with all that we have and to be able to drop it into the very Blood of Sacrifice that You shed for me on Calvary! Oh what joy and the peace of being able to leave them with You! Jesus, I will continually praise Your Name even in all circumstances for Your Love and Mercy never changes and I am now able to catch a glimpse of how great is Romans 8:28, for the more I love You, the more I can praise You and even our worldly pains can bring us Your Peace. Forgive me my sins, all my sins known and unknown to me, that I may serve and love You better.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS tells us in JQ#01 how important it is that we consider others before our selfish worldly desires and then in JQ#02 He is Teaching us that the greatest way to imitate God is to “Love others as God has loved us!” So let us look at this passage in Matthew 5:43-48 and answer the Question(s) Jesus asked about “LOVE” in Matthew 5:46-47. There are 4 separate Questions asked successively that ask the same thing from different angels and because all 4 questions ask the same Question they are obviously making a single point; let’s examine the Question(s) and then seek to answer them relative to “context”. JQ#2A & B:  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:46)  JQ#2C &D “And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” (Matthew 5:46) The first thing that jumped out at me was the theme of “LOVE” and “doing for others” that is obvious in this passage. In Matthew 5:43 Jesus repeated a popular Teaching when He makes the statement: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” (Matthew 5:43) in which Jesus addresses both “love” and “hate”. He concludes His Teachings in this last section at the end of a great Teaching chapter by Teaching about the importance of “LOVE” and included in His “LOVE” Lesson is a very Personal Lesson: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)  What I personally got out of this section is that Jesus by adding this section on “LOVE” is trying to convey to us how we should view God, improve ourselves, and develop a proper perspective on how to treat our “brethren”. It is important in our seeking to understand God that we understand the importance that God Himself places on “LOVING OTHERS”. We need go no further than John 3:16, (and there is a “Divine” reason that almost everyone can quote John 3:16) which starts: “For God so loved…” and it states the extent of His “LOVE” for “the world” (the context of this verse establishes the world as mankind and His original physical creation) His “LOVE” was demonstrated by His willingness to give “His only begotten Son” so that fallen man could be redeemed and inherit “eternal life”. When we consider that God’s motivation for our Salvation was driven by “LOVE” then we do get a glimpse of how important and what a big, big part that “LOVE” plays in God’s Plan of Salvation! One could conclude that “LOVE” is the key to “everlasting life”! Everyone should read the book of John to get a true appreciation of the importance of “LOVE” in every thing God does for us and in everything He asks us to do for others. Study again these questions in Matthew 5:46-47 in the context of God’s “LOVE” and the importance that God places on us to “love one another”! Why do you think that God chose “tax collectors” to drive His point home to us?

JANUARY 31 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

JANUARY  31  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily Prayer   

JESUS, there is a “Peace” as I start my morning and write the Name “JESUS”! Lord I thank You for asking me two simple questions when I started my Journey to You — (1) “What is TRUTH?” and “Who do you say I am?”. Just two simple questions that when I truly answer them I know that God’s WORD is TRUTH and that YOU ARE THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!, these “honest” answers have been a Guiding Light {{Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)}} and a Shelter in the Time of Storm. Lord, I do believe that You are the Son of God, the Savior, the Christ and I have supreme confidence that the Power that has been given by the Father to the Son is the same Power that surrounds even the spoken Name of Jesus! Lord Jesus, I feel Your Mercy and Grace when I speak or write the Name of Jesus and I praise You that You so freely bestow Your Grace on “whosoever” calls upon the Name of the Lord! JESUS, JESUS, JESUS.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS with His JQ#01 got us to thinking about how we treat others and to use those “natural” abilities God endowed us with to better mankind and the Lesson was that we should give of ourselves “physically” since we “are salt” and to give of ourselves “spiritually” because we “are light”. We are to do these things because we are made in the image of God and Lesson #1 foreshadows Jesus “giving” Himself “physically” on the cross for the atonement of our sins and that He lived His Life “Spiritually” as “the LIGHT of the world”. Now with JQ#02 we hear an echo of “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) as Jesus draws our attention to the Truth of Love — Love is not what you get from others, “True Love is measured by how much you GIVE AWAY”!! Jesus is telling us simply to live our lives from the inside out and the more you give away, the more you will have! We certainly tend to measure the amount of “love” in our life by listing the number of people that “love us” but Jesus is saying your “reward” will be given to you because of “the number of people you have loved”!!! I know this is TRUE because the Greatest Love known to mankind came from God which He bestowed on an undeserving world — “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) I would say that God set a pretty good “example” in “loving the undeserving” and Jesus showed He “loved” the Father by obeying the commands of the Father, even to the “giving of Himself for the sins of the world” — So the Greatest Examples of “LOVE” come from those that GAVE LOVE — and we should appreciate the fact that it was “LOVE” that motivated God’s decision to Sacrifice His Only Begotten Son for “undeserving sinners” and we should try to learn Lesson #2 from JQ#02 that Jesus is trying to Teach us about “love”. We are not “Holy” because others “love” us with worldly “love” — we become “Holy” when we “Love” others with a “Godly Love”, and we are to give God’s Love to those God Gave His Love to — the unloveable and the undeserving; then and only then will we know real “LOVE”!!! To introduce JQ#02 the Holy Spirit brought to my mind Romans 8:37 where Paul had declared one of the Gospel’s main TRUTHS that Christians are “more than conquerors” when we “Love” as God Loves and we trust “all things” to Jesus Christ who demonstrated the Great Love of God by being Obedient to the Father’s command in “all things” as He suffered the Cross for our unloveable-sakes. Paul also reminded Christians that this “Victory” over “all things” including the powers of this world comes only through Jesus Christ and we should also understand that Jesus was motivated by the “Love of God”. How can we claim to have any “Victory” in our lives apart from God? God has established the “Right Way” and the “Wrong Way” and they are as constant and unchanging as God Himself. We see that as man “progresses” through time that the only constant of man is that each generation and even the greatest of men in each generation all “fall short of the Glory of God” and that God and His Laws are as Eternal and Unchanging as the rising and the setting of the sun that God has placed in His Universe to remind us daily that we are just a small planet in the midst of more stars than even our greatest scientists can count! Surely with all our intelligence it should be simple for man to see that the best efforts of all our most brilliant minds put together cannot unravel even the smallest detail of God’s Infinite Unchanging Glory. Yet we are arrogant enough to want to declare God as irrelevant and we insist on going it alone? Why our selfishness drives us to such self-inflicted agony cannot be explained aside from the reality of our world that we all “want” all “things” to be all “ours” and we ignore God and His TRUTH, who from the very beginning established all the Laws of the Physical Universe. God also established all the Spiritual Laws of the Universe as well! It can be observed by mankind that the Spiritual Realm does exist. We seem to ignore the fact that the Spiritual Realm has a greater effect on the Physical Realm than vice versa. It is a part of observational science to conclude that unhappy, dissatisfied, and angry people cause more harm to themselves and others around them than do happy, content, and loving people. All these “motivators” are “spiritual” emotions and even our courts express the consequence of expressing ourselves physically relative to our spiritual states. Realize that God is the Creator of all things and that there are Spiritual Laws and Physical Laws that are undeniably interwoven into the fabric of Life by the Creator. There is a reason God continuously commands us “to love” and “not to fear”. Think on your “emotions” as you try to answer JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47) and God will guide you in your thinking about “loving others” and I’m betting you’re going to find that the more you give away the more you have and you are simply going to “love” it! After all — everlasting life is a pretty good “reward”!!! 

JANUARY 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

JANUARY  30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, the Eternal Unchanging God of my Salvation. Lord I praise You for Your Faithfulness and Unfailing Grace You extend to all who call upon Your Name, Jesus. Lord, I pray today the same prayer I prayed in 2004: “Jesus, praise Your Holy Precious Name for You are Worthy of our praise. All glory we give to Thee and to Thee alone. Lord may we do nothing in our lives that is not a praise to You and may all that we do bring Honor to Your Death on the Cross, that man may know that the Father God loved mankind enough that He would provide Salvation to a sinful world through the DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, who for our sakes suffered greatly for our sins. He was Innocent before the Father, yet as He bore our sins on the cross, He also had to suffer the rejection of a Holy Father who cannot look on sin — all this suffering of the Innocent so that the guilty world can live the Victorious Forgiven-life through the Victor Himself, Jesus Christ!”     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS used JQ#01 to remind us that it is not about what we can take from the world but what we give to the world that gives us worth by stating very plainly that we “are salt” and that we “are light” and we must stop and think about the Truth of God contained in “salt” and “light” from God’s Viewpoint in order to grasp the Lesson Jesus Teaches and why He would start His 33 JESUS Questions by using “salt” and “light” and to State a Truth of God about who we “are” in God’s Plan — “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…” (Matthew 5:13a & 5:14a) Jesus does not command us to become “salt” and “light” but Jesus makes His Divine Point by first stating that we “are” and then Jesus asks the Question JQ#01 “…but if salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13b) Jesus immediately gives us the Answer in the form of “Consequences” as He says, {about tasteless salt} “…it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men” (Matthew 5:13c) and {about light} “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket…” (Matthew 5:14, 15a). Jesus sums up the Truth of God using common logic but we must first focus on what is TRUE or we will miss the TRUTH of God. Jesus illustrates this by JQ#01 and lays out the “FORMAT for HIS TEACHING” — (1) We are to look for the OBVIOUS TRUTH that the Question will focus us on then (2) Jesus will give us the Answer if we will Listen. (3) Jesus uses God’s Law of Choice and Consequence to make His Divine Point. God’s Law of Choice and Consequence can be found throughout the Holy Bible and its importance is verified by the OBVIOUS TRUTH that it was applied to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. To emphasize His Divine Point, God spoke everything but mankind into existence! However, after God had created everything else we read in Genesis that God made man with His own Hands and God used His own Breath to breathe life into man and then God again used His own Hands to remove a rib from Adam’s side which God used to make Eve, the woman which God presented to man to be a helpmate! God then “planted a garden”  and placed the man into the Garden of Eden to “tend {work} and to keep it {treasure it}” (Genesis 2:7-15) and God established the Law of Choice and Consequence — “And the LORD God commanded the man saying, {TRUTH — GOD PROVIDES} ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; {The LAW} but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, {of CHOICE} for in the day you eat of it, {and CONSEQUENCE} you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17) The LORD God established with the 1st Law of Choice and Consequence that the “penalty for disobeying God {sin} is death” but the reward for obeying God is “eternal life”. God gave us a “CHOICE” in the form of FREEWILL and therefore we are under obligation to look at God’s Holy Word for the TRUTH OF GOD to guide us in making “Choices” but we should keep in mind that the “Rewards” and “Penalties” have already been laid out before the foundations of the world and God applies them fairly and equally to all mankind! Therefore with that TRUTH of GOD in mind, let us apply that to JQ#01 — Truth: God made us and expects us in our “natural” state to be “salt and light”. “Law”: Salt and Light are used to add taste to those that use salt which must be consumed to get the salt flavor out of it and Light makes things visible to those who use the light to find their way. Rewards for a Good “Choice”: Using salt adds flavor to our lives and being in the light, we can see to find our way. Consequence (penalty) of a Bad “Choice”: without salt, life is bland and tasteless and without light we will stumble and fall and get off the path and lose our way in life. These “Truths” are common to man and when common logic is applied to each situation it will reveal these “Truths” — but once we see the Truth, then we are faced with a “Choice” and our responsibility to God is to use our God-given intellect to use His Word to make good “Choices”! If we stop and think, we can see the rewards and penalties but we must look through “Spiritual” eyes because our worldly eyes are tied to the “physical” world which contains the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16) — the worldly temptations that are common to man! JQ#01 teaches us about God, Jesus, ourselves, and about our attitude toward others, and keep in mind that this is JQ#01 and God thought it important enough to make it the first Question/Lesson! So it will behoove us to consider that “salt” and “light” are worthless unless they are used to help others — my observation is that “salt” is a natural occurrence and can be considered of being “physical” but “light” is still an unknown quantity and one of the mysteries of God and in my opinion falls into the “spiritual realm” because the first “Words” that God spoke came when God looked at the world and saw darkness and chaos, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3. God’s Holy Word is given to give us understanding and God has demonstrated that He Will Provide for ALL our NEEDS — the TRUTH OF GOD is the WORD OF GOD and since we are made in God’s image, He declares our likeness to Him when He states His Truth that we “ARE SALT” and we “ARE LIGHT” !!! With the Lessons of JQ#01 fresh in our mind, let us then look at JQ#02: “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47) and consider both the Lesson Truth of JQ#01 and this general truth statement about God (that is “TRUE” because of His Great Love for us), and it goes like this: “There is nothing that we can do to deserve the Love of God but the Good News is that God’s love is not dependent on who we are or what we do. God Loves us because He chooses within Himself to Love us and His Love is totally dependent on who God IS, therefore, there is nothing we can do to lose His Love!” This idea of God choosing to love us in spite of our sins because of who He IS could possibly be (in my opinion) the Root Cause of Grace itself and makes a really good place to start looking at JQ#02 — (Context: Matthew 5:18 - 6:24) and the Question(s) contained in Matthew 5:45,46, & 47. For JQ#02 we will look at the context of the Questions and also consider “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37) and the fact that we cannot be separated from the love of God! Then we should also consider why Jesus concludes JQ#02 (4 questions asking the same thing, I think) with a this command: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  (Matthew 5:48). If you have as much trouble being “perfect” as I do then JQ#02 is a great Lesson from the Master Teacher to help us improve!!! 

JANUARY 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

JANUARY  29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS    JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, each day is a special day if we start that day with You! Lord my prayer as I awake and start planning my day is that I “seek first the kingdom of God” and allow  Your Holy Spirit to direct me down paths of righteousness and then teach me Your Ways as only the Holy Spirit can! Lord, what a privilege to sit under Your teaching and open Your Holy Bible and let Your Holy Spirit guide us through Your Holy Word — Your Eternal, Matchless, Life-giving Word! Lord, I pray now for all parents to see the importance of living their day-to-day lives in Christ and the impact and influence that living for Christ has in the lives of their children. Parents themselves living for Christ will be the greatest step they can take as parents to bring their children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!  Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS used JQ#01 to get us to thinking about our responsibility towards others by using “salt” which must give up its “essence” to be flavor to the world, and “salt” is also universally known to contain healing properties as well but regardless of its use, it must be applied to the circumstance and in each case, the “salt” is consumed. Jesus used “salt” to focus our attention not on ourselves but on our responsibility to others!  As we move from JQ#01 to JQ#02 please remember that “Context is king”. JQ#01 context for being “salt” & “light” is Matthew 5:1-16. The context for JQ#02 is Matthew 5:18 - 6:24 and Jesus continues His Lesson on looking first at ourselves to make sure that we are prepared to take care of others, this is what the airlines advise when they tell parents to first put on their oxygen mask in order to be able to assist others! It is imperative that we read the context around each question and in doing so it becomes obvious to even the most casual reader that Jesus is The Master Teacher and as such we must understand that when Jesus asks a Question He is not looking for knowledge for Himself but His Intent is to impart knowledge to the student. When Jesus asks His Question, He is making a common sense statement that if one really wants to learn the TRUTH of GOD then one must answer honestly within themselves the Questions that are asked to see if we are seeking the TRUTH of GOD and are willing to listen to the Answer! Jesus never spoke without Teaching, His every breath, every step, every moment of silence — every action Jesus made were Lessons Jesus uses to Teach us how we are to live our lives by following His Perfect Example! Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us for a Divine Reason, and He had a Divine Purpose for being born in a manger and growing up as “one of us” yet He lived His Life without sin! How did He do it? Jesus accomplished this Miraculous Feat because He knew the Father’s Will for His Life and was Obedient to do that which the Father had Taught Him. Jesus told this to His disciples just before going into the upper room for His final earthly Passover with His disciples, “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-50). Our study of the Questions that Jesus asked should be studied from this specific viewpoint: “Therefore if Jesus asks a Question then He is engaging us to dig deeper to learn the TRUTH of GOD because He is trying to Teach us what the Father Taught Him, and the result of our efforts will be everlasting life!!!”  We should never take anything Jesus said lightly because in His own Words, Jesus is speaking only the Words that the Father God in Heaven spoke to Him and then sent Him to earth to speak God’s Words to us! We should be in AWE of these Words spoken by Jesus and exclaim as even His enemies did who heard Him: “The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46). Let us then consider the next Lesson/Question JQ#02: “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47) The context in which Jesus asked JQ#02 is in Matthew 5:43-48 and we should dig deep because every Word spoken by Jesus is a Kingdom Treasure!!!

JANUARY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#01 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

JANUARY  28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, what a joy it is to look back to the day that You first got my full attention and Your Holy Spirit first led me to write and to see the simple Divine Truth of God — we in our daily struggle with the world are in a constant state of change but Your Love is Eternal and Your Peace Everlasting— Your Holy Spirit reminded me today (over 14 years later) that as I awoke on that morning many years ago that the Spirit had led me write in my first Spiritual journal: “Jesus, Lord, my soul is joyful for Your Love is changing my life! I can see a good man at the end of the tunnel. Lord I will continue to pray for a repentant heart for that is the first step in my turning from the world and all its many lusts. Jesus, I pray again today many years later that I will abide completely in YOUR TRUTH. I accept my unworthiness as a a sinner and put my hope in Your Salvation through calling on Your Name, the Precious Name of JESUS! Lord, without the Cross and Your Shed Blood, my life would have no real meaning. I pray today to be immersed totally in Your Blood, I beg for Mercy for my many sins as only the God against Whom I have transgressed can Forgive my iniquities and cleanse my unrighteousness. Lord Jesus, today I praise You for You have answered my prayers and have led me through sin’s dark tunnel into the Light of Your Grace, I beg for Your continued Mercy on me a sinner.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JANUARY  28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#01-07 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<<   JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13) JESUS was shown to be the Messiah through circumstances beyond His control and now Jesus is demonstrating by His Teaching that He is both the Messiah and the Master Teacher. Jesus started His Teaching of the multitudes as Matthew noted after Jesus had allowed John to Baptize the Lamb of God in the Jordan River. John the Baptist had the attention of all Israel for he had been declaring the arrival of the Messiah and preaching in the wilderness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2)  God declared from heaven when Jesus rose out of the baptismal waters, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) After Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan and a great multitude of witnesses heard God Speak from heaven giving His Approval to what Jesus was doing, we begin to read about the Lifestyle and Lessons that Jesus lived to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that JESUS IS the Son of God, God’s Anointed One, the Messiah! Matthew also documents that Jesus IS the Master Teacher and has the Authority of God because Jesus proved Himself to be the Master Student when the devil himself tempted Jesus immediately after Jesus had been fasting forty days and forty nights. Jesus used the Holy Scriptures to address the devil’s 3 temptations that is common to all mankind; lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. With each temptation the devil presented to Jesus, Jesus declared, “It is written…” (Matthew 4:4,7,10) Matthew records that after Jesus demonstrated His Master Knowledge of God’s written Word that “Then the devil left Him…” (Matthew 4:11) thereby establishing Jesus as the Master Student of God and God’s Holy Scriptures which are the best credentials for Jesus being the Master Teacher. After Jesus established His Credentials as the Messiah and the Master Teacher, Matthew records that “…Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, AND healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” (Matthew 4:23) By the time Jesus gave His “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5:3-12) His “fame” had already traveled throughout the land and people were coming from everywhere just to be in the presence of the Messiah for His “fame” was the result of the “Work of God”  that Jesus had be doing “among the people”. So when Jesus addresses the multitude that had heard Jesus Teach His “Sermon on the Mount” Lesson, they were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and the Master Teacher because of His “Example” and the Lessons He had been Teaching God’s people on how to live their day-to-day lives. The fact that Jesus was not taking anything material from the people demonstrated that the Messiah had come to “Serve” the people for Jesus was preaching the same MESSAGE that had been preached by His forerunner John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) It is significant that after Jesus Taught the Divine Lessons in the “Sermon on the Mount” that JESUS immediately ASKED A QUESTION — which itself begs the question, “If Jesus is the Master Teacher why is He asking questions?” Secondly, “Why would Jesus in His first Question ask about salt?” As soon as these two questions are “honestly” asked, the Holy Spirit will give us an understanding that will lead to an “honest” answer if we will seek the Truth of God that Jesus is putting forth with His Question.  Jesus does not ask His Questions because of a lack of knowledge on His part, the Holy Spirit reveals to those who seek to give Jesus an “honest” answer that Jesus uses His Questions to focus our attention on the Truth of God and by giving Jesus an “honest” answer, we will be speaking a Truth of God!   — Therefore, let us consider: JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13) and honestly answer the specific Question Jesus asked, “…if salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” — The “honest Spiritual” answer to JQ#01 is twofold: (1) First, salt gets its flavor from the Creator; there is nothing man can do to create the flavor of salt, the flavor of salt is proprietary with the Creator, and (2) the Question is rhetorical for Jesus immediately after asking the Question declares the Divine Truth that salt without flavor is “good for nothing”. The Holy Spirit leads us to this conclusion: Jesus says we “are salt” and we should always strive to attain to being like Jesus as stated in His Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. Sharon Anderson sent in these “honest” comments on the Beatitudes which will post today as a summary for the conclusion to JQ#01. On February 29, 2016 Sharon posted: “(1) Jesus teaches that those who are poor in spirit are deeply humble. They recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy before God . They accept there is nothing in and of themselves to commend them to God to merit salvation.  (2) Those who mourn have a godly sorrow over their sin…a sorrow that produces repentance leading to salvation without regret. They are genuinely sorry for sin as they know they have offended a holy God. (3) Gentleness (or meekness) is the opposite of being out of control. Meekness is supreme self control that must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. (4) Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness seek God’s righteousness (through Jesus Christ) rather than attempting to establish a righteousness of their own. They have a deep craving to please God that produces a desire with all their entire being to live and walk the way God instructs us. (5) The merciful person is a person who exemplifies God’s characteristic of mercy…God is Mercy. (6) Purity of heart is a purity of thoughts, purity of actions, purity of desires and motivations, a purity of proper reasoning based on Scripture and God’s ways. This requires continual examination of our lives and a continuous going before God in confession seeking cleansing.” So the next time you see a salt shaker let it remind you that you are “the salt of the earth” and we should continuously strive to be the Christian flavor to a tasteless world.

JANUARY 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#01 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

JANUARY  27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, Master, Lover of my soul, Giver of Life, start my day with Your Mercy, Your Grace and Your Love and then move me to share the overflow of Your Goodness with all those that I come into contact with today. Lord, I desire in the depths of my heart that when others see me that they do not see the old sinner I was but the forgiven sinner that I am and that they see the Source of my Salvation shining forth through my former darkness to illuminate the Truth that is Jesus Christ.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS has now been proven in Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus Christ in chapters 1-3 to be the Messiah by circumstances external to Himself and His disciples such as the location of His Birth, His Kingly Lineage (you cannot choose your parents but God can!), and the “Virgin Birth” — however; beginning at the end of chapter 3 Jesus is quoted as telling John the Baptist, the prophesied “forerunner” of the Messiah, who upon seeing Jesus declared “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus told John to baptize Him in the Jordan in order to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 5:13) Jesus is then shown by His Actions to be the Messiah in chapter 4 by the way Jesus lived. Everything Jesus was accomplishing were all things that would be done ONLY by the True Messiah and His Actions established that Jesus was not paying “lip service” to the title “Messiah” but everything Jesus did and Taught and preached demonstrated that Jesus was indeed the Anointed One and that His Purpose was to “fulfill all righteousness” and to “take away the sin of the world” thereby proving by His Actions that these are the Actions of the Messiah! Jesus started His public ministry after His Baptism in the Jordan River by being led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, then at the end of fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus successfully dealt with the devil who tempted a tired and hungry Jesus with the 3 temptations that everyone faces. (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus then went about Teaching in the synagogues and healing everyone brought to Him and soon “great multitudes followed Him” (Matthew 4:25) Matthew started chapter 5 by stating “And seeing the multitudes, [Jesus] went up on a mountain…then He opened His mouth and taught them…” (Matthew 5:1-2)  There is little doubt about Jesus being the Messiah when the account of His Lifestyle is read because everything Jesus did and said was to advance the kingdom of God and to Glorify God in Heaven whom Jesus proclaimed proudly as “My Father”! Jesus gave His “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5:3-12) and then asked His first Teaching Question: JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13a) This blog on “The JESUS Questions” challenge by the Holy Spirit is to consider the Questions that Jesus asked and study them until our “understanding” of the Holy Scriptures leads us to an “honest” answer. When we stop to consider the Question we must first try to understand the significance of why Jesus began by asking the JQ#01 Question about “salt”? Sharon Anderson commented on “salt” in this JESUS Question and stated: “Salt in Biblical times had varying degrees of purity… Inferior salt in those days was used to keep footpaths free of vegetation so people could walk on them.”  If one reads what Jesus says about “useless” salt in the same verse that He asked JQ#01 then Sharon’s comment gives us a modern understanding of what Jesus was saying to us in verse 13 about useless salt: “It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” (Matthew 5:13b) It was at this point of insight that I felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that it was Jesus that gives salt its flavor and it is Jesus that gives Christians our flavor. Applying that “logic” it is then our “Christian” purpose in this world to season this tasteless world with the flavor of Jesus which is Mercy, Grace, Forgiveness and Love and if we lose our flavor then we become useless Christians and will be “trampled underfoot by men” and that is what I see happening today with the Church that professes to be “followers of Jesus”!?!?  We lose our flavor each time we deviate from the Truth of Jesus Christ and try to season the world with “compromise” instead of “conviction”. A Christian without  the “conviction” that Jesus is the Messiah, the Only begotten Son of God and “the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world”, is inferior salt that has lost its flavor and usefulness for the Kingdom of God which could explain why the Church today is being “trampled underfoot by men” !!! A Christian without Jesus Christ is a lamp under a basket! The question then is “How do we prevent losing our flavor?” As always — God provides. In this case He had told us how to keep our flavor in verses 5:3-12 in the Beatitudes. I encourage you to read the Beatitudes again as a type of map to keeping yourself committed to following Jesus. Consider that God has established His Laws governing the entire known universe. God always provides an understanding of the Law, then He gives us FREEWILL to apply His Laws or go the way of the doctrines of man — Jesus also established before the creation of the world a Consequence for each of His Laws, applied fairly and equally among all mankind, so that we can make an informed decision whether to follow God or to decide for ourselves and go our own way without God. Jesus said that He came to “fulfill” the “Law of the Prophets” (Matthew 5:17) so consider the Beatitudes as Spiritual Laws and that following them results in the “Consequences” as stated in the “Blessed are” statements. Not following the Law of God results in the Consequence of being “trampled underfoot by men” listed in Matthew 5:13b — for the way of the world is darkness and tasteless salt — but by following the “Way” of  Jesus,  You CAN Be Light and keep your Flavor.