JANUARY 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-09: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  09   THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-09: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord and Savior, You are worthy, You alone are to be praised above all names. Lord, our lives simply have no meaning outside Your Salvation, No Hope without Your Cross and Sacrifice, and no Life outside Your Death and only through Your Resurrection can we have Eternal Joy and live forever in Heaven itself! Outside of Your Mighty Deeds the world only offers despair, death, darkness, and no hope of life. Lord Jesus, I pray to always be “In Christ” for outside of Christ there is no “LIGHT” and only “In Christ” will we ever find “True Rest” — Lord Christ Jesus, I dedicate myself to Your service, make me wholly Thine, shape me, mold me, and use me as You Will. Let my life be Yours to eternally remain “In Christ”!!!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has in His Genealogy some very interesting TRUTHS listed that point to both Him being the Messiah and what His “Inheritance” as the Messiah might include! Therefore, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) can be used to shine a “Light” on the “Purpose” of the Messiah and also reveal the Divine Character of the God that sent Him to be born of a “virgin” and live a perfect life in order that He might die as “the Lamb of God”. The following comments are taken from two independent sources — the first is a sermon given by Brian Walls on the Genealogy of Jesus Christ taken from Matthew 1:17 presented on 12/28/16 and the second source is an internet article titled “The Origins of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1-25)” written by Robert L. Deffingbaugh (Copyright 2003 by Community Bible Chapel, Richardson, TX) in which some very interesting information is presented from this Genealogy of Jesus Christ as given by St. Matthew in his efforts to present to the Jewish Community that Jesus IS the Messiah. In the sermon given by Brian Walls, he points out that in the genealogy given by Matthew that in normal Jewish genealogy the inclusion of women was very rare and the inclusion of Gentiles was even less likely to appear in a good Jewish genealogy but the very fact that by Matthew including these women (and them being “gentiles” as well) points to the “TRUTHFULNESS” of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. We must also consider these thoughts from the internet article by Robert Deffingbaugh, who starts his comments on the genealogy of Jesus Christ found in Matthew with a quote from the “Apostle to the Gentiles”, the Apostle Paul — “16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.” (2nd Timothy 3:16-17) As we look at the “inspiration” being from “God” for this genealogy given by St. Matthew then we must trust that God had a “purpose” for the inclusion of these women and not only their inclusion but the “TRUTH” of their lives which God Himself thought was important enough to be included in the Genealogy of His Anointed! I quote Robert Deffingbaugh as he observed about the inclusion in the Genealogy of Jesus Christ of these less-than-reputable women: “One purpose of the first genealogy, then, is to dramatically underscore the truthfulness of God’s Word.” And as Brian Walls pointed out in his sermon, “if you are writing a resume then you usually don’t included such dubious characters in your list of references” for we as fallen creatures succumb to the temptation of burying those shady parts of our pasts because they do not shed a “good light” on our reputation — so for God to make sure these additions are not only included but their “problems” were actually highlighted such as “David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.” (Matthew 1:6) Pastor Walls emphasis is that Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus Christ God reveals the “TRUTH” that David the king was guilty of both adultery and murder, thereby making Jesus a Son of David (who was guilty of murder and adultery) and a Son of Abraham thereby meeting the minimum requirements of the Jewish Messiah. That St. Matthew would include these “revealing facts” listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Robert Deffingbaugh states that these less than flattering facts “dramatically underscore the truthfulness of God’s Word”. Deffingbaugh points out the heart of God in a quote from Fredrick Bruner’s comments on Matthew’s inclusion of these “revealing facts” as Bruner writes: “One gets the impression that Matthew poured over his Old Testament records until he could find the most questionable ancestors of Jesus available in order, in turn, to insert them into his record and so, it seems, to preach the gospel — the gospel, that is, that God can overcome and forgive sin, and can use soiled but repentant persons for His great  purpose in history.”  So when we read the Genealogy of Jesus Christ in God’s Holy Word we must trust that there is always a reason and purpose behind everything that God includes in HIS WORD and they are there for our benefit! Therefore we should let HIS WORD teach us that truly “God so [loves] the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son [Jesus] that whosoever believes in [the Messiah and His Word] shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Simple-Direct-Truthful and this “TRUTH”   can only be found “In Christ”!!!

JANUARY 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  08   THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS we thank You for Your daily Presence in our lives as we see You revealed by Your Holy Word and Your Holy Spirit. Lord I pray that in my life that I will know that You are always there! If I fail to recognize You, then it is my own flesh that is blinding me and I pray the Spirit will remind me that it is my fault that I can’t see You! I further pray that Your Spirit be Resurrected in us and illuminate our darkness with YOUR PRESENCE AND YOUR LIGHT! Lord, our daily walk is our “now” and “now” is the “time” when we can experience GRACE — but only if we decrease and You are allowed to increase in us can we behold the Messiah! Forgive me of my daily shortcomings and my failure to see You working in my life — even so, come now Lord Jesus!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was revealed as the Messiah by circumstances beyond His control but though they were not controlled by Jesus Himself, (events such as His “virgin” Birth or who His earthly parents would be), these events were obviously circumstances coming about as part of God’s Master Plan that Jesus had no control over but was the Will of God! Up to the point where Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river, the Messiah was validated by many witnesses to be Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth, but now Jesus, with His statement: “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15) will begin His Public Ministry. His Public Ministry and the way Jesus lived His Personal Life in the flesh was a “witness” to the TRUTH that JESUS IS THE MESSIAH !  Everything that Jesus ever did or will ever do —  JESUS publicly proclaimed that He does ALL at the direction of His Heavenly Father!!!  Before beginning the actual JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#1-JQ#33 (that also reveal and witness to Jesus being the Messiah) let us look at one more detail of Matthew’s introduction of Jesus. The genealogy of Jesus  is also a separate witness to Jesus being the Messiah and what His “Mission” and “Purpose” was in being born in the flesh, at this particular time, in this particular place, to these particular parents. Matthew starts his Gospel of Jesus Christ with “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) and within this “genealogy of Jesus Christ” is a further “witness” to God’s Master Plan of Salvation and to Jesus being the Messiah — Jewish tradition from the very beginning placed great importance on the “lineage” or family line perpetuated by the first born Jewish male and one of the main reasons that “lineage” is so important in the Jewish community is that the lineage determined (and still does) their “tribal inheritance” based upon the fact that it was at God’s directions that each Jewish tribe had initially received a particular piece of land. For any person to inherit land in a particular area assigned to a specific tribe, that person had to produce evidence that he was from that tribe — and that “evidence” of inheritance was his “birth” into a “tribe” which came through the Jewish family genealogy — hence the term “birthright”. The genealogy of Jesus therefore will determine His Inheritance and a close look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ reveals some very important “signs” or “evidence” of some miraculous claims by Jesus as they relate to the “Purpose and Life” of the Messiah which was revealed by Jesus being born “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) Now is a good time to revisit the “book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” as listed in Matthew 1:1-17 and ask yourself about the importance that your personal “spiritual” lineage has in “inheriting” what has been set aside for you in “the kingdom of heaven”??? This investigation of your personal “spiritual inheritance” can really best be understood by reading what Jesus told Nicodemus in John Chapter 3 verses 1-21 which includes these statements that address your spiritual inheritance (1) “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and (2) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but [inherit] everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Therefore, by reading the “promise” of God for your inheritance you must ask yourself “Have I received Him and claimed my right to become [a child] of God” by “believing on the [Name and Person] of Jesus?” (See John 1:12-13) The Bible starts with 4 words that you must get past to be able to understand the rest of the Bible and those 4 words are “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) and this genealogy set forth in Matthew dealing with the lineage of Jesus Christ is another of those “faith/factual” Divine Declarations in God’s Holy Word that we have to accept to be able to understand the Mind of God and the “faith/fact” that the genealogy of Jesus declares that Jesus is a Jew, born into a Jewish family. The Life of Jesus was that of an Israelite and Jesus called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the endearing term “Abba Father”! We should keep in mind that “God did not send His Son [Jesus] into the world to condemn the world, but that through [His only begotten Son] the world might be saved!” (John 3:17) The consequence of our God-given Freewill “Choice” to “NOT believe in Jesus as the Son of God” is declared in the next verse: “…he who believes in [Jesus as the Son of God] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) The Bible only makes sense if you believe that “In the beginning” it was “God” that chose to create the world and that after creating the world and seeing mankind’s rebellion against Him and His Creation that God would also choose to save the world through His “only begotten Son, JESUS” whom God had announced as “The Chosen One, God’s Anointed” through Jewish prophets hundreds of years before His Virgin Birth, in addition Old Testament prophets declared that the Messiah would be born of a “virgin” and in the line of King David from the family of Judah and this “Virgin-born Savior” would be called “IMMANUEL — God with us”!   God created all life and has the only right to declare “IF” and “HOW”  He intends to provide for our “SALVATION”!!!  We, on the other hand, only have the right to be THANKFUL that God even bothered with a mankind that continues to reject Him and His Love for us!!!   ———  Go figure!?!?!?

JANUARY 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-07: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-07: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily  Prayer    

JESUS, praise the Name of the Only Begotten Son of the Living God. Lord Jesus, I write the Name “JESUS” and I marvel at both the “Name” and its “Meaning” but it is hard for our minds to actually understand the “fact” that Jesus IS the Son of the Living God! The other fact that is difficult to “wrap our finite mortal mind around” is that the “Living God” who Loved the world with a Love that cannot be comprehended by mortal man would remain TRUE to HIS INFINITELY DIVINE CHARACTER and PROVIDE for our SALVATION as explained by Abraham to Isaac, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb…”  (Genesis 22:8)!  Man who is flesh cannot conceive that the Living God who is SPIRIT would allow His Only Begotten (Divine) Son to be born of a (mortal) “virgin”, live a perfect life in the FLESH and then as part of God’s Master Plan for mankind, the Omnipotent would offer His ONLY BEGOTTEN Son as the Atonement for the sins of the world?!?! Why would a God that has unlimited Power and has absolutely ZERO need of mankind Sacrifice so much of Himself in order that the same mankind that has rejected and denied Him would have a pathway to FORGIVENESS of our iniquities against God — surely this is the “MYSTERY OF GOD” that is to be revealed when He RETURNS to “Bring Home” those that have “received” Him! Praise God for His Master Plan!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was known as the Messiah by all those that had been blessed by the angel’s declaration: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11) and those that had traveled to Bethlehem and had seen with their own eyes the Christ Child laying in a manger. Jesus was next revealed as the Messiah to a man named Simeon in Jerusalem for (as per Jewish tradition) “after eight days were completed” it was customary for Jewish families to take newborn males to the temple for circumcision. “Now when the days of her [Mary the mother of Jesus] purification according to the law of Moses were completed, [Mary and Joseph brought their Child named Jesus who was born in a manger in Bethlehem] to Jerusalem to present Him to the LORD…And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” (Luke 2:22-26) Simeon being an official in the temple at Jerusalem and very familiar with the “Consolation of Israel” (which was a common name for the Messiah used by the Jews) that when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to Simeon, Simeon was aware that he was holding in his arms the “LORD’s Christ”! Simeon said when “he took [Jesus] up in his arms and blessed God… ‘LORD, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:27-32) John the Baptist was among the few that had been informed by the angel of God or by the Holy Spirit Himself that the Messiah had arrived but unlike those that had beheld the Child in Bethlehem, or Simeon who had held the Messiah in his arms at the circumcision ceremony in the temple in Jerusalem {{side thought: Simeon most likely circumcised Jesus knowing it was God’s Son that he was circumcising!!!!!!!!Selah}}, John, the foretold “forerunner” of the Messiah, had not yet seen the Messiah but John had been proclaiming about the Messiah, “…He who is coming after me is mightier than I…[the Messiah] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11). John the Baptist had been proclaiming that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand” but John had not actually seen the Messiah in the FLESH; however, when Jesus came to John to be baptized in the Jordan, it was at that very “moment” when John first saw the Messiah with his own eyes that the Holy Spirit revealed to John that this Man approaching him in the Jordan was the Messiah in the flesh!!!  John felt unworthy and tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him (see Matthew 3:14) but through that Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan, Jesus publicly revealed Himself and John as Messianic Prophecies being publicly fulfilled in the presence of many eyewitnesses! Prior to Jesus being baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, Jesus had been revealed as the Messiah by a host of other witnesses and by circumstances beyond His control — but clearly all His prior circumstances are themselves a witness to the fact that God has a Master Plan and that Jesus IS the “Anointed One”! Now here at the Jordan, prophecy was simultaneously being fulfilled in the sight of a multitude of “eyewitnesses” that left no doubt that John was the “forerunner” of the Messiah and that this Jesus whom John had just baptized in the Jordan was the long-awaited Messiah! These prophecies were not fulfilled by Jesus simply proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah but the prophecies were fulfilled by documented factual circumstances surrounding His Birth and by a multitude of witnesses that proclaimed they had seen the Messiah with their own eyes! But here at the Jordan, Jesus begins His Ministry as the Messiah by declaring to John in the presence of those many witnesses: “Jesus … said to [John], “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15)  “Now” also is a good time for “us” to consider the great cloud of witnesses before us that included individual “eyewitness accounts” of having seen the Messiah — we ourselves should “Now” listen to Jesus and take His advice to “us” for “now” is the time for “us” to be led by the “Spirit” into His Presence and to listen when Jesus, by the Holy Spirit encourages “us” to: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) Remember — Today is the Day of Salvation and only through Salvation can we “fulfill all righteousness”!!! Are you like Simeon looking expectantly to see the Messiah??? Remember Jesus promised “Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened”!!! (Matthew 7:7) 

JANUARY 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-06: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-06: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, LORD, El Elyon, Creator, Prince of Peace, Glory, Honor and Praise to the Lamb of God, Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of a virgin, You are the WORD and You became flesh and dwelt among us, yet You Lord Jesus Christ were without sin, living a Perfect Life in Obedience to the Will of the Father, becoming the Perfect Sacrifice for ALL sin so that Your Righteousness could be imparted to mankind as the Atonement for our transgressions, and through the Shed Blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary, that Repentant sinners could through the Forgiveness of our iniquities by our Heavenly Father, enter into Eternal Fellowship with Almighty God! Praise be the Matchless Name of JESUS CHRIST!!!       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus always lived a Lifestyle every minute in a manner such that with any inspection, from any viewpoint, the New Testament ALWAYS reveals that JESUS was OBEDIENT to HIS FATHER! The Questions, Lessons and Parables that Jesus used to Teach the TRUTH OF GOD our Father are always presented in the Gospels in a way such that the reader will Gain Understanding of the TRUTH OF GOD — all we have to do to understand TRUTH is to observe how Jesus lived His own Life in the flesh through the SPIRIT OF GOD! The Scofield Bible introduces the Gospel written by St. Matthew as follows: “The first of the four Gospels was written by Matthew, also called Levi, who was an Apostle of Jesus and this Gospel that carries his name was originally written for the Jews and presents Christ as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. Because Jesus is portrayed in Matthew’s Gospel as King, the genealogy of Jesus is traced back to King David. Only in Matthew does Christ Himself speak of ‘the throne of His glory’. In this Gospel according to Matthew, Jerusalem is referred to as ‘the Holy City’ and ‘the city of the great King’…since Matthew is the Gospel of the King, it is also the Gospel of the ‘kingdom’  and in this Gospel written by Matthew, the word ‘kingdom’ appears more than fifty times and the expression ‘the kingdom of heaven’ which is found nowhere else in the New Testament, appears about thirty times.” {{See The Scofield Study Bible, New King James version. Copyright ** 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. pg.1299}} It is safe to say that the main theme in this Gospel according to Matthew is that Jesus Christ IS the King! Matthew does an excellent job of documenting the Life and Teachings of Jesus in a manner that clearly demonstrates that only Jesus Christ by His Birth, Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection fulfills all the prophecies written about the Messiah and the “Soon Coming King”. This introduction of The Jesus Questions JQ#1 thru JQ#33 is to alert the reader that every Step Jesus Took and every Lesson that Jesus Taught was to illuminate the WAY and guide the reader to the “Truth of God His Father” and to “the kingdom of heaven” where Jesus Christ will Rule as King for all Eternity! Matthew begins his Gospel with: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1) and with the first three chapters, Matthew sets the stage for the Ministry and the Teachings of Jesus Christ. Matthew then at the end of Chapter 3 quotes Jesus for the first time in the Gospel, “But Jesus answered and said to [John the Baptist], ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’” (Matthew 3:15) Matthew, in Chapter 1, lists the Genealogy of Jesus starting with “Abraham begot Isaac …and Jesse begot David the king…and Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.” (Matthew 1:1-17) Thus Matthew in the Jewish tradition lists the genealogy of Jesus through the husband and declares the birth mother. Also in Jewish tradition, the Jewish genealogy uses the “first born male” to perpetuate the “Family” line! Thus Matthew establishes that Jesus can trace His Genealogy back to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob and can claim the fulfillment of the “Promise of God” to Abraham that “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3) and Jesus fulfills the Promise of God to King David through the prophet Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Thus Matthew tied Jesus to prophecy and establishes Jesus as the TRUE HEIR to the THRONE of Thrones as KING of Kings and LORD of Lords! In case you have not been formerly introduced to the most important NAME in the history of life itself — HIS NAME IS JESUS!

JANUARY 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-05: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-05: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily Prayer   

JESUS, ever will I praise Your Name, for You are ever-Faithful and Your Glory will endure forever! Lord I praise You for Loving me and dying for me while I was lost in my sin — Your LIGHT has led me into a new day where I pray that my new song will be to “work until Jesus comes!” Lord, You have directed my paths to this point and I pray that my eyes and heart will be kept firmly fixed on You and the kingdom’s work and that I will be a good “witness” to Your Love. Lord Jesus, again and yet anew do I yield my life to serving You and to telling Your “Good News” to those You send my way.      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus told His disciples and even the Pharisees and Sadducees that the Holy Spirit would be a “witness” to who He really was — and Matthew, being an eyewitness who was led and Divinely inspired by the Spirit of God, wrote for a permanent record the events that point clearly to Jesus being the Divine Son of God sent to earth by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with a specific Purpose. Matthew was primarily writing for the Jews because before the birth of Jesus, it was the Jewish Holy Scriptures (known today as the “Tanakh” or modern “Hebrew Bible”) that the Jewish nation Israel had been reading for thousands of years and were waiting expectantly for the Messiah, God’s Anointed! The prophets from Jewish history were led by the Holy Spirit to write down the “signs” that would point to the Messiah, just like the New Testament writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were led by the Holy Spirit to write down eyewitness accounts of how Jesus fulfilled those prophecies of old. You cannot read the Holy Scriptures (the Old Testament and New Testament) without seeing God, His Plan, and the fulfillment of all the Spirit led prophecies that God uses (present tense!) to “lead His people to the Promised Land”. Matthew wrote in his Gospel of Jesus Christ that which was contained in the Jewish Holy Scriptures (the Old Testament of our modern Bible) that pointed to Jesus being the fulfillment of prophecy recorded in the Tanakh. What Matthew wrote about Jesus is true for all that will “seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness” and is fully documented in the New Testament. God has a Plan and a Purpose for each individual person that breathes the breath of life imparted to us by God as was demonstrated by God breathing life into Adam whom God personally created with His own hands as His last act of His Divine Creation. “This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed…Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:4-15) God “Spoke” everything into existence except man and woman — it was “Personal” with God in His creation of mankind, for only with mankind did God use His own Hands to form man and then God “breathed” (with His Own Breath) life into the man — it is imperative for us to note that only after mankind receives the “breath of life from God” that we become a “living being”!  After forming man, God then used His own Hands to form woman out of the rib of the man that He had just breathed His “Breath of Life” into, Eve was the second operation accomplished by God Himself demonstrating His “Hands On” commitment to mankind — and to “seal the deal” and to show that God had all His Creation planned out before “the beginning”,  we read of God’s “intent” for mankind to be special: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’…So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27) So let us approach this “Introduction” of God’s Plan for the world as documented in the Gospel of Matthew in this way: The Old Testament is a written record of God revealing His Plan and “how” He intends to “execute” His Plan. The New Testament is a written record of eyewitness accounts of the fulfillment of prophecies in the Person of Jesus Christ as well as general prophecies regarding the “completion” of God’s Plan for all Mankind. Again, the fact that Matthew writes primarily for the Jews is because it is through the Jews and the nation Israel that God has intended to use the nation Israel from BEFORE the beginning of mankind to fulfill God’s Plan for the salvation of the world! The main point is that BEFORE man came into existence God “had a Plan” — and the obvious Truth of God in that statement is that God made His Plan before mankind was created therefore mankind must accept that God is in control and is the Master Plan Maker — and life for mankind must fit God’s Planned Purpose — for God alone is the giver of life, the Creator — and everything made by  God is His Creation — get that part straight and the rest of your life will be a piece of cake! St. Matthew was part of God’s Plan to reveal the Messiah and His Purpose for the world — “For God did not send [the Messiah] His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17) Good Plan don’t you think??? — No wonder it’s called “THE GOOD NEWS”!!!

JANUARY 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-04: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-04: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I awoke this morning with the need to pray first in my mind but when I started to pray there was some sort of “spiritual” distraction of unknown origin that seemed to prevent me from praying in “Spirit and in Truth” — and I was disturbed!?!?  I lay in bed and struggled to “commune” with God but the “perceived separation” caused me great uneasiness! After meditating on “cause” and coming up empty, I then thought about the “effect” and almost immediately I was confident that I was being given a “taste” of going on my journey alone. Jesus, I am also confident that I no longer want to walk by myself and be alone as I traverse this “valley of the shadow of death” and I praise You for the glimpse of where I could end up if I had not started following You.  Lord Jesus, You simply told Your disciples “Come follow Me” and You still today invite those that do not wish to travel this journey of life alone to “walk” with You. Lord Jesus, in going before us and walking the extra mile with us, You add the promise that You will never leave us nor forsake us! The “glimpse” today was a reminder to me that if we get separated it will be my fault — Lord Jesus, I pray with all my heart, keep me focused on following Your “LIGHT” and always staying on Your “paths of righteousness”!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus and who Jesus “really is” was a topic of debate from the time of His virgin-born arrival on earth and who Jesus “really is” continues to be debated today. It is very interesting to note that there is a great “double standard” being applied to the debate on the “person and purpose” of Jesus Christ and whether or not He should even be given the title of “Christ”. Today in our highly “legal” society here in America, our government is dominated by “lawyers” and it is a fact that our government now has more “control” over our personal lives than at anytime in the past — and in the debate on the “TRUTH of JESUS”, our society is  being forced to accept as “truth” what “elected” lawyers, “party-appointed” judges, and “self-serving legislation” passed by our “elected law makers” decide is “truth-for-the-common-good”????  These “anti-God” laws imposed by “progressive” legislators on our modern society today include the “legal-right” to kill unborn children, which should give us a clue as to what the main problem with our society “really is”!  For example; in our “double-standard” society today there are “laws” addressing “slander” (the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation) and “libel” (a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation) which directly apply to the debate on “who Jesus really is” and the “double standard” (a rule or principle that is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups) that is prevalent in this ongoing debate is that the government that has passed the laws on “slander and libel” are themselves the most guilty of both since they have legislated God out of government and will not allow God Himself, through His Holy Bible, to declare “who Jesus really is”!!!!!  The “irony” in this “double standard” is that the legal system today will make witnesses put one hand on the Bible and have them “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God” and yet the same legal system has legislated God and the Bible out of the legal system and will not allow the Bible as a “witness” in the same courtroom that the Bible must be sworn upon to make a testimony valid!?!?!?!?  I am sure that in the highly legalist religious theocratic system of the Pharisees and Sadducees that there were many of the same such “double-standard legalistic self-serving laws” existing in Israel to protect the “power” of the “legalist elite” and therefore the New Testament writers would have been held accountable in the Jewish legal system in place at the time of Jesus. All the writers of the New Testament were not only “evangelists” that were clearly stating Jesus had addressed problems with the “legal authority” of the Pharisees and Sadducees but the New Testament writers wrote these claims as a matter of public record! Jesus Himself by today’s standards would be labeled a “terrorist” because He made “direct threats” against their “legal system” and said the temple itself would be destroyed — just imagine if someone today said that the U.S. Government, the White House and our legal system was going to be “destroyed” and this person was also directly claiming that the U. S. Government's “rule” would be “taken from them” and further, if that person was publishing public documents and writing letters (or emails) stating how the government would be overthrown, that person would be arrested and their statements and writings would be used to convict them of “crimes” against the government and these “crimes” would carry the severest penalty! However, in today’s society the very evidence that would be used to convict Jesus of being a “terrorist” would not be allowed in the same courtroom to prove that Jesus was and IS who the Bible documents Him TO BE!!!  So as we begin our Journey to discover “TRUTH” then we must agree we need a “reasonable unbiased Moral Standard” to be be used to determine the final verdict as to the validity of “TRUTH” itself!>!>!>! Because the Moral Standard itself is in the hands of biased “progressive” legalist who control both the Moral Standard and the legal system we can rightly assume that a government of “legalists” find it to their advantage to impose their will on “we the people” ———and we can readily see the problem of letting a “special interest” group decide on the Moral Standard to be applied to an entire society (by government force and legal action)!?! St. Matthew wrote a document dated C. A.D. 50 which puts his “eyewitness” account very close to the actual event of which he wrote about “who Jesus really was” and the “facts” that St. Matthew wrote down would have to have been highly scrutinized by the “legalist” of that era and all the claims of Jesus that St. Matthew put in his document would have been “judged” as to it being “libel” based on “slander” which was directed against the “reputation” of those that were in “power” at the time Matthew wrote of Jesus! To be fair we must read Matthew”s document and ask ourselves, “If St. Matthew did not write what is true then why has there been so many printed copies of his testimony and why was Matthew been made a ‘Saint’ instead of being punished for his ‘crime’?”

JANUARY 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-03: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY  03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-03: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I pray for Your Mercy and Grace with each new day that you present to me as Your Gift of Life! Lord Jesus, I know that if I follow You as You commanded that Your blessings will be upon my life and I can experience Your Rest which You have promised. Lord I have made many wrong turns and foolish mistakes in my life by going out on my own and each wrong turn ends up proving that I truly need “Guidance” and You have “led me safe thus far”. Lord Jesus, daily I look to You for my “daily bread”, both physical and spiritual and I thank You Jesus for providing both “spiritual bread” and “physical bread” to me in such abundance even though I am so undeserving! Lord Jesus, my goal still is that one day I will stand in Your Presence and hear You say, “Well done thy good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus led a “Lifestyle” that has never been approached by any other person throughout all of history and the “Lessons” that He Taught as part of His Lifestyle are still being successfully applied to every person’s life that is willing to “learn” from the “Master”. On my spiritual journey to “TRUTH” I have been introduced to several sources that claim to know who Jesus really was but then the thought struck me that if a person claims to be an “authority” on someone that lived over 2000 years ago, then how could any person so far removed from the “factual Jesus” proclaim 2000 years later that they know the “TRUTH” about Jesus? It does not make sense for someone to take a document like the Holy Bible that has been unchanged and undefiled and “divinely” preserved for thousands and thousands of years and 2000 years later arrogantly proclaim that all those “eyewitness” accounts of the Life of Jesus are not accurate accounts of the “real” Jesus!?!? I want to ask those making those arrogant claims what “authority” do they claim to be the “source” of this newfound ?Truth? and I am guessing that they will reply with some vague statement that puffs up their own personal intellect which is obviously a greater intellect than anyone before them and also greater than God’s own Supreme Intellect because now 2000 years later, the world is now obviously being blessed by someone smart enough to point out God’s “mistakes”! Believers should now abandon thousands of years of commentary and eyewitness accounts and personal testimonies because after all these misguided people writing and reading the Bible could not possibly know what this new “intelligence” has had revealed to them therefore believers should abandon their old faith and accept a new faith in the word from someone that lived 2000 years after Jesus died on a cross for our sins (surely this new intelligence has more authority than this “Son of God” who got himself killed by His own people!) — yes, believers indeed should ignore everything the Holy Bible attests to as the “TRUTH” (as per the very WORD OF GOD HIMSELF ) and listen instead to this new “superior intellect”!?!?!?  I have learned to distrust those who claim to “know what God really meant to say” {{see Genesis 3:1-7 that gives a description of one such “superior intellect” who claims to know “what God really meant”}} — the purpose of this blog is to encourage you to read the Holy Bible FOR YOURSELF and to let the Spirit of God reveal the “TRUTH” to YOU PERSONALLY from the TRUTH OF GOD contained within those Sacred Pages and BELIEVE that God Himself has Promised that the “TRUTH” is waiting to reveal itself to you personally. There is no claim from the writer of this blog as to being a superior intellect that wishes to share with the less intellectually endowed the “TRUTH” according to some “new revelation” as if “TRUTH” has been hidden from even God for all these years!?!? The purpose of this blog is to go through the “eyewitness” account of the writer of the first book in the New Testament, St. Matthew, and to listen to what this person who lived with JESUS and observed the Lifestyle of JESUS had to say about the most well known person in history. The Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus has had more positive influence on more lives than any person or event in the past, including Mohammed Ali who claimed himself to be “The Greatest” (and boy was he good!) or the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the 2nd World War!  If Jesus has accomplished all these things that are now historical facts witnessed by literally billions of people in their personal lives then surely we can learn from those who wrote down for future generations what Jesus had personally Taught them and what their BELIEF in Jesus has accomplished in their lives — they wrote because they recognized the “TRUTH” when they saw it and heard it! Remember that none of the writers of the 66 books in the Bible received any financial compensation and on several occasions the things they wrote resulted in their death so we know they were not “profit driven” and we must assume they were inspired to write by a “Source” greater than their fear of starvation and death!!!  The Holy Bible begins with the only “TRUTH” we will ever really need to know as Genesis 1:1 starts with the five most powerful words ever written, “In the beginning, God created…” and if you can get past those first five words then you have moved past the greatest roadblock on your personal journey to “TRUTH”. So the purpose of this blog then is to encourage you to read the Holy Scriptures and to let them “Teach” you “TRUTH” ! This blog will also point out that on this spiritual journey that you must travel your path alone with your chosen guide and you will do so in your life until you find and “believe” the “TRUTH” when it is revealed to you! Welcome to The Journey, let’s see what St. Matthew wrote about Jesus as we will start our “spiritual journey” with the assumption that the Holy Bible is TRUTH and GOD HIMSELF is the SOURCE and then when we read the Holy Scriptures we know that we are reading the “DIVINE RECORD” of God’s Instructions on Life — If you cannot begin your reading with GOD IS TRUTH then there is no need for you to bother to read either the Bible or this puny blog!