OCTOBER 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord sometimes Your Blessings are poured out on our Family Night in such a marvelous way that it is hard to imagine greater blessings yet You have promised us Heaven that is even beyond what we can imagine! Lord You are GOOD and I praise You that You have opened my eyes that I can see that You are GOOD ALL THE TIME!!! Lord, I thank You for the answered prayers for our family and the marvelous work You have accomplished in each of our lives and my prayer is that You continue to draw each and every family member to You for You have proven that there is no family unity outside of God but that if we all come to You then we will all be ONE WITH THE FATHER and Lord we saw that this week at our Family Night as the Fellowship with the entire family was so extraordinarily sweet that we knew that You were Present and everyone was aware that God was in our home and in our hearts — there is nothing better to be THANKFUL for than than being in the Will of the Father!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus started His details of the “signs” of the “end of the age” to be marked by His “Second Coming” with the parable of the fig tree putting forth leaves so that we would know that the “season of His coming” was at hand and then He gives us some facts about the “end of the age” as He first states: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) It is hard to imagine someone reading that “Heaven and earth will pass away” and not be a little concerned about the “POWER” that could make both “Heaven and earth” and everything contained in them go “COMPLETELY AWAY”!!! There is a clue to the “source” of the power to destroy both heaven and earth when you read the Words of Jesus that say, “heaven and earth” can be destroyed but that “My Words” cannot be destroyed — which in my simple mind is like the “AXE” telling the log about to be split, “This is going to hurt you more than it will me!” I know that my mind cannot comprehend the “POWER” to “CREATE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING” (which GOD DID by “SPEAKING EVERYTHING INTO EXISTENCE” ) so when I read this statement by Jesus that “Heaven and earth will pass away” that I believe that JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD therefore it is easy for me to believe: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) It is not hard for me then to hear God saying “I brought you into this world and I can take you out!”   In other words, some day we will see it written about the closing out of the history of mankind as we know it: “At the end of the age God destroyed the old creation that He had made in the beginning then God  decided to demolish the originals and create a new heaven and a new earth!” It was the POWER of GOD’S WORDS that brought everything into existence and when Jesus says “My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35) that He is giving us the “TRUE SOURCE OF POWER” that has the ability to “destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28) and compared to destroying the “Heaven and the earth”, destroying “soul and body” should be easy don’t you think? Or are you one of those that still believe there is no God, therefore there is no sin and no heaven or earth so you don’t have to worry about these “fairy tales and fables”?!?!?!?  Personally I am convinced that the body of evidence and the great number of eye-witnesses is sufficient enough for me to make an “informed decision” ——— and I take solace in the fact that Jesus said earlier, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11:25-27) And now Jesus is revealing God the Father and God’s Plan to all “believers” for in the end times it has been revealed that indeed there will be a “Final Judgement” by the Father in which “Heaven and earth will pass away” but the GOOD NEWS is that “[the WORDS OF JESUS HIS SON] will by NO MEANS pass away.” And as all good fairy tales end ——— “And they lived happily FOREVER after!!!” (Sounds like John 3:16 to me!)

OCTOBER 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord each day I wake up and read Your Word and I pray for “daily bread” and then at the end of the day I find my heart overflowing with gratitude for the marvelous things you have done during that day. After giving me a great day, You also grant me a good night’s sleep after which I awake to a new morning and again realize there is yet another day in which I can observe Your Glory and marvel at Your Provisions for our daily lives!!! Provisions such as the air we breath and the circumstances You lay out daily before us as opportunities to “serve” the kingdom — Lord, thank You for revealing the enormous blessing of “serving” You and for giving us the privilege of “serving others” in Your Holy Name. Lord I praise You for the daily “infilling” (to overflowing) of Your Holy Spirit, and my prayer is simply to be a good steward of Your Abundant Provisions, both physical and Spiritual!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus admonished us to “learn this parable from the fig tree” and we miss on first reading that Jesus is telling us that there will be “signs” from our daily day-to-day existence that God will use to communicate to those that will “listen”. All Israel saw fig trees everyday in their day-to-day existence and we today can use our own eyes to see fig trees and know if they are bearing fruit or not. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist who had come to be a “witness” of the coming Messiah and to “make straight the way of the Lord” John the Baptist explained about “signs” when he said: “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”  (John 1:33-34) John proved that he was the “Witness” sent by God and his testimony was simple and to the point — John had “seen” what the Holy Spirit had told him to observe and then John told the “TRUTH” of his observation and gave this “testimony” of Jesus, the One that John had just baptized — “this is the Son of God.” John had been told to look for a “sign” and when John saw the “sign” with his own eyes while doing what John had been doing on a daily basis, the fact that the Holy Spirit had told John to watch for a “sign” BEFORE it happened, that when it did happen and John could see with his own eyes and recognize it as a “sign” from God Himself, John was able to say confidently about Jesus “this IS the Son of God.”!!!  So we also if we “learn the parable from the fig tree” like Jesus has told us BEFORE it happens, that when it does come to pass that we can “see” with our own eyes the “sign” and we also can proclaim as John did, “this IS the Son of God.”!!! God has always told us BEFOREHAND what HIS PLAN is and our advantage today in our modern age is that it is all written down for us in the Holy Bible to use as a list of “signs” that have been fulfilled already and then there are those “signs” that are yet to be completed. God has made it simple and has given us the ability to “see” Him in our daily day-to-day existence - that’s why Jesus tells us the parables about “watching” for the “signs” and then Jesus says, “Therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:44) and to really make us focus on what God expects of us Jesus asks, “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45) ——— after all, let us not forget Jesus did not come to receive tribute, He came to receive thorns, to suffer and to die for others, and was rewarded with victory over the world, death, and the grave ——— what more could we ask for? We cannot be greater than our “Master” and it was Jesus who said, “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many…” (Matthew 20:28) then we should understand that to be “great” in the kingdom of God that we are not on this earth to be “served” but to be a “faithful and wise servant… to serve and to give [to others]” and in our selflessly giving as Jesus did to others, we thereby will Glorify our Father in Heaven and we will hear God proclaim, “These are My [children] in whom I am well pleased.”!!! (Matthew 17:5) 

OCTOBER 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I thank You for each and every day that I am able to wake up to Your Promise to “Guide and Protect” me and my household — Lord may I never take for granted that each breath I take is a Gift from God and may I use the last breath I take on this earth to PRAISE THE GREAT I AM GOD to whom I commend my spirit! Lord, without Your Grace and Mercy I would be lost in a world of darkness and I praise You for the LIGHT! My prayer is that YOU keep Your SON shining in my life that I may walk in the “paths of righteousness” that Jesus always leads us down the Righteous Path to the FATHER if we but “Follow Him”!        AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been Teaching about the nation Israel in context of the temple being the “house” of God and that God holds the rulers that He puts in charge of His House responsible to bear Kingdom fruit. Throughout the history of the nation Israel, from the time God first called Abraham to “go to a land that I will show you” God has held His leaders responsible for their own households and the rulers responsible for those over which God places them in positions of leadership. God has always made it perfectly clear that He will “execute judgement” and Jesus has been confirming the “Judgement Day” that is coming at the “end of the age” as He has admonished His followers: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” (Matthew 16:26-27) and earlier in His Earthly Ministry Jesus had warned: “…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) Jesus had on the second day of this His final Passover Week on earth cursed a Fig Tree because it was not producing kingdom fruit and now Jesus has just given a “sign” of “the Son of Man” coming again and Jesus a second time uses the Fig Tree — this time the Fig Tree which represents the nation of Israel will be used to “mark” or to be a “sign” of the “end of the age” and the “Final Judgement”. This Question “Who then is a faithful and wise servant…” must be viewed in context that one day the “master” who makes “rulers” will hold each of us accountable for our actions but, being the Loving Master that He is, He gives us warnings and signs and is patient with our shortcomings but He has PROMISED JUDGEMENT on every created soul and it is this promise of “Equal Justice” for all souls that makes THE GREAT I AM the Fair and Faithful God that HE IS! So Jesus tells us to “learn this parable from the fig tree” in reference to the “end times” and the “Final Judgement”  and though Jesus gives us a “sign” He also gives us a warning — “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:36-37) Jesus then goes through several details that will help us identify the “coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:39) and then Jesus asks the JQ#31 Question: “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45). So with the context clearly being the “coming of the Son of Man” which will be at the “end of the age”  this Question is therefore very important for God Himself will ask this Question to every soul when each of us stands before Him and we will have to give God an “honest answer” — for GOD IS TRUTH and there can be no lies to or from God! So we should “learn the parable of the fig tree” and know that God requires “fruit” and expects an honest answer from those that would accept the Gift of God which is forgiveness of sins and everlasting life for believing that His Son died on the cross at Calvary and offers to be the propitiation for our sins!

OCTOBER 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, ALL Praise, Glory, and Honor is due to the Name above all names, the Holy, Holy Name of Jesus! Lord Jesus, You alone are the King of kings and Lord of lords and the Master of my soul. Lord, You and you alone are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Only through belief in You will TRUTH be revealed to us so Lord I pray that I will draw closer to You each day as I try desperately to separate myself from my worldly desires and seek only Your Spiritual Gifts that You so abundantly provide, gifts that frees us from our physical desires of the flesh and reveals to us the TRUTH OF GOD! Lord, these Spiritual Gifts can only be received when we put our TRUST in You and Your Plans and abandon ours. Lord, I pray that our family puts all our TRUST in You and abandons ourselves to Your service so that You can use us in a mighty way for the “kingdom’s sake” — Lord I am TRUSTING You completely in every phase of my life  and pray that the family can come to see Your Love and start uttering in their prayers “ABBA FATHER” — and pray as I pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus admonished us at the start of this new Lesson to consider the “Fig Tree” as He said, “Now learn…” which is also saying that we should consider what He has just been Teaching and then build upon the understanding of the last Lesson and come to a deeper revelation of the Truth of God. Jesus had just been Teaching “signs” about the “end of the age” and His “Coming Again” but let us not miss the obvious Truth that Jesus is telling us that there WILL BE an “end of the age” and in order for Him to “Return” that He must first leave, and this being the Passover Week, these statements reveal that God has a Plan and that Plan includes Jesus having to go away, fulfilling the prophecy that only Jesus as the Messiah and the Sacrificial Lamb of God, Spotless and Without Blame, could fulfill the Word of God spoken at the “initiation” of the Passover when God was giving instructions to Moses to give to the congregation of Israel on what to do to make the “death angel” “pass over” them: “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household…your lamb shall be without blemish…a male of the first year (a first born male) …then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.’” (Exodus 12:1-7) Jesus made His Triumphal Entry at the beginning of the Passover Week and His first order of business was “cleaning the temple”, demonstrating that the nation had brought judgment upon themselves because they had moved away from God and were following the “doctrines of men” — further proof that they had come under judgment was demonstrated by Jesus cursing the Fig Tree (the Fig tree represents the “congregation of Israel” and those God had made “rulers” over Israel and God’s “house” in Jerusalem) and clearly telling the nation Israel that God was removing Himself and giving His kingdom to another nation that bears kingdom fruit. “Now” Jesus is building on those Lessons and directs our attention to signs — and again Jesus uses the Fig Tree and takes us on a different viewpoint as He leads up to His next question “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45) Our attention goes from “signs” to consideration of  “service, faithfulness, and wisdom” as Jesus reveals the Truth of God that “rulers” are “made rulers” only by the “master” making it so!  Moses, the one chosen by God to lead Israel out of bondage, was “made ruler” by God — (freedom from bondage is what the Passover Week is all about), David was “made king” of Judah by God and then Jerusalem was made the capitol of the kingdom of Judah because God “made” David victorious over the Canaanites — a Promise which God had made to Israel on their way to the Promised Land of Canaan that “the [Great I AM] LORD GOD of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob… has visited you and has seen what is done to you in Egypt; and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites…” (Exodus 3:16-17) So now Jesus is going to give us instructions on how to prevent being cursed to hell by the ““death angel” that will “pass over” the whole earth in “judgment” at the “end of the age” and it will center around the “Blood” of the “Passover Lamb” that was shed for the sins of the world which will fulfill God’s Master Plan for the world!!! This is a good time then to consider who is your “Master” and do you plan to “apply the blood” of the “Passover Lamb” like God instructed all those that had to face the “death angel” in Egypt and had ignored God when He said, “I will execute judgment. I AM the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on all the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” (Exodus 12:12-13) All of this ties in nicely to Jesus making the statement in His question “…whom his master made ruler over his household…” so Jesus is bringing together all the history of Israel with the Great I AM God of their fathers, freedom from bondage, and the Truth of God that God Himself is the MASTER and it is God Himself that makes us “rulers over [our] own households” and God expects us to be responsible in taking care of our family as God leads all families to the Promised Land ——— “all these things APPLY TODAY” ——— so “now” you probably should consider the “wisdom” and rewards of “faithfully serving” God or do you not fear the Promised Judgment!?!?!?!?!?

OCTOBER 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

OCTOBER 20  LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

[POSTED BY LANNY LEWIS]

JESUS, Lord we do pray to be wise and faithful servants, but only to the All-Wise and Forever-Faithful God who has proven Himself Faithful and True to us, a Loving God who demonstrated that He  “so loved the world” that He gave His Only Begotten Son to be the Acceptable Sacrificial “Lamb of God” for the atonement of all sin. Lord let us realize that it is sin that separates us from Your Wisdom and divides our desires thereby decreasing our “faithfulness to God” which leaves us a slave to sin and self. Lord, it is a daily struggle and sin daily saps our strength of spirit and loss of spirit can only be renewed by the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit — Lord I pray for forgiveness where I fail You each and every day because I always drift away from the Shelter of God’s Grace in the Still Waters of Your Peace and I let the secular winds blow me back to the world and myself — both of which are naturally servants to sin and faithful only to self — Lord I know that if, and only if, “the Son makes you free” that then, and only then, I can truly be free of self and my slavery to the world.  Never before have I written this ——— with my heart so focused on  Jesus ——— “ I LOVE YOU LORD”!!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus asks with JQ#31 a Question that on the surface seems simple — but if we fail to look below the obvious outer layer of the Question we will fall victim to our natural prejudices that have been ingrained in us by the secular world. For instance, many may find it “below” their “privileged status” to consider themselves as “servants” to anyone or anything because they have bought into the mantra, “I am the Captain of my Soul” and sing at the top of their secular voice “I Did It My Way”. Surely these secular dogmas of “self” are superior to being a “servant” — or could you already be enslaved to a secular society that has placed invisible chains around your initiative and imprisoned you to a lifetime of progressive secularism that is devoted to self-promotion from which there is no freedom — being devoted entirely to self meets all the criteria of the true definition of slavery! If we do not look at “Who?” is asking the Question, “When and Where?” the Question was asked, and take into serious consideration “Why?” the Question was even asked (i.e., the context of the Question) and “What?” could Jesus possibly want to Teach us by asking such a humiliating simple Question, then you will forever remain in your secular shackles! Let us first look at “Who?” is asking the question: Answer: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. (Need any more references — I’ll give you one more, Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior!) Next we must consider “When and Where?” the Question was asked: Answer: “When?” — The Last Week of Jesus being on earth to bring salvation to a world that was moving away from God — further His Last Week was the Passover Week: the major Jewish spring festival that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and “Where?” — in Jerusalem, the City of David where the temple of the Living God was built by King David’s son Solomon who was considered the wisest person to ever live and who built the temple for the Living God to reside in and it was God that gave Solomon his wisdom and it was God that gave David victories over his enemies and gave David the city of Jerusalem which became the capital of the ancient kingdom of Judah. The common meaning of “Jerusalem” is “The City of Peace”. To understand “Why?” Jesus asked the Question and to understand “What?” Jesus is trying to Teach us, we must look at the Question itself and listen to what Jesus tells us about being a good servant, not from the viewpoint of the secular world, but from God’s own heart and Compassion. God’s Great Compassion for His Creation is demonstrated by God freeing the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and instituted the Passover Feast and culminating with this particular Passover Feast in which God’s Only Begotten Son will become the Sacrificial Lamb of God thereby bringing salvation from the bondage of sin to everyone that believes the Living God and His Only Begotten Son would love the world so much that They would go to such great extent to prove Their Love for a lost and dying world! Until you understand that when you become a “servant of God” that only then will you be the “master of your household” and only then you can truly begin to understand why “servanthood” to God is better than being “King of the world”!!!!!!!!!!!! 

OCTOBER 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, one day at a time — each day I start with Your Word and with this prayer, and each day is a blessing and regardless of the circumstances of the day because You keep Your promise to be here for those that call on Your Name, You are here and I can say, “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death that I will fear no evil for Thou art with me”!!! When I think of the circumstances that I find myself in, I realize that they fall into one of two categories and either “Your rod” is correcting a wayward course or “Your staff” is pulling me to safety so I take comfort in the fact that You are with me and there is no circumstance that You cannot use to keep and protect us with Your Grace and Mercy. Thank You Lord for coming to earth and suffering in the flesh so that when we are suffering we can rest assured You have won Victory over suffering for our sakes. Forgive me for my daily sins and lead me in paths of righteousness for Your Name’s sake!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has started His lead-up Lessons to His next Question by asking us to “learn this parable from the fig tree” (Matthew 24:32) and with a minimum amount of research on fig trees themselves we find an unusual behavior about the fig tree that is not common among what we modern Walmart-age-westerners know about fruit trees. I know I expected that the life cycle would be for the fruit tree to go dormant and lose its leaves in the fall and then in the spring there would be leaves and then flowers which turn into fruit that ripens in the summer and then the cycle repeats itself so when I read about Jesus cursing the fig tree for the first time I took the position that many people who don’t know (or have not “learned” about the fig tree) about the unusual thing about figs is that in the late fall, figs that do not ripen before the fig tree goes dormant and sheds its leaves, these remaining fall figs are called the “late” figs and they too will go dormant but they do not fall off but instead they “winter over” and then when the tree begins to come out of the winter dormancy which is observed by the fig tree branches becoming tender and starts to put forth leaves, that the “late” figs actually ripen and are used as food! The other odd thing about the fig tree is that the blossoms of the fruit appear before the leaves so if the fig tree has nothing but leaves then the tree is not producing fruit! Furthermore, if the tree does not have any “late” figs ripening along with the tree putting forth a new crop of “blossoms” then the tree had not produced any fruit the previous year either, hence when Jesus observed the fig tree outside Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate in the village of Bethphage (Bethphage means “house of unripe figs”) then He observed that there was no “fruit” and it was for this reason that Jesus cursed the fig tree that was “fruitless” and the fact that Jesus as His first order of business as the Messiah making His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem was to “drive out all who bought and sold in the temple” and returned it to a “house of prayer” as God had intended it then Jesus cursing the fig tree makes sense and it gives us insight on the end times as well to consider that Jesus again uses the fig tree as a sign of the end of the age. If Jesus cursed the fig tree because it was not bearing fruit we can assume that it was a symbolic gesture by Jesus which was an indictment on the rulers God had put in place over His House of Prayer which actually resided outside Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate in the village of priests known as Bethphage. When all this is considered together we can surmise that Jesus is pronouncing a “judgement” on the nation Israel and their “rulers” because they were proving themselves to be unwise and unfaithful servants who had let God’s temple become a den of thieves. We know from history that the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. after Jesus cursed the “fig tree” and the nation Israel was taken into captivity as the Scriptures had prophesied and now Jesus is using the Fig Tree which is representative of the nation of Israel to give us a sign that can only be understood by those that have “learned” the parable of the “fig tree” and know that at the end of the age that the nation Israel will be converted and will start producing “kingdom fruit” which will be a major event in the religious history of Israel who prayed for thousands of years for the Messiah and then had Him crucified  when He came! So when you see the nation of Israel recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, then you will “know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that [the end of the age and Jesus coming again] is near—at the doors.” (Matthew 24:33) Just as Israel becoming a nation again was a sign of the beginning of the end times, so will Israel recognizing Jesus as the Messiah be a sign that we are in the last generation of this age!

OCTOBER 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord You are greatly to be praised for You Lord are Ever-Faithful and Loving to us, a sinful people, and to me the chief of sinners. Lord I know that only through Your Spirit Living in me can I do any good work for LORD without You I am indeed weak in the flesh, but Lord, I praise the Holy Spirit for letting me know as soon as my intent is wayward the HOLY SPIRIT  convicts my mind and IMMEDIATELY my mind and my will start their discourse on “course correction” to get me back on the right SPIRITUAL track! Lord You have given us Free Will and You expect us to use it responsibly, so Lord I pray for the Holy Spirit to guide me in self-discipline and Teach me True Obedience to Your Will and Your Ways!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus always Teaches a Lesson first and then asks the Question in order for us to laser beam focus onto the Truth of God that is paramount in every Lesson that Jesus Teaches. By understanding the “parable of the fig tree” we start getting a better understanding about Jesus asking “Who then is a faithful and wise servant…?” The fig tree represents the nation Israel and the fig tree that was just outside the Eastern Gate in Jerusalem that withered immediately when Jesus pronounced a curse on it was a curse on the religious leaders of Israel because they had abandoned God and His Commandments and were establishing “doctrines and traditions” of their own and therefore the nation Israel was no longer producing “kingdom” fruit. In other words, God [the master] had made the religious leaders the rulers “over [God’s] household” and they had proved themselves to be “unwise” servants and had not been “faithful” in feeding the nation the “spiritual food” God had intended for His word — In the 55th Chapter of Isaiah, God Himself speaks: “As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and does not return to it without watering the earth, causing it to bud and flourish in order to bring forth bread for the eater and seed for the sower, so is my WORD that goes forth from my mouth, it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11) In this passage, “rain and snow” clearly is prophetic of Jesus {the living water} coming down from heaven and causing the earth to “bud” {learn the parable of the fig tree} and “flourish” {the abundant life} and provide “bread for the eater” {Spiritual food from the Word because man does not live by bread alone} and “seed for the sower” {those that spread the Word} — God’s Word was sent because of God’s Desire  {God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son} and God’s WORD always produces “fruit” and we should always be aware that God has a Plan that will be “ACCOMPLISHED” because “no one can stay the HAND  OF GOD!!!  Remember the opening line “as the rain and snow come down from heaven” which is a picture of Jesus coming in the flesh to die on the cross, but do not miss the line that the “rain and snow” will return to heaven — sounds like the “resurrection” to me so why not expect that God’s Plan is to judge the earth relative to the “Spiritual Fruit” we produce and to expect that if we are “barren” and show no signs of “spiritual fruit” in our lives that our fate could be the same as the cursed “fig tree” !?!?!?  ——— Just a little “spiritual food for thought” ———