APRIL 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 5) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 5) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, it is beyond my understanding “why” You and the Father would “Love” a world of lost sinners such as myself. Lord Jesus, I praise You for this “knowing” that the Holy Spirit has imparted to me that says to me that for my “spiritual” health I do not need to understand or explain  “why” You “Love” me but it is “enough to KNOW that You “Love” me and that You demonstrated that “Love” by Your death on the Cross and the Father demonstrated His “Love” towards us in that He RESURRECTED You from the grave! Lord Jesus, my prayer is simply to let my life reflect that Supreme Love with which I KNOW I AM LOVED!       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus so far in His first 2 Lessons has taught us to be aware of our personal responsibility to our own eternity and to the Kingdom. Jesus then started us on our “Spiritual Journey” with the Primary Tool to accomplish Kingdom Work and that necessary tool to get to God’s Kingdom is God’s GPS system which is the “LOVE OF GOD”.

Lesson 3  JQ#3    “What good is worry or ‘who cares’?”               Matthew 6:25-34

Jesus then asked His 3rd Question to get us to fully appreciate the first two Lessons when He bluntly asks us “What good is worry?” and to help us keep the proper spiritual perspective on “worry” Jesus illustrates  the best of all reasons not to worry — Jesus tells us that everything we could possibly worry about has already been or will be taken care of by “The Father” that knows our every need! Jesus is illustrating another “Truth of God” by showing us that if we will take the “negative” which is “worry” and learn that we can exercise our “spiritual” muscle and make a “positive” out of the “negative worrying” by turning our “worry” into “Trusting God” then we are well on our way to understanding “Faith” and how to “grow” our Faith by Trusting in God! This very important Spiritual Lesson of “Trusting God” is the perfect companion to “Love” — and with our knowing that we have a personal responsibility to the Kingdom — and that God will provide everything we need to complete our “Journey to Eternity” with Him — and that our obligation is to “Love” as the Father “Loves” and to “Trust God” that He will provide our every need — then we will not “worry” but move expectantly towards our Eternity as we walk by “Faith” — “Faith” not in ourselves but “Faith in our Heavenly Father” and His desire for our good! This journey of “Faith” becomes our life as we worry less and less as we see day by day that God has provided for the lilies of the field and clothes them so beautifully!  We grow our “Faith in God” as we recognize that if God does such amazing things with birds and flowers and the sun, moon, and stars that it becomes obvious to even the most casual observer that God cares so much more about us!!! God confirmed His Love for us because He made us in His image! So we can answer with confidence that we do not need to “worry” because “God cares” about our lives! Jesus ends the Lesson with another beautiful summary of this Lesson on the Truth of God’s Love with a simple but powerful thought: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) I know myself that when I realized that if God is going to add “all these things” to me simply because He desires to impart His Righteousness on me so that I can enter His Kingdom, then I am no longer “worried” about “all these things” and my “Faith in God” grows proportional to how successful I am in turning “worry about the world” into “trusting in the Goodness of God”! If you just stop and think about it in your own life, has the world or God provided for your daily bread? ***After all, if we know bread comes from a seed, then isn’t the One who imparts life to the seed more important to our daily bread than the one who gathers the grain?***

APRIL 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 4) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 4) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Glory and Honor to the Son of the Living God who “so loved the world” that the Father “willed” the Son to become “flesh and dwell among [the world the Father loved]”. The Son demonstrated His Love for the Father with the Ultimate Obedience to the Father as the Son became the Sacrificial Lamb for ALL the sins of “the world”. It was through this Great Sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary that all Glory and Honor is due the Son who demonstrated such “Love”, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.            AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught us in Lesson 1 about our personal responsibility to the kingdom of God and now in Lesson 2 He begins to Teach us the “tools” that the Father will equip us with in order that we may promote His Kingdom:

Lesson 2  JQ#2    “What do you really know about Love?”          Matthew 5:43-48

The first precept that Jesus introduces is the concept of “True Love” and not the “love of the world” but the “Love of the Father” that is to reside within those that choose to follow Him. The importance of “Loving as the Father Loves” and as “Christ Loved the Church” is confirmed for His followers as Jesus states: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) As Jesus Teaches Lesson 2 He also shows us glimpses of the Father and demonstrates that The Father and The Son are going to be The Perfect Examples of TRUE  LOVE and that before we are asked to “love others” we will first be loved by the Father and the Son. In the passage from John 13 we just read Jesus saying that we are to love “as I have loved you” and everyone knows John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” so it is no surprise that the first Lesson Jesus Teaches is our responsibility to the kingdom and in His 2nd Lesson Jesus Teaches us how to best represent the Kingdom of God by Teaching us about “The True Love of God”! Jesus confirms the importance of knowing how to “LOVE” when He states why we should emulate the Father’s Love “…that you may be sons [and daughters] of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:45) Jesus further clarifies that we are to Love as the Father and the Son Love and not as the world loves because Jesus started the Lesson on Love with “You have heard it said…” and adds immediately, “But I say to you…” clearly warning us that the world will tell us wrongly how to love for the only True Love comes from the Father and the Son who “first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and by Their Perfect Example we are to “love one another”. Jesus demonstrates that He has come to live His life as an example and that before Jesus asks us as His disciples to do anything, we will have both the Father and the Son to look to as “Perfect Examples” of how we are to live our lives. When we determine to “Love one another as God first Loved us” we will best promote the Father, the Son, and Their Kingdom. Jesus continued throughout His ministry to Teach His disciples about “Love” and we see the disciples in turn teaching “God’s Love” Lesson to others as we read the Apostle Paul writing to the Church in Corinth “And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is only fitting that this Summary Review of Lesson 2 on God’s Love should end with a love statement from the disciple known as the “disciple that Jesus loved” and the disciple that wrote his entire Gospel on “Love” as John teaches some of his last lessons before his death on the island of Patmos in what is described as a “family letter” to “his little children” as John writes: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11) Could the importance of “God’s Love” be made any more Sincere and True than for the Father and the Son to live as examples of “Perfect Love” and to hold “Love” in such High Regard in Heavenly Places?

APRIL 16 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 3) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#1-13 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 16  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  (Day 3) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#1-13 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, may Thanksgiving and Praise always be on my lips for You Lord have blessed me beyond anything I could have imagined and certainly more than I deserve. Jesus, thank You for showing me that True Blessings are so much more valuable than anything money can buy! Lord, to know that we are held safe in the hands of the Father and that His Perfect Will is only directed towards “good” for us is the most comforting assurance life can provide, and we know that You, Lord Jesus are THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE — Praise God from Whom ALL BLESSINGS flow.           AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus as The Master Teacher has asked each of “The JESUS Questions JQ#1-13” not to gain information from anyone but to impart wisdom to His listeners. Those that take the time to “listen” to Jesus and honestly “answer” His Questions will learn very valuable Spiritual Lessons — below is a Summary Review of the individual JESUS Questions JQ#1-13 that have been studied so far in Matthew, starting with Lesson 1  JQ#01    “Are you salt and light?”      Matthew 5:1-16

JQ#01 started after Matthew had documented in Chapters 1-4 that Jesus had compassion on the multitudes and out of His Great Compassion for us Jesus had taught His famous “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5:1-13 and then after encouraging the multitudes with His Beatitudes which Teaches us what must be done with our earthly lives in order to obtain our inheritance in “the kingdom of heaven”, Jesus then asks His first personal JESUS Question JQ#01 by making us think about ourselves and to consider the Truth of God that what we are actually “doing” with our lives has a direct impact on our inheritance in the kingdom of heaven!!!  Jesus states emphatically: “You are the salt of the earth;…” (Matthew 5:12a) and then He promotes the concept of the necessity to get personally involved. Jesus introduces God’s Law of Choice and Consequence which illustrates our personal responsibility to exercise our “God-Given Free Will” to promote the kingdom of God. Jesus declares that we “are the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” then immediately Jesus asks us to consider the “consequence” of not using our personal talents and abilities to promote the kingdom when He asks us to consider the “Consequence” resulting if “salt… loses its flavor” or if a “light” is “put under a basket”? Jesus then tells us very clearly that if we “lose [our] flavor” then we are “good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men” (Matthew 5:13) and it is obvious that if a light is put under a basket it is useless! Thus with JQ#01 Jesus demonstrates that if we follow Him and take on the name Christian that our responsibility is to be “salt and light” for the kingdom’s sake but if we fail in that responsibility then we will have to suffer the “consequence” that is the “Truth of God” which states: “We are free to choose our actions but we are not free to choose the consequence of that action for God in His Supreme Sovereignty has already determined the consequence of our choices!” <<A. W. Tozer “Knowledge of The Holy”>> which implies personal responsibility to “listen and obey” all that God has prepared as “Spiritual Lessons” for our lives which are to be “lived” for “His Glory” and the Kingdom’s Sake! There is no denying that if we look at this first JESUS Question that we will learn several Lessons about our personal responsibility to the kingdom of God — but the greatest Lesson is that God has provided for us everything we need in order to personally know Him and He expects our personal involvement in accomplishing His Kingdom Work here on earth!   Our first Spiritual Lesson to learn is that God wants us to understand that He has chosen to use His “followers” to “lead” others to the Kingdom of God by the way we “live” our lives and not by who we “say” we are! We “are” the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” and our responsibility to the kingdom is laid out plain and clear as Jesus ends Lesson  1 with: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) If Jesus starts His Lessons by Teaching us that we have a personal responsibility to the Kingdom of God, don’t you think that He will continue with His subsequent Lessons and lay out the “Way” and make it clear what He requires of us as “followers of JESUS”?

APRIL 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS SRJQ#1-13 (Day 2) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#1.1—JQ#13.7 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  SRJQ#1-13 (Day 2)  Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#1.1—JQ#13.7 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another day that You have “graced” us with and another day of praises for the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus, my prayer on this day is that Your Spirit will be upon all believers so powerfully that we will unite in one voice and one “Hope” as we pray for Your Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven! Lord Jesus, each day I pray for my eyes to be opened but today I pray for our hearts to be united in Your Love, the only True Love, given unconditionally to all that would believe that it was Love that put You on the Cross, Love that put You in a Grave, and Love that Conquered Death, and it was in Perfect Love that You were Resurrected — grant it Lord that we may share in Your Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection that we may KNOW LOVE!       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been Teaching us through His Question/Lessons the Truth of God and by Jesus revealing these “TRUTHS OF GOD” to us through these Questions that we Learn to better see ourselves — not through the eyes of the world but through the eyes of God who is revealed to us “Precept-Upon-Precept” and “Line-Upon-Line”. Jesus proclaimed that He came to reveal the Father, “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11:27)   However, before we Review the “JESUS Questions” themselves we should note the obvious that these are Questions being asked by Jesus, the Son of God, and before we consider answering His Questions we should answer the obvious question — “Why would Jesus, who is The All Knowing Master Teacher and Son of the Living God, ask Questions of mere mortals?” — The only logical answer is that Jesus is not asking these Questions to gain knowledge for Himself but Jesus is asking “rhetorical” questions to impart knowledge to those He is trying to Teach and introduce the “learner” to God Himself! These are all introspective Questions and deeply personal but if we honestly answer each one we will learn about ourselves that which Jesus Himself desires us to know about the Kingdom of God and our “inheritance” in it! In order to fully understand the Divine Objective let us list a few of the Divine Circumstances and Divine Context in which these “JESUS Questions” are being asked. 

The Divine Circumstance: 

Isaiah (whose name means ‘salvation of the LORD”) wrote in the 8th Century B.C. many prophecies covering “Divine Events” from “The Creation” to the “New Heavens and New Earth” to be formed during the “Millennial Reign” of Jesus Christ but the writings are mostly noted for “the great Messianic predictions in which are foretold Christ’s birth (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6), His Deity (9:6-7), His ministry (9:1-2; 42:1-7;61:1-2), His death (52:1-53:12), His future millennial reign (for example, chapters 2; 11; 65), etc.” {{pg. 910 The Scofield Study Bible Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, the 2002 Edition}}. So the Divine Circumstance had been prophesied over 800 years before Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem and all prophecies point to Jesus as being the long awaited Messiah!

The Divine Context:

The Gospel According to MATTHEW was written C. A.D. 50 and was written originally for the Jews and presents Jesus as the Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, and the place of His birth was the City of David, Bethlehem — all of which point to the Divinity of Christ and to Jesus being God made flesh (John 1:14) and walking among us. Matthew starts his documentation of the Life of Christ with a genealogy that traces the lineage of Jesus back to Abraham then covers the Divine Event of the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary. Matthew then introduces John the Baptist who was preaching in the wilderness, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2) and proclaimed that John said that he was “The voice of one crying in the wilderness; ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’” (Matthew 3:3) Matthew then records that Jesus was baptized by John, and then was led into the wilderness where Jesus was “tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1) and then Matthew writes: “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 4:17)  then later in Chapter 4 Matthew continues; “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” (Matthew 4:23)  These miracles of God by the hand of Jesus became widely known and great multitudes started following Jesus which leads us into the first of the JESUS Questions which immediately followed the famous “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5:1-12) This is where we start learning the Lessons of God’s TRUTH that Jesus Teaches by asking “The JESUS Questions”. 

Lesson 1: JQ#1    “Are you salt and light?”                                       Matthew 5:1-16 OPEN YOUR BIBLE, READ THESE VERSES, AND GIVE JESUS YOUR ANSWER IN A PRAYER AND RECEIVE GOD'S BLESSINGS!!!!!!!!

APRIL 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 1) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#1.1—JQ#13.7 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 1)  Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#1.1—JQ#13.7 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS…only by our association with You do we have any Hope to be able to stand before God [at the judgement] for You alone can forgive us — for we are full of iniquity and sin, [deserving the verdict of guilty with the punishment of death] but You and Your Grace has been extended to [all sinners] as a Gift from God the Father to all mankind — we can do nothing to deserve or to earn Your Love. You proved You Loved us by Your Sacrificial death on the cross which was the Ultimate Demonstration of Obedience to God’s Will! Lord Jesus, give us the knowledge of our sin that we can REPENT in the fullness of Your Truth and boldly approach the Throne of Grace with confidence that our sins have been covered by Your Precious Blood when You died on the cross that we may live eternally in heaven!            AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has now taken us through 13 JESUS Questions with each Question illuminating a Deeper Truth of God as Jesus has laid the Foundation of Discipleship if we will answer His Call — “Follow Me”. The Holy Spirit  moved my writing of His Word today as I was reviewing JQ#13-7 from APRIL 13  and the Holy Spirit has directed me to conclude JQ#13 “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”  with the closing sentences of JQ#13-7   +++Then Jesus declares, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)    It is easy to see that Jesus and God think this is very serious and there is “eternity” riding on your answer — trust me, this IS A BIG DEAL, so what is the verdict that you are going to pass on yourself, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?” +++  Once the Holy Spirit directed me to conclude JQ#13 He then directed me to write a “Summary Review” of “The JESUS Questions” that covers JQ#1-1 through JQ#13-7. For all those who have not been following “The JESUS Questions Project” from the beginning, this “Summary Review of JQ#1-1 through JQ#13-7” will serve as an outline of “The JESUS Questions Project” from JQ#1 through JQ#13-7. For those that have been following “The JESUS Questions Project” regularly this “JESUS Questions Summary Review” will demonstrate the “Precept-Upon-Precept” way the Master uses to bring us along in our Spiritual Maturity that we may walk boldly with Him to the Throne of Grace and proclaim with Great Confidence that our sins have been covered by the Blood of the Lamb of God!  The “JESUS Questions Summary Review” will begin with a simple list of “The JESUS Questions” in the order in which they appear in the Gospel of Matthew. 

SRJQ#1-13  ——— Summary Review of The JESUS Questions  JQ#1-13

JQ#1    “Are you salt and light?”                                               Matthew 5:1-16

JQ#2    “What do you really know about Love?”                     Matthew 5:43-48

JQ#3    “What good is worry or ‘who cares’?”                         Matthew 6:25-34

JQ#4    “What gives you the right to judge?”                           Matthew 7:1-6

JQ#5    “Why should you Ask-Seek-Knock?”                           Matthew 7:7-14

JQ#6    “What kind of fruit does your tree bear?”                    Matthew 7:15-23

JQ#7    “What’s bigger, your ‘Fear’ or your ‘Faith’?                 Matthew 8:23-27

JQ#8    “How do you put ‘Feet’ to your ‘Faith’?”                      Matthew 9:1-13

JQ#9    “Are you a friend of the ‘Bridegroom’?”                       Matthew 9:14-26

JQ#10  “What is your ‘Spiritual Value’?”                                   Matthew 10:1-42 

JQ#11  “What are your ‘Spiritual Expectations of Jesus?”     Matthew 11:1-30

JQ#12  “Who decides what is legal, God or man?”                  Matthew 12:1-23

JQ#13  “Is your life a plus or minus in God’s kingdom?”        Matthew 12:24-45

It is challenging at this point before we go any further to “review” these 13 JESUS Questions asked so far and see if we can detect a pattern and possibly predict what the next question may be? Look at all the Questions in the sequence that they were asked and see if you can see the “Precept-Upon-Precept” style and also notice that the Questions are all “personal” and are getting more serious as we build our knowledge and understanding of what it means to “Follow Jesus” — Always keep in your mind this question: “If I ‘Follow Jesus’, what is the ‘Final Destination’?”   All of life is about CHOICE — Think about the GIFT of FREEWILL that God has bestowed on each individual at birth. You have the CHOICE to “Accept or Reject” God but you do not get to decide where you will spend ETERNITY because God declared that we are “Free to Choose” our actions (Freewill) but God has reserved His Sovereign right to determine the Consequence!!! It is by our own words that we will be judged!!! Choose your words carefully because a “No” to God will result in Eternal Separation from God but a “Yes” will mean Living Forever with the Creator in a Mansion custom built for you by Jesus—just remember. It is your “Choice” so “Choose Wisely”!!! 

APRIL 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, Savior, and Son of God — what glorious names that You are Worthy to be called! There is no name like the Name — JESUS. Lord as I think about all the names that I can remember, even the most famous and legendary names, even among fictional names, there is ABSOLUTELY NO name that even begins to compare TO THE NAME OF JESUS! For with every name there is a set of characteristics associated with that name and there simply is NO other name that brings to mind all the attributes that we recall when we utter the Name of Jesus!!!  There has been no name associated with Salvation, with Eternity, with Forgiveness, with Mercy, and with Grace but the Holy Name of Jesus! May we ever speak the HOLY NAME JESUS and know the SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never Teaches us a Lesson that we cannot look at His Life and see that before Jesus Teaches us a Lesson, Jesus Himself has Lived that Lesson as an example for us to not only “hear” His Lessons but we can “look” at His Life and “see” the Lesson being Lived out before us. It is because Jesus Lives what He Teaches that HE has earned the right to ask us such a personal Question that He asks in JQ#13  “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”.  We can look at everything Jesus has done up to this point and we can see that Jesus Himself has been forgiving people of their sins, calling men to repentance, Jesus has cast out demons, He has healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, He has fed the poor and made the lame to walk, and He did all those things as He proclaimed, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus is saying that we are to look at His Life and know that His Life is “proof” that His Power comes from “the Spirit of God” and if the Spirit of God is moving so powerfully in your life that you must realize that “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28) Jesus is telling us, “Look at what I have done with My life and know that only the Power of God could accomplish these good works!”   Everything we have observed and know about Jesus points to the Divine Father! The only logical conclusion is that Jesus is sent from God with the Divine Purpose to make mankind aware that the kingdom of God is at hand! Each individual is given the knowledge of God and should personally evaluate our individual contributions to the “kingdom of God”! Jesus made this personal connection clear when He said we are either “for Him” or we are “against Him” (Matthew 12:30)! We should stop to consider what possibly could have been the “purpose” of God in sending His Only Begotten Son to the earth to be Sacrificed on a cross? To add to the obvious, God states in His written Word that He has done everything, from the creation of all things to the last breath you will breathe BECAUSE He loves us and wants us to be with Him in this “Kingdom” that He is preparing for us!   With all that God has done in preparing a place for us and preparing us for His place, then we should give a reasonable and honest answer to His simple Question, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”  This is such serious business that God would invest His Everything into revealing Himself to us and His expectations for us that He has placed “eternity” as the finish line and the ultimate failure in life is to end our life without the “hope” or the “assurance” of spending our “eternity” with the God who bestowed such “Grace” upon us — a “GIFT” to all mankind that came at such Great Personal cost to God Himself! Jesus follows this Lesson with some additional serious examples as in Matthew 12:31-32 where Jesus says that “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men” and “whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Then Jesus talks about trees with “good” fruit or “bad” fruit, and calls those that are against God a “Brood of vipers” who “being evil” cannot speak good things. Then Jesus declares “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37) It is easy to see that Jesus and God think this is very serious and there is our personal “eternity” riding on our answer — trust me, this IS A BIG DEAL, so what is the verdict that you are going to pass on yourself, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?” 

APRIL 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I pray for forgiveness for not resolving the spirit of disunity that existed yesterday as we were on “service” for the kingdom. I cannot explain it sufficiently to put it into words but anytime I am aware of the “division” of the “Spirit” I know that something is not right and Lord my prayer is to be made aware of my “shortcomings” in my “service” to You, for with You there must be “unity” ——— for the “HOLY Spirit” does not divide IT UNIFIES! Lord, I know that You have promised that if we are unified with the “Spirit” that we will be “One” with You and “One” with the Father — Lord help me identify the source of the division I felt yesterday, I desire for the kingdom’s sake to know if I was creating the situation with my “actions” or was I contributing to the division by my “reactions”, Lord, in either case, let me take full responsibility and “repent” as necessary to return to the “Divine Unity”!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is dealing with false accusations against His Ministry therefore when we read the 3 Questions asked in JQ13 it is a priority that we ask ourselves: “Just how important is it that we make a “personal spiritual connection” with this series of questions?”: (1)JQ#13A: “How then will his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:26) ——— (2) JQ#13B: “And if I [Jesus] cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?” (Matthew 12:27) ——— and (3) JQ#13C: “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?”. (Matthew 12:29) The importance of making a “personal spiritual connection” is at least as important as the subject matter don’t you think?  In JQ#13A Jesus had just said that a “divided kingdom will be brought to desolation”, in JQ#13B Jesus calls out the “enemy” by name and says Satan is involved. However, even as powerful as Satan is, his power also is lessened because of “division” to such a point that Jesus asked: “How will [Satan’s] kingdom stand [if it is divided]?” (Matthew 12:26) and then in JQ#13C Jesus uses a “strong man” as an example and states that even a “strong man’s house” and all his “goods” …will be “plundered” (Matthew 12:29) Therefore Jesus is saying that “division of the spirit” (1) will cause a “kingdom” to be brought to “desolation”, (2) “Satan” himself cannot survive, and (3) Even a “strong man” will be “plundered”. That sounds pretty serious to me to think that from a “division of the spirit” that a “kingdom” can be “desolated”, “Satan” can be “destroyed”, and the “strong man’s house” can be “plundered” — keep in mind that all these words and descriptions of destruction were used when the Pharisees falsely accused Jesus of “casting out demons by Beelzebub…” (Matthew 12:24) Jesus could have ignored the Pharisees and their false accusation but Jesus did not ignore it but responded with 3 Questions and therefore we must search the Questions Jesus asked to find “God’s Truth” that Jesus is trying to teach with such drastic examples! The fact that the Holy Spirit is directing us to ask ourselves if our “life is a plus or minus in God’s kingdom”  is to get our attention ——— if we do not address the false accusations against the kingdom of God then there will be serious kingdom repercussions in our personal lives! Jesus follows JQ#13C with: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” (Matthew 12:30) With that declaration, Jesus just made the issue “deeply personal” and if we are trying to be a disciple of Jesus we will find it very difficult to “follow Jesus” if we do not “gather with [Him]”. Jesus is using some very serious terminology and pronounces some very severe “Consequences”  if we do not personally take a stand with Him (“He who is not with Me…”) ——— the world today is making all kinds of false accusations against God, His Son Jesus, and against The Kingdom so we must make the personal decision: “Are we with JESUS, or against Him?”