JUNE 10 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 10  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, Lord as I start another day seeking to know God and You “deeper still”, I pray that the Holy Spirit will open my “spiritual eyes” that I may know that Your efforts to give me “understanding” is so that I will become “One” with the Holy Trinity and that I will not only know You better but I will know better who I am. Lord Jesus, it is a comfort to know that You are the Good Shepherd and that You came to earth to lead “lost sheep” in the paths of righteousness, that You died on the cross as the Lamb of God, the Perfect Sacrifice for sinners like me — that You have completely resolved the “sin problem”, so let me fully accept Your Grace and Share Your Unconditional Love with others.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus not only “Taught” His disciples by “Words”, His most powerful Lessons were Lessons that His disciples saw Him “living out” before them and then Jesus would sit down and explain to them the “purpose” of His actions that they had just seen Jesus doing as He went about His day-to-day living. Jesus always approached every circumstance from the point of view that He had a “purpose” to fulfill — Jesus was on a “mission” to “do the Father’s will”.   To accomplish what Jesus knew fully well He was sent from the Father to accomplish — Jesus also always worked to accomplish those tasks in a manner that He kew would be pleasing to the Father. Jesus was always aware that everything He did was to “honor” the Father and that His actions were to be done “in the name of the Father” and for the sake of the kingdom (of God).  Jesus lived every moment to fulfill His Purpose therefore everything He did and say was Teaching about the kingdom and bringing His disciples into a closer relationship with both Himself and the Father. Now Jesus has put forth JQ#18 in which He Teaches that it is all-important that we personally know the Truth about “who” Jesus is and then He immediately asks us to consider “who” we are in relation to the Truth of God and the upcoming “Judgement by God”. Our “eternal guilt or innocence” will be solely determined by how well we answer JQ#18 & 19 for God knows our inward thoughts and He will determine if we have accepted Jesus as the Son of God whom the Father sent to rectify the world’s sin problem and thereby God will know if we have truly recognized our “lostness” and acknowledged that the only correct answer to give God  when we stand before Him at the “Final Judgement” is that we are a sinner and Jesus is “the (only) way, the (only) truth, and the (only) life”. (John 14:6) Our best “hope” in this life is to study Jesus and to learn to “live” the way He lived and to make His Purpose our purpose and to simply believe God’s declaration that Jesus is God’s Beloved Son and then to take God’s advice to “Listen to Him.” The only way to know who we are is to know who Jesus is for in the history of the world, no other person or god has done so much to Teach us the Truth about who we really are in our day-to-day lives and no other person or god has done everything required of the One True God so that we can rise above our day-to-day existence and have “fellowship” with the Living God. Jesus has asked us in JQ#19 now to consider “profit”, “gain”, and our own unique “soul” — then Jesus specifically asks us to consider what we might “exchange” for our unique “soul”? We really should reflect on “why” should we consider that we will be required to “exchange” something “acceptable to God” for our “souls”? Also, when we consider the “exchange” we must seriously consider “who” requires the “exchange” (who is making the “rule”) and what will we use for the “exchange” that is considered of any “value” (to the Living God) when the “Exchange” is required? This is a dilemma considering that God has declared that “gaining the whole world” (the entirety of all earthly material possessions) is not of enough value to present to God as an “Acceptable Exchange” in the eyes of God the Father and Creator to keep us from “losing [our] own soul”!!! The “whole world” pretty much covers everything “physical” therefore the logical place to start looking at this point for an “Acceptable Exchange” is in the “spiritual” arena and to listen to the “Spirit of God”(Genesis 1:2)  who is trying to secure our eternal salvation ——— Don’t you think that if we need to consider the “eternal spirit God Himself Created” as being “valuable enough” to God that He would consider an “exchange for [our] soul” that we might want to “listen” to the One True Living God who has always been declared as “God is Spirit”?? (John 4:24)