FEBRUARY 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 FEBRUARY 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, thank You Lord for Your Grace so freely bestowed on such an undeserving sinner such as I Lord, (But by the GRACE of GOD I am what I am…1 Corinthians 15:10)— Lord, it matters not what other men do with the knowledge of Christ, but it is of Eternal Importance what we ourselves personally do with the knowledge that Jesus came to earth, took on flesh, lived a Perfect Life, and allowed Himself to be the Lamb of God, offered for the sins of each individual as an atonement for those sins in order that we can be “Forgiven our sins” and through the Sacrifice of Christ we can exchange our guilt for the Righteousness of Jesus Christ, our Savior! Lord, what does matter in our lives is that we ourselves “Believe in God and His Righteousness” and that we “Believe” it significantly enough to share the “Good News” with other men that they too can have the Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ! Lord, I pray that all the remaining days that You choose to GRACE me with that I will use each day to point others to the Truth of God that He so Loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son to become flesh and dwell among us and show us the “Way” to the Truth of God and His Great Love for us!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS took a simple Question about “grapes” and “figs” and pointed us to the Truth of God that God will make His Truth “obvious” to us if we will use our God-given common logic — of course we don’t get “grapes” from anything but grape vines nor do we gather “figs” from anywhere but fig trees, so why do we go to the world of men to learn of God? Jesus warned us “beware of false prophets” which tells us that there are “real prophets” and there are “false prophets” and to keep us safe Jesus tells us how to tell the “good” from the “bad” and that is simply to see if the bush has “thorns” or “grapes” or does the tree produce “thistles” or “figs”?  Jesus then made it clear that we will be judged by the fruit that we produce and not by what we profess to be with our mouths, and the penalty is rather severe, if we do not produce good fruit in the eyes of God, then our tree will be “cut down and thrown into the fire”! God never asks us to do anything that He does not provide everything we need to accomplish with our lives that which He calls us to do and God always gives us very clear detailed instructions not only “How” but “Why” we should follow His instructions! Such as is this case as Jesus Teaches we should produce “good” fruit then He immediately Teaches us a parable on “How” — and if we use our God-given logic we will also easily understand “Why”! Jesus had just warned, “Not everyone that says to Me ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven…” (Matthew 7:21a) and Jesus then illustrates the Truth of God that we are not to just “say” Jesus is “Lord” of our lives but we must “live” our lives and “do” those things that prove that He IS the “Lord” of our lives. Jesus was blunt in His “Consequence” of our lives producing “fruit” of the world and of men rather than the “fruit” of following Jesus as “Lord” and producing kingdom fruit when He proclaims: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"  (Matthew 7:23) Jesus then starts His Teaching Parable of the two builders: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25) When we look at the simple Truth of God through simple God-given common sense, we will not try to gather grapes from thornbushes nor will we try to build our refuge from the world on the shifting sands of the doctrines of men that change with the prevailing winds of popularity, nothing worldly provides any real shelter from the storms of life. Jesus tells us that there will be storms and struggles in our lives but we should build our life on the strong foundation of Faith in God found in trusting the “rock” — a house built on Faith in God and the Rock “will not fall” — if you build your house on the shifting sands of the ever-changing doctrines of men and the lies of the world, when the storms of life come, your house will fall, “And great [will be] its fall!” (Matthew 7:29)