MAY 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

MAY 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, just saying Your Name stirs my soul in a way that no other name does! Lord, when I consider that I have just uttered the Name of the Everlasting God and that I have uttered it with the “Hope” and “Expectation” that I have gained an audience with the Creator, I can not fully comprehend why the Lord of lords and King of kings would listen to me? And when I consider it further, I am even more amazed, for the very reason I feel unworthy is the very reason that God sought me out — it is because of the fact that I am a sinner that He cares about my eternal soul and because God cares for every individual soul He sent a solution to correct the sin problem — the solution to my sin is to give my sin to Jesus because Jesus was sent from God as a “Gift” of Love to those that are lost in sin so that our sins can be forgiven just by calling on the Name of Jesus! O the Mystery of God that He cares enough for me to provide for my forgiveness — Praise His Holy Name and Glory to God!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus had been performing miracle after miracle for the multitudes and as the number of miracles grew, so did the multitudes following Jesus. The multitudes kept growing and Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude… and I do not want to send them away hungry…” and the disciples who had just witnessed Jesus performing miracle after miracle knew the Power of these miracles was God’s ability to provide for the needs of the multitudes, even in a wilderness setting. However, these disciples that had witnessed the Power of God jumped to a wrong conclusion of the statement Jesus had just made because they assumed that Jesus was going to do what He had done with the feeding of the five thousand where Jesus had commanded the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:16). However the disciples made the same mistake we make in our daily lives as we see God provide for our daily needs in a way that only God can do and then when the next need arises we seem to forget that God took care of us before and we let the world throw doubt into our carnal minds!  When we look close at what Jesus said about “compassion” for the “multitudes” we see that He did not command the disciples to look for food, all Jesus had said was “I do not want to send them away hungry…” and the self-centered disciples, just like us blurted out “Well what do you want us to do about it?” Jesus then asked this very important question to bring the disciples back to reality by asking JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) I can hear in that question Jesus saying to us, “When was the last time I failed to provide for your needs?” We are the creation and He is the Creator so we must Trust Him to equip us to accomplish that which He tasks us to do, be it feed ourselves or to feed 4000 in the wilderness! God has always provided in the past so why do we let the world make us think that God will abandon us in the future or that this time we are “on our own”?!?  Look at His Question and understand that by Him asking the disciples “How many loaves do YOU have?” Jesus is really saying to the disciples, “Look guys, the Father fed 5000 so do you think He has run out of bread, because surely YOU don’t think YOU have enough bread to accomplish that which only God the Creator can do?”!?!?!  Why is it that we fail to give God the Glory when every time we see God work we somehow think that He is doing His “last miracle” and we let the world convince us that God’s “magic lamp” will no longer work so we should return to our sin!?!? Jesus asked that Question to the disciples to bring them back to the reality that God’s Mercy and Grace endures Forever and His Provisions are both Limitless and Eternal!!! If we will but put what we have into His Capable Hands that He will Bless what we turn over to Him and we will be “filled” and we will find the Truth of God that He “is the Everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth, He will never grow tired and weary and His understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28) ——— just think how many loaves of bread that God has provided to the world since the Garden of Eden ——— and yet we ask God by our doubt: “Are You getting tired yet God?” ——— like we could take over for Him now that He is tired and is no longer able to keep the stars in orbit or the sun rising in the sky every morning and we with our limited understanding will keep the universe spinning right along with our great scientific knowledge that cannot even explain how a bumble bee flies !?!?!? Really, how many grains of wheat have you created??? 

MAY 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

MAY 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord each day You are there to draw us closer, even if we have drifted and stumbled in our earthly weakness and Lord Your Faithfulness to be there for us shines like a beacon of Hope for us, no matter how dark the night. Lord forgive me for not abandoning myself totally to You and the Father’s Work for You are Worthy and You have blessed me so abundantly that there is nothing to hold me back except my selfishness. You have NEVER failed to provide for my needs yet Lord I find myself worrying about tomorrow at the expense of the “Joy” I could have in You today. Lord Jesus, grant it that my “faith in You” will grow to be called “great” and that all my desires will be for You and that there be no thought of “self” except for the fact that I have abandoned my “self” to You.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is always the Son of God and He is always Teaching us the Truth of God so that our Faith in God will become the cornerstone of our daily lives that we may live the “Abundant Life” that God desires for each of us. When we look at this Question Jesus asked in Matthew 15:34 JQ#17: “How many loaves do you have?” our worldly tendency is to think to ourselves “This is really a simple question” and we miss the Great Lesson that Jesus is Teaching! The more I read the scriptures, the more I realize that there are Lessons in every story, in the order of the stories, in the number of stories, in the people of the stories, and certainly in all the Words that our Lord and Savior used to convey the “Truth of God” to the lost and dying world He came to SAVE! Study the Word enough and one glaring Divine Question emerges as one of those “Truths of God” and that question is: “Why would the all-knowing God of all creation, send His Son to the earth with the Plan of Salvation and the Gift of Eternal Life, and then waste His time and energy by asking such insignificant questions like ‘How many loaves do you have?’” Indeed, why would the Master Teacher ask about bread when He Himself has declared, “I Am the Bread of Life”? The “simple” Question becomes “significant” when we realize that God does not need us for anything, especially knowledge about His creation, nor does God need us to supply information to Him about loaves of bread, so the Question must be viewed not as a Question for His benefit or knowledge but for ours. To start understanding the “simple-but-significant” Question we must look to our faith in the Divine Character of God and know that Jesus coming to earth, taking on flesh, suffering on the cross, and defeating death and the grave was not so that we could inform Him of the number of loaves of bread we have! If Jesus asks us what appears to us as a “simple” Question we should immediately stop and look at the context of the Question and remember who it is that it is asking it. In this instance, Jesus had healed a woman’s daughter of severe “demon-possession” and stated to the woman, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” and then Matthew records “And her daughter was healed that very hour.” (Matthew 15:28) As soon as Jesus had healed the woman’s daughter and made His declaration about her “faith”, He “departed from there…went up on the mountain…then great multitudes came to Him.” (Matthew 15:30) Why the multitudes had come to Him is obvious — because Jesus had been healing, casting out demons, and doing “Kingdom Work” and it was obvious to those that were coming to Him that He had something to give them and that “something” that Jesus had and was freely giving to the multitudes was from God and well worth seeking Him out for! Matthew records that the multitudes that came to Him “[brought] …with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing and they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:29-31) Then in this setting of the multitudes glorifying God for the great works Jesus had been doing in the Father’s Name and for the Kingdom’s Sake,  “Jesus called His disciples to Himself” and made this statement to them before asking them the “simple” Question about bread —Jesus said, “I have compassion on the multitudes, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” (Matthew 15:32) Note that Jesus did not have to ask the Question until His disciples failed the “faith” test because they failed to look at the situation as an opportunity to glorify God ——— but instead the disciples questioned the ability of God to provide for the multitudes that He had just healed! The disciples, instead of asking “how” God was going to accomplish this great feat, they asked, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” (Matthew 15:33) It was at this point that Jesus begins His Lesson and He started it with JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) Once we see the context of the Question and consider “who” is asking and “why” is He asking us about the numbers of loaves in our possession, the question is no longer simple but is very serious! The real question here is “Do you question the ONE that has never failed to provide for the needs of the world or are you going to try to accomplish God’s Work with your meager means?” After all,  if you’re going to feed the multitudes yourself, then I guess it would be smart to inventory how much bread you have the ability to provide! Perhaps we need to read what Isaiah said about the Earthly Mission of Jesus: “As the rain and snow comes down from heaven (Jesus IS the Living Water that became flesh and dwelt among us) and does not return there without watering the earth, causing it to bud and flourish, so that it brings forth seed for the sower and  bread for the eater, so is [My Word] that goes forth from My mouth, [My beloved Son Jesus]  will not return to Me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent [Him]!” (Isaiah 55:10-11)  Remember always that Jesus is the Bread of Life and if you share Jesus then you have shared the One that can feed 5000 with two loaves and 5 fish and still gather up 12 baskets of left-overs!!! Without God we hunger, but with God we have plenty — more than enough!!!

MAY 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

MAY 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord You are always Teaching and every Lesson is intended for our good so my prayer Lord is that my attention to “learning Your Truth” will be sharpened and my focus will be completely on Your Word. Lord Jesus, open my eyes that I may see Your Truth and that it may soften this heart that has been hardened and defiled by the doctrines of the world that  I have allowed to enter into my life and become the desires of my heart. Lord create in me a clean heart like You did in David for I also claim You as my Shepherd and Trust You to lead me in paths of Righteousness for Your Name’s Sake!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never ceases building “precept upon precept” and we see that with each attack on the Character and the Truth of God that Jesus is able to take that attack and expose the attackers and accomplish the Mission of bringing God’s Truth back into focus in our daily lives. The main weapon against the enemy is living a life of God’s Truth and being consistent in how we treat others as Jesus demonstrates with JQ#17. In JQ#16 Jesus had used the attack from the Pharisees who claimed the disciples of Jesus were “breaking Jewish tradition” by eating with “unwashed hands” and Jesus Taught them that any tradition they observed that was not in line with God’s Commandments would end up in “Judgement” and Jesus pointed out the Truth of God that God is the Judge of all men and when Judgement Day comes that it will be God sitting in the Judgement Seat  — God will not use the “laws of men” but God will use His Commandments to pass Judgement on all to determine our right in the eyes of God to enter His Kingdom. God has established the requirements that will make us “legal heirs” to His Kingdom and that is the Standard by which God has declared and has made known through His Only Begotten Son whom God Resurrected from death and made Victorious over the grave and the Truth of God Taught by Jesus is the Only Truth that God will use on Judgement Day to separate the “wheat from the tares” (Matthew 13:24-30).  As soon as Jesus had Taught the Lesson of “man’s tradition” verses “God’s Commandments” we read: “Then Jesus went out from there and departed to [another region]…” (Matthew 15:21) and there Jesus resumes doing the “Father’s Work” He was sent to do, which is what Jesus has been doing with His earthly Ministry all along, He has been healing infirmities, casting out demons, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, and feeding the multitudes. Aside from the immediate individual and personal help these Acts of God accomplished, they also provided Teaching Tools which in the Hands of the Master Teacher are Miracles within themselves. The first healing recorded after Jesus Taught the “traditions of men” vs. “Commandments of God” Lesson was a woman who had brought her daughter who was “severely demon-possessed” to Him.  This woman received her requested healing after she persisted in acknowledging the Power of God as she addressed Jesus as “O Lord, Son of David” (Matthew 15:22) and continued to cry out to Him and “then she came and worshiped Him, saying ‘Lord, help me!” (Matthew 15:25) The woman’s only credentials she presented to get the healing for her demon-possessed daughter was that she believed that Jesus was the Son of David and God’s Chosen One and she directed her request to the One that had proved by His Works that He was the Son of God. So we can see the importance of why Jesus was always doing the “work of the Father” to demonstrate to those that would believe that Jesus was sent by God would be healed by God and their sins would be forgiven! ***It should be noted that the first Lesson Jesus Taught after the “tradition vs. Commandment” Lesson was a Lesson about “healing” a young person that was “severely demon-possessed” and it is my opinion that when a society gets “possessed” by following “Godless laws” and rejecting God’s commandments, that same society is under some form of “demonic anti-God possession”. My reasoning is that rejecting God comes from a “personal desire to be our own God” and we ask the same question that the demons asked Jesus when they wanted to know what God had to do with them? *** It is a personal decision to accept living by “tradition” without making the assessment that if “tradition of men” (legal or not by whatever government passed the immoral law) goes against a Commandment of God or not? How can an individual decide to go against God’s Commandment just because a majority of men decide to legislate that it is “legal” by the government’s “authority” to “transgress the Commandment of God”? Certainly you must agree with the logic that if one chooses to follow man instead of following God that there is some form of “anti-God possession” that accounts for one making such a poor choice!?!?  

MAY 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

MAY 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord my day does not really start until this time that I spend with You in prayer.  I thank You for “prayer” and that You have promised to “hear” all prayers that are prayed to You in the Father’s Name and for the Kingdom’s Sake. Lord, when it seems we are all alone and the world is against us we hear Your encouragement to believe You have “been-there-done-that” and that You remind us not to let the world’s hate and rejection get to us because the world hated and rejected You first and You have overcome the world! Lord my prayer is to stay focused on You and Your Commandments to “not fear” and to “love others” as You showed us True Love, the Love You have for us even though You were hated and rejected, yet You died on a cross for us and then on the Third Day You rose Victorious from death and the grave and You reminded us that Your desire is for us to be with You in Your Kingdom! Lord Jesus, let me live with my eyes on You and my heart on Your Kingdom.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never let the Truth of God be swept under the carpet of “tradition” established by those that “lord” themselves over the general public. We see the same problem in our society today as was this problem that Jesus addressed in this part of His Ministry on earth ——— the problem is that when a group of self proclaimed elitist from a society elevates themselves above the general public and then “legislates” how the general public should live then they are in effect usurping the sovereignty of God who has already established (Commanded) how the whole of society should live. The results of abusing the trust that the general public puts in their government is what we see today in the form of “laws” being passed for the general public that actually go against the commandment of God, abortion being the most glaring example! It is most obvious that Jesus was addressing this issue when He asked the Pharisees “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3  JQ#16) Jesus is pointing out that the real problem was more than just the “washing of hands”!  Jesus was Teaching us the Truth of God that God Says what He Means and He Means what He Says and there is no reason for man to add to or subtract from the Commandments of God. There is always a group in every society that desires God’s Power for themselves and sadly that group tends to elevate themselves into government positions and then by the “power of legislation” in the name of “the public good” the governing elitist actually take away the God-given freedoms and liberty from the general public and create in effect “government slaves”. God intends for all men to be free and when a society uses any standard other than God’s standard for living a “Free” life, then every law established as “legal-by-man” that goes against a commandment of God serves as another chain around the neck of the society in general. Jesus made it clear that this was important when He “called the multitudes to Himself” (Matthew 15:10) and Taught: “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:10-11) Then when His disciples said the Pharisees were “offended” by His statement against their “Traditional laws” Jesus passed Divine Judgement on them, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” (Matthew 15:13) and then Jesus called them “the blind leading the blind” and said “…both will fall in a ditch!” (Matthew 15:14) When Peter then asked Jesus to “explain” what He meant, Jesus quickly said to Peter, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man…” (Matthew 15:15-20) Jesus makes it clear that just because a man desires to do something against the commandments of God and has stolen from the general public the power to legislate it into “law”, that if our desires are against the commandments of God then those desires will defile us, regardless of how many generations of men accept it as “tradition” or how many “laws” the government passes that every single one of those man-made laws and traditions will “transgress the commandment of God” and will “defile” all who follow “traditions and laws” passed by man apart from the commandments of God! We are between a rock and a hard spot in America today because as a society we are under “government law” and many laws are being enforced as “tradition” in the form of “the law of the land” but in reality if we are disciples of Christ we must “understand” that any law that “transgresses the commandment of God” is not “legal” in God’s Holy Judgement and when God’s Judgement Comes do you think that we will see a copy of the U. S. Constitution and Bill of Rights on the table before the Judge of the Universe or perhaps we will see a simple list of Ten Commandments that have never been amended by the One True God?

MAY 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

MAY 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord and Savior, again today as I read previous prayers to start my day, I am simply amazed at how Faithful You have been to teach me in ways that I could not imagine would teach me how to grow my faith in Your Faithfulness! Here is a prayer written in 2004 that is as timeless as is Your Glory — “Jesus, you alone have the right to claim a kingdom over man and You alone will be the Great LORD and Master over ALL living things. All but Thee have sinned and all but Thee have fallen short of the Glory of God. Lord forgive us in our weakness of the flesh ——— I pray and praise Thee and I acknowledge as did the Apostle Paul that I do the things I shouldn’t and then I don’t do the things I should?!?! O Lord, I will keep turning to Thee and praying for forgiveness and will continue to start each day looking to walk in Your Ways as I come humbly to You in Spirit and in Truth.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus will continue to Teach us in ways that we often miss in the first reading of a particular Lesson but Jesus moves our focus always to the Truth of God so if we but look again at His Lesson for the Truth of God that is always at the Heart of every Jesus Lesson, we will have our “spiritual” eyes opened and we will “see by Faith” the Goodness and Truth of God!  The Holy Spirit has again led me to “extend” the context of this JQ#16 to include the next several verses through Matthew 15:20 as I had missed the “Truth of God” when I read the text the first time through. The context from Matthew 15:1 through Matthew 15:20 should be carefully studied to gain “spiritual” insight for the JESUS Question of why do we as a society give “man-made traditions” so much authority while we fail to give God His Rightful Authority over ALL things! The Truth of God is that in our daily lives that when we stop to consider our “traditions” we miss the obvious Truth of God that we never give proper consideration as to where our “traditions” originate — from God or from man? This is very similar to the Question Jesus asked the Pharisees when they accused Jesus of breaking the “traditional law of the Sabbath” of the Pharisees regarding Jesus and His disciples when they were plucking heads of grain and eating them on the Sabbath and of Jesus healing a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath also. Jesus answered their question by telling them the Truth of God that “Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12) and the Pharisees saw that their “traditional/man-made law” has no argument against the “Truth of God”. Now once again we see the Pharisees questioning Jesus as to another “tradition” that the Pharisees were using against Jesus and that was the tradition of the washing of hands before the eating of bread ——— if Jesus would stop and correct the Pharisees about “traditions established by man”, then we too should stop and learn the Lesson Jesus found important enough to stop and Teach, especially when it concerns the “traditions” that we tend to live by in our daily lives. Matthew records this Teaching of the Truth of God “Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they [the disciples] do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (Matthew 15:1) Jesus at this point exposes the problem with their “traditions” when compared to the “Truth of God” as Jesus turned their question around and posed to the Pharisees regarding “their traditions”  JQ#16: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your traditions?”  (Matthew 15:3) By taking their accusation against Him and using it to question their “traditions”, Jesus had once again drawn our attention to one of our daily weaknesses we live with and that is that we have been taught and are being taught on a daily basis what is packaged as “accepted traditions” that do not glorify God! I know that in growing up, many, many things I was taught was because that was the way everyone in my immediate family was taught — I now look back and see that many of my friends were doing what they were taught by their families so I have to ask the question, if we both do what is taught as “tradition” and there is a conflict in our “traditions” then who is right? I can now from my studying of the Word of God see why God has been spending so much energy in Teaching us to “know” the “Truth of God” and to evaluate our “traditions” as to their origination. I am grateful that my family was a Bible-believing family and our “traditions” were based on God’s Word and I am convinced that today’s world needs to evaluate if the “traditions” they are using to live their lives come from the True and Living God or from the “traditions of men”? There can be only One Truth and that One Truth is the Truth of God, and if every one lived by God’s commandments there would never be any conflict in our beliefs? Don’t you agree that if we continue to disagree that there will never be any hope for peace? It is a Truth of God that a house (or nation) divided against itself can not stand and that is certainly true if we consider trying to follow everyone’s personal preferences! Somewhere, somehow, we must unite under one single TRUTH and I prefer a tradition that teaches “Eternal Life and Forgiveness” — what “tradition of men” do you think would be better than the commandments of the “Life-Giving God offering Forgiveness of sin” to bring world peace? 

MAY 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

MAY 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are worthy to be Praised even if not a single person did so. Your Mercy and Grace are extended to All, believers and non-believers receive Your Blessings and one gives Praise and Thanksgiving and the other rejects the gifts of God, yet acceptance and rejection are no reflection on Your Glory but merely a reflection of who we are. Lord forgive me when I think that my thoughts have anything to do with who You really are! What we believe about God is as A. W. Tozer writes to open his book “Knowledge of the Holy”, the “…most important thing about us…” but our “belief” about who God is has no bearing on who God IS nor on God’s Holy Character ——— God IS God because He IS God and His Character is solely determined by what God chooses to reveal about Himself to us and the TRUTH of who He IS, is in no way associated with what we believe about Him!!! Lord Jesus, I Praise You because You are Worthy of our Praise.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been Teaching the “multitudes” with one style and His disciples with another and I believe Jesus Taught according to each ones need because Jesus can use the same event but Teach different Lessons at the same time accordingly to the needs of the one that Jesus is Teaching to ——— Jesus is just that good! Jesus proves His consistency and His “Fairness” by always Teaching the Truth of God and Jesus makes His Lesson personal and intimate or global in nature depending on the needs of His followers. JQ#16 is the second time that Jesus has used the term “Hypocrite!” in His Teachings as we see in Matthew 7 that Jesus was Teaching the multitudes that we should not judge others (JQ#4) for if we “say to your brother ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye…” and miss the “plank” in our own eyes then Jesus used the term “Hypocrite!” to describe us judging others and overlooking our own faults which in reality are worse in God’s eyes. (see Matthew 7:2-5) and now in JQ#16 we see that the “scribes and the Pharisees” are questioning Him again as to His Lordship which is very similar to JQ#7 when the Pharisees had questioned Jesus about “lawful” things for the Sabbath and Jesus had answered, “…the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath’.” (Matthew  12:1-8)  In the first instance the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was “lawful” for Him and His disciples to pick heads of grain and to eat them on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8) and Jesus answered their question with a definitive Statement about His Lordship and in this instance Jesus does the Pharisees just like He did Peter and turns their question into an indictment on themselves as the Pharisees asked  “Why do you transgress the tradition of the elders?” (Matthew 15:2) and Jesus turns that back on them and asks  JQ#16   “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)  When we look at the context of this question we see it is directed strictly to the “legalists” (lawyers and politicians of that age) and was not addressing His Question to the “multitudes” in general, so Jesus has directed His Teaching at a specific group, a powerful group that thought that man’s opinion of the law was greater somehow than God’s own written Law! Jesus pointed out that the commandment of “Honor thy father and thy mother…” had been re-written by the Pharisees so that they could “justify” getting around that commandment for the purpose of personal gain! Jesus quickly lets His contenders know that changing the commandments of God even though it be declared “legal” by a governing body of men is a sin in itself! Matthew records for the second time in this type of accusation against His Authority that Jesus using the word “Hypocrite!” to describe His accusers!  (see Matthew 7:5) Jesus is in this instance talking about the Pharisees practice of changing God’s Law to suit themselves and again Jesus uses the term “Hypocrites!”. (Matthew 15:7) Each time the Pharisees try to trap Jesus using their man-made law (the Pharisees interpretation of God’s Law) Jesus points out that God’s Law cannot be changed nor interpreted any way but the way God said it! Jesus makes it perfectly clear with His Question that “your tradition” is wrong if it transgresses “the commandment of God”! Jesus again quotes the Prophet Isaiah to describe the Pharisees: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9 taken from Isaiah 29:13) Jesus has once again taught the specific Lesson needed to what a specific group needed to help them see that there is the SINGLE TRUTH set forth by God and no amount of “legislation” or “popular outcry” from a majority of voters can alter or change in any way the Commandments of God!!! I have to stop and ask a question of our world today, “Why does the world today fight over who has the ‘right’ to establish law when the Law has already been established by the One that first established The Law and has the only True Power to enforce it?”

MAY 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

MAY 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, there are so many things to thank You for and to praise You for just from the good hard days work You gave me yesterday. When I think of “work” from a “physical” viewpoint it doesn’t make sense how to get a blessing from being in the hot sun sweating and fighting off yellow jackets that sting and hurt so bad but when I think of the “physical” from a “spiritual” viewpoint I see that my blessings are overflowing as I was able to have the physical strength to do the physical labor and that I get to do it in Your beautiful Creation! Lord, I come before You again today seeking Your guidance in all that You lay before me and Trust You to give me the “physical” strength to accomplish Your tasks and the “spiritual” strength to give You Praise for Your Provisions!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has just walked on the water and demonstrated to His disciples that He will transfer His Power to those willing to get out of the boat and walk on the water with Him and He also Taught them the Truth of God that indeed we “can do all things through Christ Jesus” but without Him we will drown in the world! That great Lesson was summarized by the writer Matthew as he wrote about the Jesus/Peter encounter where both were walking on the water and Matthew documented that when Peter took note of the world around him instead of keeping his focus on Jesus that Peter began to sink beneath the waves, Matthew records how Jesus reacted: “and [Peter] beginning to sink … cried out, saying, ‘Lord save me!’ and immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught Peter…and when they got back into the boat, the wind ceased.” (Matthew 14:30-32) Matthew then recorded what our response should be when Jesus stretches out His Hand of Salvation from Heaven to all of us that are drowning in a world of sin: “Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, ‘Truly You {Jesus} are the Son of God’” (Matthew 14:33) Matthew continues his summary as he concludes this section “When they had crossed over… [and] the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out …[and] brought to [Jesus] all who were sick…[and all who were brought to Him] were made perfectly well.” (Matthew 14:34-36) So here is Jesus healing the multitudes, demonstrating that by His actions and the “Fruit of His Kingdom Labors” that Jesus IS “Truly…the Son of God” and yet there are those with a different agenda that refuse to believe the “Witness” of the “Good Works of Jesus”. Those that believed that Jesus IS the “Son of God” were all “made perfectly well” and we know that all those people could not have been in the boat with Jesus so their healing “Faith” had to come from “hearing” about the Mighty Works, “Works” that could only be accomplished by the Very Son of God Himself and the cloud of witnesses was so great that the multitudes “believed” and by their “Faith in Jesus” they were “healed”! So why do we see another group of people who have heard the same thing about Jesus want to attack Him? We read in Matthew 15:1-2 that once again it is the “scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem” that came to Jesus but instead of walking on water they were stirring up waves as they questioned Jesus: “Why do Your  disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” (Matthew 15:2) which set the scene for another great “Truth of God” and demonstrates why Jesus is “Truly…the Son of God” ——— or do you believe that just because you don’t believe that somehow your belief will have any affect on the Power of God? Jesus answered the challenge to His Lordship from the Pharisees just like He addressed the challenge from Peter but with completely different results ——— as soon as His Lordship was challenged with a question from the Pharisees, Jesus immediately answered their question with a Question of His own that made the Pharisees look at the Truth of God that Jesus Teaches and not the “lie” that men try to convince each other is “best for the common good?” ——— once again Jesus is making us answer that most important Question that every individual must answer in their individual lives: “Are you going to Trust God and His Truth or are you going to listen to men that tell you a “lie”  that they mistakenly believe is the truth?”