JUNE 13 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 13  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 the years that You have given us to know You and the prayers that the Holy Spirit has guided us in praying that gives us glimpses of the True and Living God, for only the True God could answer so many prayers in so many unexplained ways and all proclaim the Glory of God. I pray again one of the timeless prayers You gave to me in 2004 as the Holy Spirit was showing me the “Path” to the “Narrow Gate”: “Jesus, the Creator of life and the author of our Salvation, who gave up the Glories of Heaven to come to earth and dwell among us, not as a God among men but as a man among sinners and yet lived a “Perfect” life in obedience to the will of the Father. Then after a humble life of serving all around Him, He then became a Sacrifice and an Atonement for the sins of the world that we might have True Forgiveness of our sins and appear Righteous before the Father, and being blameless before the Father because of Your Sacrifice we become heirs to the Kingdom of God. All God asks in return for His Grace is that we ‘love one another’”.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has such a Powerful Message because He not only used the “Words of God” to give us “understanding of the Truth of God” but Jesus “Lived” out the “Words of God” by His Actions. Many times His Actions spoke louder that His Words, which is a Bonus Lesson that the Master Teacher includes in His “life saving” Lessons that He was continually Teaching. As we consider JQ#19 and the myriad of Lessons contained in these very serious soul-searching back-to-back Questions Jesus asks us in His efforts to bring Divine Aid for the purpose of “saving” our “soul” from “eternal lostness”, we must look not only at the “His Words” but we must observe “His Actions” which are a visual demonstration of what the Master Teacher is “Teaching” for what Lesson is of any value if the Teacher does not “walk the walk”?  Jesus takes us deeper into the Truth of God as He builds our “understanding of God’s Truth” by building on the previous Lesson “precept upon precept” and for this very serious “soul-searching” JQ#19 we see a shift in the Lessons that Jesus was Teaching His disciples as we read in the account written in Matthew, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised the third day.” (Matthew 16:21) Once Jesus “began to show” His disciples this very, very serious side of His Purpose on earth, we see a shift in how the disciples reacted to these advanced Teachings of Jesus. Remember Peter stepping out of the boat on faith and actually walking on water to Jesus — well we read that when Jesus started Teaching that He must “suffer” and “be killed” that Peter demonstrated that if we are not careful that we will default back to the teaching of the world and miss the Truth of God that is presented to us by the Word of God. Matthew records that Peter reacted to this new precept Jesus was Teaching them in a way that led Jesus to “get serious” and these are the circumstances leading to the “soul searching” Question JQ#19. Peter reacted to this new revelation from Jesus that He must suffer, die, and “be raised the third day” thusly:”Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (Matthew 16:22) Peter is reacting to Jesus as all of us react when we fail to see the Glory of God in the Will of God in our lives — All Peter could understand was from a worldly viewpoint because he overlooked the Glory of God and only saw the “suffering” and “death” of Jesus as a victory for the world and not  the “Ultimate Victory” of Jesus over death and the grave! Peter could only see “suffering and death” and the world had blinded him to the Truth of God that Jesus would by the Glory of God “be raised the third day”! How many times do we look upon hardship, suffering, and deaths of our loved ones and question God as Peter did? Jesus is following the Will of God and we must look beyond that which the world has taught us about “physical death” and see the Truth of God that Jesus Teaches us about “Eternal Spiritual Life”! This “soul” question JQ#19 must be answered not from a worldly “physical” viewpoint but we must look through “spiritual eyes” and focus on the Glory of God — don’t you agree that we can see very little with our physical eyes except the world’s “darkness” but how clear things become when we look through our “spiritual eyes” aided by the Light of God’s Glory?