JULY 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, thank You for this day and I trust You for my daily bread, both physical and spiritual bread that You provide so abundantly that we may truly live. Lord You have demonstrated Your Love and Faithfulness to us both in Your Word and in Your Daily Presence in our lives and especially Lord for the extension of Your Grace to guide me through yet another difficulty in my physical life by healing me spiritually, only You Lord Jesus can know our need and make provisions for us without us expressing that need — You ARE LORD and I bow before You, humbled once again for the Mercy that You give to this sinner. Lord I pray that as I look into the future that my spiritual eyes will stay fixed on the “Light”.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught Peter a multitude of Lessons with the “fish and taxes” miracle and lest we think it was only about how Peter could pay his taxes we should note that the Lessons Peter learned from Jesus surfaced as Peter turned from student to teacher and taught this: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem…Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:14,38). The point is that Jesus used each circumstance in Peter’s life to Teach Peter the importance of looking for the Truth of God in everything in our daily lives and each Lesson will build upon the other until we can understand that God will reveal Himself to us through our daily circumstances, some may be as dramatic as the “fish and taxes” miracle and others may be as simple as going about our daily lives and Trust God to provide our daily needs and reveal His Glory through His Provisions. Jesus always has an “agenda” and is working in our daily lives to bring us to the Truth of God that if we want to “dwell in [the New] Jerusalem with God” that the “Way” to God is through His Son Jesus who became flesh, lived a Perfect life, and made the “Ultimate Sacrifice” that our sins could be forgiven. It is only through the substitutionary Righteousness of Jesus that we can enter into eternal fellowship with the Father — but only if we learn the Lesson Peter learned and we “repent” and are “baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ” and then we will receive the gift of the “Holy Spirit” which is the Ultimate Provision of God in our daily lives. The next Lesson Jesus Taught His disciples after the miracle of the “fish and taxes” was after the disciples “came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” (Matthew 18:1) When I read this I can see myself wanting to “keep up with the Joneses” and added to it the world’s addiction of “doing them one better” as our value system today is based on judging our success based on comparing ourselves to others. The devil has deceived us into not comparing ourselves to others less fortunate than us but we have been tricked into perpetual failure by always comparing ourselves to others that have “more stuff” than we do — this is the same pit even the wealthiest fall into and that “failure” is the desire for “more” instead of realizing we already have “enough”.  Jesus used this question from the disciples to move them one step closer to the “understanding” that true success is not found in collecting material possessions or gathering titles or accolades of men but in the approval of God on our daily lives! As soon as the disciples used the term “greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Jesus used that circumstance to demonstrate a great Truth of God and revealed true “greatness” as Matthew writes: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:2-4). Once again Jesus has revealed a Truth of God through a simple Lesson and demonstrated that when we look to the wisdom of the world that teaches us that “only the strong survive” that we are blinded to the Kingdom Truth that “humility and a child-like faith” are the true path to “spiritual survival”! We must listen to Jesus just like God said to do if we want to know the path to “kingdom success” or are you still one of those that “think” that “the one that dies with the most toys is the winner”?