APRIL 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

 APRIL 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, my Savior, Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Son of God Most High. Jesus, my prayer today is that the Holy Spirit will totally consume me and overflow from my spirit so that all that will be seen in me is Thee! Today I pray for the total destruction of the old man as I share Your Story of Grace and Forgiveness by the “Way” I live my day-to-day life. Lord, I know that without Your Grace and Forgiveness that I would still be lost in “self” and drowning in my “sin”, grant it Lord that all the words I speak today will be Your Words, that all my desires will be towards “loving others” as You have commanded. Forgive me mine iniquities, let Your cleansing Light be all that remains in my life.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Himself has always made His Lessons and Callings personal — we see Him calling out His disciples one by one and not only just calling them out individually but He called each one by name and made it clear to each one that they were to use their talents now to advance the kingdom of God! The way they were to learn “how” to advance God’s Kingdom was the same command Jesus has given each individual that will heed the Voice of Jesus, “Come, follow Me.” (Matthew 4:19) In JQ#13a, b and c we must understand that Jesus is asking the Pharisees to look at themselves and see that their false accusations are damaging themselves more than they are damaging Jesus. Jesus starts explaining this to the Pharisees by pointing out to them that the “reality” of their accusation has the root motivation of “division” and that even in the strongest of kingdoms there must be “unity of spirit” or the kingdom itself will weaken and eventually crumble: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25) . The fact that the Pharisees attributes the good works and miracles that Jesus had been performing was “by Beelzebub” points to the fact that “Satan” himself has been the motivating “spirit” directing the Pharisees to attack the good works of Jesus and  the Miracle Power of God — “Now when the Pharisees heard [Jesus was performing miracles and casting out demons] they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.” Matthew 12:24)  If we look at what Jesus had been doing in terms of healing and casting out demons we must concede that the “physical” results of these miracles can only be accounted for by the “Spiritual” Power of God being exhibited through Jesus — for never before in all of history nor ever will it happen in the future that anyone has or will “cast out demons by Beelzebub”!!!  However, the Pharisees could not deny that miracles were being performed so they had to draw the multitude’s attention away from God’s Power and therefore the Pharisees were given the “idea” from Satan himself to draw the focus of the miracles away from God and to give Satan the “credit” for this healing and casting out demons! The really big problem here can be seen as the ridiculous claim it really is — by saying that Jesus is “casting out demons” by the power of “Beelzebub”, the accusation itself reveals it as another fabrication by Satan to draw us away from the Truth of God! If Satan controls all the demons then why would Satan make himself look bad by putting demons into someone and then turning around and drawing them out again which would only put Satan at “cross purposes” with himself!?!?  Jesus points out that Satan would be fighting against himself and that would be self-destruction — but on the other hand, Jesus points out that by just the very mention of the name “Beelzebub” in their accusation that the Pharisees have exposed the source and supply of their false accusations and their true motivation which is to “divide and conquer” the followers of Jesus who is Teaching the Truth of God, doesn’t that sound exactly like what is happening in our world today? Jesus knew that this problem would plague all men just like the universal problem the world has with sin and self and if Satan can draw your attention away from God then he has divided God’s people! It is as true today as it was when Jesus first spoke it, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house [or church group or family] divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25) That verse started with, “But Jesus knew their thoughts…” and the Lesson we must learn is that as soon as the name “Beelzebub” or “Satan” is mentioned we must look to find the false accusations that will be present against God — for the goal of Satan is “desolation” of God’s people!  Satan himself knows that “God so loved the world that He gave [the sin filled world] His only begotten Son [Jesus], that whosoever believes in [the acceptable Sacrifice on the cross for our sin by] Jesus that they shall not perish, but have everlasting life!” ( John 3:16) John 3:16 explains why Satan would attack and accuse Jesus — for it is Jesus that defeats Satan and frees all men from the slavery of sin and self! Satan has used the “separation-from-God” weapon against the children of God ever since Adam and Eve to “divide” and hurt all that seek to be the children of God! If we remain in our sin then we will perish and have to live our Eternity separated (or “divided”) from God, hence our “desolation” is Satan’s victory! Do you see now why Satan attacks the Truth of God and why Jesus is pointing this out with JQ#13? Jesus clearly points this out so that we will know that Satan always attacks God by attacking God’s people, and Satan’s favorite weapon of “desolation” is false accusations against God to get us to turn from God to ourselves where temptation and sin will consume us and separate us from God? If Jesus points out a “problem”, don’t you think a “solution” is quick to follow? Remember, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!” (John 8:36)