MAY 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#14 “ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’” (Matthew 13:51)

 MAY 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#14 “ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’”  (Matthew 13:51)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, may my lips continually Praise You for You are worthy of continual Praise. Lord Jesus grant it that my heart will look at Your Glory and see that my life is nothing without Your Grace but is limitless with Your Grace. Lord, as I start each day with my  prayers to You, let others come first in my life as they did in Yours, keep my heart growing deep roots that Your Word will produce much fruit for with Christ there is plenty for all as Your Word is enough for all men. Jesus, we acknowledge that we must be in the world but our prayer is that You Teach us to remain separated to You and that our “understanding” of Your WORD will be our guiding light through the valley of darkness for You have said “I AM the GOOD SHEPHERD” and we TRUST YOU to lead us to “still waters” and “green pastures”.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus keeps emphasizing the importance of “understanding” as the key to the kingdom of heaven and warns us repeatedly that the “enemy” seeks to devour both the “seed” and any “fruit” the Word of God produces: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who has received seed by the wayside.” (Matthew 13:19) If we stop and ponder all the lessons contained in this one verse we will get at least a glimmer of “understanding” of the “Truth of God”. (1) First “Truth of God” — Jesus promised that the “word of the kingdom” will be spoken to us. God will do His part by “Teaching” but we must do our part by “listening” to Him. (2) Second “Truth of God” — Ask yourself “Why would God bother to Teach us about the kingdom?” and the only answer is that God would not Teach us about the kingdom if He did not intend for us to share the kingdom with Him. (3) Third “Truth of God” — Teaching and listening has a common Eternal goal — “understanding” —  we must “understand”, for when we “understand” God’s Word we will “know” God. (4) Fourth “Truth of God” — Once we “know God” we will be able to protect ourselves from the “enemy” of the Word, and the “enemy of the Word” desires to destroy the “seed” and the “fruit” that the seed will bear. (5) Fifth “Truth of God”  —The world and all its evil has trampled the path to the kingdom and packed the earth under their feet to where the seed cannot take root and we will not produce any kingdom fruit for the seed will not grow on the wide path to destruction. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” (Matthew 7:13)  We can see that Jesus has a good reason for stopping at this point in His Teaching us the “Way” to the “narrow gate” and making sure that we not only “hear” with our “ears” but that His Word will take root deep in our “soul” as we “understand” His Word with our “heart”. Jesus has Taught the same “Truth of God” over and over and He will Teach the “Truth of God” again and again because it is important to Him that we “know” the “Way Home”! Jesus continued His Lesson on “understanding” as He gives us three more small gems  of great value as He Teaches three more parables of (1) The wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30) warning us to keep our lives free of “worldly influence”, (2) The parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32) to reinforce our value of even the smallest of seeds to the kingdom, {{{Quote from Roland Warren, Choices Fundraising Banquet Friday night 5/5/17: “Anyone can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God knows the number of apples in a seed!!!}}} and (3) The parable of leaven (Matthew 13:33) to make us aware that even a little sin in our lives will defile the “bread of life”. Jesus takes every opportunity to present His Word and the Truth of God in terms that we can relate to and here are three more examples Jesus uses to Teach us that how we live our daily lives has “eternal consequences”. Do you think Jesus is being excessive when He Teaches, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) ?  Of course if you do not want to claim God as your “Father” then you can ask that infamous worldly comeback question, “What difference does it make?”[SIC]