JANUARY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#01 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

 JANUARY  24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, we seek to find Your Truth and to know the “Way” and we praise You that You did not just “tell” us how to live but You became flesh and “lived” a life on earth so that You could Teach by “example”. Lord Jesus, as I search the scriptures I always end up searching my heart, for it is the desires of my heart that lead me to my actions and it is in our hearts that Your truth speaks the loudest. Lord, my desire is to be more like You in everything I do, say, think, and live! Lord, You know that I fall short “short of the glory of God” and yet — You still love me — Teach me Lord to stand tall in my shortcomings and love others with the love You showed the world by both Your life and Your death.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS 

JESUS has the “Authority” from God to “Guide” all who will follow Him to Heaven and to God Himself. This “Authority from God” has been documented in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the first three chapters where St. Matthew recorded how Jesus fulfilled the Messianic Prophecies and thereby is God’s Anointed One, God’s Only Begotten Son, the Son of Man who was born of Holy Seed from a “Virgin” womb! Those are the best credentials Jesus could have to prove His Authority to Teach us about God His Father.  This blog attempts to accept the challenge from the Holy Spirit to read through the Gospel of Jesus Christ written by St. Matthew and to answer the Questions that Jesus asked. It is under this premise that we will continue our study on the Questions that Jesus asked during His earthly ministry starting at the beginning with the first Jesus Question encountered in Matthew’s account JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13).  A comment received from Sharon Anderson who had accepted my invitation to comment on “The JESUS Questions” is filled with great insights that in reading and trying to answer these JESUS Questions we should keep in mind “3 things — …context, context, context…” which is great advice that I adopted immediately and advice that I pass on to the reader of this blog along with my open invitation for any and all comments the reader feels led to make on this blog — I still feel the urging of the Holy Spirit to get others involved in this deeper study of Jesus because He is “soon coming”!!!   JQ#01 is about us being the “the salt of the earth” and with His Question there is a declarative statement, Jesus said “you are”, and not “you will become” or “you have been” but He states from His point of Infinite Truth that we “ARE” and that is where everyone needs to start — what we think about ourselves is not nearly as important as what Jesus “knows” about us! Jesus said very clearly that “You are the salt of the earth…” therefore we must first think of ourselves as “salt” and then we must answer the Question Jesus asks with JQ#01 “…but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?”. Sharon Anderson in her comment responded with some very good notes on the context (“context is king”) and that is where any study or discussion should start as I agree completely with Sharon that we must study context to get to the TRUTH. The “context” for JQ#01 is Matthew 5:3-16 the “Beatitudes”.  In verses 5:3-11 Jesus uses the word “are” in each verse 5:3-11 and then again in verses 5:13 and 5:14 but in 5:3-11 Jesus says “Blessed are” and in 5:13 and 5:14 Jesus says “You are” . Sharon stated “I think it behooves us to examine our own lives and see if our character and conduct line up more closely with the description in Matthew 5:3-11 or with 2 Timothy 3:1-5.” I agree that these “Beatitudes” were given to us as a Moral Standard and that we should also recognize that Jesus states emphatically that we “ARE salt” and also that we “ARE light”. Jesus was also very clear that we must be careful not to lose our “flavor” nor hide our “light”!  The Life of Jesus was the most useful life ever lived and is without a doubt the brightest Light. Jesus stated that the “reason” we should live our lives as He lived His is so that the world will see our lives being lived for Christ and that “they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).