FEBRUARY 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#05 “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

 FEBRUARY 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#05  “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Thank You Lord for the new day You give us each morning and the Hope that comes with knowing that You are in control of our lives for an eternity of sunrises! Lord, I thank You for the bright sunlight that greets me each day and for the warmth and Light of Your Holy Word. Lord Jesus, You came to earth to seek and to save that which is lost and Your Words were designed that in our lostness we might find the Way so Lord as I open Your Word this morning I look to Your Light to guide my Way.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS starts this Lesson on knowing where to find success in life by going to the “Source of Life” who is God Himself. There is a huge blessing found in this opening statement by Jesus that we so often just read over without stopping to understand the implications of what Jesus is saying!? Let us read it again but this time think of the “Divine Implications” coming from the Son of God — “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) The most obvious and most important question to ask is “Who can make this kind of promise and keep it for ‘everyone’?” Jesus is telling us that God is in control of everything in the universe and God is “our heavenly Father” so if we go to Him and “ask” for His Advice, “seek” His Truth, and “knock” on the door of His Understanding, that God Promises to Give us His Good Advice based on His Eternal Truth and the Door to His Infinite Knowledge will be opened wide for us to enter into His kingdom! The “Law of Choice and Consequence” was introduced yesterday in order to take a stab at why Jesus would end His JQ#04 Lesson on “judging others” with a warning to “…do not give what is holy to the dogs…” (Matthew 7:6) ? — the Holy Spirit has been Teaching me the “Law of Choice and Consequence” for several years now in my morning studies and it brings to “light” the problem of our society abandoning the Holy Moral Standard given to us by the Eternal Holy God. The “Law of Choice and Consequence” was established by the One Holy Creator God before the foundations of the earth and supersedes any “laws” that may be “legislated” by any society — in other words, according to God’s Law of Choice and Consequence you are free to choose to take someone else’s life but that action has a predetermined “Consequence” which will apply to every individual that faces that “Choice” — if you “choose” to let the person “live”, the “Consequence” of that “Choice” is to be given God’s Mercy and Grace but if you “choose” to take that person’s “life” the “Consequence” of that “Choice” is to suffer God’s Wrath for the “Consequence” of “taking someone’s life is called murder” — God has declared that “murder” deserves “punishment” — and the issue here is simply that the “Law of Choice and Consequence” is “Eternal” and cannot be changed by any society that decides that it is “legal” to “take the life of someone else”! God has declared “taking the life of someone else is murder” and it will remain “murder” in the eyes of the “Moral Law Giver” for eternity! Only by making a “law” that is applied equally to every human being  is that “law” fair for every individual of every generation, regardless of race, nationality, religion, or social status!!! God has already “judged” that “murder” is “Wrong” and God Himself has declared the penalty — it is our responsibility as “stewards” of “God’s Moral Law” to make sure that the “legislation” of our society aligns with God’s Moral Law and that God’s Moral Law is applied equally to every living soul! That is why Jesus told to us to “judge not” — because when we use the definition of “Right and Wrong” that has been established by immoral legislation which contradicts God’s Moral Law then we are usurping the Power of God — it is pointless to “judge” because God has established already what the penalties and rewards for our actions will be! It is our responsibility to learn and to know what God declares is “Right and Wrong”!!! When I answer truthfully this Jesus Question in both verses Matthew 7:9 & 7:10 there is a deeper burning Lesson that Jesus always Teaches with His simple but powerful Truths about the Father which the Son reveals to us through His Question/Lessons. The Bible cannot be read without a great curiosity about God being generated in our souls and I personally believe that God inspired the Bible to be written in such a way that we would want to solve the “Mystery of God”. Once the curiosity has been sufficiently stirred by the Old Testament and the Prophecies of the “End Times”, the New Testament and the Teachings of Jesus flood us with special visions of God. The Son of the Living God Himself became flesh and dwelt among us to reveal the Father God to us. I personally started my “Journey to Truth” not knowing much about God but I did have a great curiosity to “really know the Creator”. My personal journey has been “documented” by personal journals that I have kept since 2001 and God has revealed Himself through those journals to me through my day-to-day living. The Holy Spirit blessed me to have that initial curiosity to want to know God and I was further blessed with the desire to “take notes” as I made my “Journey to Truth” by seeking God. This curiosity was tempered with advice from the first Pastor that got me to thinking about actually “knowing” God. Pastor Brian Walls told me to study “World Views” and that advice fixed firmly in me the thought that the Word of God is the “inerrant Word of God” and the foundation of our Christian World View. This passage in Matthew 7:7-14 is a great place to start and even though I didn’t know much scripture when I started my early journals, I did know “…seek and you will find…knock and it will be opened…” —so it was this section that started me down my journey and through my study of the WORD.  Jesus Teaches us these simple Truths of God with His Lessons, all of which clearly shows us who the Father is! This passage Teaches us that in order to find the answer to “who is God” and “what is Truth” that we only need to “ask”, “seek”, and “knock” and when the door opens we will see God standing there with open arms saying “Welcome Home!!!”. The “Truth” is that if we are to get to a destination we cannot just think about it being there, we actually need to perform a physical action towards achieving our destination and God is gracious enough to bless our actions with positive dependable results and moves us forward one step at a time. God can be found — God Himself has promised to reveal Himself to us but we must be actively involved in “asking, seeking, and knocking” about Him — {Word of Caution} — the action should be done with the desire to know God, and He will reveal Himself! Jesus reveals some wonderful characteristics of God the Father by passages like Matthew 7:9-14 and our study of these Lessons is a great “first step” for us to take on our “Journey to Truth”. It is these characteristics of God that teach us the “faith” we should have in God’s Holy Laws and the confidence that if we follow His Laws the results of our choice to follow Him will have “Divine Eternal Consequences”.

FEBRUARY 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#05 “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

 FEBRUARY 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#05  “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Praise You Lord for Your Great Love. Lord, as we seek to be more like You in every thing we do or try to accomplish with our lives that have been “crucified with Christ”, may all our actions reflect the Love for mankind by which You both Lived the Perfect Life and Died the Perfect Sacrificial Death, and then the Glory by which You were Risen from the Grave! Lord, please let us be aware that death is nothing but a gateway to eternity because You Lord defeated both death and the grave, and Your Victory came through Love and Obedience, which is my prayer today, that I may Love as You loved The Father and be Obedient to the Father’s Will as You were Obedient to The Father, that The Father’s Mercy and Grace will flow freely in my life!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS warned us at the end of His Lesson on JQ#04 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine…” (Matthew 7:6) as He concluded His Lesson on “do not judge”. I mentioned that this verse always makes me uncomfortable — I also mentioned that this “do not judge” Lesson Jesus Taught has been “hijacked” by those seeking political power to advance their personal agenda, a humanistic agenda that has “re-defined” certain commandments of God by re-defining the meaning of words associated with those commandments and one of those words is “tolerance”. I grew up understanding the meaning of “tolerance” as adults “putting up” with some unacceptable childish behavior publicly until it could be “corrected” privately so that the unacceptable behavior would not be repeated in public again! That was how the “community” viewed “tolerance” and it was based on a common acceptance of God’s Moral Standard taken from God’s Holy Word and with the acceptance of God’s definition of “tolerance” there was “unity” throughout the community. No one had to “judge” others because they clearly understood behaviors that were “Right” and behaviors that were “Wrong” because those behaviors were already established by God’s Moral Standard given to us by a Holy Eternal God who does not change, nor will He ever change therefore the “Right” and “Wrong” behaviors according to God’s Moral Standard will eternally be “Right and Wrong”!  Only when all citizens are living under the same Eternal Moral Standard given to society for the “Good” or “Right Thing” by The Holy Eternal God for society to use as social guidelines will our society truly “not judge others” by any standard other than that Eternal Moral Standard given to society by God Himself and has already proven itself to be beneficial to society when incorporated into our culture. The Holy Scriptures states emphatically that God Himself has “put eternity in our heart” and we will forever know “Right” and “Wrong” and it is this Eternal Moral Standard within each heart that tells us that bashing babies against a wall is “morally” wrong, regardless of any “law” passed by “human” government!!! Our legal system no longer recognizes The Holy God as the Moral Standard Giver therefore the legal system defines through “human legislation”  a “moral standard” that the Power Mongers think is “best” for “the common good”, standards not based on an Immortal Holy Eternal God but by mortal men seeking to be like God and these “self-absorbed” seekers establish through “human” government an “un-holy legal system of doctrines of men” that redefine terms like “tolerance” and legislates (from the bench) a woman’s “?right?” to take the life of an unborn child. The problem is that these doctrines are determined by the “ruling” political party which is in a continual state of flux as each party seeks to remain in power! “Abortion” used to be considered to be illegal because it did not align with God’s Moral Standard and abortion involved taking the “life” of a “human fetus” that had not reached the stage of development where it could survive outside the womb — in this un-holy humanistic re-definition of words, today’s definition of the term  “fetus” has be changed to the “products of conception” because it is easier to discard “products” than it is to discard a “human fetus” ——— but regardless of the definition of “legal” terms associated with “abortion”, it is still a “human mother” that with the contribution of a “human father” has conceived a “human fetus” in her “human womb” and if God’s “miracle of life” is left unaltered, the “human fetus” (which from the moment of conception has its “God-given life” in it) will continue its journey as an individual “human being” to the point where it will exit the womb and exist on its own. This “human fetus” does not become a “human baby” at the point of birth, it is always from the moment of conception a “human baby” AND HAS “HUMAN DNA” AT THAT UNIQUE POINT OF CONCEPTION! At the instant the SPARK OF GOD’S MIRACLE OF LIFE ENTERS THE EMBRYO, the UNION OF THE HUMAN MALE SPERM WITH THE HUMAN FEMALE EGG PRODUCES A UNIQUE LIVING HUMAN OFFSPRING WITHIN THE HUMAN MOTHER’S WOMB!!! In fact, the moment that the “human” sperm fertilizes the “human” egg and God has blessed that union with “GOD’S MIRACLE OF LIFE” it is “human” — The “product” of “human conception” is a “human” fetus — end of story! Consider that when the “human baby” is born, if it is left on its own, it will die without that help of other “humans” until it reaches an age that it can provide for itself, which is several years old — so if “abortion” is “OK/Legal” because the “human mother” that is providing protection and assistance to the “human fetus” in her “human womb” decides she is “inconvenienced by her pregnancy”, then why can’t the court declare it “OK/Legal” for “human adults” to decide that it is inconvenient for society to take care of “human children” who can’t take care of themselves? If it is legal for the “human mother” to determine that the “human child” in her “human womb” is “unwanted” and can “legally” take the life of this “inconvenient truth”, then why shouldn’t it not also be “legal” for her to decide that once the “human fetus” has exited her womb AND is STILL “inconvenient” that she can kill the baby outside the womb?!?!? GOD FORBID!!! This “legal murder of the unborn” is what happens when a society lets corrupt politicians seeking political power over society “re-define” certain terms and justify by those “re-defined terms” what is “legal” without using God’s Holy Moral Standard to make their decisions — when you use “legal terms” a “human fetus” becomes a “product of conception” and “killing a baby” becomes a “legal abortion” but the TRUTH is that GOD IMPARTED LIFE TO THE UNION OF THE HUMAN EGG AND THE HUMAN SPERM AND THE RESULTING HUMAN EMBRYO POSSESSED LIFE UNTIL THAT LIFE WAS TERMINATED — “LEGAL ABORTION” BY ANY DEFINITION USING ANY LEGAL TERMS IS THE “LEGAL TERMINATION OF LIFE”!!!  Abortion is only accepted in our society today because God and His Holy Moral Standards have been removed from the decision making process of our highest courts in our “legal systems” and our idea of “Right” and “Wrong” are determined not by a Holy Eternal Unchanging Set of Moral Standards established by an Eternal True God  but by the vacillating “opinion” of 4 or 5 people that have been “appointed” by a political administration with the “advancement” of that particular parties platform and their “political agenda” in mind — in other words the Holy Moral Standard establish by The ETERNAL Creator God has been “thrown to the dogs”; and the Holy Sanctity of Life is a “pearl of great worth” that has been consumed by political swine and the results of this unholy consumption of usurped powers for our society is a new “legal” definition of a “woman’s right” to “legally take the life” of her unborn child??? Jesus moves us straight into the solution by His next statement leading up to His next Question by introducing some “success” principals: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) Jesus made a simple plain statement of “Spiritual Truth”  and He immediately adds: “For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:8) This is clearly an inclusive statement Jesus makes: “For everyone…”. Please note that Jesus is not telling us to take our requests to the Supreme Court of the United States but Jesus is telling us to refer our case to The Supreme Judge of the Universe — God in Heaven!!! The whole intent of the Gospel is that “all” will be included into the kingdom. But, in order to be “included in this heavenly ALL” we must learn the simple rules which God has chosen and God always makes it perfectly clear that if we perform the actions God asks of us, we will get the predetermined results that He has established in His Eternal Moral Law through His Holy Eternal Word. This is called the Law of Choice and Consequence established by the Creator and all of God’s Laws apply to everyone, just like we all experience “gravity”… “…the rain falls on the just and the unjust…”. We all can enjoy and depend on the sun coming up each morning, all because God has said that is the way He has determined that it will be. God in His Mercy has been Gracious in letting us know that He has given us Freewill in our lives and we are free to make our own “choices” but we are not free to determine the “consequence” of our actions because the result of our choices has already been determined by God so that “everyone” can have the confidence that God has determined “consequences” for the “True Good” of ALL mankind and we should use His Consistency of results to make an “informed decision” based upon on “constant” and “irrevocable consequence”. The Law of Choice and Consequence is simple and applies to “everyone” and God makes it perfectly clear that we are free to “chose” our actions by exercising our “God-given Free Will” but He reserves the right to dictate the Consistent Eternal Moral Standard Consequence of the action we chose to perform by exercising our God-given FREEWILL. This section is a simple set of “Actions=> => => Results” as we read “Seek=>Find, Ask=>Given, & Knock=>Open”. God shows His Goodness by telling us the “Eternal Consistent Consequence” of our choice “before” we make our “Free Will” decision  and then He gives us some “Blessed Assurance” of “TRUSTING GOD’S MORAL STANDARD” when He asks JQ#05: “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9)  Apply the Law of Choice and Consequence to this section in Matthew 7:7-14 and you’ll easily answer the LORD’s Teaching Questions. God is the “Giver of Life” and has established the Moral Laws governing the entire universe, should we not listen to how the Holy God whom Jesus calls “our heavenly Father” defines such terms as “Life”, “Death”, “Abortion”, “Right”, “Wrong” and “Tolerance”?!?!?!? 

FEBRUARY 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

 FEBRUARY 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#04  “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, each day as I start my day with the thought of “Jesus”, there is a Peace that cannot be explained — but LORD I need no explanation and that amplifies my Peace. There is no name like the Name of Jesus and there are no thoughts like thinking about Jesus! Each morning as I rise and go to Your Holy Word there is an eternal Hope for my life and then I write the Name “JESUS” and my soul knows that You are the Light of men and that Your Light is THE  LIFE. Jesus forgive me of my daily shortcomings and carry me until I finally become One with You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is the Master Teacher and He has been Teaching these first four Lessons in a specific order therefore He has a specific overall objective because each Lesson builds upon the last Lesson and points us to the next Lesson while keeping us focused in the direction of “Light” that He is leading us into. This section on “Judging” has been a struggle for me and my spirit feels violated by the world. Jesus was always Teaching Lessons that are “universal” in that every soul of every generation can apply EVERY LESSON THAT JESUS TEACHES to their daily lives! In other words — “Each Lesson Jesus Taught was relevant when Jesus first spoke His Words and they are just as relevant today as we read His Words for the first time in our lives!!!”  I know that every thing that I read about in God’s Holy Word points to Jesus and when we focus on Jesus we can see God’s Love being poured out on all generations through the Great Sacrifice and Obedience of the Only Begotten Son yet when I read this command from Jesus as written in Matthew 7:6 I struggle, not because I struggle with following Jesus but because I struggle with the fear that I am not understanding the True Lesson Jesus is trying to Teach when He says: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs…” (Matthew 7:6)!! Yesterday the Holy Spirit led me consider that this new age of unbelievers are in the process of “re-defining God’s Moral Standard” by which God has commanded us that “we should judge our own actions and let God Himself judge others”, and it is through that process of “re-defining God’s Moral Standard” that the new unbelievers have removed all that is “Holy” from the “judgment process established by God” thereby making the New Age Moral Standard “relative” to the reigning political thought of what is best for the political beast to retain power! I gave two instances: (1) Abortion and (2) Same Sex Marriage. If we look at “Abortion” from its “re-definition perspective” then we see that the “politics” of abortion is what is driving the “re-definition” of abortion which is now defined, not from God’s Moral Standard but from the political viewpoint which our modern society is told is “the woman’s right to choose”. There is a great conflict with God’s Holy Word with this modern re-definition of “abortion” as a “woman’s right” to take the life of the new “unborn” human growing within the mother’s body designed by God to give “life” to the unborn growing in her womb!  God grants each individual “life” and God does not give the “right” to anyone to take that “God-given life” from the individual God gave life to. Only by taking the “Holy” aspect away from life can they “re-define” abortion! You cannot show a single abortion that has not deprived an individual of that individual’s “God given right to life”!! The same is true with “Same Sex Marriage” — Two people of the same sex have been given by those seeking “political power” the “?legal?” right to marriage but there is no “Biblical Justification by God’s Moral Standard” that same sex couples can enter into “Holy Matrimony”. The political “re-definition” of marriage has removed the “Holy” element of marriage therefore “Holy Matrimony” is impossible when “Holy” has been “politically” removed from marriage!  Again this has been done to “politically re-define” those terms that have always kept our common moral compass pointing to the “Truth of God”. Jesus is Teaching us on “judging” in Matthew 7:6 that we must not abandon God’s Laws and we should always “judge” as led by the Holy Spirit of God and not by some “politically motivated re-definition” of men seeking to remove that which is “Holy” from “God’s Moral Standard”! Our society today has lost our direction and has strayed from the TRUTH OF GOD’S MORAL STANDARD as determined by God to be the True Definition of “Right and Wrong”. Each society must come to the TRUTH that God is Eternal and His Holiness is UNCHANGING — God Himself and His Holiness must NOT be removed from the laws of our society — for without God’s Holy Moral Standards we are left with man’s standard which has demonstrated that we are “fallen” from God’s Holiness and we are left living in an un-Holy Godless Society without a Moral Compass for our Guiding Light — and where there is no “Light” to guide us, we always end up in darkness!   Tomorrow we will start looking at JQ#05 in Matthew 7:7-12 which will return “Holy” to our judgments.

FEBRUARY 16 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

 FEBRUARY 16  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#04  “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord this is my prayer of thanksgiving — of all the things that I could be doing and all the places that I could go, I have chosen to start each and every day by writing the Name above all names — JESUS! Lord, over the years as I have tried virtually every thing under the sun, nothing has ever given me peace nor made me a better person than calling on  the Name of Jesus! There is Truth and there is Hope, and there is the Assurance that what God says He Will Do, He Does — Lord, Your Word is Holy and Your Way is the True Path of Righteousness so I pray for Your Guidance and Your Presence to lead me forward keeping my eyes on Your Glory.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS started this section by giving us a command to “Judge not…” (Matthew 7:1a) and there is a gnawing in my spirit that is linking this command to today’s new age definition of “tolerance”. Like so many other words used to control our thought process (by whoever it is that thinks that the average man cannot think for himself) the new meaning of “tolerance” does not carry the same meaning that I grew up with. These verses from the Holy Bible are being used against Christians in this new age of “tolerance” as we are accused of being “intolerant” if we don’t accept people that have made different life choices than we as Christians have made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and living a life as commanded by God Himself. When we look at “tolerating” people, the new age definition has rewritten the definition to mean that we completely accept them without passing “judgment” on them and we have been led to believe that “total acceptance” is the “right thing” to do and they are using this command from Jesus “not to judge others” as proof that Jesus would have accepted them. The problem I have with that thinking is that if we “tolerate” the ungodly as defined by God Himself then we are putting man’s definition of “tolerance” above the Godly Moral Standard!?!?!  By accepting the worlds definitions generated by men then we have effectively made “Tolerance” our new god as we substitute God’s Moral Standard of “do not judge” with new age “total acceptance” of every type of behavior in the name of “new age tolerance”! What is being overlooked in this passage IS THAT GOD IS NOT SAYING that the sinner will “not be judged”, God is saying that we are to leave the “judging” to the Fair, All Knowing God who is the Righteous JUDGE of ALL! We are to study what God declares as “Moral or immoral” and we are to “tolerate” what God “tolerates”, not by what moral standards man thinks God should “tolerate” — for everything THAT God does NOT “tolerate”, GOD DECLARES is an ABOMINATION! The new age definition of “tolerance” would leave us to believe that God has changed His mind about what behaviors are “abominations” — while in reality God is saying that we are “to leave judging others to Him and we should accept His judgement as our standard”!!  So if God writes in His Holy Word that homosexual behavior is an “abomination” then we should take God at His Word instead of “caving in” to some New Age definition of “tolerance”!  We have allowed our society to crawl out onto a very slippery slope by “accepting” without question these new age definitions that are being imposed on our social philosophy. Two instances: (1) Abortion and (2) Same-sex marriages. When did we as a society drop our Moral Standards based on God’s Holy Word and allow a government appointed representative body of 9 people (all lawyers) to decide what is “morally acceptable” by a simple majority of as little as 5 people and to declare what is “legal” behavior for millions of people? We as a society have allowed the establishment of a new godhead in the government that is “appointed” by the sitting administration and we are letting them use whatever “politically correct” standard they chose to establish as “morally acceptable” for our entire society?! “The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth…” (Isaiah 40:28) and yet the government in their thirst for “power and control” will soon be passing legislation to outlaw the use of God’s Moral Standard and new laws will be written to support this new age moral standard based on this new age definition of “Tolerance”! Talk about a “double standard” —they will outlaw the Bible first (using the separation of Church and State) but then use the Bible (by quoting Jesus saying “judge not” taken completely out of context) to justify their new “Tolerance” law because Jesus said “Judge not…” !?!?! This discourse on letting the world establish the Moral Standard is in my opinion the result of Christians “… giving what is holy to the dogs…” and “casting our pearls before swine” because I see the future of Christians (if we stay on this slippery slope) “trampled under [the government’s feet]” as they “turn and tear [Christians] to pieces…” (Matthew 7:6) Surely we must “educate” our government that “judge not” is to be applied to “everyone that is not God”, and that includes the entire government for the government is NOT GOD, the government is elected and appointed BY OTHER MEN! If we abandon GOD’S MORAL STANDARD and replace it with an “opinion” from the “supreme court” which is comprised of “appointed” justices that “by man’s laws” cannot use God’s Moral Standard to make a decision, THEN THERE IS NO JUSTICE!!! 

FEBRUARY 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

 FEBRUARY 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#04  “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I pray today that Your Spirit will move among all families that all hurt and separations will be dissolved so that a Great Healing will begin in each and every family. Lord, there is no hope for mankind if mankind remains removed from the family unit established by God and those institutions set up for the good of the family by the Creator God and Everlasting Father. Jesus, You said that You and the Father are One and You prayed that we could be One with You and the Father, so Lord that is my prayer today, that Your Spirit will unite all families that we can be One with You, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit of God!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is the Great Physician and the only One qualified to do “I Surgery” (see February 14) and successfully remove the “speck” in our brother’s eye and the “plank” from our own! We examined ourselves on the aspect of “judging” as we began looking at JQ#04, Jesus points out to us that we are in danger of becoming worse off ourselves than the one we have tried to “judge” when He asks JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) Jesus immediately followed that Question with an identical Question just in case we didn’t get it the first time: “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4)  Two Questions back to back (JQ#4a & JQ#4b) from Jesus and both demand we stop and consider what is happening in our life BEFORE we stop and try to “judge” what is going on in someone else’s life! The language Jesus uses always makes it clear what His meaning is and in this case Jesus immediately asks the Questions and then before waiting for an answer He uses the word “Hypocrite!” He makes it clear that He is calling the one that “judges others” without first looking at himself IS the “Hypocrite!” Jesus makes this evident when He states: “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye…” (Matthew 7:5a) leaving no doubt that the “Hypocrite!” is the one that fails to see that we should seek to be righteous before God before we try to judge the righteousness of others. Jesus gives us a reward for doing things as He commands for He states that if we will first examine ourselves and resolve our own issues “…then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5b) Jesus is saying if we do not judge others then He will give us discernment to actually help others instead of judging them! Doing things from the Jesus Perspective keeps our attention on Proper Priorities and it is only Proper Perspective when we keep a right-relationship with God as the first order of business! We are to continually examine ourselves and our motives and when we are sure that we have taken care of spiritual business in the order and manner which God commands, then and only then can we be useful in doing God’s work and help others instead of judging others. God always holds those that want to serve Him to a higher standard so we must be aware of the responsibility of being called Christians!  Each JESUS Question points to a Spiritual Standard: JQ#01 - “…glorify your Father in Heaven…” JQ#02 - “…therefore you shall be perfect…” JQ#03 - “…seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” and now in JQ#04 - “do not judge…” but [remove our own unrighteous] “plank” from our lives before we try to [remove the unrighteous] “speck” from theirs.” The next verse I still struggle with and I pray for God to direct my heart on Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs…” ——— surely it somehow ties in with Matthew 7:1-5!!!

FEBRUARY 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

 FEBRUARY 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#04  “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Praise Your Holy Name for You Lord have given up more than anyone will ever give up and You did it out of Pure Obedience to the Father’s Will and Master Plan of Salvation for all mankind. Praise be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the Plan of Salvation. Let us not question why God chose Jesus as the Only Way to enter into Holy Fellowship with the Father, but let us instead be joyful and rejoice that God has prepared The Way for a sinner to be saved! Jesus is the Name and the Way to Eternal Life with the Father and the Way to live more abundantly on this earth. Lord, I choose to live with You in heaven and pray to be always focused on the Way to get there.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS has so far asked us with His first three Questions: (JQ#01) to consider that we have been made in the image of God and therefore in God’s Plan for mankind He has decided that we, through our daily lives are to represent Him as the “salt” and the “light” of the earth and (JQ#02) our attention is directed towards separating ourselves from the world, not to isolate ourselves but to let our “light” shine through the darkness in the world — our “light” is to be Powered by God’s Greatest Gift to mankind, His “Love” which He desires to bestow on the world. In order to make our “light” shine brightly we have to “Love others” like God “Loves” us. Then (JQ#03) Jesus asked us to look around at how God has taken care of His world and has provided so abundantly for His Creation and answer honestly, “Is not life more than bread, and the body more than clothing?” which if we do answer honestly we will see that the world is “physical” and in a “fallen” state but through God we can see the “Spiritual” world and the possibilities of “Hope” that exist through following God’s Plan for the “Spiritual” life which He offers freely to all that will “believe” and have “Faith in God and His Plan for Mankind”. That brings us to the next Question (JQ#04) Jesus places before us, and Jesus with JQ#04 does in the same manner with this 4th Question what He did in Teaching us about “Worry” in JQ#03 by starting out with an imperative statement of the Truth of God: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) Jesus is very clear on how He feels about us judging others, and it only takes 2 well placed words for Jesus to say all that needs to be said about “Judging” in this verse as He states “Judge not…” and then He uses 5 more words — “…that you be not judged…” for a total of just 7 words to Teach us all we need to know to pass a spiritual test on “Should we as Christians judge others?” If we stop and listen to what Jesus is Teaching on “judging” then we can also confidently answer “Why” we should refrain from “judging others”. Jesus continues this important section on “judging others” which boils down to adjusting our attitudes spiritually to promote a positive attitude from others in the next verse: “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2) What may seem obvious on the “physical” surface to our worldly eyes may need to have the surface scratched “Spiritually” a little for that “digging deeper study” on “judging others” by our worldly viewpoint.  Jesus does make it clear what our initial action should be when He asks JQ#04: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) Every time I read this section I get the impression that the Holy Spirit is telling me that if I observe something in someone else that makes me want to “judge them” then I should immediately run to a mirror and look to see what I am doing in my own life that generated that erroneous feeling? I always call this section “I” surgery because it is my personal belief that Jesus is telling us that we should operate on ourself to correct our “Spiritual Blindness” and to be acceptable in God’s eyes before we should operate on someone else so they are acceptable to us. Jesus is telling us that there may indeed be a “speck” in my brother’s eye but if I try to take God’s place and pass “judgment on” the “speck” in my brother’s eye that in “Reality” from God’s perspective I have effectively blinded myself by inserting a “plank” in my own “I” and just as we cannot save someone else from their sins (because only Jesus has that Power to Save) it is our responsibility to share the Gospel of Jesus with them — apply the principal of letting the “I” Surgeon do “I” Surgery” in this “speck removal operation” — we are not to perform the “I” Surgery operation on our brother, but we should refer them to Jesus and let the Great Physician do what only He can. This is a difficult Question/Lesson so we should look closely at what Lesson the Master Surgeon has to Teach us in this section on the subject of “I” surgery.  

FEBRUARY 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#03 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

 FEBRUARY 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS    JQ#03  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Praise, Glory, Honor to the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Only Name by which man can be freed of his natural sin. Lord Jesus, every time we see a cross, our first thought should be of the Great Sacrifice of the Divine Innocence, and the second thought should be that the Cross is Empty!!   The Empty Cross should remind us that God loved us enough to put His Only Begotten Son on the Cross but also that God loved His Son so much that He did not leave Him there!   The Empty Cross and the Empty Grave express the full measure of God’s Love for us and the Resurrection is God’s Eternal Covenant with sinful man. Praise you Lord, for “It is Finished!” (John 19:30)     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS concludes His Lesson on “worry” (JQ#03 - Matthew 6:24-34) with His Advice that we should not seek “things” of this world “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [God knows everything that we have need of] shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:33-34)   The answer to the  (8) “Why worry?” Jesus Questions in the JQ#03 section is simply to accept the fact that depending on “self” is useless but if we trust Jesus and follow His commands then we will quit worrying about useless things of this world and use all our mental facilities to grow our “Faith in Jesus” and accept what God has in store for our day-to-day lives and our eternal future. The Holy Spirit started me out on my personal Spiritual Journey to God in 2004 with Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” and whenever I feel I am being deprived of some worldly possession, the Holy Spirit uses Matthew 6:33 to turn my focus AWAY FROM SELF AND PHYSICAL POSSESSIONS AND BACK ONTO THE SAVIOR — God’s Burning Love makes my physical worries melt away — it worked in 2004 and has worked every year since and remains TRUE today! There simply is no room in “Faith” for “worry” as the foundation of “Faith in God” is built upon “Trust in God” — “Worry” is simply wrong in the spiritual realm because “Worry” is constructed wholly on “Distrust” and there are NO reasons not to “Trust God” , therefore we should accept with full Faith in God what Jesus commands us: “Therefore, DO NOT WORRY…” (Matthew 6:34) The great thing about the Teachings of Jesus is that He always takes some worldly action or attitude and shows us how to put it into the “proper Spiritual perspective” and use the new perspective to grow in Jesus Himself! Jesus is the original author of “DO AS I DO” because everything He Taught, He Lived, and just like when at the Last Supper Jesus Himself “Broke the Bread” with His own hands and stated “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer…” (Luke 22:15)  Jesus not only was stating by His actions that He was willing to “Suffer” for us, He was being our “Living Example” — “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14) If Jesus had not lived the Perfect Sinless Life there would have been plenty of people that would have pointed out to everyone that this Man claiming to “be God” was just a sinner like everyone else because even one small sin would have disqualified Jesus from being God! If Jesus had sinned even the smallest sin or been imperfect in even the slightest mis-step there would have been no way could Jesus have commanded us: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) This command can also be used as a “prophecy” as Jesus Teaches us that if we will become like Him, then we will be made Perfect like Him, “just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The point in learning from Jesus is to be like Jesus, and to abide forever with Jesus and our “Father in heaven” where finally, after all our earthly mistakes, we will at last achieve our “Spiritual” goal and be given the heavenly prize of an eternal “Worry Free” life. It is “Good News” to know that God knows all our sins and has provided a way that all our sins will be forgiven — it is in the knowledge that Jesus has Redeemed us from all our iniquities that we should listen to JESUS when He Lovingly Teaches us “Do Not Worry” for our “heavenly Father” God Himself has “Good Plans for all our tomorrows”!!!  We all should take great comfort in knowing that God knows ALL for God is willing to FORGIVE all our sin for His Only Begotten Son died on a cross, was buried in a grave but was RAISED TO ETERNAL GLORY on the 3rd Day thereby completing God’s Plan of SALVATION for a lost and dying sin-filled world — we can never hide anything from God but remember GOD KNOWS ALL and if we simply ask for FORGIVENESS in the NAME OF JESUS that GOD FORGIVES us ALL our iniquities!!!