APRIL 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 11) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Praise be to the King of kings, the Eternal Light. Lord Jesus, Thy Word is TRUTH, Thy Way is PERFECT, only through You can we HOPE that our life can count for anything! Aside from our belief in You, we have nothing GOOD in us. Lord I pray for a RIGHT SPIRIT in my life so that it can be said that I do what is RIGHT in the eyes of the Lord — You are my strength and my very PRESENT HELP, I can do all things with You as my LIGHT leading me in PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus continually moves us forward in the kingdom as He first builds on His last Lesson and during the present Lesson He points us to where all His Lesson/Questions are leading next. Of course the “Final Destination” is Eternity in Heaven with God Himself but Jesus always keeps us equipped for handling the “Now” (while we are still in our physical earthly bodies and “in the world”. Jesus  leaves Lesson 9 with three earthly miracles (1) a woman who had a “flow of blood” for 12 years was healed just by touching His garments and Jesus said; “Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well” (Matthew 9:22) and (2) Jesus raised a dead girl when “He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose (Matthew 9:25) and thirdly (3) two blind men were healed as they cried out “Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 9:27)  It was at this point that Jesus asked the Question that reveals the TRUTH of JESUS and His Healing Powers as He queried the two blind men, “Do you BELIEVE that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28).  Jesus then confirms the source of His Power as He heals the blind men and then reveals the TRUTH of GOD: “According to your faith let it be to you.” (Matthew 9:29) Jesus used these (3) miracles and tied them to “Personal Faith in God” and JESUS Teaches us that if we “believe” that Jesus is who He says He is and and can do all things through the Power of God that the Son of David WILL HAVE MERCY ON US!!!— Jesus then confirms our “belief in God” with these three miracles then He moves to His next Teaching Question:

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

Jesus has just demonstrated His “Spiritual Power” and plainly tells us that His Power is from God because JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD and was sent to bestow Mercy and Grace on a lost and dying world and these 3 miracles were accomplished by the Power of God!!! Then JESUS effectively tells us that if we have “FAITH IN JESUS” that we also will have great “Spiritual Value”. Jesus started JQ#10 with the easy Question to answer about “two sparrows” having “value” therefore we are of more value than two sparrows in God’s Eyes but He then turns our thinking towards some very serious reasons why we should “believe” that God IS “in Control”,  that Jesus IS the Son of God, and why we have “Spiritual Value”! There are some very serious “consequences” if we do not “believe” as Jesus warns us “… And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) So Jesus transitioned from a light-hearted Question about sparrows to a very serious discussion about destruction of “both soul and body in hell.” Jesus uses the light-hearted and the very serious to create a contrast that really gets our attention and the Lesson here is that we have “both soul and body” and while the “body” is “finite” and will die and be buried, our “soul” is “eternal” therefore we should give great consideration to what we are doing with our “Personal Faith in the Eternal God” to recognize the grave importance of our “Spiritual Value”! Jesus Teaches in JQ#09 that there is a great miracle-working “Spiritual Power” at our disposal that is proportional to our “Faith in God” and then He Teaches in JQ#10 that our “Faith in God” will have “Eternal Consequences” for our “Soul”, so where do you think Jesus is pointing for JQ#11?

APRIL 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 10) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 10) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Thank You Lord for being our Savior, we never stop to think that You are our Savior because You chose to be that Perfect Sacrifice and not because You were forced by some circumstance or to repay an obligation to some great work for mankind! You LORD can choose to do literally ANYTHING, You are the Creator of ALL THINGS and yet in Your Plan for mankind You made us in Your Image and then You planned that You would get intimately involved in our Salvation which meant You volunteered to give up Your Divinity, be born of flesh as we are born of flesh and then live a Perfect Life on earth while being greatly persecuted by Your own people! Then Your Plan called for the worst death imaginable on a Cross at Calvary so that all who believe in Your Plan can have the Best Life possible and to have that Best Life for all Eternity! Thank You just isn’t enough to repay You for Your Grace so my prayer is that every breath I take, every thought that I have will be used to LIVE the Life You have Planned for me.      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is not only “Asking Questions” He is Teaching in a Specific Spiritual Sequence and if you have not been reading these posts in the order that they are written, you will be missing one of the “blessings” that the Holy Spirit has intended for “The JESUS Questions” Project. The Holy Spirit has presented all these Lessons in sequence (or as Holy Scripture says “precept upon precept”) with each new Lesson tying into the previous Lesson and then leading into the next Lesson in such a Divine Way that the “sequence”  is a Divine Lesson in itself. This Divine Sequence of Lessons and Revelations of the Truth of God by the Holy Spirit is a logical sequence of Teaching us about our responsibility to the kingdom and how to live a life of “Love”, “Faith”, and “Obedience” which then leads us to “Trust in God” and to “Walk-the-Walk”!!! Logically, as a result of those Kingdom Tools and Attributes, we are logically led to “Sharing-with-Others” the LOVE OF GOD — and then the Holy Spirit seems at first glance to inject a “deviation” from the logical sequence of Lessons with a Question about being “a friend of the Bridegroom?”. 

Lesson  9  JQ#09    “Are you a friend of the ‘Bridegroom’?”        Matthew 9:14-26

The Holy Spirit, just after Teaching us to “put Feet to our Faith”, then throws in what on the surface seems like a light-hearted Question in JQ#09 “Are you a friend of the ‘Bridegroom’?”. This Question by itself can be taken light-heartedly but taken in context of the previous Questions which are themselves unified by their Revelation of the Plan of God for the Salvation of mankind through the Life of the Father’s Only Begotten and Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, we must stop and seriously consider what the term “Bridegroom” means in terms of God’s Divine Plan for mankind? On face value, the term “Bridegroom” can be understood by all peoples, all languages, all cultures, every nation, all races … et. al. and therefore the Holy Spirit has introduced a “universal” concept that exceeds all national, social, economic, and racial boundaries! The term “Bridegroom” implies that there is certainly a “Bride” and also a “Marriage” and therefore is the most logically all-inclusive concept that could be introduced!!! Let us stop and consider that the God of the Universe, the Creator of All Things who is the only  Eternal “uncreated and self sustaining” being, who certainly does not need His Creation to survive, why would this self-supported, self-sustaining Being choose to be bonded in “marriage” by a convention He Himself established as “Holy Matrimony”??? Further, consider that God called everything “Good” in His Creation except for His statement about the new man He had just created that was without a mate: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) and then “… the LORD GOD … put the man in a deep sleep … and made…a woman (from a rib taken from the man’s side), and He brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:22) and that became the first marriage. “And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…” (Genesis 2:23) I personally get goose bumps when I think that Jesus Himself who is referred to as the Second Adam has been “put into a deep sleep” (called death) and from that sleep of death God the Father took part of the very “Spirit” of the Son and used that “Spirit” to create the Church just like He used Adam’s rib to create the first wife, Eve! To think about God giving His Son in Marriage is mind-bending at least — there could be volume upon volume written of the symbolism this “Marriage” of God’s only Son, Jesus!  ——— The Holy Spirit then introduces a Divine Concept with this “Marriage” concept and we are left to consider the next JESUS Question: “Who is the ‘bride’ and ‘Are you a friend of the ‘Bridegroom?’”!!!???

APRIL 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 9) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 9) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Praise be to the One! You LORD and You Alone are Worthy of all the Praise, Glory, and Honor that men utter, for there is no one that has ever lived besides Jesus Christ that has done a single righteous thing to be worthy of any praise. Lord Jesus please accept this offering of Praise and Thanksgiving because of “Who” You ARE and what You continue to do for a lost and dying world! Lord, I pray that Your Light will shine through my darkness so that all anyone sees when they look at me is You! Jesus, I know that daily I must die to self that I may be resurrected in You, so my prayer is that I may become “One” with You that I can reflect all that You are.      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been progressively Teaching us with His JESUS Questions how to reflect, evaluate, and grow “Spiritually” and now Jesus is giving us specific Spiritual advice on how to develop the necessary tools for “Kingdom Work”. 

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

Jesus has in the first 7 Jesus Questions Taught us to see that we should follow His Example as He teaches us how to be “salt and light” (JQ#01), to know the meaning of “True Love” (JQ#02), to forget about “worrying” because God is worrying for us and promised to provide for all our needs (JQ#03), then Jesus starts in on some characteristics we should develop as He tells us “not to judge” because that’s God’s responsibility (JQ#04), and that we should pursue the Kingdom as we “Ask-Seek-Knock” (JQ#05), with our goal to be producing “good fruit” for ourselves and for others (JQ#06), so that our “Faith in God” will overcome our “Fears” (JQ#07), and then Jesus says that as His disciples we should follow His Example of “walking the walk” and not just “talking the talk” as He Teaches us by example in JQ#08 how to “put ‘feet’ to our ‘Faith’”. To learn these Lessons and develop the characteristics of Jesus and not share them with others is a huge problem in doing “Kingdom Work” because Jesus says we should take and apply the Lessons that are “in here” to the problem that is “out there”! Jesus Teaches us in JQ#08 the importance of “doing” for the “Kingdom’s Sake” instead of just talking about it. JQ#08 points to the importance of “going” as Matthew writes “So [Jesus] got into a boat, crossed over, came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to [Jesus] a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.’” (Matthew 9:1) In this one verse we see one “action” after another (1) Jesus got into a boat  (2) He crossed over  (3) [He] came to His own city  (4) they brought to Him a paralytic  (5) Jesus saw their faith … then as a result of all these “actions” Jesus (6) forgave the paralytic of his sins and (7) Jesus healed the paralytic and (8) the paralytic took up his bed and (9) walked. Jesus not only accomplished all these miracles but He Taught us that our “Faith in God” is to be used to “help others” and that we are to actually put “Feet to our Faith” for when Jesus sees us “exercising our Faith in God to help others” then Jesus will recognize our “efforts for the Kingdom” and then Jesus will perform miracles in the lives of those that come into contact with our “Faith in God”. Jesus confirmed He wanted us to “exercise” our “Faith” as he commanded “Arise and walk” (Matthew 9:5) — Isn’t it obvious that if we “Arise” and “Walk” in the Name of Jesus and do “Kingdom Work” that we are going to accomplish more than if we just selfishly “Sit” and “Talk” about helping others???

APRIL 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 8) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  (Day 8)  Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, what a glorious feeling when I realize that I have spoken the Name of Jesus and that once the Name is spoken that You Lord are listening, listening to me! Just the concept of “prayer” is amazing but the reality of us being able, regardless of where we are or when it is, regardless of language or social status, when we call on the Name of Jesus that JESUS is right there, immediately, EVERY TIME HIS NAME IS SPOKEN! How that is possible cannot be explained because our thoughts are of finite, mortal terms and JESUS You exist on the Infinite, Divine plane ——— but explanation or not, I know when I call on Your Name Jesus, You are there and You hear my prayers! I KNOW because so many prayers have been answered, and though they were not answered like I thought they should be answered, You knew what was best and answered my prayers in the way that BEST provided for my needs — Lord Jesus, I call Your Name this morning with nothing but PRAISE on my lips and in my heart for the simple, plain fact that I can.      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches us with JQ#07 how to understand “Faith” and to be aware that the enemy will tempt us to view our circumstances through “Fear” instead of “Faith”.

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

Jesus Teaches us with this Lesson that the best weapon to use on “Fear of the world” is our “Faith in God” and it fits very nicely in the sequence of Question/Lessons  because after Teaching us that when we plant the Word of God in our hearts and let the seeds of “Faith in God’s Provisions” take root deep in our soul that we will soon start seeing fruit in our lives as God adds the miracle of life to the seed! The “First Fruit” that starts to grow from the “Spiritual Seeds” that Jesus plants in our hearts that we have prepared by being open to the Teachings of Jesus  is “FAITH in GOD” which will grow into a mature fruit if we first plant the “Seed of the Word” in our hearts and nourish it with “Living Waters” ——— there are always the weeds of sin taking root in our hearts that are nothing more than the “cares of this world” which we must constantly be “weeding out” of our lives so that the Word of God will grow strong in our hearts and we will be able to harvest the fruit of the Spirit which we can use for our personal nourishment. In God’s economy each plant will produce enough fruit to be able to “Share” with others! When we first start out on our Christian Journey of Faith, we are like young lambs and we all know that the “Wolves of this world” prey on the weak, the crippled, and the very young! To know that Jesus is the “Good Shepherd” and we are part of His flock should give us great comfort — and the more we read in His Word the more we can build “FAITH” in His Abilities! With each page we turn we can see that Jesus has never lost a lamb and every time He confronts us He is always teaching us to “Fear not”!  Jesus takes this passage in Matthew 8:23-27 and reassures us that “Fear” is a “weed” and that “Faith in God” is a “sharp hoe” and if we want the Word of God to grow strong roots and produce good fruit in our lives that we will make “Faith in God” more important in our lives than the “Fear of the world” and that “Faith” in the One that even the “winds and the sea obey Him” is more important to our growth than the little weeds of fear that the world constantly attacks us with. Jesus was very pointed when He asked us about our “fears” in JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) ——— Jesus immediately points out that we are “fearful” because we have not grown our “faith in God” to the point that we are producing the “Good fruit” from planting the seeds of God’s Word in our hearts which will nourish our “Spirit” and give us the inner strength to laugh at the weeds of this world as we remove them with our “Faith in God” and sing “Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine!” Which would you rather do, let the weeds choke the “life” out of your “Faith in God” or would you rather use your “Faith in God” to choke the weeds out of your “life”?

APRIL 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS + + + REMEMBERING RESURRECTION SUNDAY + + +

APRIL 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  + + +  REMEMBERING RESURRECTION SUNDAY     + + +                  

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

>>>EASTER WAS APRIL 12 IN 2019 — THIS SHOULD HAVE POSTED THEN BUT IS BEING POSTED TODAY APRIL 21, 2020 BECAUSE THE RESURRECTION IS HISTORICAL FACT AND WILL FOREVER BE REMEMBERED IN TRUTH, EVEN IF WE AREN’T ABLE TO GATHER IN A BUILDING, JESUS HAS ALREADY DEFEATED DEATH AND THE GRAVE IS EMPTY!<<<

Jesus, Lord Jesus, the Only Begotten of the Father, Son of the Living God, my Redeemer, Savior, You are the Christ! You Lord are the fulfillment of Prophecy, You lived the Perfect Life, You Suffered as the Perfect Sacrifice and Paid the Penalty that I could not pay, You died in my place, Your side was pierced as You were hanging Dead on the Cross, Your Body was Broken, Your Blood was Shed, You were laid in a grave! You Lord, being Loved by the Father was Obedient even unto death and the grave and on the Third Day You AROSE and the Greatest Testimony ever given was proclaimed: “HE IS ALIVE”!!!  As a follower of Jesus Christ there can be no greater TRUTH in our life — JESUS IS THE RESURRECTION!!! Praise God!!!       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

RESURRECTION SUNDAY is THE DAY celebrated by the followers of Christ because on this “first day of the week” (John 20:1) the tomb was found EMPTY! This was of great concern for Pilate who had earlier asked Jesus “What is truth?” (John 18:38), for after he heard the news of the death of Jesus, Pilate“commanded that the crucified body [of Jesus] to be given to [Joseph of Arimathea]”. (John 19:38)  When Joseph of Arimathea had “taken the [dead] body [of Jesus down from the cross], he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.” (Matthew 27:57-60). To insure the stone stayed in place and the body of Jesus stayed in the tomb, the chief priest and Pharisees that  were responsible for having Jesus crucified went to Pilate and said that Jesus had said “After three days I will rise” and they requested from Pilate “that the tomb be made secure until the third day…” and “Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.” (Matthew 27:62-66). We celebrate the Empty Tomb because the seal was broken, the stone was rolled away, the guards were gone — we celebrate the DEATH, BURIAL, and the EMPTY TOMB of JESUS because they are the realization that it is the RESURRECTION OF JESUS, the Son of the Living God that demonstrates the Divine Power of God to give life and that death and the grave were defeated by the Divine Power of the Living God “[who] loved the world so much that He GAVE His only begotten Son [as the Sacrificial Lamb to pay for the penalty of sin] that whosoever believes in [Jesus] shall not perish but have everlasting life!” (John 3:16) We celebrate the EMPTY TOMB on RESURRECTION SUNDAY because it is on this DAY that JESUS WAS RESURRECTED and reminds the world that GOD HAS POWER over life and death and He promised Eternal Life to those that BELIEVE GOD RESURRECTED His Only Begotten Son Jesus from death and the grave! Nowhere in the scriptures do we read any contradiction to this great TRUTH OF GOD that has been celebrated on the first Sunday after the paschal moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox, the date may vary from March 22 to April 25 but the occasion never changes, HE IS RISEN!!!! 

>>>2020 NOTE: THE CORONA VIRUS HAS NO POWER OVER ETERNITY — HE THAT CONTROLS ETERNITY SAID - “YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL”

APRIL 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 7) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 7) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Praise You Lord just for the simple fact that You are there every day so that we can awake to a new day that You have provided for us. Lord, we don’t stop to think about the fact that You are there listening to our prayers when we go to sleep, You are there to comfort us when we awake in the night and cannot sleep, and then when we awake in the morning You are right there to greet us with the best of “Good Mornings” !!! We never stop to consider that You never sleep but are always right by our side!! Regardless of our need, You are there to hold our hand, dry our tears, or simply nod Your head in calm reassurance that everything will be alright for You have taken care of everything, just like You promised! Lord Jesus, may I never lose sight of the Divine Truth that You never lose sight of me!       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches us by introducing a “precept” and reveals a “Truth of God” from that “precept” and then Jesus asks us one of His “Introspective” Questions which in order to honestly answer His Question we must look inside ourselves and dig out our core beliefs and then challenge those core beliefs with this new “precept” and “Truth of God”.

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

It is only by this sequence of “Precept” followed by “Truth of God” then applying them to our core beliefs “Introspectively” that we come to understand that God wants only good for us. The simple fact that God wants “Good” for us goes against the “Every-man-for-himself” secular philosophy that our society believes we have to accept. Just by making the statement: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7) Jesus introduces a concept foreign to our “dog-eat-dog” modern lifestyle. When Jesus then ties the “precept of Ask-Seek-Knock” to the “Truth of God” that “…everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened…” (Matthew 7:8) we gain an insight to God that we had not formerly considered, and that is that God Himself is making us a personal promise that if we follow His directions (Ask-Seek-Knock) that He promises us success! The “Truth of God” found in this Lesson is that to “guarantee our success” all we need to do is “follow God’s directions”! There are no strings attached and nothing for us to sacrifice to gain success except that we must learn to “Trust God” and “lean not on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Jesus gets us thinking about changing our internal values and core beliefs and that’s when He drives the point home to our souls with “Introspective Questions” like: (1) “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9)  (2) “Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:10) and concludes with (3) “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11) It is a win-win when you learn to give up your foolish pride and accept directions from the God of All Things who refers to Himself as our “Father in heaven” and promises to “give good things” to His [sons and daughters] that Trust Him enough to “ask” Him”!  Don’t you think that giving up your stubborn will to “do-it-myself” is a small price to pay for such Divine success, after all, if the God-that-Can-Do-All-Things can’t keep His Promise, what chance of success do you think you have in putting your “hope” in sinful man, or even worse, in your sinful self???  

APRIL 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 6) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

APRIL 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 6) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, as always, this time that I spend directly with You in the form of prayer is the most important part of my day. Lord Jesus, it is not always easy to look at the necessity to daily “pick up our cross and follow you” without a little worldly apprehension on our part but then it is Your Peace that makes me realize there is no other Name that we can call on for “Peace” — and it is Your Cross and us carrying our cross that brings  Your Peace into our daily life!  Lord Jesus, only You have the Words of Eternal Life and we can say when we feel our cross is getting a little to heavy for us to bear — Lord Jesus I know I can do this if You will just help me — for You Lord carried Your Cross to the point of success that You could declare with Your dying breath “It is finished”! O Lord Jesus, give me the strength to endure to the end of these earthly trials to where I to can finish my race with confidence in the Only Begotten of the Father and proclaim as I enter into Your Rest — “It is finished” and I can hear You say “Well done thy good and faithful servant!”.       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus so far in this Summary Review of His first 13 JESUS Questions has Taught us in JQ#01 to consider our own personal responsibility to the Kingdom of God then with JQ#02 Jesus Taught us that we need God’s GPS for our journey to Him because whenever we stray off the path we just need to remember that the “Love of God” will never steer us wrong and will keep us on the “Straight-and-Narrow” path to the “Kingdom of God”. JQ#03 opened our eyes to God’s great Provisions for us and because He cares so much for us that we should “Trust God” in “all things” and we should not “worry” about any earthly things because the Heavenly Father has promised that He will take care of us because He has chosen to “Love” us!

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

To keep things personal Jesus then Teaches us that just as we “Trust God” for our “physical” needs that we should also realize that God wants to take care of our “Spiritual” needs as well. In this review so far we have found that Jesus not only makes it personal with JQ#04 “What gives you the right to judge?” He also makes it serious as He warns us that our own worst enemy is ourselves as He emphatically uses the term “Hypocrite!” (Matthew 7:5). The fact that this is a personal issue is established when Jesus first states the problem: “JUDGE not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1) and then Jesus makes us aware that if we take on the personal responsibility to “judge others” then we will be held personally responsible for having “judged ourselves” in a like manner! Jesus declares the “Consequence” of us choosing to be the “judge” when He states: “For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2) When you think about the fact that God just told you that He was going to provide for you if you will “Trust Him” (in JQ#03) then why should we try to take God’s Job as “Judge of the Universe” away from Him? Indeed, why should we take all that responsibility of “judging others” on ourselves in JQ#04 — especially just after giving all our “worries” to Him in JQ#03? Jesus keeps us focused on the fact that if we are going to “Trust God” with “some things” that we should “Trust God in All things” for we are the created and He is the Creator; therefore, we should let Him “judge” others for He “knows-all-things” and can see everything from a Divine Perspective while we are sinners and at best our “judgement” will always have a degree of personal bias to it — so Jesus says the best way to prevent us “sinning” against God is to “not judge” others for we will be a “hypocrite” if we say we “Trust God” but do not let Him do His job. Jesus Teaches us with JQ#04 that we do not have the “right to judge others” because the “right to judge” belongs to God and God Alone! After all, why should we “Trust” a God that needs our help in deciding what is “Right or Wrong”?  Once we start down the path of assuming for ourselves the responsibility designated to the Divine Creator then we will quickly find that we are unable to navigate through the “Infinite” with our severely limited “finite” intellect! Don’t you think the safest path is to follow the route Jesus has already traveled and has Successfully reached His Divine Destination by following the True Way designated by God the Father?