JULY 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, You Lord have done all that could be done and there could be no greater expression of Love than the Gift that the Father gave to the world in the form of Self Sacrifice for the sake of others. Lord it will always be a Mystery why You became flesh and allowed Yourself to be tempted in the flesh in all ways that we are tempted in the world?!?  Why would the King of kings and Lord of lords humble Himself and allow His creation to crucify Him? Lord, instead of questioning “Why” would God choose this path for mankind to enter into eternity and unbroken fellowship with the Father, let me Lord give You Thanks, Praise, and Glory for without You showing us the Way, we would remain lost in our sin. Give us this day our daily bread — for Yours is the kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory FOREVER!!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus IS the Master Teacher and being God He has Infinite Knowledge and Wisdom. Jesus used “His Mastery of Words” to Teach Lessons-within-a-Lesson and in this section in Matthew chapters 17 and 18 Jesus has already used two common everyday words that everyone understands — “fish” and “taxes” — simple little words BUT with our limited finite insight we would never put together in the way Jesus puts them together to Teach us a Lesson-within-a-Lesson and reveal God Himself! Jesus actually performed a miracle with Peter and a fish to explain the “Provisions” of God and while in the process of Teaching us about God’s Provisions for us, Jesus Taught us that God is not limited in His Power in any way and GOD IS the SUPREME POWER in the universe, and also that God has chosen to use that Supreme Power to take care of our daily needs by controlling circumstances in our daily lives to produce a miracle — these two words are “fish” and “taxes” and in only 4 verses (Matthew 17:24-27) Jesus reveals some amazing characteristics of God. If we look at the behavior of God in this passage and in reading the following passages in Chapter 18 we can learn Lesson after Lesson and could spend days just reading these passages and contemplating God and wonder “why” God would go through all the trouble to perform miracles in the first place, let alone understanding “how” God is able to perform miracles at all! Once you start thinking about the “Powers” of God you begin to wonder “Why” God cares about us at all, especially when He spends so much time Teaching us that we are sinners? The very definition of “sin” is “disobeying God” — so why would the Father God send His Only Begotten Son down to earth from heaven (where Jesus is a Third-Part of the Trinity of God) to give up His Divinity and Unlimited Power in heaven to be born flesh (John 1:14) and blood on the earth and dwell among a world that is so disobedient to God? Jesus spent His earthly life living a simple life, He did not hold any office of distinction, He did not have any earthly possessions, and He dedicated Himself to Teaching sinners how to solve their sin problem and the earthly life of Jesus was terminated by the Greatest Lesson ever Taught about God, “For [the Father] made [the Son] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in [Jesus].” (2 Corinthians 5:21) So why does Jesus spend so much time Teaching us that we are sinners — the answer is because His Mission was to teach us the “problem of our sin” and then present us with the “solution to the problem  of our sin”— the successful resolution of our sin problem on earth will be rewarded with eternal fellowship with God in heaven, completely free from sin but if the problem of sin is not resolved in our lives, then the consequence of our sin will be to spend an eternity in “hell fire” where we will be forever separated from God who sent His Son to save us from that hell where we will always know that our eternal agony is because we chose to sin against God ——— if we reject God then by our own choice we will live eternally in a burning hell knowing it was our sin that separated us from God and it is that knowledge of our sin that is the fuel that causes the fires of hell to burn so hot!!! We cannot explain why “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1)  in the first place or why God allowed “sin” to enter into His Perfect Creation and certainly we can’t explain why God would send His Only Begotten Son to Sacrifice Himself on a cruel cross to pay the penalty for OUR SIN — but the real question is: “Now that you know that “Sin IS the Problem” and that “Jesus IS the Solution” what are you going to do about it, will you continue disobeying God and die in your sin and spend eternity separated from God or will you obey God and “Listen to Jesus” and accept the Gift of Eternal Life of Fellowship with God?”

JULY 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS I turn each morning to Your Word and look to the rising sun as Your Promise to never leave us nor forsake us. Lord Jesus, my prayer today is that I can share this “Peace-in-knowing-You” with others that You will place in my path today. Make me mindful that whatever circumstance I find myself in that I will have Your Peace with me always. If I don’t share Your Peace with those that don’t know You, then that becomes a lose-lose-lose situation, they lose because they don’t have You, they lose because without You they can’t have Your Peace, and I lose for I lost an opportunity to grow closer to You by sharing You and Your Peace with the world that is hurting so much because the world has turned from The WORD of GOD! Forgive me when I fail to share the sweet fragrance of Your Love and Peace in my life with others as You have commanded.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus does not Teach us the same Lesson over and over just so that He can hear Himself talk. Jesus who is both Infinite and Divine cannot possibly need to beat our brow for His sake, so when He attacks a problem again and again we must take note and make every effort to learn what He is Teaching. First we must consider the obvious and ask ourselves “Why would a Deity with Infinite Knowledge forfeit His Deity to become flesh and suffer and die at the hands of sinners?”  This is a Mystery of God that can only be answered by God Himself but even if we never get the answer in our lifetime we should not be so foolish as to conclude that because God does not “explain Himself” in terms that our limited intellect can comprehend, that we should decide that God Himself has no relevance in our life! God has revealed Himself as He wants us to know Him from our earthly viewpoint so that we can come to a “spiritual understanding” of God that will open the door to our “eternal” future. I do not have to know how gravity works or be able to explain all the physics associated with gravity to know that gravity exists. Today’s world tells us that God does not exist and that is supposed to be the “Truth” because they have been given a degree in some scientific discipline by some university that has a very high tuition? Both God and gravity defies scientific explanation but we accept gravity because we have felt it working in our daily lives. We say that gravity was “discovered” by Sir Isaac Newton when an apple fell on his head but fail to see the Truth that gravity existed BEFORE it was “discovered” (first, if something does not exist, it cannot be discovered, and second, if gravity didn’t exist before it was “discovered” then what made the apple fall in the first place?) and secondly, even though it was “discovered” it has never been fully explained, but even though science cannot explain gravity, our lives are still impacted by gravity and we simply could not exist without it. We know gravity is “real” because we can see the physical results of gravity such as a falling apple or something so simple as a pencil laying quietly on a table — take away gravity and that pencil and the table will be floating around in the absence of gravity and that is a picture of our world without God holding us “spiritually” in place, we are just floating aimlessly around in space and we are at the mercy of others and we’ll go in the direction of the latest “push” from the powers that are telling us God doesn’t exist and is not relevant in our lives. God is real and can be proven very simply, God can be felt just as real as an apple that falls from the tree but we have to have ourselves in the apples path to feel it and to feel God we must place ourself in His Path. Simply look for Him and His Spirit will touch your heart. Just like our physical body is aware of the presence of gravity, the “spiritual” part of our being will know when it is in the Presence of God. God is an unexplained Spirit and even though it can not be comprehended by our limited physical observations, the Spirit of God is to our soul what gravity is to our body, the Spirit of God keeps us grounded in eternity just like gravity keeps our bodies grounded to this earth on which we temporarily reside.  The Truth of God is that both gravity and God work on us on a personal basis without the explanation of the scientific community and are governed not by man’s laws but by God Himself. To entertain the possibility that God does not exist is to allow others to control the “spiritual gravity” in your life and I personally don’t want those that seek personal power over others to control what they can’t explain, and that goes for both gravity, which by the way it is imperative that I keep in touch with gravity on a personal basis without having to wait on some lawyer or politician telling me how to use my personal gravity and the same is true for my “spiritual gravity” which I do not want to have to wait on some lawyer or politician telling me how to use God who they can’t explain either! God is revealed by gravity and we must make our own “discovery” and admit that if we can explain God or not, GOD EXISTS ——— how else do we explain the things that no scientist will ever be able to explain such as the universe around us and the miracle of life itself that we have observed which can only be explained by the True Existence of a Supreme Power ———  God’s UNEXPLAINABLE Understanding and Power define God Himself !!! There is only One True Eternal Creator God and all else is simply His creation ——— God told Moses “I AM WHO I AM” and that is all the explanation that we need to understand both gravity and God ——— God has declared it, therefore it is, “deal with it”!!!

JULY 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Your Peace is freely offered yet we struggle to release ourselves from the chains of our past sins which You have already won the victory over?!?!? Lord Teach me as only You can that when You died on the cross that it was for ALL sin, EVERY sin of the past, EVERY sin in progress today, and EVERY single sin that we WILL COMMIT in our future!!! Lord let me hear Your words as You gave Your last drop of Precious Blood for the atonement of my sins — “It is finished!” — Yes !!! The Work of God has been accomplished, our sins ARE FORGIVEN !!! Lord do not let me go on trying to drag my sin around with me, I am powerless against it and it is nothing more than dead weight of guilt and shame that drags me down, Lord I lay my sin at Your feet and pray for the spiritual strength of weakness to not pick it up again!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches us a Lesson and we should pay close attention but if Jesus Teaches the same Lesson more than twice it is VERY important that we “think” about it long enough and from the right “spiritual” viewpoint to see the Truth of God that God Himself has declared important enough that He would send His Only Begotten Son to Teach us! It should impress us that God would allow His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON to be born of flesh and suffer innocently through all the temptations that the creation must suffer in this world that was once a paradise but through our own iniquities the world has become a cesspool of sin. Jesus makes it clear that the world is in deep trouble with God and there is an upcoming judgment because of sin — and this is not the first time Jesus has Taught this Lesson! In this section Jesus gives us several warnings, first Jesus tells us that we must change our direction of our convictions of how we live our daily lives when He states: “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Jesus continues stressing the importance of us entering the kingdom of heaven through Him when He says plainly: “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” and then Jesus tacks on a warning, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) So there Jesus says that the “unconverted sinner” will be judged guilty!!! We should note that Jesus Teaches we should “convert” from being men seeking personal “greatness” to being humble like innocent children and if we “think” about that for a minute we will see that when we are “innocent” that we do not seek “greatness” and the problem with seeking “worldly” greatness is that the “road to worldly success” leads down the path of destruction that is paved with sin and that pathway is very broad for our sins are many. Jesus Teaches this same Lesson in the next verse as He warns more severely: “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:7) No one can read this section of scripture and escape the fact that our sins are an “offense” to God and that there is going to be severe penalties to pay for our transgressions against God for Jesus continues to warn us by listing the consequences for our sinful actions. Jesus already listed one consequence (1) “drown in the depth of the sea” and now Jesus throws in several more “visuals” for us to imagine in the form of punishment — (2) “if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you” (Matthew 18:8) — (3) “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you” (Matthew 18:9) Then to make sure we understand that it is sin that causes us to lose our direction Jesus makes a clear definitive statement of why He is on earth Teaching us about sin when He says: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost.” (Matthew 18:11) This section should Teach us that we should “repent” of our sin (which Jesus used the term “convert”) to avoid the penalty of sin that will be judged by God Himself and as always Jesus tells us how to resolve our sin problem and paints a “positive visual” of the judgement when He says that “if” we “convert” we will “see the kingdom of heaven” and twice Jesus used the term “enter into life” then Jesus promises that if we “become as children” we will have “angels” assigned to guard us from sin and that the “Father” in heaven will always look over His “converted” children — and the picture I got was that if I become as a little child that I will have a personal audience with [our] “Father who is in heaven” and be rewarded with eternal life rather than staying lost in my sin and end up with a “millstone hung around my neck” and “drowning in the depth of the sea”. Which vision fits your spiritual eye, being cast into hell fire or entering into life being protected and provided for by our Father in heaven? 

JULY 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

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

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

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

JULY 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, how did mankind make it before You came and sacrificed Yourself for our sins? We all have sinned and fallen short of Your Glory and yet there is always the “HOPE” that Your Sacrifice brings into our world. There is no night so dark that Your Light cannot shine through that darkness nor is there a pit so deep that Your Love cannot reach down and pull us up. Lord Jesus we have the Blessed Assurance that not only are you here for us in our time of need but that You have Promised to NEVER leave us nor forsake us, and that Promise is Eternal!!!  Lord, Savior, Redeemer, take my life and make it wholly Thine and lead me in Your Paths of Righteousness for Your Name’s Sake.           AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus always Teaches in steps that lead us closer to God, but just like steps which must be taken one at a time, we should take care to obtain our “footing” on the new step and stand firm in our faith before trying to attain the next, lest we lose our “footing” and instead of drawing closer to God we stumble and fall away from God as we try to keep our own balance instead of relying on the Truth of God to keep our equilibrium on our Journey to find God Himself. It always helps my understanding of what Jesus is trying to Teach me if I stop and look at where Jesus had my attention focused in the previous Lesson and use that understanding to see the direction that the new Lesson is taking me. Jesus ended His last lesson by declaring in this order: (1) The disciples could not cast a demon out of a man’s son (2) Jesus pointed out their inability to “heal” the boy was linked to the fact that they were “faithless and perverse” because they were depending on their ability and not the Power of God. (3) “And Jesus rebuked the demon [in the boy], and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.” (Matthew 17:18) (4) Jesus then turned to His disciples and explained it was their “unbelief” that caused their weakness and they needed to work on their “faith’” [in God’s Power to work through us] (5) Jesus then referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” and reminded them that as part of His Mission on earth that He was to “be betrayed into the hands of men” (Matthew 17:22) and (6) He would be killed but that “the third day [Jesus would be] raised up” (Matthew 17:23) (7) Jesus performed the miracle of paying the temple tax with a fish Peter caught and demonstrated that God knows our needs without us asking (see also Matthew 6:8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him”) (8) Then Jesus ties the Lesson of working on our faith with Him casting the demon out of the boy with His Lesson on “Who’s the greatest…” by calling a child to Himself and saying that “whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest…” and to me that tied together JQ#20 lesson where Jesus cast the demon out of the boy and now here in JQ#21 Jesus is saying that if we will allow Him to cast out our demons we will become as innocent children in the kingdom of heaven and will be among the “greatest”. (Matthew 18:1-6) Step upon step we learn of God’s Truth just by taking those steps under the Guiding Power of the Teachings of Jesus! Jesus then continues the theme of us daily repenting of our sins caused by our worldly desires as He then reminds us that “offenses [to God by our worldly sins] must come” (Matthew 18:7) but that if we will repent and turn to God that we will “enter into life” — but if we don’t remove the source of sin and repent then we will “be cast into the everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8) Jesus then continues His Lesson and says a second time that we should do whatever it takes to get rid of our sin for “it is better for you to enter into life” than to “be cast into hell fire”!!! (Matthew 18:9) Jesus then reminds us that we must become as innocent children and announces that when we are “converted and become as little children” that “in heaven [that the angels of God’s children] always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10) Jesus then confirms His Mission and our path to heaven and the Father when He clearly states: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” (Matthew 18:11) Step by step Jesus has Taught us that we are lost in our sin and that we must repent of those sins for they are an offense to God and if we repent then Jesus will cast out our worldly demons and we will be converted to children of God and will have angels in heaven watching over us and we will have direct access to our Father in heaven! Can you “think” [there’s that command again] of a better future than to return to your childlike innocence and have a “Loving Father” take care of your every need? 

JULY 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, there is always praise on my lips when my heart dwells on You, God very God, being born of flesh into the physical world as we are and then by Your Life on earth You showed us the “Way” to being “Born of God”  into “His Kingdom” which is “Eternal”. Lord I trust my soul to You, Lord Jesus I know my eternity is in Your hands and that puts a song in my heart and praise on my lips for the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Forgive me of my daily iniquities, truly I have not attained the “perfection” You cheer us towards but Lord You have given me that “Blessed Hope” which my soul holds so dear, Praise and Glory to the Only Begotten of the Father, MY JESUS.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has used two questions from the world so far in this section to teach us multiple Truths of God by answering those questions from the world with Questions of His Own which come from Heaven itself! Remember in Matthew 17:24-27 the first worldly question came from “those who received the temple tax” and their question was to Peter as they asked him, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”. That is about as worldly as it gets and Jesus demonstrated the superiority of the Spiritual over the physical world when Peter went to ask Jesus what to do about taxes? As soon as“[Peter] had come into the house [where Jesus was]…Jesus anticipated [his question]” and before Peter could ask, Jesus started revealing several Truths of God that only this worldly situation could create a circumstance that allowed God to demonstrate His Glory! Too often in life we fail to see that our “worldly problems” are just “spiritual opportunities” to glimpse the Glory of God and His Infinite Provisions of Mercy and Grace [“freely bestowed on all who will believe”]! God demonstrated to Peter the Truth of God that God KNOWS our need even before we ask and God will provide for that need in a way that cannot be mistaken as a “worldly” solution if we will just Trust and Obey the instructions of God. God also demonstrated to Peter the Truth of God that God will use our daily lives to solve our daily problems and that God will equip us with all the tools for success but we must live our lives to honor Him and then we must Trust Him for the results. Peter was a fisherman and though Peter had caught many, many fish before, Peter had never fished the way God told Him to fish and the result was quite a miracle in Peter’s life. The second worldly question came from the disciples themselves as the fell into the worldly trap of “one-upmanship” and asked Jesus, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1) This question from the disciples demonstrated they had not yet grasped the Truth of God that God is the Supreme Power of the Universe and it is the Power of God that had been the True Power revealed in every miracle that Jesus had been performing ——— His healing of the multitudes, the casting out of demons, and the Divine Power that could calm a raging sea! Yet the disciples were be so blinded by the world and the world’s lust for “power” that they could observe all the miracles coming from God and then have the audacity to ask, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” !?!?!? God however, demonstrated yet another Truth of God and instead of slapping a big knot on their dumb heads, Jesus showed His Great Patience with them and instead of a rebuke (which in my opinion we all deserve), Jesus used the worldly circumstance to Teach a great “Spiritual” Truth by using a child as the answer to their question: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him…” and then Jesus answered their “worldly” question with this “Spiritual Truth” — “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4) and with one simple demonstration Jesus showed the superiority of “Spiritual Compassion” over “physical competition”. Now that Jesus had their attention again and knew they were back on the same “spiritual” page with Him, Jesus moved to His next lesson about pre-requisites for entry into the kingdom of heaven  which will reveal even more Truths of God. Just like we would never imagine a “fish” being a solution, we cannot imagine how God can give us insight into heaven using a “child” and then one of the greatest Lessons on Heaven as He introduces us to “lost sheep” — immediately we regress and ask the worldly question: “What in the world does a little child and lost sheep have to do with getting into heaven?” — my scriptural answer to that worldly question is with an angelic question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  (Luke 24:5)  

JULY 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

JULY 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, thank You for this day and I trust You for my daily bread, both physical and spiritual bread that You provide so abundantly that we may truly live. Lord You have demonstrated Your Love and Faithfulness to us both in Your Word and in Your Daily Presence in our lives and especially Lord for the extension of Your Grace to guide me through yet another difficulty in my physical life by healing me spiritually, only You Lord Jesus can know our need and make provisions for us without us expressing that need — You ARE LORD and I bow before You, humbled once again for the Mercy that You give to this sinner. Lord I pray that as I look into the future that my spiritual eyes will stay fixed on the “Light”.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught Peter a multitude of Lessons with the “fish and taxes” miracle and lest we think it was only about how Peter could pay his taxes we should note that the Lessons Peter learned from Jesus surfaced as Peter turned from student to teacher and taught this: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem…Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:14,38). The point is that Jesus used each circumstance in Peter’s life to Teach Peter the importance of looking for the Truth of God in everything in our daily lives and each Lesson will build upon the other until we can understand that God will reveal Himself to us through our daily circumstances, some may be as dramatic as the “fish and taxes” miracle and others may be as simple as going about our daily lives and Trust God to provide our daily needs and reveal His Glory through His Provisions. Jesus always has an “agenda” and is working in our daily lives to bring us to the Truth of God that if we want to “dwell in [the New] Jerusalem with God” that the “Way” to God is through His Son Jesus who became flesh, lived a Perfect life, and made the “Ultimate Sacrifice” that our sins could be forgiven. It is only through the substitutionary Righteousness of Jesus that we can enter into eternal fellowship with the Father — but only if we learn the Lesson Peter learned and we “repent” and are “baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ” and then we will receive the gift of the “Holy Spirit” which is the Ultimate Provision of God in our daily lives. The next Lesson Jesus Taught His disciples after the miracle of the “fish and taxes” was after the disciples “came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” (Matthew 18:1) When I read this I can see myself wanting to “keep up with the Joneses” and added to it the world’s addiction of “doing them one better” as our value system today is based on judging our success based on comparing ourselves to others. The devil has deceived us into not comparing ourselves to others less fortunate than us but we have been tricked into perpetual failure by always comparing ourselves to others that have “more stuff” than we do — this is the same pit even the wealthiest fall into and that “failure” is the desire for “more” instead of realizing we already have “enough”.  Jesus used this question from the disciples to move them one step closer to the “understanding” that true success is not found in collecting material possessions or gathering titles or accolades of men but in the approval of God on our daily lives! As soon as the disciples used the term “greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Jesus used that circumstance to demonstrate a great Truth of God and revealed true “greatness” as Matthew writes: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:2-4). Once again Jesus has revealed a Truth of God through a simple Lesson and demonstrated that when we look to the wisdom of the world that teaches us that “only the strong survive” that we are blinded to the Kingdom Truth that “humility and a child-like faith” are the true path to “spiritual survival”! We must listen to Jesus just like God said to do if we want to know the path to “kingdom success” or are you still one of those that “think” that “the one that dies with the most toys is the winner”?