DECEMBER 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, that You would go to the grave for me, that You, being the Very Son of God, would suffer the Agony of the Cross and Shed Your Innocent Blood for the Remission of my sin, LORD forgive me when I cannot understand with my limited intellect Your Infinite and Divine Wisdom. LORD, we are blinded by the world and when we see TRUTH in its purest form we believe it to be “Too good to be true” and we cower back into the shadows of our misunderstanding — Why indeed would The One True Holy God give His Only Begotten Son as the PERFECT Sacrifice as the Atonement for our sins??? LORD, I pray for the filling of Your Holy Spirit to understand Your Plan of Salvation that my vision of Your Peace will be One with Your Vision for both Jews and Gentiles to be Unified by the receiving of Your Holy Spirit into our lives, bringing first our families into Your Unity and then our communities so that all with be One Family of God! (See Acts Chapters 10 & 11)      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS IS the SON OF GOD that was SENT BY THE FATHER to the world to take on “flesh” (John 1:14) and be “betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew 26:45) with the single purpose that Innocent Blood would be the Atonement for Sin! Jesus said plainly, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:28) And now as the crucified dead body of the Messiah, Jesus Christ has been put into a borrowed grave, all that remains in the fulfilling of prophecy is the waiting for Three Days for the Promise of Resurrection which can be traced by the prophecies throughout the Holy Scriptures and without any doubt we can see that what God has spoken, God has done! God’s Plan of Salvation is about to be “Fulfilled and Divinely Sealed” as the stone that had been rolled over the tomb and sealed by the ruling world power of men will be rolled away by the Power of God illustrating God’s Sovereignty over Life, Death, the Grave, and Eternity Itself! Man has done everything possible to thwart God’s Plan but once again God Proves Himself Sovereign by doing exactly what He had allowed to be written in Scripture thousands of years before the event to bring about the events exactly as God said they would unfold — The prophets wrote in Genesis how God called Abraham and gave him the Promised Son and required Abraham and Isaac “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2) We see Jesus being the obedient Son being played out as Abraham and Isaac travel to the mountain God had told them to go to and  “Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off…’I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back’ {A foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Jesus on the Third Day}…So Abraham took the wood [the cross] of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and [Isaac’s father]  took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together…Issac asked his father, ‘Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.’ So the two of them [Abraham/Isaac & God-the-Father/Jesus-His-Son] went together. Then they came to the place which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and Abraham [God-The-Father] bound Isaac [Jesus] his son [His Son] and laid Isaac [Jesus] on the altar, upon the wood [cross]. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.” (Genesis 22:4-10) It was at this point of Abraham’s obedience that God revealed His Purpose in testing Abraham and Isaac thusly as the “Angel of the LORD” said of Abraham’s and Isaac’s OBEDIENCE to the WORD OF GOD ‘For now I know you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” God then provided the lamb as promised and “Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.” (Genesis 22:1-18) There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this incident was Divinely  Planned and is recorded in Scripture had not “Just Happened” as the world would have us believe — God had Planned from before the creation and showed by example through Abraham, the Father of Faith, and his obedient son Isaac that God had Planned to offer His Only Begotten Son as the burnt offering and Passover Lamb of God for the Atonement of Sin of All Mankind — God demonstrated His Commitment as a Holy God executing the Perfect Sacrifice as God had to “Forsake” even “His Only Son” as “God the Father” took the “burden” of the sin of the world and “laid it on [Jesus] His Son” and God offers HIS GIFT OF GRACE to all who “OBEY HIS WORD!” 

DECEMBER 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, thank you Lord for the wonderful life You have provided for me and my family. Lord these indeed are evil times and our world is in a spiritual mess because we have abandoned Your Commandments and have no Moral Compass to guide us as a society — Lord I thank You for the remnant of believers that encourage one another and together we keep seeking Your Truth and Your Way. Lord forgive me my daily shortcomings and may Your Grace and Mercy abound!!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been obedient to the Father and has Given His Life for the Remission of sin which is what Jesus Himself stated was His purpose for taking on flesh and living among us. Joseph of Arimathea takes the dead body of Jesus down from the cross for it is the Preparation Day for the Passover and the Crucified Jesus has been laid into Joseph’s borrowed tomb. Jesus has stated on many occasions that He must suffer at the hands of sinners and that God the Father has promised to Resurrect the Son on the Third Day. The disciples looked sadly on His death like many today do and failed to understand that “death” was necessary to fulfill the Justice of God! God had declared in the garden of Eden that the Penalty for sin is death and then to cover the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve after they partook of the forbidden fruit and disobeyed God, God demonstrated Grace and initiated the Substitutionary Sacrifice Principal as God sacrificed an animal and took the skin of the sacrificed animal and used it to cover their guilt. Here on Calvary’s Cross, God again in His Mercy and Grace has Substituted His Only Begotten Innocent Son as the SACRIFICIAL Passover Lamb and  through the DEATH and SACRIFICE of His Only Begotten Son JESUS, God has provided Deliverance from sin for ALL who believe Jesus indeed was the Lamb of God Sacrificed TO COVER the sins of the world!!!   We are ALL SINNERS and fall short of God’s Glory and through the Sacrifice of God’s Son the Plan of Salvation is COMPLETE and we can receive the  Forgiveness of God ONLY BECAUSE OF THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SACRIFICED SON!!! Just as God put a rainbow in the sky after the Great Judgement of the earth after the flood as a Promise that He would never destroy the earth again by water, God now after the Great Sacrifice of His ONLY Begotten Son is going to give us a Promise TROUGH HIS SON that our sins are forgiven and as Jesus said in John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he who hears My words and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24) The Sign of the Promise of our Salvation is the Empty Tomb in which Jesus has been laid — because the Tomb Is Empty, God has kept His Promise to Resurrect Jesus on the Third Day and we as Sinners Saved by God’s Grace can celebrate the Empty Grave and realize that the One that Defeated Death Promises us Everlasting Life! God has demonstrated His Absolute Power over Death and we can rejoice because JESUS IS ALIVE!!!   Man and Satan have done everything in their evil power and have managed to crucify the Son of God and now the dead body of Jesus has been put in the tomb, they have rolled a great stone over the entrance of the tomb where the dead body of Jesus has been laid to prevent Him from coming out or from any one else to go in and get Him, also they have posted guards at the tomb to prevent anyone rolling the stone away and they have placed a seal on the stone — man has put Jesus in the grave but man cannot stay the Hand of God from doing what God has “Purposed” and that is to Raise His Beloved Son on the Third Day thereby COMPLETING the Plan of Salvation! “When Joseph had taken the body [of Jesus off the cross] he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the [solid] rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.” (Matthew 27:59-60) Everything man could do to put Jesus in the grave has been accomplished but instead of “victory for evil”, Satan is about to experience the “Ultimate Defeat” as God fulfills His Promise to “provide Himself the Lamb” and Salvation ——— and the Promise is about to be fulfilled with the Resurrection of Christ on the Third Day!!!   The Bible is full of God’s Promises and the only one’s that have not been fulfilled are those in the future and when it is in God’s Timing, GOD WILL KEEP EVERY PROMISE EVER MADE — 

The world has the Promised Rainbow after the rain and now, for BELIEVERS, we have the Promised Resurrection after death!!! 

DECEMBER 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS indeed we must come to You as did King David with a humble and contrite heart that has been washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb of God, seeking the Mercy and Grace that can only come from our LORD Jesus Christ!  Lord I pray for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that I may be a witness of Your Power to resurrect the dead in spirit, yes LORD, even a personal resurrection as You did with Lazarus, I pray my soul to be called forth from this grave that I have dug so deeply with my own iniquities and worldly lusts! Forgive me mine iniquities that I may rise to New Life in Christ that God has promised to those that believe on JESUS and that I may live for Christ with a Clean Heart O God! The veil of the temple was torn asunder with Your Death on the Cross at Calvary so that sinners such as I can come directly to God the Father and our bodies become the Temple of the Holy Spirit.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is now on HIS VICTORY LAP of the Master Plan of Salvation and with His Holy Work of the Cross being “finished” and complete, Joseph of Arimathea (a disciple of Jesus) had gone to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. The wisdom and sovereignty of God has been demonstrated by the Plan of Salvation being accomplished with what the “enemy” of God thought would be the ultimate victory over God but what man intends for evil, only God can turn to good and that is through His Absolute Power over His Creation! Satan thought that he had achieved a major coup for the forces of evil as the chief priests and elders had swayed the Jewish populace to cry “Crucify Him” and these evil worldly forces had been joined by the Roman Empire and with their world dominating power the Roman enemies of Israel had been complicit in executing the evil plot to get rid of Jesus. Just as the evil forces thought they had won when they heard Jesus cry out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” they mistakenly thought that their evil victory was complete when they observed the dead body of Jesus being hurriedly carried to a borrowed tomb. Their first clue that their usurped “power” had been ripped from them should have been the tearing of the veil in the Temple but they should have also remembered that this was the Passover and John the Baptist had seen Jesus and had declared “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”!  The crucifixion of God’s Holy Passover Lamb had happened on “Preparation Day” which signified the time of the First Passover when Moses received instructions to take a “lamb without blemish” … “then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight” and the “lamb” was to be “consumed with unleavened bread and bitterness” and “none of it shall remain of it until morning”  (Exodus 12:1-11) and this part of the Passover Feast has become known as the Preparation Day. By Joseph taking the body down with Pilate’s permission, the Roman government, the highest authority in Jerusalem (and the world) was in fact stating that Jesus was “officially” dead! The second clue for the congregation of Israel that Jesus was now the King and High Priest of Israel was that “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:52). The veil of the temple in Jerusalem separated the congregation from the Holy of Holies and only the high priest was allowed to pass once a year beyond that veil and seek forgiveness of the sin that separates us from God. The high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies once a year seeking atonement for sin. But on this Passover, JESUS, the Holy Lamb of God was put upon the alter of the cross and with His Sacrificial Death for the remission of sin, Jesus became our High Priest and with the veil being torn we now have access to God the Father, the Holiest of Holies, through His Son Jesus who died ONCE FOR ALL for the ATONEMENT of SIN!!! The enemy did not get to celebrate their empty victory which was ultimately signified by the “EMPTY TOMB”! The Gospel was soon to be complete as we can see that the Holy Scriptures from Prophecy to Revelation are all about God resolving the Problem of sin with the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who Provided Salvation through the Shedding of  HIS Divine Blood for  the Remission of Sin!!! The enemy should have quaked in their boots when they realized God was Serious about Resolving the Sin Problem and was willing to Accomplish His Master Plan of Salvation, even if God had to “forsake” His Only Begotten Son to make it “fair and legal” for all mankind! All that’s left for God to demonstrate His Absolute Sovereignty over Life and Death is for Him to Resurrect Jesus His Beloved Son from the borrowed tomb on the Third Day as God had foreshadowed with His declaration to Moses during the Exodus: “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever’” (Exodus 19:9) and the LORD told Moses to “consecrate them… and let them be ready for the third day.” (Exodus 9:11,15) God had repeated this phrase several times to Moses just as Jesus had repeated several times that He “would be resurrected by God (His Father) on the third day” which could easily be paraphrased as “Be ready for you will believe I am the Son of God when I am resurrected on the third day!” Only those who have with their “spiritual lives” prepared themselves and are ready and believe that Jesus rose on the Third Day and HE IS COMING AGAIN will be able to SEE GOD!  

DECEMBER 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, You are the Giver of Life and the Sustainer of our Hope. You Lord took the sins of the world upon Your shoulders and we Lord can only Praise You for the Great Sacrifice You made for our sakes. Your Name is Holy for You are the Holy  One and we give You the Praise and Glory that is due to You. Lead and guide us in our daily lives on earth that when our earthly time is over that we will dwell with You in Paradise forever.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has stated very clearly that He must “die at the hands of sinners” and that He would be “resurrected on the third day” and that this was GOD’S PLAN of SALVATION that was conceived BEFORE CREATION. This Master Plan of Redemption has now reached the last minute before Jesus completes the Plan and literally “dies for all mankind”, having suffered the pain of taking ALL SIN upon Himself and having to do it as the Father withdrew His Holy Spirit from the Son in order that the Son could pay the full penalty of sin. Jesus shed every drop of His Atoning Blood and suffered the full wrath of God as the Passover Lamb!!! Matthew then records, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” (Matthew 27:50)  Luke recorded these last words from Jesus as He died on the cross: “‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, [Jesus] breathed His last.” (Luke 23:46) The last words Jesus spoke before yielding up His spirit on the cross as recorded in the Gospel of John are: “‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30)  Mark wrote in his Gospel, “‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’…And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.” (Mark 15:34,37) It is interesting to note that each of the 4 Gospels record the same event as is evident that in each Gospel that (1) Jesus died an earthly death for each Gospel records that the Man Jesus “breathed His last” and His body was then removed from the cross and put in a grave. If Jesus were still breathing the soldiers would not have pierced His side with a spear, nor would they have allowed Joseph of Arimathea to remove the body from the cross. By every account, though different last phrases from Jesus were recorded, all 4 Gospels recorded that Jesus indeed died and that His spirit was not taken from Him but that he “yielded” His spirit to the Father. Of significant note is that in the argument that Jesus was All Man and All God (which is as Mysterious as God IS the TRINITY being 3 Persons yet being only 1 God), all the writers of the 4 Gospels recorded that Jesus gave up “His spirit” and then “breathed His last” and we must note that in each Gospel the word is “spirit” signifying man’s “spirit” and not “Spirit” which the Bible records as God’s “Spirit” such as Genesis 1:2 “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) So the Bible makes a clear distinction that man has a “spirit” and that God has a unique “Spirit” for Jesus told His disciples when He spoke of His death on the cross that when He died that “I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper…the Spirit of truth…for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17) Jesus is both the Son of Man and the Son of God and as the Son of Man He “yielded His “spirit” and “breathed His last” breath as Man and being “dead” He had “finished” the job of bringing Salvation to mankind and that Jesus as the Lamb of God, having shed every drop of His Innocent Blood  had paid the Ultimate Price for our Redemption. Matthew then writes the “Spiritual Conclusion” to this “Act of Redemption” by the Son of God: “Then [after yielding up His spirit], behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:50-54)   Once we have become aware that the entire Bible is about God bringing “deliverance” to His Creation even though it is we ourselves that have rejected Him and brought condemnation on ourselves!  There should come a time in each one’s search for “TRUTH” that we finally see that “TRUTH IS God” and that JESUS IS GOD’S SON and we declare “Behold, truly JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD and GAVE HIS LIFE TO DELIVER ME FROM MY SIN!” And then we can bow our hearts to Him and accept GOD’S GIFT OF GRACE and pray with all confidence  “Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the LORD FOREVER!”    

DECEMBER 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, today I bring before Your Throne this uneasy spirit that I have been feeling for I know this cannot be of God for the Spirit of God is Peace and this spirit of uneasiness  is not bringing my soul peace — therefore I bring my life once again before You, Jesus Christ and pray for Your Spirit to overcome my thoughts and my desires so that my soul is again at Peace which can only come from the Holy Spirit as we yield to His Spirit, the Spirit of Unity and Peace.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has just demonstrated that He is the Son of God because He DID NOT come down from the cross as challenged by the unbelievers to “save Yourself” by coming down from the cross to prove Himself to men, NO, Jesus proved Himself to His Father by staying on the cross, for suffering for those that had rejected Him, and His Final Act of Proof was that He stayed nailed to the cross yet He fulfilled His Purpose and saved the thief who was also being crucified with Jesus WHEN THE REPENTANT THIEF ACKNOWLEDGED JESUS AS LORD and the thief asked Jesus: “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” and Jesus replied, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:41-43) Matthew documents the LORD’S final earthly hours: “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:45-46)  Jesus proved Himself to His Father by staying on the cross, obedient to the Father unto death but now God is proving Himself to the Son and to the world that No One, nor anything, not even God’s Great Love for His Only Begotten Son Jesus will stay His Mighty Hand nor upset His Master Plan of Salvation!  Jesus proved He is the Son of God the Father by being Obedient and staying on the cross and God proved He is the Father God and that He Truly Loved the world and hated sin enough to RESOLVE the SIN PROBLEM and demonstrate to the world that beyond any question that God’s Purpose in becoming flesh in the form of His Only Begotten Son was to ADDRESS the SIN PROBLEM and to PROVIDE A SOLUTION IN THE FORM OF SALVATION THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF — “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [Jesus to die on the cross, the Perfect and Acceptable Sacrifice of the Passover Lamb of God] that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) We must as believers accept, as did the condemned thief on the cross, the Gift of Grace from God that was paid for by the Blood of Jesus on the cross at Calvary and then acknowledge that this Death of Jesus was the Solution to the Sin Problem for by His Death Jesus brought Eternal Life into the world for all who will call upon His Name for Salvation and we must believe that “… God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17) And for those that reject Jesus and God’s Plan of Salvation Jesus said, “And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness  rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19) God was serious enough about RESOLVING the SIN PROBLEM to develop a MASTER PLAN OF SALVATION and then GOD PROVED HIMSELF SOVEREIGN for who but God could use His enemies to actually defeat themselves as they became a major part of bringing about SALVATION by condemning Jesus to death by crucifixion!!! Again I can hear Jesus saying, “But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” (Matthew 26:56) Now that Jesus has been Obedient to the Father’s Will and  stayed on the cross God has punished sin by the death of His Only Begotten Son on that cross, the Plan of Salvation has been EXECUTED to ABSOLUTE PERFECTION, the prophecies are fulfilled, and Jesus can claim VICTORY  as He cries out from the Cross: 

“It is finished!” (John 19:30) 

I can hear the Gavel of God’s Justice ringing loud and clear throughout the whole world as God declares “COURT ADJOURNED!!!”  

DECEMBER 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I thank You for the Gift of the Holy Spirit to guide me through these latter years of my life and to help me realize it has never been about my personal glory but it is all about Your Glory. Lord, when I look at just Your last few minutes on the cross it is evident that indeed all men and especially me, fall short of Your Glory for I know I must be counted among those that let the world tempt me when I should be praying and resisting the world. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner. All I desire is for others to see Jesus in me but I yield to my worldly fears and I keep jumping up and screaming “Look at me” and once again my weakness is exposed. Lord, You are the Light, the Truth, and the Way and I pray to seek Your Light, I pray that through Your Holy Spirit that I speak only Your Truth, and walk only in Your Way.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is nailed to the cross and His garments have been divided up, He has been brutally beaten and scourged and His final minutes on this earth are at hand. One would think that at this point all anyone would think about would be getting through this extreme personal pain or even if anyone in this position even thought about doing something for others that they would be completely helpless to do anything at all, for after all, Jesus is in the greatest physical pain imaginable, He is literally nailed hands and feet to a cross, all His possessions have been taken from Him so what possibly could such a disadvantaged person do? Matthew describes the scene where the soldiers have just “divided His garments” and Jesus is hanging on the cross above them — “Sitting down, [the soldiers] kept watch over Him there. And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.” (Matthew 27:35-38) There is so little we attempt to do for the kingdom because of our lack of faith in God because we let the world tell us that we never have enough to help ourselves therefore we never consider helping others. In describing this same scene we read from the Gospel of Luke, “Then one of the criminals…blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If you are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” (Luke 23:39)   This is so typical of our proclivity to question God just as Satan tested Jesus saying “If You are the Son of God…” and then we give God some test to pass in order to “prove Himself”!?!? How ridiculous it is to imagine that we as mere mortals need personal proof that God is God — because when we are asking God to “prove Himself to us [sinners all]” we fail to realize that without God’s Miracle Gifts of our God-given life and God-given intellect we would not have the ability to even ask questions in the first place!  The scene taking place at the cross illustrates the entire Gospel as Jesus demonstrated in these three crosses a summary of the entire Bible. Here it is: (1) Jesus has come into the world to save the world but is rejected by His own. (2) Those in power sought to retain their power therefore they condemned the innocent to protect their guilt instead of accepting God’s leadership. (3) Jesus stated that the Father would grant eternal life to everyone that believed that Jesus, God’s Only Begotten Son, was sent by the Father to Save sinners from eternal hell. (4) Jesus then stated that He was not here to condemn but to Save the world. (5) God never gives up on trying to draw us to Himself. (6) Jesus Taught time and time again that it is our “Faith in God” that is the Key to our Salvation (7) Jesus has the Power to Forgive sins, even if He and the sinner are both nailed to a cross with absolutely no other resources! We see this played out as Luke records: “But the other [criminal], answering, rebuked [the blasphemer], saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’” (Luke 23:40-42) It was at this point that Jesus proved it is not a product of our circumstances that equals our Salvation but rather it is our Confession that Jesus is Lord that leads to our Salvation for even though Jesus was breathing some of His lasts breaths on earth and having been beaten and nailed to a cross, His Spiritual Powers were not diminished in the least as Luke records the Power of God to Save: “And Jesus said to [the repentant one], ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:43) There is nothing that the world can do to Jesus to prevent Him from forgiving those that call upon the Name of Jesus as Lord and Savior because the Power is not with men but with God!  The thief on the cross was guilty and was nailed to a cross — he could not go to church, he could not tithe, he could not be baptized, physically he could accomplish nothing — but spiritually he could recognize his eternal need for Jesus and recognize Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life and Jesus proved Himself despite all the limitations the world had placed on the Son of God !!! 

GOD IS FAITHFUL TO SAVE ALL WHO CALL UPON THE NAME OF JESUS FOR SALVATION! 

*******There is no worldly circumstance that prevents us from acknowledging our spiritual need for a Savior and no worldly circumstance will prevent God from being Faithful and Just to Forgive us our sins ——— we CAN have Eternal Fellowship with God for God Desires that we share Eternal Life with Him in His Eternal Paradise!!!*******  

DECEMBER 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 DECEMBER 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom Come, Lord, Precious Lamb of God forgive us when we fall back into the world that You came to free us from! Lord, You said we are to be “in” the world but not “of” the world and I pray for discernment to know the difference that I may witness to Your Glory and seek none for myself. Jesus, so often I find myself saying things and dropping Your Name and have missed the  True Purpose of calling on Your Holy Name for it is never about promoting self! Lord, guide me in Your Light and keep always in my heart Your Truth that when I speak that You will be heard and Your Peace will be with men.    AMEN

DECEMBER 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is about to take His Place on the cross, one single event that will forever change the course of history as no single event had ever done or will ever do!!! When the written history of mankind is reviewed there will always be the Bible and the story of Salvation and this single event of Jesus being crucified on the cross has no comparison in all the other books ever written in the history of the world. Time has been divided into AD (anno Domini) and BC (before Christ) with AD being taken from the full original Latin phrase “anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi (meaning “in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ”) so as long as “time is recorded” then the life of Jesus will have to be acknowledged because nothing can change the Truth that for these several thousand years now that the life of Jesus has been the world standard for keeping a record of world history. All the libraries of the world would have to be purged and every Bible destroyed just to begin trying to refer to life without referencing Jesus Christ! That single event will NEVER happen again and therefore no single individual will ever accomplish what Jesus did in 33 years on this earth. The fact that Jesus was sentenced to death by crucifixion which was prophesied hundreds of years before crucifixion was even used was another historical fact that will never be reproduced in the history of mankind because God and only God knows the future and has complete control of the events that occur, therefore even if a great conspiracy arose and had the following of all men, then those living at the beginning of the conspiracy would have to somehow come up with a scenario that a 1000 years after they wrote the details of the conspiracy that the conspirators would have to invent something that would somehow use the enemies of the conspiracy to prove the validity of the conspiracy? This scenario of enemies being used to prove themselves wrong is ludicrous but it is exactly what happened with Jesus Christ BECAUSE his VIRGIN BIRTH, LIFE, DEATH BY CRUCIFIXION, BURIAL, and RESURRECTION were predicted thousands of years earlier and were accomplished not by those who were following Him but were brought about by those who could only be classified as being against Him, why else would they sentence Him to death on a cross just as it had been written of the Jewish Messiah when they were trying to prove that Jesus was “NOT” the Messiah? Today some will claim Jesus is a myth but never in the history of the world did the world change the way time is recorded because of a “myth” — Jesus walked the earth, was a Jew, and was crucified on a cross BECAUSE HE IS THE SON OF GOD!!! Matthew recorded this single event with simple detailed Truth: “And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. ‘They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing the cast lots.’” (Matthew 27:33-35) This single event has been recorded in every single Bible ever published and is still being put into print today. The Bible has sold more copies than any other book in history and will never be overtaken as the number 1 selling book of all time so therefore there NEVER will be a single event, spoken of by acknowledged prophets that will occur thousands of years after the prophecy and that event will come about exactly as written by the prophet yet accomplished by the actions of those opposing the prophecy — and then the event, though unpopular as it was with the world powers at the time, would  be written and published year after year and the world powers could not suppress it — these facts surrounding this single event of Jesus and His Death on a Cross are in itself the PROOF that JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD!!!