APRIL 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, Savior, and Son of God — what glorious names that You are Worthy to be called! There is no name like the Name — JESUS. Lord as I think about all the names that I can remember, even the most famous and legendary names, even among fictional names, there is ABSOLUTELY NO name that even begins to compare TO THE NAME OF JESUS! For with every name there is a set of characteristics associated with that name and there simply is NO other name that brings to mind all the attributes that we recall when we utter the Name of Jesus!!!  There has been no name associated with Salvation, with Eternity, with Forgiveness, with Mercy, and with Grace but the Holy Name of Jesus! May we ever speak the HOLY NAME JESUS and know the SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never Teaches us a Lesson that we cannot look at His Life and see that before Jesus Teaches us a Lesson, Jesus Himself has Lived that Lesson as an example for us to not only “hear” His Lessons but we can “look” at His Life and “see” the Lesson being Lived out before us. It is because Jesus Lives what He Teaches that HE has earned the right to ask us such a personal Question that He asks in JQ#13  “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”.  We can look at everything Jesus has done up to this point and we can see that Jesus Himself has been forgiving people of their sins, calling men to repentance, Jesus has cast out demons, He has healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, He has fed the poor and made the lame to walk, and He did all those things as He proclaimed, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus is saying that we are to look at His Life and know that His Life is “proof” that His Power comes from “the Spirit of God” and if the Spirit of God is moving so powerfully in your life that you must realize that “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28) Jesus is telling us, “Look at what I have done with My life and know that only the Power of God could accomplish these good works!”   Everything we have observed and know about Jesus points to the Divine Father! The only logical conclusion is that Jesus is sent from God with the Divine Purpose to make mankind aware that the kingdom of God is at hand! Each individual is given the knowledge of God and should personally evaluate our individual contributions to the “kingdom of God”! Jesus made this personal connection clear when He said we are either “for Him” or we are “against Him” (Matthew 12:30)! We should stop to consider what possibly could have been the “purpose” of God in sending His Only Begotten Son to the earth to be Sacrificed on a cross? To add to the obvious, God states in His written Word that He has done everything, from the creation of all things to the last breath you will breathe BECAUSE He loves us and wants us to be with Him in this “Kingdom” that He is preparing for us!   With all that God has done in preparing a place for us and preparing us for His place, then we should give a reasonable and honest answer to His simple Question, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”  This is such serious business that God would invest His Everything into revealing Himself to us and His expectations for us that He has placed “eternity” as the finish line and the ultimate failure in life is to end our life without the “hope” or the “assurance” of spending our “eternity” with the God who bestowed such “Grace” upon us — a “GIFT” to all mankind that came at such Great Personal cost to God Himself! Jesus follows this Lesson with some additional serious examples as in Matthew 12:31-32 where Jesus says that “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men” and “whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Then Jesus talks about trees with “good” fruit or “bad” fruit, and calls those that are against God a “Brood of vipers” who “being evil” cannot speak good things. Then Jesus declares “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37) It is easy to see that Jesus and God think this is very serious and there is our personal “eternity” riding on our answer — trust me, this IS A BIG DEAL, so what is the verdict that you are going to pass on yourself, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?” 

APRIL 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I pray for forgiveness for not resolving the spirit of disunity that existed yesterday as we were on “service” for the kingdom. I cannot explain it sufficiently to put it into words but anytime I am aware of the “division” of the “Spirit” I know that something is not right and Lord my prayer is to be made aware of my “shortcomings” in my “service” to You, for with You there must be “unity” ——— for the “HOLY Spirit” does not divide IT UNIFIES! Lord, I know that You have promised that if we are unified with the “Spirit” that we will be “One” with You and “One” with the Father — Lord help me identify the source of the division I felt yesterday, I desire for the kingdom’s sake to know if I was creating the situation with my “actions” or was I contributing to the division by my “reactions”, Lord, in either case, let me take full responsibility and “repent” as necessary to return to the “Divine Unity”!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is dealing with false accusations against His Ministry therefore when we read the 3 Questions asked in JQ13 it is a priority that we ask ourselves: “Just how important is it that we make a “personal spiritual connection” with this series of questions?”: (1)JQ#13A: “How then will his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:26) ——— (2) JQ#13B: “And if I [Jesus] cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?” (Matthew 12:27) ——— and (3) JQ#13C: “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?”. (Matthew 12:29) The importance of making a “personal spiritual connection” is at least as important as the subject matter don’t you think?  In JQ#13A Jesus had just said that a “divided kingdom will be brought to desolation”, in JQ#13B Jesus calls out the “enemy” by name and says Satan is involved. However, even as powerful as Satan is, his power also is lessened because of “division” to such a point that Jesus asked: “How will [Satan’s] kingdom stand [if it is divided]?” (Matthew 12:26) and then in JQ#13C Jesus uses a “strong man” as an example and states that even a “strong man’s house” and all his “goods” …will be “plundered” (Matthew 12:29) Therefore Jesus is saying that “division of the spirit” (1) will cause a “kingdom” to be brought to “desolation”, (2) “Satan” himself cannot survive, and (3) Even a “strong man” will be “plundered”. That sounds pretty serious to me to think that from a “division of the spirit” that a “kingdom” can be “desolated”, “Satan” can be “destroyed”, and the “strong man’s house” can be “plundered” — keep in mind that all these words and descriptions of destruction were used when the Pharisees falsely accused Jesus of “casting out demons by Beelzebub…” (Matthew 12:24) Jesus could have ignored the Pharisees and their false accusation but Jesus did not ignore it but responded with 3 Questions and therefore we must search the Questions Jesus asked to find “God’s Truth” that Jesus is trying to teach with such drastic examples! The fact that the Holy Spirit is directing us to ask ourselves if our “life is a plus or minus in God’s kingdom”  is to get our attention ——— if we do not address the false accusations against the kingdom of God then there will be serious kingdom repercussions in our personal lives! Jesus follows JQ#13C with: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” (Matthew 12:30) With that declaration, Jesus just made the issue “deeply personal” and if we are trying to be a disciple of Jesus we will find it very difficult to “follow Jesus” if we do not “gather with [Him]”. Jesus is using some very serious terminology and pronounces some very severe “Consequences”  if we do not personally take a stand with Him (“He who is not with Me…”) ——— the world today is making all kinds of false accusations against God, His Son Jesus, and against The Kingdom so we must make the personal decision: “Are we with JESUS, or against Him?”

APRIL 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, my Savior, Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Son of God Most High. Jesus, my prayer today is that the Holy Spirit will totally consume me and overflow from my spirit so that all that will be seen in me is Thee! Today I pray for the total destruction of the old man as I share Your Story of Grace and Forgiveness by the “Way” I live my day-to-day life. Lord, I know that without Your Grace and Forgiveness that I would still be lost in “self” and drowning in my “sin”, grant it Lord that all the words I speak today will be Your Words, that all my desires will be towards “loving others” as You have commanded. Forgive me mine iniquities, let Your cleansing Light be all that remains in my life.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Himself has always made His Lessons and Callings personal — we see Him calling out His disciples one by one and not only just calling them out individually but He called each one by name and made it clear to each one that they were to use their talents now to advance the kingdom of God! The way they were to learn “how” to advance God’s Kingdom was the same command Jesus has given each individual that will heed the Voice of Jesus, “Come, follow Me.” (Matthew 4:19) In JQ#13a, b and c we must understand that Jesus is asking the Pharisees to look at themselves and see that their false accusations are damaging themselves more than they are damaging Jesus. Jesus starts explaining this to the Pharisees by pointing out to them that the “reality” of their accusation has the root motivation of “division” and that even in the strongest of kingdoms there must be “unity of spirit” or the kingdom itself will weaken and eventually crumble: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25) . The fact that the Pharisees attributes the good works and miracles that Jesus had been performing was “by Beelzebub” points to the fact that “Satan” himself has been the motivating “spirit” directing the Pharisees to attack the good works of Jesus and  the Miracle Power of God — “Now when the Pharisees heard [Jesus was performing miracles and casting out demons] they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.” Matthew 12:24)  If we look at what Jesus had been doing in terms of healing and casting out demons we must concede that the “physical” results of these miracles can only be accounted for by the “Spiritual” Power of God being exhibited through Jesus — for never before in all of history nor ever will it happen in the future that anyone has or will “cast out demons by Beelzebub”!!!  However, the Pharisees could not deny that miracles were being performed so they had to draw the multitude’s attention away from God’s Power and therefore the Pharisees were given the “idea” from Satan himself to draw the focus of the miracles away from God and to give Satan the “credit” for this healing and casting out demons! The really big problem here can be seen as the ridiculous claim it really is — by saying that Jesus is “casting out demons” by the power of “Beelzebub”, the accusation itself reveals it as another fabrication by Satan to draw us away from the Truth of God! If Satan controls all the demons then why would Satan make himself look bad by putting demons into someone and then turning around and drawing them out again which would only put Satan at “cross purposes” with himself!?!?  Jesus points out that Satan would be fighting against himself and that would be self-destruction — but on the other hand, Jesus points out that by just the very mention of the name “Beelzebub” in their accusation that the Pharisees have exposed the source and supply of their false accusations and their true motivation which is to “divide and conquer” the followers of Jesus who is Teaching the Truth of God, doesn’t that sound exactly like what is happening in our world today? Jesus knew that this problem would plague all men just like the universal problem the world has with sin and self and if Satan can draw your attention away from God then he has divided God’s people! It is as true today as it was when Jesus first spoke it, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house [or church group or family] divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25) That verse started with, “But Jesus knew their thoughts…” and the Lesson we must learn is that as soon as the name “Beelzebub” or “Satan” is mentioned we must look to find the false accusations that will be present against God — for the goal of Satan is “desolation” of God’s people!  Satan himself knows that “God so loved the world that He gave [the sin filled world] His only begotten Son [Jesus], that whosoever believes in [the acceptable Sacrifice on the cross for our sin by] Jesus that they shall not perish, but have everlasting life!” ( John 3:16) John 3:16 explains why Satan would attack and accuse Jesus — for it is Jesus that defeats Satan and frees all men from the slavery of sin and self! Satan has used the “separation-from-God” weapon against the children of God ever since Adam and Eve to “divide” and hurt all that seek to be the children of God! If we remain in our sin then we will perish and have to live our Eternity separated (or “divided”) from God, hence our “desolation” is Satan’s victory! Do you see now why Satan attacks the Truth of God and why Jesus is pointing this out with JQ#13? Jesus clearly points this out so that we will know that Satan always attacks God by attacking God’s people, and Satan’s favorite weapon of “desolation” is false accusations against God to get us to turn from God to ourselves where temptation and sin will consume us and separate us from God? If Jesus points out a “problem”, don’t you think a “solution” is quick to follow? Remember, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!” (John 8:36) 

APRIL 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

Daily Prayer to JESUS    

JESUS, each day is a new day in Your Grace, Lord I give You praise for Your Infinite Grace because of the great need in my life for it, what a glorious thought that both Your Compassion and Your Grace are without limits. Lord Jesus, give me the desire in my heart that I will live Your Grace daily and share it with others at every opportunity in order that souls in need of Your Great Compassion will come to rest in the Shelter of Your Infinite Grace. Forgive me when my flesh weakens, grant it Lord Jesus that my spirit will continue to abide in Your “Grace, Grace, Marvelous Grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.”   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus met the “legalist” head on as they were constantly plotting and devising schemes in which they hoped to trap Jesus with their man-made laws which the Pharisees had memorized to the “letter”!  But these “legalists” were only interested in wielding the “power” that they had stolen from God’s Law by enforcing on others the “letter” of the law instead of the “Spirit” of God’s Law.  Jesus spent a lot of His Ministry addressing this very issue for the problem Jesus saw then is the same problem we see today, man wants “power” and since there is only One True Power in the universe; therefore, men must “rob God” when they seek to use that “power” to gain control over others. The method that has proved most successful in “robbing God” is through the passing of laws that give the “lawmakers” false “authority” over others. The original intention of the Pharisees was to make sure that the Israelites were following God’s Law but there is a law of the nature of man that exists which states: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This “power” to corrupt actually comes from defiling God’s Law and can be demonstrated as follows: (1) All POWER is from God, no “power” exists in the universe that does not come from God (2) God gave man “Free Will” which is really nothing more than man exercising “responsibility” to use the “power” of “Free Will” to make choices that honor God. (3) God gave man “Free Will” which gives man the “Freedom” to “choose” but God reserves the right to determine the “Consequence” of our actions. (4) This determination of “Consequences” is God’s Law and God’s Law will NEVER CHANGE therefore every generation and each individual have equal opportunity to exercise the “power” God bestows on each and every individual in the form of “Free Will” and every choice we make in life either honors God or it defiles God’s “Spirit”. Since the Pharisees were the perfect example of taking God’s Law and making it man’s interpretation of God’s Law, Jesus time and time again confronted the “legalist” and demonstrated that the “Spirit” of the Law is the only True Power. The fact that Jesus is pointing us to this “Power of God’s Spirit” and that there is no “power” but that which comes from God can be seen in the next series of Questions Jesus asked the Pharisees when they accused Jesus of using “power” that originated with Satan!  Let us look at the accusation and then see how Jesus Teaches His accusers that there is “No Power aside from the Power of God!” The Pharisees had been following Jesus and their sole purpose was to trap Him with their manmade laws and discredit Jesus in front of the multitudes that were observing Jesus performing good works for the needy. The Pharisees had been watching Jesus do miracle after miracle and could find nothing to “accuse” Him of so they decided to “manufacture” a “problem”. Matthew recorded this effort of the Pharisees to find fault with all the good Jesus had been doing when Matthew writes: “Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This [Jesus] does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’ But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them,…” (Matthew 12:24-25) and so that there was no doubt about the point Jesus was going to make, Jesus identified the author of the problem as “Satan”. (Matthew 12:26) Jesus knew that the Pharisees were addressing the “Power” issue and Jesus therefore is going to point us to the “Truth of God” that “ALL Power comes from God” and that not even Satan himself has any power except what power God allows him to have! Have you ever questioned this Truth of God yourself? Come on now and be honest, after all, Jesus knew the thoughts of the Pharisees and don’t you think He knows your thoughts as well?   

APRIL 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer to JESUS    

JESUS, Lord I pray back to You the words found in Your Holy Word that I may “be rooted and established in Your Love, and that I will be granted by the Holy Spirit the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the Love of Christ, and to know that this Love of Christ surpasses all knowledge — I pray this that I might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19). Lord I also pray again the prayer I prayed on April 9, 2004 “…I pray daily that I would recognize that the ‘Cross is the Key’ to all Eternity and I praise God for His Perfect Plan of Salvation and I add to my praise that both God and Christ have been Faithful to His Master Plan of Salvation — daily I will pray for Your Resurrection in my life, daily I pray that You will search my heart and cleanse me of my iniquities that I may serve You better”.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has now moved to Teaching us another Divine Truth and He is drawing our focus to our personal “relationship” with God the Father — and Jesus encourages us to give serious consideration to our day-to-day lives and determine if we are making a “contribution” to God’s kingdom or are we so selfish still that all we can do is “take, take, take” as we whimper “gimme, gimme, gimme” as Jesus asks JQ#13.3 — “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?” (Matthew 12:24-37)??? The Master Teacher of course has a Master Plan and as we have already learned through the first twelve Questions Jesus has asked, each Question builds upon the last and together they are  forming a stair-step knowledge that we may climb higher in the understanding of God’s Infinite Wisdom. This “precept upon precept” Teaching is very effective if when we come to gain understanding of one Question that we will ask ourselves in “Faith” — “Were will He lead us next?” I will be honest that when JQ#12 was revealed as “Who decides what is legal, God or man?” I thought that I may well spend Eternity trying to give an honest answer to that Question but then God spoke and the Holy Spirit asked “How much proof do you need to answer that Question for yourself?” — so I looked and indeed there was a mountain of “evidence” that I had not even began to dig into so the Question made good sense to me and I heard that “still small voice” tell me to decide for myself in my heart of hearts if I was going to let man or God declare what is legal? As soon as I delivered my verdict and declared a resounding affirmative that “God alone decides what is legal”  that the “still small voice” said…“Then let’s move on”. Going from so serious a Question as who determines all “Legality” in the universe for all “Eternity”, I thought that JQ#13 would be a less serious Question but no, there was an even more serious Question put in front of me to answer now, and it is also in front of you if you have been sitting under the shadow of the MASTER TEACHER  as He has asked these Questions that we may gain knowledge of the Father and His Kingdom. Jesus has been “living His Life as the Perfect Example” as in each Lesson we have been learning that not only will we “hear” the Lesson but we will also see Jesus “Living the Perfect Example” of each Lesson that He Teaches! As we look upon the “Perfect Example” of the “Divine-Do-As-I-Do” Life Lived by Jesus placed in juxtaposition with the classic “Hypocritical-Do-As-I-Say” example set by the Pharisees, we begin to understand that Jesus is saying “Walk-the-Walk” and that our lives should be lived in the Light of the Understanding that His Lessons impart to us. So let’s “Move on” from “JQ#12 - Who decides what is ‘legal’, God or man?” to the equally (if not even more serious) JESUS Question JQ#13 — “Is your life a plus or minus in God’s kingdom?”  We will try to answer the Questions and study the “Perfect Example” in this next section for JQ#13 which covers Matthew 12:22-45, unless of course you do not think it is really necessary to answer these JESUS Questions or to worry about what God thinks about us, after all, can’t we get to heaven on our own path just by being good — or do we also have to stop and ask, “Who decides what is ‘good’, God or man”?  

APRIL 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Son of the Living God, Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Son that Honors the Father by being Obedient to the Father’s Will, even unto a cruel death on a cross so that the Son of Man could be lifted before sinful men and draw all men unto Him. Were it not for that One Day on the Cross, mankind would never know the Hope of Eternity with God! O Blessed Day, O Blessed Resurrection, O Blessed Promise given by the very Son of God by His Blessed Sacrifice! Forgive us our daily sins as we seek daily to be more like Thee.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus asks us the JESUS Questions not as a query to gain knowledge for Himself but for our own self-awareness of where we stand on those “Spiritual Issues” that will impact our Eternity. Just stop and think of Eternity itself and we can quickly come to the logical conclusion that Eternity is populated only with the Eternal and throughout all the knowledge of mankind we must concede that only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is Eternal.  Common sense tells us that if God is Eternal then anything that seeks to be Eternal must seek to be One with God or at the very least we must expect to share His Eternity with Him. Simply put — we know that we cannot create an Eternity for ourselves! Therefore, if we are going to spend “Eternity” with the Source of Eternity, God Himself — the only Self-Existing Eternal One, then it makes good sense to seek to know Him that we might gain His Acceptance and be allowed access to that which only God can provide — the “Way” that we must take to enter into His Eternal Kingdom through the Narrow Gate. We are familiar with the various types of entries we use every day as we go about our physical lives on earth dealing with locks, keys, combinations, and entry codes, all of which are inventions of men to prevent our entry or access to certain areas and the only way to gain entry to these restricted areas is to be given the pass codes or the key and then we must enter them in the right order at the right place for if we do not follow these requirements for our entry into these restricted areas then we will be met with the simple truth — “Access Denied”! Why should we think that heaven with all its Wealth and Treasures and Everlasting Life should be any different? If we want to enter the Kingdom of the All Seeing, All Knowing God we must enter where He has decided we should enter and we must be ready to enter His pass code where He says to enter it to gain access to His Kingdom. That being said we can more easily understand why Jesus would start instructing us how to please God once we have come to the conclusion that it is God and God alone that determines what is legal (see JQ#12) therefore it is God alone that determines True Right and establishes the True Moral Standard by which all men should live. It only makes sense that God rewards those that abide by His Rules for life and indeed that reward is “Eternal Life” in fellowship with God Himself in His Kingdom that He has provided for those that are prepared to enter His Kingdom, His “Way”! If God is going to provide a “Way” then He will provide a “Map [the Holy Bible]” and a “Guide [Jesus]” for those that follow His Instructions. He will by no means deny us entry into the Kingdom established by God for His people if we follow His Instructions given to us by His Only Begotten Son Jesus, who by Teaching us God’s Way with His Lessons, Jesus is giving us the “pass code to entry into Eternity” — but to learn the pass code, we must honestly answer the Teaching Questions that Jesus has been instructed by the Father to ask those who seek to gain entry into God’s Kingdom and the Question being asked by God today is simply: “Is your life a plus or minus for My Kingdom?” As always, Jesus has the Answer, but are you willing to listen? 

APRIL 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, Lord and Master, my Redeemer and the Lover of my soul, Praise be to the Lamb of God, the Light of the world. Lord we cannot begin with our limited words to express or to give to You the Glory due to the Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased. For how can man’s mortal words express from our defiled heart words to compare to expressions from the Divine Holy God who has entrusted all that the Father has to the Beloved Son? No words can express Your Glory but let these three be spoken, JESUS IS WORTHY!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus addressed the “legalism” issue with the Pharisees with JQ#12 “Who determines what is legal, God or man?”. Matthew then noted the response from Jesus to the next confrontation Jesus had with the Pharisees, “Then the Pharisees [after seeing Jesus heal a man on the Sabbath] went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.” (Matthew 12:14) further proved Jesus is the Messiah! Even when threatened again by these “legalist” that were plotting to have Him killed, Jesus in the face of this evil plot responded as He always did when threatened by evil — by doing the will of His Father in Heaven openly and in public view which demonstrated to everyone that Jesus was indeed fulfilling the Holy Scriptures as written in the Isaiah 42:1-4 passage: “But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.” (Matthew 12:15) So when Jesus was threatened by the Pharisees and they sought to “destroy Him” because He had healed a man’s withered hand (see Matthew 12:10-13) Jesus simply withdrew from the “evil” and continued to do “good” to those who followed Him — Matthew makes a powerful statement when he wrote, “…and [Jesus] healed them all [that is … all who followed Jesus and believed He had the “Power and Spirit” of God upon Him to heal]…” (Matthew 12:15b) Jesus publicly lived this passage from Isaiah to demonstrate that His Lessons, Lifestyle, and His Parables were fulfillment of prophecy about the Messiah, God’s Chosen One: “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust.” (Matthew 12:18-20 from Isaiah 42:1-4) This set up another confrontation with the Pharisees when Jesus then healed a mute and a blind man and His followers asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12:23) but “…when the Pharisees heard it…” (Matthew 12:24) they again attacked Jesus and made false accusations against Him and plotted yet again how they might “destroy Him”! Just as soon as Jesus Teaches one Question/Lesson He immediately ties all the previous Lessons together and introduces the next “precept” and draws the next “line” in the sands of our life and we begin to understand that this Infinite Knowledge being shared by the Master Teacher will never be exhausted! Therefore let us “Stay the course” and continue to “Run the race and fight the good fight” as we look at the Foundation of Faith built on the Rock and know that we are building a “house” that the storms of life will not prevail against if we but continue to build our wall of Faith “line upon line” and  “precept upon precept” as Taught by the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ! In the last few JESUS Questions/Lessons we can see Jesus moving our consciousness in a controlled and specific direction towards knowing God the Father and it becomes obvious we could not have arrived at our answers and insights without this Divine Guidance. In JQ#10 Jesus made us stop and consider “What is your Spiritual value?” and in JQ#11 He next asked us “What are your Spiritual expectations?” and to keep us headed in the right direction towards the kingdom, Jesus asked us in JQ#12 “Who decides what is legal, God or man?”. When we can finally declare to Jesus that our Spiritual value is proportional to our Spiritual life and declare with honesty that our Spiritual expectations were formerly directed towards “self” (for we had mostly seen Jesus as an historical figure who went about doing good and never as “The Living God”), and then truly concede that God is the One, the Only, and the Final Authority and Judge — then and only then can we see that Jesus is the Son of God who is Teaching us to follow His Perfect Example and live our own lives for the good of others and not for self promotion.  Jesus then makes us see that we are not just supposed to “talk the talk” but we must for the kingdom’s sake “walk the walk” as He asks JQ#13 “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”  The context for JQ#13 is all of Matthew up to JQ#13 which specifically starts at Matthew 12:22 and runs through Matthew 12:45. Just as in previous Lessons, Jesus always makes an opening statement that shifts our focus to a new topic and with JQ#13 Jesus again grabs our “Spiritual attention”  as He addresses the Pharisee’s new accusation that Jesus “cast out demons…by Beelzebub” (Matthew 12:24) — Jesus replies to this devilish accusation with this Universal Truth of God that: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand…” (Matthew 12:25) The relevancy of these Question/Lessons and topics as they so directly apply to our world today should be proof to us that Jesus is the All-Knowing Living God, for I cannot read these two verses without thinking about the great division in our nation and in our world today and the news is full of ongoing desolation and wars and there is no denying that our nation has turned from God!?!?  There  clearly is no “unity” of “Spirit” throughout our secular/new age nation!  Don’t you think that maybe Jesus has “Struck another nerve in our spiritual consciousness“ and we should prepare to learn  what Jesus has to Teach us about “a kingdom divided”?