JULY 08 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 08  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, as we go through our daily routines let us not miss the INFINITE, ETERNAL, UNCHANGING Truth of God that You have Promised to all believers (1) to Personally lead us in “paths of righteousness” as You Provide for our “daily bread” and (2) TEACH US that we should treat others as You treat us, (3) that we forgive others as You forgive us, and (4) that we should understand that our lives should reflect You and the Father in everything that we do ——— thereby we will be “dwelling in the house of the Lord forever”!   Lord Jesus, instead of praying for You to forgive me today, I pray instead that You will give me the “spiritual discernment” to forgive others and “settle accounts” with all that have transgressed against me and I them so that I shall have the confidence that all my transgressions against You will be forgiven and I will learn that to be “one with the Father” that I must “Live and Forgive” for the Father has taught us “Love and Compassion for others”  through the Son!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus always Teaches us a Truth of God and then Jesus “tests our understanding” of the Lesson just Taught so that we are sure to get the Truth of God that Jesus intends for us from that Lesson. Jesus knows that we have a tendency to “hear” what the world has conditioned us to “hear” and we often miss the Truth of God that Jesus Speaks to us in His Lessons. Here in JQ#21 Jesus started this Lesson on how to live our daily lives by asking Peter, “What do you think, Simon?” (Matthew 17:25) and then Jesus Taught about the Father’s Provision of our daily needs while at the same time Jesus showed us that the Father is Omniscient (all knowing). Jesus then Taught about building our “Faith in God” by correcting an error the disciples made when they assumed “greatness” was a “reward” to be earned because of “good works” but Jesus showed them an innocent child and said that being “humble” and innocent as a child was the pre-requisite for “greatness in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4). Jesus continued His “Faith-building” Lesson by Teaching that we are all sinners and that to return to our childhood innocence that we should identify the source of our “offenses” to God and “cast it from us” (Matthew 18:7) — it is interesting to note that the only things that have been “cast out” by Jesus so far have been personal demons as this section started with Jesus casting out a demon from a possessed boy then Jesus declared that the disciples inability to “cast out” the boy’s demon was because they were not motivated to do God’s work His Way ! Jesus immediately told the disciples to work on their “prayers and fasting” which was to be the foundation on which they were to build their Faith in God. Jesus now continues demonstrating how the Father expects us to live and to grow in our Faith by asking another “thinking” Question: “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?” (Matthew 18:12) Note that this Question starts with Jesus advising us to use our “God-given intellect” and make a decision on what we observe about our daily lives and it is not just a coincidence that Jesus states His Mission is that He has “come to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11) and then uses “lost sheep” to illustrated that a “Good Shepherd” will “seek the one that is straying” and “rejoices” when the lost sheep is found. (Matthew 18:12-13) Jesus then makes it clear that the Father has sent the Son to be the “Good Shepherd” and to seek the “lost sheep” and bring them back to the “Father’s Kingdom” as Jesus declares “why” that “lost sheep” are important to God when Jesus tells His disciples: “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:14) Jesus continues to insist that to build our “Faith in God” that we must “think about God” in our daily lives and how if we look at our world from a “Divine Spiritual Perspective” that we will see the Hand of God working in our daily lives to draw us back to an age of innocence and that by humbling ourselves before God we will be able to see God and in doing so we will want to become more like God in the way that we treat others. I would challenge you to “think” about what you “thought” about “fish, taxes, and lost sheep” before you were under the Teaching of the Holy Spirit?!? Then compare your “before” with your “after” and then ask yourself, “Do I now look at others in the same “Way” that God looks at me?”  ———  Think about it…