MARCH 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

MARCH 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord, Savior, the Prince of Peace, my Redeemer, what Joy it is to awake to a new day and to know that I will not have to face this world alone for You are with me. Lord forgive me of the many years I spent running to my sin which is nothing more than running away from You. Thank You Jesus for showing me that it is my sin that separates me from You and that it is the purity of our lives lived through Your strength that draws us nearer to You — I pray to always be moving towards the Savior that my Joy may be made full.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS addressed a very personal issue which is universal to mankind when He addressed “evil” in JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) Our natural tendency is to suspect that the “evil” addressed by Jesus was directed at those that had chosen to follow man’s law instead of accepting the Truth of God. Indeed, Jesus had pointed out that God is not limited to what the Pharisees and their interpretation of what God “really meant to say” and by the Pharisee’s usurping the Power of God, their actions indeed are “evil”. God cannot be restricted in His Power and His Divine Sovereignty by anyone or anything so for the scribes to witness God’s Power being displayed through His Only Begotten Son in the healing of the paralytic, the Pharisees  should have reasoned that if only God can do the things that Jesus was doing, then Jesus must be God!!! Instead  “at once” the scribes passed judgement on Jesus based on the Pharisees laws and accused Jesus of blasphemy! Jesus knew what was in their hearts so He immediately asked the scribes who were blinded by the “legalism” of their day a second question, that if answered in the Spirit of Truth, would result in their faith being elevated to the point that their spiritual blindness would be healed and they would be able to see that Jesus was what He said He was, the SON OF GOD sent to do the work of THE FATHER. The second question Jesus asked the “evil” scribes immediately was JQ#8b, “For which is easier, to say ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say ‘Arise and walk’?” (Matthew 9:5) which Jesus knew could only be answered by saying that “Only God” could heal the paralytic and “Only God” can forgive sins so both are above the power of men and only possible through the Power of God!  Jesus didn’t leave them hanging as He  immediately told them the answer: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (Matthew 9:6) Just as Jesus pointed out that the “evil in their hearts” was the fruit of their unbelief in Him, He immediately gave them a visual to prove He was God as Jesus commanded the paralytic to “Arise”. We witness the fruit of the paralytic’s belief in Jesus because the paralytic “arose and departed to his house”! (Matthew 9:7) Jesus never leaves us hanging and He always makes it clear what answer we should give. The case of the scribes and the paralytic are no different. The scribes refused to see the Truth of God and therefore the “fruit of their faith in the doctrines of men” was “evil hearts” whereas the paralytic believed Jesus and the “fruit of his faith in God” was “healing”. Both the scribes and the paralytic heard Jesus but it was the paralytic that believed Jesus had the Power to Heal so he received healing and the scribes refused to acknowledge what they had witnessed so their hearts remained “evil”. It was the tradition of the Jews that it only took two witnesses and in this case there was a “multitude” of witnesses and the verdict of the multitude was that they “marveled and glorified God” — Jesus is indeed guilty — guilty of being the Son of God! Jesus gives us the Truth of God but it is up to us to “Arise and walk”!

MARCH 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

MARCH 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, all Praise, Glory, and Honor to the King of kings, who by His Great Sacrifice for all mankind has earned that Praise, Glory, and Honor from all mankind for there is no other name but the Name of the One that lived a Perfect Life before God the Father, even our Lord Jesus Christ! Only the Perfect Life of the Son of God was the Acceptable Sacrifice demanded by the Perfect Father and only through the Perfect Sacrifice of the Son of God can sinners be made Perfect before the Father. Lord Jesus, I BELIEVE, make me Perfectly Acceptable to God!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS always Taught us the “Truth of God” and Jesus demonstrated the Power and Greatness of the Father both in His earthly life and His Divine Death, Burial, and Resurrection!  The world teaches mankind, “Do as we say, not as we do” but when Jesus came to reveal the TRUTH of the FATHER, Jesus Taught men, “Do as I do for I reveal the Truth of God but what a man does on his own is in opposition to God’s Truth.” JQ#08 is the first time in the gospels that Jesus directly challenged the “legal” authority that mankind had usurped from God. Some background here on the “scribes” is helpful ——— the scribes were used by the prophets and religious leaders of Israel to write down the words of God therefore, by their association with the Holy Scriptures, the scribes were considered very important in Israel.  The Pharisees used scribes to write down man’s interpretation of what the Pharisees “thought God meant” when He spoke His Word. This is very similar to the situation today in America where we have a “Constitution of the United States of America” that was written down by our founding fathers but now there is a “supreme court” where officials appointed by the ruling political party write “opinions” of what they think the “Constitution” and America’s founding fathers really meant to say?!?!? It should be understood also that “blasphemy” was defined during the time Jesus Himself walked the earth, as taking from God the Unique and Divine authority “to forgive sin”.  Nowhere in the Old Testament writings studied by the Pharisees contemporary with Jesus had the Pharisees given even the Messiah Himself the “right” to “forgive sin” so when Jesus spoke to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:3) the Pharisees started quoting their interpretation of God’s Law (as the Pharisees had determined what God had “really meant to say”) {see paraphrase of Genesis 3:1 “Now the [Pharisee] was more cunning than any [religious leader in Israel] which the LORD God had [put in authority] and [the Pharisee] said [to Israel] ‘Has God indeed said…’ (Genesis 3:1)} — the Pharisees declared that Jesus, by “forgiving sin” had called Himself “God” because according to the Pharisees interpretation of the “law” in Holy Scripture and written “officially” by the scribes, only God Himself had the Authority to “forgive sins”. Do you not see that Jesus is confronting “legalism” here and in Truth Jesus is revealing that the ones that are condemning Him of “blasphemy” are really the guilty ones for usurping the authority of God from God’s Law and making man’s law the “law of the land” that the people must live by? When I read passages like these, the Holy Spirit stirs me to ask my contemporaries; “How is our modern laws on abortion which usurp the authority of God, any different from the law of the Pharisees which condemned our Lord Jesus Christ of “blasphemy and to death on a cross?”   If we as Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God who was sent by God Himself and promised by God that if we will believe that God sent His Son to us as a gift that we would not have to “perish but have everlasting life” — then how can we support a “man-made law”  made by the “opinion” of man that denies the unborn their right to receive God’s gift of life? An “aborted unborn” has “perished” and man’s legalism is responsible for taking God’s authority and Gift of Life away from the unborn, and the “legal” death of the “unborn” can be interpreted as nothing but modern day blasphemy by America’s lawmakers resulting in the taking away of the unborn’s God-given right to life!!! Jesus confronted the legalists of His day and the TRUTH is that not only did Jesus demonstrate the Power of God over the “physical” by healing the paralytic, He also healed the paralytic “spiritually” by “forgiving” his sins and the “verdict” of a “jury of the (paralytic’s) peers” was that “the multitudes saw [Jesus heal the paralytic and heard Jesus say that He could forgive sin], [and] they marveled and glorified God”. (Matthew 9:8)  Let TRUTH be our judge and jury as to the “Consequence” of our “belief” that Jesus is the Son of God! More importantly, let TRUTH guide the way we live our day-to-day lives and treat the unborn with all the dignity we demand for ourselves!  Being “unborn” does not give anyone the “legal authority” to deny the “unborn” their  “God-given” Right to  Life!!!

MARCH 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

MARCH 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another new day, another “Son” rise in my heart, the air is fresh with Your Mercies and Your Grace and my soul sings a new song and all these wonderful things are the Fruit of Your Divine Love. Lord let us decrease in our selfishness and darkness and let Your Light shine through us into a dark world just as the rising sun shines forth to dispel the night, may our “Light of the Risen Lord” burst forth so that those in need will be showered in “Hope” that the new day will be filled with blessings from the “True Light” which gives “life” to men!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS started us with JQ#08 on a very personal inward journey straight to the point of revealing that the source of a significant amount of the evil in our lives comes from “[thinking] evil in [our own] hearts” and just that quick Jesus lets us know that He is interested in every detail of our lives ——— Jesus doesn’t want us to be “hearers only of the Word” but He wishes to “transform” our view of the world through knowing the “Truth of God” about ourselves!!!  Yesterday we looked at how personal Jesus makes His Teachings as we looked at JESUS Question JQ#8 in Matthew 9:4 — and to answer His Question honestly we must first consider the Truth of God that He KNOWS that we have “evil” thoughts and they are not just in our “heads” but there is “evil” in our “hearts”!?!?!  Here again we find that in order to find the complete “Truth of God” in His Teachings we must look at the “Big Picture” and as Sharon Anderson said when we started this journey through the JESUS Questions — “context is king!” Also, in the completeness of His teachings we must look at every aspect that Jesus touches so we must dig deeper into the scripture to find those “gems” of understanding that can always be found by “digging deeper”. One tool that is helpful in going deeper in God’s Word is using “The Law of Choice and Consequence”. From the beginning God has been very clear that He KNOWS everything we do, say, and think — and He is very clear that our “Choices” will result in “Consequences” that God had “predetermined” before the foundations of the earth. {See JQ#06 “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)}  and God makes it very clear that our “actions” that are the “fruits” of our “Choices” and our actions will result in those predetermined “Consequences”. God has reserved the right to determine the results of our actions but He has also made it very clear that He allows “Free Will” and He will never interfere with our “Freedom of Choice”! One of the big problems with this modern philosophy of “tolerance” is that the world has decided that God doesn’t exist, therefore His Laws no longer apply, and the world has established a new set of laws, the real problem being of course, is that God is “the everlasting God” and has not had His Supreme Power lessened by man’s evil desires. Remember that God looked at the world in Noah’s time and “saw the the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6) God brought a great flood upon the earth as the “Consequence” (a form of punishment) for the “intent of the thoughts of [our] hearts [being] evil” and only 8 people in the whole world survived — so when Jesus, who is the Son of God, asks us point blank: “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) don’t you think that we should be very concerned that we have “grieved…[the Father’s] heart”!!! ———The Bible teaches us from Genesis to Revelation that God will always have Control and Power and will always KNOW THE INTENTS OF OUR HEARTS, therefore each generation is personally responsible for making the “Choice” that determines the “Consequence” of an individual’s eternity, and that “Choice of Eternity” is simple, (1) We “Choose” to Trust God and live according to His Law and we will inherit eternal life with the Father or (2) We “Choose” to make and live by our own laws and ignore God’s Law and live according to our selfish nature and we will inherit eternal separation from God. Let us look at the context of JQ#08 in terms of “Choice” and see if God is “consistent” in His “Consequences” as He has written them down in His Holy Bible for us to read and KNOW His Holy Word. In Matthew 9:2 we read, “…they brought [Choice] to [Jesus] a paralytic…And when Jesus saw their faith…” Jesus said to the paralytic “Son…your sins are forgiven [Consequence]”.  The Law of Choice and Consequence can be observed by looking at the actions of an individual and then seeing that our actions are simply the results of the “Choices” each person makes. It works well to make a list of who-did-what-actions from these JESUS Questions and then see the result of the “Choices” that made them take those actions. For deeper learning purposes read Matthew 9:1-4 and list the person, the choice/action each person made, and then write the result (Consequence) of their “Choice”, for example in Matthew 9:2 we read “they brought to Him” which means “they” “Choose” to take the paralytic to Jesus so in the “Who” Column write “They” then in the “Action/Choice Column” write “Brought to Jesus the paralytic” and in the “Result/Consequence Column” write “Jesus both healed the paralytic and forgave him of his sins because of their faith” . You have just dug deeper into the Word, what do you think the “Consequence” of that action will be?

MARCH 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

MARCH 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Thanks be to our Savior, our Redeemer, for without His Love we could not even love ourselves, without His Salvation, we could not save ourselves, and without the price He paid on Calvary we could not redeem ourselves. Lord Jesus we need You more than we know for without You we have no purpose, no reason, but with You we can “go” with confidence knowing that You are the “Way” and the “Truth” and the “Life” !And even though we are weak we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens [us].” Lord I pray as I do each morning that Your Spirit will guide, lead, and direct me to the Narrow Gate and the Light of Your Love will shine through me to guide others.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS was asleep in a boat as the disciples panicked during the storm and when Jesus awoke He calmed the “wind and the waves” and His disciples “marveled” and wondered “Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matthew 8:27) Next we read “When [Jesus] had come to the other side…” He encountered a storm of a different nature in the form of “two demon-possessed men, exceedingly fierce…” and Jesus did to this storm what He had done to the wind and the waves, He calmed them! It is interesting that even though the disciples who had seen Jesus doing the miracle healing and calming the storm at sea wondered “Who can this be” — however, the demons did not wonder “who” Jesus was for when they saw Jesus the demon possessed men “suddenly cried out saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?’” (Matthew 8:29) The disciples had wondered “Who?” Jesus was after seeing Him healing, Teaching, and controlling the wind and waves but the demon-possessed men called Jesus by name and called Him the “Son of God”. Not only did the demon-possessed men know who Jesus was, they knew His purpose in regard to their personal situation as they asked Jesus, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29b) It is interesting to note that the demon-possessed men knew Jesus was the “Son of God” and that there was coming a “time” when there would be a “Judgement” and that their penalty would be “torment” at the hands of Jesus!?!? (Matthew 8:28-29) The disciples observed that the demons “begged” Jesus to let them “go away” which means that [the demons] knew Jesus had the power to free them — the disciples should have understood that Jesus controlled the wind and the waves which are “physical” elements and now they will observe that Jesus has control over the “spiritual” elements —  JESUS not only cast out the demons from the two possessed men but then Jesus allowed them to enter a herd of swine, which is a combination of the “physical” and “spiritual” worlds. After that incident we read “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city…” (Matthew 9:1) which begins the context for JQ#08a & JQ#08b. The fact that Jesus is in His own city is going to make this Question rather personal plus Jesus is introducing the most important personal event that will ever take place in our lives, and that is “forgiveness of sins”! Jesus introduces “forgiveness of sins” in His “own city” and He asks for our personal opinion by starting the Question/Lesson with “Why do you think…”. Jesus really gets personal when He bluntly says what we are thinking is “evil”.  (Matthew 9:4) Jesus proves that He will not pull any punches with the “Truth of God” as He points out that the “evil” is “in [our own] heart”! It doesn’t get any more personal than this, we are at “home” and Jesus knows what is in our “own hearts” and He calls us out on our “evil thoughts and desires”! Jesus is pointing out with JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your heart?” (Matthew 9:4) that He knows what we hold dearest to our hearts and He identified our selfishness as “evil” but the Good News is the context in which He meets us on such personal ground. We see that some friends had brought a paralytic laying on a bed to Jesus and “When Jesus saw “their faith”, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.’” (Matthew 9:2) Sounds kind of personal doesn’t it? The message I get out of this Lesson is that even though our hearts are full of evil that if we will turn our attention away from our personal selfish desires and put our focus towards doing good for others that Jesus will honor our good intentions — it was the good intentions of some evil hearts that was the catalyst of Jesus introducing the “forgiveness of sins”!!!   

MARCH 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

MARCH 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You know our hearts and therefore You know our minds, our intents, and most importantly, You know our desires. There is no place deep enough or secret enough within our wretched souls that Your Knowledge cannot penetrate — but there is no place that Your Great Knowledge penetrates that is not also filled with Your Great Compassion — HAVE MERCY ON ME O GOD!! Lord Jesus, fill me with Thy Spirit, anoint me with Thy Love, send me Lord into Thy Service that daily I may “die with Christ” that I may “live as Christ”!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS never asked a Question while on earth that was not asked without a Specific Spiritual Purpose and Divine Intent. Jesus is the Supreme Communicator and He uses these Questions to motivate us to “know” Him and His Divine Intent {see Matthew 7:23}; it behooves us therefore to study His Divine Questions and “trust” that His Divine Intent will lead to Inspired Insight into the “mysteries” of God. >>>It is a far greater advantage for us in these “earthen” vessels to gain a “glimpse” of “God’s Spirit” while on our soul’s journey to the “Truth of God” than to have secular knowledge and “gain the whole world, [but] lose [our] own soul” (Mark 8:36). <<<. It is hard for us to see the “big picture” because our mortal finite knowledge cannot wrap around an Immortal God’s Infinite Knowledge so through God’s Infinite Wisdom He takes us a step at a time just as Isaiah proclaimed to God’s people as they were learning God’s Ways: “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little…” (Isaiah 28:13) Because knowing the Whole Mind of God is impossible for us, Isaiah reminds us, “His understanding is unfathomable…” (Isaiah 40:28) For example, if we take each “JESUS Question” we have studied and look at the path Jesus has taken us down so far, we can see that even though each Question has its own “Divine Merits”, that if we look at them together as a “Spiritual Progression” then we learn another valuable lesson — God has a Master Plan which will be executed “precept upon precept, little by little”! For example, the Holy Spirit has led me to give a personal summary title for each lesson as I review the previous JESUS Questions before moving to the next one and this is what I have so far: JQ#01: “Salt & Light” —  JQ#02: “Unconditional Love” —  JQ#03: “Worry?”  —  JQ#04: “Judge Not”  —  JQ#05: “Ask-Seek-Knock”  —  JQ#06: “By Their Fruits”  —  JQ#07: “Of Fear & Faith”  —  “JQ#08: “Arise And Walk”. If you read the Questions in order you will see that Jesus Teaches individual Lessons but He is fulfilling Isaiah’s Prophecy that the Messiah will reveal God Himself to us by Teaching us “precept upon precept, line upon line”! Clearly the Divine Intent of the “JESUS Questions” is to give us Insight into God Himself and we will “know God” and our lives will become a “living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable unto God.” (Romans 12:1) The next “JESUS Question” is found in Matthew Chapter 9 and the context for JQ#08 is Matthew 9:1-8 with the JESUS Question being found in Matthew 9:4 where Jesus asks His followers to answer a very personal question, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) The Question itself shows us that Jesus expects us to “think” on our own and He never pulls His punches for He wants us to learn the “precepts” of God. By answering JQ#08 honestly we will come to a better understanding of the “source” of evil and it will make us take a serious Truthful look inwardly at our own heart. Jesus knows that we will not “grow our faith” if our “faith is not tested” and the harder the test, the stronger will be the results and it is through the “testing of our faith” that our “little faith” will enlarge to the point that we will have “great faith” like Jesus pointed out about the centurion and through our “Great Faith in God” we will have enough strength to not only help ourselves but we will also be able to help others - Jesus commands us, “Arise, take up your bed, and go…” (Matthew 9:6b)  

MARCH 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

MARCH 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I pray that Your Spirit will continue to consume me, Lord I proclaim as Paul did, I know that I have not yet attained the goal but I press on to the finish which is a race that I cannot run on my own strength, Lord I need You, I need Your daily Mercy and Grace and I do TRUST You to finish the good work You have begun in me. There is nothing in me that can move towards the prize of the high calling of service to the Kingdom so therefore refresh and renew in me a “Right Spirit” and “create in me a clean heart O God”!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is asking a most revealing Kingdom Question with JQ#07 - “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) and so far we haven’t even really considered the context in which this Question was asked. We looked at the immediate circumstance of Jesus and His disciples being in a “great tempest” after they had followed Jesus onto a boat and then when the tempest beset them His disciples panicked — but Jesus was sleeping. Of course, we like the disciples, see the waves and the tempest and we consider the physical consequences of drowning in our storms but we miss the spiritual consequences of (1) following Jesus through the storm and (2) trusting Him to “calm” even the worst “tempest” in our lives and (3) to know that our “faith” in JESUS is the only thing in our earthly lives that has “Sublime Eternal” consequences. The larger context of the circumstances of the “Teachings” of Jesus to His disciples should also be observed in terms of what had the disciples seen Jesus doing immediately prior to them getting on the boat and then ask ourselves if those actions of Jesus should have built their “faith” in His Power and Divine Nature???  After Jesus Taught the disciples the parable of the “two builders” (Matthew 7:24-27) which introduced the concept that we should build the “foundation” of our “faith” on “solid rock”, Jesus then laid the “ground floor” of our “faith in Jesus” by (1) healing the servant of a centurion as Jesus connected His Healing Power to our Faith Building when Jesus told the centurion (A) “I will come and heal him.” (Matthew 8:7) and (B) “Then Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go your way; as you have believed, so let it be done for you.’ And his servant was healed that same hour.” (Matthew 8:13). Jesus continued His Lesson on His Healing Power when next He came to Peter’s house “ … [Jesus] saw [Peter’s] wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.” (Matthew 8:14-15) That very same evening the disciples had witnessed the villagers where Peter lived bringing “to [JESUS] many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick…” (Matthew 8:16) So Jesus gives the parable of the “two builders” to encourage the disciples to “build their faith” on Him and then He immediately demonstrates His Divine Power and Compassion for all people by “healing” both their “physical” and their “spiritual” ailments! When the tempest arose, the disciples acted like they hadn’t seen these Divine Attributes of Jesus — all the disciples could see was the “physical world” as they got into a boat, and then the boat gets in a great storm, and the wind and the waves of the tempest makes the disciples go into full panic mode — and the first thing Jesus says upon awakening and seeing their panic is, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) ???  JQ#07 should awaken us to the “obvious” that Jesus is in control of both the “physical” and the “spiritual” worlds and that He also has control over the natural world in which we live our day-to-day lives. If we also look at His Resurrection  we will see that He has control over our eternity as well so “Why are we fearful of the world and death” when all we have to do is to have FAITH in the ONE who died for our sins, rose the third day, sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us?    Jesus gave us all the resources we need to build our “Faith in God” but He wants us to hammer a nail or two ourselves!!!

MARCH 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

MARCH 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer

JESUS, Lord I come before You this morning renewed and refreshed in Your Spirit and I praise You for Your Love. Lord, we deserve punishment but You Lord bore our sins and iniquities on the CROSS AT CALVARY WHERE YOU DIED AND BECAME THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE FOR ALL SIN. Through Your Great Sacrifice our sins have been paid in full. Lord I know that I am not worthy of Your Love and that my unworthiness has been substituted by Your Righteousness and in the Father’s eyes I am an heir to the Kingdom because of what was accomplished by You, God, and the Holy Spirit on Resurrection Sunday — I pray that every day I will awake and arise to face the world and that I will keep full in my mind that You ARE RISEN victorious over the world and that You will walk with me every step of my Journey to Truth!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS 

JESUS in JQ#07 has begun Teaching the Importance of “Faith in God” in our daily lives and the Ultimate Importance of “Faith in God” for our Eternal lives!!! Our “Faith in God” cannot  become “sight” unless we understand that without the “Light of Jesus” we will remain blind and in darkness for until we are “born again into the light” that the world is “without form, and void; and darkness” (Genesis 1:2) covers our daily lives. When Jesus asks a Question, He is challenging us to use our God-given intellect to open our spiritual eyes and exercise our “trust” in God’s Infinite Knowledge. In JQ#07 Jesus ties together two terms “fearful” and “faith” and His use of these two terms in such close proximity should get our attention. When I stopped and re-read the Question trying to see the “Sublime Obvious”, I was rewarded by seeing that Jesus asked the “Question” but He also gave the “Answer” while asking the “Question”!  The “Obvious” that came to me was to look at JQ#07 in two parts but keeping them tied together like this: Part A (the Question) “Why are you fearful” and Part B (the Answer) “O you of little faith”. (Matthew 8:26a)  The Question is about being “fearful” and He answers His Question by directing our attention to our “faith”. Jesus puts the Question and the Answer together because He does not want us to over-think ourselves and therefore He makes it clear that we must grow our “Faith in God” if we desire NOT to be “fearful”. There is no other way to grow our “faith” without “Trusting God” and if we do not see God’s “Obvious” world with our “spiritual” eyes we will not Trust God — and if there is no “Trust in God” then our lives will be lived in “fear” of the world that we see with our “physical” eyes! I believe it is of great importance in our “Spiritual Growth” that we acknowledge the “Obvious” thing God did to address the problem of darkness in His Creative process —   for in Genesis 1:3 the first SOLUTION spoken BY GOD in the new Creation was “Light” which God introduced into the new earth TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM that the earth was “without form and void” and was immersed in “darkness”. (Genesis 1:2a) The only source of power God employed was “the Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2b) and He demonstrated the Spiritual Power of God when in the next verse we read: “Then [after recognizing the emptiness and darkness] God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light [problem solved by the Spirit of God!].” (Genesis 1:3)  From these first three verses we see that God assessed the negative aspect of creation which is “lack of purpose” and “darkness” and solved the problem with  “the Spirit of God” speaking the solution with “let there be light.  — then — {through the Miracle of God’s Holy Spirit} “And there was light” . Just as God saw “darkness” as the problem and “light” as the solution, Jesus saw “fear” as a problem and “Faith in God” as the solution and the answer to all our questions and fears should be to focus our “spiritual eyes” on Jesus. Jesus told the most intellectual “Pharisee” of his generation named Nicodemus (who admitted Jesus was from God but Nicodemus wanted to know what Jesus had come to teach?)  Jesus told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and then Jesus made it perfectly clear that just as we have a “physical” birth into the world that we must have a “spiritual birth” to enter “the kingdom of God” when He tells Nicodemus: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) and in JQ#07 Jesus tells us to grow our “Faith in God” to calm our “fears” therefore we should open our “Spiritual Eyes” to see the growth potential in what God accomplished in His Crowning Glory of Resurrection Sunday if we just “BELIEVE” in God’s Only Begotten Son Jesus who defeated death and the grave and offers Eternal Life through “FAITH IN GOD THE FATHER”!