JUNE 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

JUNE 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are not bounded by “time” and therefore I praise You for Your Timelessness in both hearing our prayers and answering them in the “Way” that is best for us and at the “time” that benefits us the most in our spiritual growth — Lord I feel led to pray again the same prayer the Holy Spirit led me to pray to You in 2004 because Your Truth NEVER CHANGES: “Jesus, You came down from Glory and became Flesh, giving up Heaven and the Highest Position in God’s Kingdom to become a man living among sinners. Yet, You did not make a great position for Yourself on earth, in fact You took on no position, no title, no power over man but instead You used all Your Power to Teach man about God while You took on the form of a servant. Lord, please take my desire to be “important”, to be “someone”  men look up to and let me instead desire to be “important” not to myself but to helping and serving others and sharing Your Great Love with the world.”     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has asked some very serious Questions and they have been asked to get us thinking in terms of the “Spiritual” aspect of our lives and to consider that our “physical” lives are “temporary” but absolutely “necessary” to understanding the “purpose” of our daily lives lived in the flesh on this earth!  With JQ#17 Jesus Taught that God is aware that we need “daily bread” to survive in the flesh and by performing the miracle of feeding “four thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 15:38) God demonstrated that He will provide abundantly for our “physical” needs but He does so only when we recognize the “Spiritual” needs that our “physical” life presents. Jesus used the phrase “wicked and adulterous generation” to describe our “physical” lives and called us “hypocrites” just before asking JQ#17  — so what was He trying to Teach? Jesus then Taught that when we understood the depravity of our “physical” lives that we would be given a “Spiritual” sign and that sign was “the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 16:4) — Jesus with JQ#17 is introducing the concept of the “Resurrection” because Jonah was 3 days in the belly of a great fish and on the 3rd day Jonah was “resurrected” — Jesus also used the title “prophet Jonah” which everyone understood that “prophets” were delivering the “message of God” so with using Jonah as the “sign” Jesus demonstrated that God is the “Power” behind the “Resurrection” and that God has a plan of “Resurrection” for our lives!!! Jesus then moved to JQ#18 where He asked the disciples “Who do you say I am?” then commended Peter for Peter’s answer “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). So now the progression is Jesus taking a “physical” circumstance then showing how applying the “Spiritual Power of God” to our “physical” circumstances that the results are “miraculous” as first 4000 were fed with “seven loaves and a few fish” and then the “miracle” of Jonah being “physically” consumed by a great fish but then was “resurrected” on the third day, once again these are “physical” impossibilities and only through the intervention of the “Spiritual Power of God” can “physical impossibilities” become demonstrations of God’s control over the “physical” by bringing His “Spiritual Power” to bear over our “physical” circumstances! Then Jesus continues these Lessons of the “Spiritual” having power over the “physical” when in JQ#19 Jesus introduces the Lesson by stating to His disciples that He Himself would demonstrate God’s Ultimate Power over the physical as Jesus said that He would “go to Jerusalem…and be killed, and be raised the third day”! Jesus uses these “physical” circumstances to ask the “spiritual” question to get us thinking that who we are as individuals consists of our “physical bodies” and more importantly to God, we are also “Spiritual” in our nature and Jesus says this “Spiritual nature” resides in our “souls” which are “eternal” — then Jesus introduces the “Judgement of God” when He asks “what will man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) So with Jesus bringing our attention to the importance of distinguishing between the “physical” and the “spiritual” and assigning “everlasting” importance to concentrating on using the “Spiritual” to control the “physical” we should then pay close attention to those aspects when Jesus again describes our “physical” lives once again with a critical phrase “faithless and perverse generation” and then introduces the concept that in order to fulfill God’s Will for Him that He must “depart” from us after His “death” as He asks JQ#20 “how long shall I be with you?” and also “how long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17) Jesus then used His Spiritual Power given to Him by God the Father as Jesus “rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour.” (Matthew 17:18) Again Jesus has used another “physical” circumstance to prove the “Superiority of the Spiritual Power of God” over every “physical” circumstance. JQ#20 is another good opportunity to take a “spiritual” inventory of our “physical” lives and consider that our “physical” lives come with an “expiration date” but that our “souls” are both “spiritual” and “eternal” ——— or are you not concerned what God thinks about our human bodies destined for the grave?

JUNE 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

JUNE 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Precious Jesus, Lord I thank You for Your daily Presence in my life even when I am not aware that You are there, Lord forgive me when I get so caught up in living my day-to-day existence in this “physical” world that my “spiritual eyes” are blinded to the Truth of God that Your Holy Spirit abides with us continually. For just as soon as my thoughts turn to You in prayer, I have Your Promise that immediately and without any interference of any kind, You hear my prayer. Lord Jesus, You paid such a Great Price to Purchase our Pardon and we seldom stop and consider that You ARE GOD and can exist without us and yet You brought Your Total and Supreme Power to bear on the problem of our sin and that You have already made the Ultimate Sacrifice for us so that our sins against You could be forgiven ——— the Innocent was Sacrificed for the guilty ——— all for the sake of “lost souls” so that we would not be left out in the cold and eternal darkness of our sin. Lord, shine Your Light ever on my soul and guide me to the Narrow Gate where You stand even now waiting for this lost soul to come “Home”.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus not only uses  our circumstances to “Teach”, He uses circumstances of others and how He has already resolved those circumstances to “Teach” us the Truths of God which exist in every thing that enters into our consciousness. Jesus is always “Teaching” and is the “Master Teacher” but we must be careful not to focus entirely on Jesus as the Master Teacher because when we see Jesus as only a “Teacher” we miss the Truth of God of “why” Jesus is the “Master”, not only of “Teaching”, but of every aspect of “Who” Jesus is!!!  We must never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is the Master because HE IS GOD and it is HIS DIVINITY that gives HIM UNLIMITED POWER, HE IS THE CREATOR, and HE IS “UNDERSTANDING” ITSELF. All things are of God and therefore all things are good, but in God’s Graciousness He has bestowed on mankind the Ultimate Gift of Free Will and it with the is “misuse” of Free Will that mankind introduces “sin” into the world and into our daily lives. God made man and then God endowed his creation with Free Will — God then both blessed and cursed us at the same time as He promised that He would not interfere with our “choices” each of us makes by using God’s Gift of Free Will — even if we “choose” not to believe in Him, He will honor His Gift of Free Will — and it is this misuse of Free Will that takes the “good” that God put in every thing in His creation and “defiles” the natural good of God, it is God that made all things “Good” but is is mankind that uses His Gift of Free Will to defile the “Good of God” and we see why in Genesis at the very beginning of all things that God looked on the emptiness and saw the need for “Light” to dispel the darkness and it was at that point God declared the “Light” as “Good” and then God separated the “Light” from the “darkness”. So if we see Jesus as only a “Teacher” then we will miss the “Lesson” because Jesus is “Teaching” with all His Questions that there is in our lives God’s Truth and that “God’s Truth must be lived to truly be learned” … every “Lesson” that impacts our “soul” only comes from the Creator of our soul, and that is God. Man has produced many teachers and they have taught many lessons but only God is the “Master Teacher” and the “Lessons” He Teaches are from God and are of God and it is because God is the Creator of all “understanding” and our “soul” that we can actually learn the Truth of God — so when we contemplate the “Questions” Jesus asks, we must endeavor to “learn” from the viewpoint that it is God prodding our understanding to impart His Wisdom to us that we might have “abundant life” that can only come from God Himself ——— so when we consider it is God using the terms “faithless and perverse generation” and then He asks “how long shall I be with you?” (Matthew 17:17) that we should look very intently at these words as the very “Words of God” and get serious about learning the “Lesson” He desires to impart to us. Doesn’t it make good sense that it is God calling mankind out on being “faithless and perverse” and then turns right around and warns us that there is a time limit (“how long”) for Him to “…bear with [us]…”? We  must consider first that it is God Himself asking us a serious Question and we should stop and give our full attention to being able to answer God honestly and look forward with “Hope” to learning God’s Lessons about being “Faithful and holy”!!!   

JUNE 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

JUNE 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, Praise be to the One that was rejected by His own and yet willingly died the Only Death that was an Acceptable Sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Lord I fall short of True Faith all too often as I fully accept Your Grace in most of my life but find that there is still in me uncleanness, not because I did not give my sin to You or that You were unable to forgive me of my sin, but I am unclean and fall short of True Faith because I did not leave my sin at the foot of Your cross where in my repentance I laid it!?!? Lord forgive me of the sin of “little faith”, You know my heart and You know my desire to serve You honorably and I pray that each day that I have remaining that there is no remembrance of my sin, not by You, but by me for I know You “forgive and forget” but Lord I fall prey to “pulling my sin out of mothballs” and then the Holy Spirit convicts me of my guilt of not leaving my sin at the foot of Your Cross, but it is obvious that if I can pull it out of my memory that either I did not let it go when I pleaded for forgiveness or when I laid it down I picked it up again!?!? Lord, You died for all sin, even the ones we “try to hide” in the recess of our soul, Lord, I pray that Your Light will expose every last sin that I have hidden away, little sins that even I am not aware of until they surface at unexpected times — Lord give me the strength to allow Your Light access to my hiding places so that I can be rid of this “excess baggage” and move forward into the True Faith that You died on the cross for!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus will not settle for anything to keep us from the Truth of God, especially our misunderstanding of one of His Lessons — Jesus was always stopping His disciples and making sure that they “understood” what He was Teaching and then to leave no stone unturned Jesus would tell the disciples exactly what the parable or the Lesson meant in terms that they could not possibly misinterpret what He was Teaching them. However, all of us fail to totally “get it” the first time through His Word and we find ourselves falling short in one area of “True Faith in God” and we must be “called out” for it!  Every time Jesus saw one of these instances with the disciples, Jesus would “tell it like it is” and then Jesus with only the Love that God bestows would use the reproach to “Teach” one of those “deeper still” Lessons. This is the case of JQ#20 where Jesus addresses a “shortcoming” of the disciples and then uses the opportunity to Teach another great Truth of God when He fully gets their attention. Jesus had just Taught them to consider their soul and the upcoming judgement and the importance of living their life in His Truth so now Jesus and His disciples are back in the “mission field” doing that which Jesus had Taught them to do, “And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” (Matthew 17:14-16)  It was at this point that Jesus responded in what to my mind was a rebuke for His disciples but before I lead the reader to any wrong conclusions, let us look at this next Jesus Question and let Him Teach: JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17) Let me ask you at this point to stop and consider the feelings stirred in you when you read Jesus saying “O faithless and perverse generation…”, did you cringe in guilt like I did and then almost tremble when I read, “…how long shall I be with you?” This is one of those Questions where our inmost feelings will surface and if we will but “hang in there” Jesus will guide us to a Truth of God and bestow on True Believers the Peace that passes all understanding. Don’t you think that this is a good time to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in addressing the feelings stirred in you when Jesus declares this personal indictment of a “…faithless and perverse generation…”? Jesus would not have asked if He did not have something good in store for those that will stop and answer His Questions honestly so take an honest stab at answering  JQ#20, but I advise you to temper your guilt with “Trust in God” and pray for His Understanding of the Truth of God to “guide you” as Jesus  promised: “…I will send [the Helper/Comforter] to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement…However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…” !!! John 16:7-14) 

JUNE 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

JUNE 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#19  “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I start my day again by Your Word and today The Holy Spirit reveals  the Truth of God that John proclaimed to start his Gospel, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2) Lord Jesus, Your ARE the WORD and the Holy Spirit revealed to John that it is the “WORD” that is the Creative Power and that the “WORD IS GOD” and that before there was a “beginning” the “WORD” already existed and the “WORD” has been revealed as being Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of the Father and it is by the “WORD” that all men have “the right to be called children of God”. Blessed thought that the “WORD” has been etched into our “soul” that if we follow the command of God and “hear Him”, we may truly know the “Eternal Way to Everlasting Life and Fellowship with God” !!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus I start today with a prayer to the Holy Spirit to guide the words that will summarize this Jesus Question/Lesson on the reality of our “Soul” and the upcoming “Exchange/Final Judgment”  for God has gone above and beyond to bring us into the knowledge of (1) Who Jesus really is (See JQ#18) and (2) Who we really are in relationship to God. (See JQ#19) Jesus is Teaching His disciples by “Word” and by “Life Example” and these Lessons are each Lessons within themselves but there is also the “revelation” to those that study the “WORD” of the “Divine Plan”— Jesus is Teaching that it is our “soul” that is at the center of God’s Divine Plan. Before we stop and insist that man is not the center of the universe therefore God cannot exist, let us consider these “observable” facts about what has been revealed about God by what is “known” by mankind and our written history. Since the objection raised by the detractors of God is that God cannot be explained then I respectfully submit that reality itself exists even though reality cannot be explained and even the fact that we can argue the existence of God makes God part of reality. These two Jesus Questions JQ#18 and JQ#19 put back-to-back is a “Lesson” in itself and the reality IS that we are sitting here contemplating these two Questions! I know I exist, I know that reality includes “The Book” and all the “Words” printed in “The Book”, I know that reality includes someone that wrote the first words, and someone real has printed these words, and now someone real is reading the words. I can only submit to you this argument: “The Book” is real and the “intelligence to write and to read and to understand words” is real, and we cannot explain how we “understand” but that does not prevent us from “understanding” and being able to perceive the reality that there is an “Unseen Power” that can affect both our “physical” life and our “spiritual” life. If we can “understand” the words without being able to fully explain how we “understand” them, then it is logical to assume that being able to explain  “The Book” is not a necessary requisite for us to understand “The Book” or for the “The Book” to be real! “The Book” IS GOD’S WORD to Teach us about HIMSELF, and because you may choose not to believe what “The Book” Teaches, your personal belief does not have the power to change reality ——— “your personal “belief” can only affect “your personal understanding” of the reality of “The Book” ! The “conclusion” of the matter is that God has revealed Himself to us through His Son and the Truth is written in “The Book” for all to read! God has promised that to all who read it that He will give them “understanding” and what God is saying with JQ#18 & JQ#19 is that His Only Begotten Son is Teaching us (1) that “Who” we say Jesus is and “Who” we say we are in relation to Him determines the “Reality” of our “Eternity” and (2) God places the PERSONAL responsibility to find the TRUTH OF REALITY on our  OWN “souls”, (3) and God has placed a time-limit on our decision — by God’s Divine Plan our decision must be made before the moment of our “physical death” (no one can dare argue the “reality of death”), (4) God has given us our “physical” finite time on earth to decide if we want to spend eternity with God or remain forever separated from Him !!! I know I can’t explain it, if I could then God wouldn’t be God, I would be God — for God is the Supreme Being and the only ONE that can explain reality is God!!! So consider your “final answer” as the conclusion of the matter: “Who do you say Jesus is and have you considered that God created you with an eternal soul, and as your Creator, God is going to require you to give an account of your life and what you have done with the gifts that He has offered to you?”

JUNE 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

JUNE 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#19  “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, what Blessed Thought that before the Creation our future was planned even before our lives began — and to think that our future is a product of the Mind of God because His Heart was so filled with Compassion for His Creation that His Plan for all mankind included a Path of Light back to the Creator for those He Loved yet His own would not “receive” His gift!?!? Lord Jesus, forgive me for the many times I have chosen to reside in the darkness of my sin and shun the “Light” of Your Salvation — Lord I have strayed so many times and I admit that I have used Your Gift of Free Will to purposefully get “lost” and I am among those that “loved darkness” and did not want to find Your Path of Light but walked in the shadows to self-destruction. Lord Jesus, keep my eyes always on Your Light, Keep my feet always on Your Path, that I may know Your Joy in my heart ——— as  I pray right now in the depths of my desires that my soul will always be humble and repentant before the Just and Righteous God!!!            AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus wraps up the Lesson here just as He began this “soul-searching” Question that brings our attention to the eventuality of our “physical death” and the “spiritual judgment”. Jesus began the JQ#19 Lesson by announcing to His disciples that He must “be killed and be raised the third day” and when He gets their undivided attention, Jesus then directs His disciples to consider that each individual has a “soul” and that there will come a judgment of that “soul” by the Creator of all “souls”.  Until we as individuals recognize that there is nothing of earthly value that can be “exchanged” for our “souls” which are “eternal” by the design of the Creator, then we can never know the Great Price paid for our Redemption.  The Creator designed “eternity” into our existence but the Creator also designed our physical bodies with an “expiration date” and at the time of our “physical” death of our body, our “soul” is immediately in the Presence of the Creator, who as the CREATOR AND CONSTANT MONITOR of our “soul” will know if we used God’s Gift of Free Will given to each individual “soul” to become one of His children or not!?!?! Jesus made this clear when He asked “…what will man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) and then Jesus immediately said that the “Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father” and “will reward each according to his works” (Matthew 16:27). Jesus illustrated this six days later as Peter, James, and John his brother saw Jesus “transfigured before them” as Jesus was transformed instantly and “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light.” (Matthew 17:1-2) {{See also Genesis 1:3}}  This was a visual Example of what Jesus had just Taught about the “soul” being eternal and would leave our “physical” body and enter our “spiritual” form and be in the “glory [presence] of the [Creator] Father” and the fact that the disciples “recognized” both Moses and Elijah who had been dead hundreds of years is proof that all “souls” are “eternal” and we will have “spiritual understanding” of all things because how could the disciples recognize men that had been dead for hundreds of years ——— we know there were no photos taken of Moses and Elijah so how on “earth” could the disciples know Moses and Elijah without God imparting this knowledge to their “spiritual eyes”? After Peter suggested that “three tabernacles” be erected to honor Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, the voice of God spoke to them: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” (Matthew 17:5) The disciples were “greatly afraid” for they knew they were wrong about erecting temples to anyone other than God Almighty “But Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, and do not be afraid.” (Matthew 17:7) Jesus then instructed the disciples to wait to share the vision after “the Son of Man is risen from the dead” (Matthew 17:9) and Jesus concluded this Lesson by correcting wrong doctrine that had been taught to the disciples by the tradition of their elders through the scribes. Then just as Jesus had begun the Lesson talking about His upcoming death, Jesus ended the Lesson by identifying those that would cry “crucify Him” as Jesus told the disciples that “the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” thereby revealing to the disciples that God’s Plan for His Son would culminate in the Death of the Only Begotten Son fulfilling the words of Abraham to Isaac, “God will provide the lamb.” (Genesis 22:8) but God would also demonstrate to all mankind His Supreme Power, for God would Resurrect the Son on the Third Day and then all mankind would have the Gospel — The Truth of God of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of the Beloved Son of God, Jesus Christ!!!! Can you think of a more important Lesson and Truth for God to impart on “all who believe”? 

JUNE 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

JUNE 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#19  “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

Jesus, thank You Lord for Your Word which is the Word of Life and only Your Words are of “life” to sustain our physical body and of “eternal life” to sustain our soul. Lord, Your Words speak volumes but Your Life and Perfect Example Teach us so much more and I Praise You for the Perfect Example of “actions-speak-louder-than-words” TRUTH!!!  Lord Jesus, my prayer is that everything I both do and say will be a Glory and Honor to Your Life which You lived to the Glory of God Almighty, our Father who abides forever in Heaven and wills that all men would be drawn to the Father through the Son, the Only Begotten Son, who paid the Ultimate Price for our Freedom from the slavery of sin!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is the Master Teacher not only because He possesses Unlimited Knowledge that cannot be fathomed by the finite mind of mankind but aside from His Divine Knowledge the Lord Jesus Taught by the Perfect Example of Living His Life to Honor the Father and then pointing us to His Life and Teaching what He Lived in the form of Life Lessons which He Taught by asking us Questions that could always be answered by observing the way He Lived His Life while in the flesh! There is no Greater Sacrifice than Jesus giving up His Heavenly Glory to “become flesh and to dwell among us” (John 1:14) with the expressed purpose of coming into the world to fulfill the Father’s Will, “for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17) and we often miss the Divine Fact that Jesus lived the example of Abraham and Isaac being obedient to God as both Abraham and Isaac prepared the alter together for the Sacrifice Commanded of God and JESUS fulfilled the scripture that said “God Himself will provide the Lamb…” (Genesis 22:8) !  We know that it was the Life of Jesus that the Scripture was foretelling because John the Baptist, who was the “witness” sent from God to testify that it was Jesus that is the “Light” and it is that “Light” that is the “life of all mankind” (John 1:6-9) that was proclaimed loudly by John when he saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world…” (John 1:29) The overlooked Truth of God is that God promised the Messiah, God declared what the Messiah was to accomplish, and then “God so loved world” that God fulfilled His Holy Scripture with the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah made flesh!!! That is the Gospel and the greatest part of the Gospel is that “God so loved the world” that He gave us JESUS and that Jesus so Loved the Father that Jesus was Obedient unto the Fulfillment of all Scripture by willingly accepting that He MUST DIE ON THE CROSS, then Jesus “Lived” the Perfect Example and Jesus “Died” the Perfect Example and through His “Life” and “Death” Jesus gave us the Perfect Example of the “WAY” to the Father and Eternal Life demonstrated by His Burial and Resurrection!!! Jesus with His Question about considering our “soul” and what we may “exchange” for it was saying in effect, “If you follow MY EXAMPLE then you will know the way to the Father and Eternal Life” and the Question and the Answer Produce the Results of Eternal Life for ALL who believe in the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ living and dying the Perfect Example, just as God has proclaimed through the prophets. Jesus introduced JQ#19 with the announcement that “He [The Messiah] must suffer…be killed…and be raised the third day…” in Matthew 16:21 and then He asks the Question in Matthew 16:26 but as soon as He asked the Question, as always Jesus explains the answer: “For the Son of Man [The Messiah] will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” (Matthew 16:27)  Then Jesus continued this most important Lesson of Teaching-by-Example as He takes “Peter, James, and John his brother…and led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with [Jesus].” (Matthew 17:1-3) Surely no words could express to the disciples and to all of His followers what they saw that day in the “life” of Jesus that proved that Jesus is “[The Messiah] the Beloved of the Father” and that the eternal future of all mankind rests with the belief or rejection of Jesus!  There is no “WAY” to the Father except through the Son ——— are you on the Path that leads to the Narrow Gate?

JUNE 16 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

JUNE 16  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#19  “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Your Glory is Forever, but Lord I pray that You open my “spiritual” eyes and burn the Truth into my heart that Your Glory is also “NOW”, Your Glory has always been so I pray as did the thief on the cross that You “remember me” (Luke 23:42) for You have come into Your Kingdom and are in it “NOW” sitting at the Right Hand of God making intercession for me! Lord, You have paid the “ultimate price” to purchase back that which I sold so cheaply to sin — forgive me, Lord Jesus and “return to me the joy of Thy salvation” (Psalm 51:12). Lord, as I seek Your Truth let me go forth with confidence that You will both show me the “Way” to Your Truth and that You will “equip” me with Your Strength that I will “share” Your Truth with others that need to be bathed in Your Spiritual Light, “the life of men” (John 1:4,9) that only comes from the True Light!              AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, my “soul” is stirred today with the thought of the “Great Price” that You have already “paid” for my sin and I can answer the Jesus Question JQ#19, “Or what will man give in exchange for his soul?”(Matthew 16:26b)  by truthfully declaring that I possess nothing of any value to God except my soul which I had sold to the world, therefore I can only turn to the “One” that Suffered and Died for my sin that my “soul” could be Redeemed, my “Pardon” is not “Purchased” by anything of earthly value but by Heaven’s Priceless Grace! The Holy Spirit reminds us occasionally that the Final Destination holds “joys unimaginable” so therefore we must “Stay-the-Course” — “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7) This “tree of life” is the same as the one that “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden…” (Genesis 2:8-9) So we see what is meant from the Psalmist “… even from Everlasting to Everlasting, You are God!” (Psalm 90:2) for “In the beginning” God Created us, God placed us in a garden that He Himself planted, God placed us in this “Paradise of God” along with the “tree of life”, then when we forfeited the “Paradise of God” for our selfish desires, God provided an Atonement for our sin and sent His Only Begotten Son to become flesh, to suffer and die, and to “Purchase” our ticket back to “Paradise” so that at the “end times” we can again partake of the “tree of life”.  In JQ#19 Jesus asks us to consider what we can give in “Exchange for our soul” (Matthew 16:26b) and we are so caught up in ourselves that we are blinded to the “Truth” that Jesus has already given us the answer before asking the Question — just prior to asking JQ#19:  “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew  16:24) then Jesus continued with more details about the price we must pay for this “exchange” as He tells the disciples, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) So once again, Jesus gives us the answer and then asks the question which makes more sense why God said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” (Luke 9:35) for here Jesus is telling us what to do to “overcome” that we may partake of the “tree of life” that awaits us in the “Paradise of God”! The real question now is “What ‘life’ is it that we must ‘lose for His sake’ and what ‘life’ will we ‘find’?” Could it be that Jesus is Teaching us another detail of the Truth of God that our body contains “physical” life which we defile, but our “spiritual” life is of God who offers “Eternal Life” which is undefiled because it is from God Himself?