FEBRUARY 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 FEBRUARY 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I praise You each day for the simple fact that You have given me another day! Lord, my prayer is for others for I am finally learning that You have provided for all my needs in abundance, an abundance that You have given to me that I share with others in Your Name!  Lord Jesus my second prayer is that I will be found faithful in giving of myself to serve You by serving others. Lord Jesus, it is a Mystery why You would come down from Your Glory in heaven to dwell among us for there is nothing that we can do for You because You need nothing from us and You exist without us, but Lord there is no way we can exist without You! So the Mystery remains as to “why” You do anything at all for us (?) but Lord let my Praise rise to You daily for the simple fact that “YOU DID” and it is not important “why” — but it of Supreme Importance that we acknowledge the “Gift of God” and thank You Lord for the glimpse into “why God would send His Only Begotten Son into a world of sinners”? When we study Your Word it will reveal that the Truth of God is simply because of God’s Great Love for us that He sent His Only Begotten Son JESUS to come to Share that LOVE with us that we may in turn Share God’s Love with His Creation!!!  AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS concluded His JQ#06 Lesson with a declaration which is actually a summation of His first 6 Lessons “JQ#01 - JQ#06 so let us look at that declaration and consider the Truth of God found in the Lessons as well the Truth of God revealed by the content and the order of these first 6 JESUS Question/Lessons. Jesus ends JQ#06 by warning us not to “say” that He is “Lord” but that we will prove that He IS the “Lord” of our lives if we DO “the will of [our] Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) Jesus then Teaches a parable of two builders which is the summation of how we can determine if we are a tree that will produce “good fruit” or “bad fruit” and is also a summation of the first 6 lessons: “Therefore whoever hears theses 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; an it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25) Matthew then documents the effect of all that Jesus had Taught so far in His earthly Ministry, starting first with the Sermon on the Mount. So far Matthew has documented these first 6 Question/Lessons as Matthew records: “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matthew 7:28-29) So let us look at “His Teachings” and the Truth of God contained in “What” Jesus has Taught so far, as well as the “Order” in which He Taught them. The first Question/Lesson JQ#01 followed immediately after Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount (also called the Beatitudes) which was an announcement that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and what we should consider for ourselves if we desire to be subjects of that kingdom. With JQ#01 Jesus makes a statement of fact about our “spiritual heritage” when He EMPHATICALLY declares that we “ARE the salt of the earth” and that we “ARE the light of the world” and He then asks us to consider the state of the world if we do not use our “salt” and “light” to benefit others? Jesus continues with JQ#02 and again Jesus tells us that we are to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” (Matthew 5:44)— Jesus instructs us to “Love” others not just because they love us but we are to greet others that don’t necessarily greet us which is another way of saying that if we are going to be kingdom subjects then we should treat others as God treats us and not be like the world and the world’s idea of who is worthy of our love or our greetings. Jesus then Teaches in JQ#03 that our life from a kingdom perspective takes on more value if we consider where our “life” comes from and we discover that “we are made in the image of God” and that “life IS more than food” and that our “body”, since it is created in the “image of God” is more important “than clothing”. Jesus then starts working on our “attitudes toward others” in more detail as He commands us with JQ#04 to “judge not” and makes it clear that our responsibility is to “love others” and let God do the “Judging” and in doing so Jesus introduces the “Final Judgement” that every individual will have to face at the end of our earthly existence and stand before God ——— God at the “Final Judgement” lets the way we lived our life take the witness stand before The Great White Throne to be our only witness before the “TRUE Judge” as to our true guilt or innocence! Jesus does not leave us hanging but Teaches us with JQ#05 that as “heirs of the kingdom of God” that we are not just “subjects” but we are “heirs” and Jesus Teaches us that as “heirs to God’s Kingdom” we have the privilege of declaring the KING of heaven  as “our Father” and are encouraged to ask of “our Father in heaven” and TRUST HIM to provide good things for His heirs. Jesus wraps up these first six Lessons by introducing what could be called “Divine Common Logic” with the “simple but obvious” JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles” and our God-given logic tells us “of course not” and we glimpse one of our fleshly problems with living in this world and that is that even though we “know” that grapes only come from grapevines that we seek God in some unholy places or we buy the lie of the enemy and try to find nourishment among the thornbushes and thistles. The enemy tells us that grapes from thornbushes will give us “satisfaction” and when we swallow the “lie” we end up malnourished at best. Jesus Teaches us the Truth of God and He does so with “Ultimate Authority” and if we listen and learn from Jesus then we also will be “astonished” and our lives will be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” from the simple to the Sublime!   

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)  

FEBRUARY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

FEBRUARY 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, the Only Begotten of the Father, Son of the Living God, my Redeemer, Savior, You are the Christ! You Lord are the fulfillment of Prophecy, You lived the Perfect Life, You Suffered as the Perfect Sacrifice and Paid the Penalty that I could not pay, You died in my place, Your side was pierced as You were hanging Dead on the Cross, Your Body was Broken, Your Blood was Shed, You were laid in a grave! You Lord, being Loved by the Father was Obedient even unto death and the grave and on the Third Day You AROSE and the Greatest Testimony ever given was proclaimed: “HE IS ALIVE”!!!  As a follower of Jesus Christ there can be no greater TRUTH OF GOD in our life — Jesus is the Resurrection!!! Praise God!!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS began JQ#06 with a simple Question about gathering “grapes from thornbushes” and “figs from thistles” that may seem totally out of context for a Truth of God Question but it makes perfect sense if you consider the warning Jesus gave us before asking the Question about “grapes” and “figs”: “Beware of false prophets…” and then telling us how to identify them, “…you will know them by their fruits…” (Matthew 7:15-16) On the surface this seems like a mundane Question but consider that first of all that it is Jesus who is asking and secondly Jesus never asked a Question that did not point us to a Truth of God  to help us live a successful life. Of course, we don’t get “grapes from thornbushes” nor do we get “figs from thistles” but if we are not careful and discerning about where we get the sustenance of our daily lives then we could end up prey to “ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing”! Jesus then applies simple logic: “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-18) Then Jesus gives us the “Divine Spiritual Caution”  when He tells us “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:19-20) Once Jesus gets us to thinking in terms of God’s Truth that we can know if a tree is “Good” or “Bad” just by observing the “fruit” produced by that tree, Jesus then proclaims that a tree that does not bear “good fruit” will be judged by God and the penalty for producing nothing but “bad fruit” is that the “bad” tree will be “cut down and thrown into fire”! Jesus is Teaching us with this simple Question that we will be judged by the fruit that our lives produce, not what we “say” we are going to do, but did our actions actually produce “good fruit” or “bad fruit”???  “Good fruit” gives nourishment and the bearer of good fruit will be rewarded with an abundant life,  but bad fruit produces no good results and simply consumes the nutrient from the soil without providing any benefit to others; therefore, the tree must be cut down and burned so that the life giving nutrients will be returned to the soil and will be used by the good tree to provide life to those that consume the good fruit from a good tree. Jesus has us focused on our producing “good fruit" for the benefit of others then He really gets “Real” when He then amplifies this Lesson about not just “saying” we will do good but by actually “doing” good when He says “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) Wow, Jesus took us in a matter of minutes from thinking “of course we don’t get grapes from thistles” — to clearly telling us that “it is the Will of [our] Father in heaven” that we “produce good fruit” and join Him “in heaven” but if we don’t produce good fruit and suck up the nourishment for ourselves only then we will be “cut down” and “thrown into the fire”. In simple terms — If we follow Jesus and His Teachings we will know the will of God and if we know the will of God we will produce “good fruit” but if we simply declare we are followers but do not produce any good fruit, our Father in heaven will judge us, not by what we “said” we would do, but what “fruit” we produced with our actions in the way of “good fruit” for the kingdom and for the sake of others. This Lesson sounds simple but how quickly Jesus, the Master Teacher,  transforms  the “simple” into the “Sublime” — That’s what Jesus does with our simple lives — but only if we do “the will of [our] Father in heaven”!!!

FEBRUARY 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 FEBRUARY 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, Precious Jesus, thank you for the visit from the Holy Spirit yesterday that reminded me that every day is a “Good Day” because of Your Sacrifice on the Cross and what that means to the world and its great impact on not only our eternity but in our everyday lives — but mostly for the Great Sacrifice You Personally made and the Personal Suffering You endured for my sake! Lord Jesus, as I think about all You have done for me I am also reminded by the Spirit that part of that Suffering was for You to be in the grave and experience death for us so that at the end of our life we would look forward to sharing another experience that You so Graciously Share with believers! Just like You experienced “life” for us by being born of the flesh, You also have experience “death” for us, and not just “death” but the worst death imaginable so that You can Truly say “I know what you’re going through and Rejoice for I Am the Victorious Life and I am also Victorious in death! Praise be the Name Jesus the Christ.  AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS has now taken us through 5 Questions that have been woven together as only the Master Weaver can and now He is beginning a new section with a new Question but the object is the same, to Teach us the Truth of God! This new section for JQ#06 in Matthew 7:15-29 which actually contains two Questions, but if the section is studied in context, both Questions are essentially the same, just asked at different angles which Jesus always does to get us to think more completely about the Lesson and the Truth of God that He is trying to Teach us. As I studied this section I see that it is broken into 3 sub-sections. Sub-section 1 is verses 15-20 and deals with “false prophets”, Sub-section 2 is verses 21-23 and deals with false profession of who our “Lord” really is, and Sub-section 3 is verses 24-29 and is a parable of two builders and warns us to build our lives on the True Foundation that is the “solid rock” and not on a false foundation that is the ever-changing sands of humanism. There is one key phrase that the Holy Spirit pointed out that pulls this all together and that is where Jesus is Teaching the parable of the two builders and in the middle of His Teaching He says: “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand…” (Matthew 7:26) This verse spoke to me and said that if we “listen and hear what Jesus is saying” and “study His sayings” then we will not “fall for false prophets” nor profess anyone but “Jesus Himself as Lord” and we will not be guilty of having “prophesied in any name but the Name of Jesus”. And lastly the obvious: if we build our life on the “Rock” that we will have a True Shelter in time of storm. Read this passage again with these thoughts in mind and see if Matthew 7:15-29 is not 3 insights to the same issue of being a True Christian, for we can only truly be a Christian if we listen, live, and follow Jesus Christ, and Him Only! From this viewpoint we can give Jesus the obvious answer to His two Questions found in this section: (1) JQ#6a — “Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16) and (2) JQ#6b — “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’” (Matthew 7:22) To fully answer this Question we must also recall that during one Passover in Jerusalem that Jesus performed many signs and wonders and many believed in Him because they had seen His Miraculous “signs” yet we read: “but Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” (John 2:24-25) Therefore we should be very careful to build our Spiritual Life on the solid “Rock”!  

FEBRUARY 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 FEBRUARY 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, today Lord as I awake with the “Joyful” thought that it’s going to be a “Good” day I stop and remind myself where that “joy and confidence” comes from — JESUS!!! — and my heart rejoices because You are the “Good Good Father” and you have “Good Plans” for us! Help me LORD to share with everyone that they may know that every day with God is a “Good Day”! My prayer is that our  “Good Father” will be revealed today to those that do not understand why the Cross is “Good News”!! Nothing but the Precious Blood of the Son of the “Good Father” could purchase such “Joy” — “Joy” everlasting because of Your Eternal Victory over Sin, Death, and the Grave! There is no thought so dynamic as God-Very-God choosing out of Love for the unloveable to be the Sacrificial Lamb for the Sins of the world, and the Son of the “Good Father” willingly and in Pure Innocence Suffering for all our sins on the Cross at Calvary! Then, in His Grave He defeated Death, and on the Third Day was Risen by the “Good Father” to Eternal Victory over sin, death and the grave! Praise God, the “Good Father”, Jesus the “Good Son”, and the Holy “Good Spirit” of God from whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS with His unique JESUS Questions/Lessons proves that He IS the Master Teacher — for only the Master can Teach such Deep Truths of God just by getting His students to answer simple day-to-day questions. Jesus never Taught just one Lesson with only a single moral implication but with each Lesson Jesus revealed a Deeper Truth of God so that we could begin to glimpse God’s Bigger Truth picture for the world. Jesus is also revealing the Father and the Father’s Heart to us that we may come to know the Greatness of God’s Love. This next section was originally two JESUS Questions but after studying this section (Matthew 7:15-29) of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit made it clear that both Questions (Matthew 7:16 and Matthew 7:22) are in essence the same. These “JESUS Questions” should be studied for God’s Truth and to glimpse God’s Glory as we learn about the Magnificent Characteristics of Almighty God! As I stated before, when I first started reading this section it seemed like several small sections thrown in at the end of Chapter 7 but then as I read and studied, it now seems like Jesus is actually bringing up these questions to get our attention and then He Teaches one of His many parables using our curiosity generated by these simple Questions. Matthew 7:21 has always caused me discomfort but after applying the parable to my personal uneasiness I have come to another of those places where Jesus shines His Light on my discomfort and illuminates another “Peace” that can only come through a study of Holy Scripture. So not only is Jesus Teaching us God’s Truths, He is also confirming where we are to obtain the seeds of God’s Truths, where and how to plant God’s Truths, and how to know that through God’s Truths He is blessing our lives — which is the only True Peace we will ever find in our day-to-day lives. Read through the sections in Matthew 7:15-29 and UNDERSTAND THAT they are all Teaching Divine Truth as only the True Master Teacher can! This section starts with a warning: “Beware of false prophets…” (Matthew 7:15) then gives us a test to apply to false teachers: “Therefore by their fruits you will know them…” (Matthew 7:20) but then Jesus points out that only God’s Truths will stand as the “Witness” at our “judgment” when He declares: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you…” (Matthew 7:23) Jesus then Teaches us the parable of two builders which illustrates that we should choose wisely where we build our “house” and what we should use as the “foundation” of our “spiritual life”! See Matthew 7:24-27  for the parable but consider Matthew 7:15-23 as Questions to get us thinking along certain terms that adds Godly Truth to the Teaching of the parable of the two builders. I would also ask you to consider these as additional revelations from God on His “Law of Choice and Consequence” as there are several “choices” presented in this section and as always God is perfectly clear as to what He has already declared before the foundations of the earth as the “consequence” of our actions. Tomorrow we will begin deciding on materials to use to build our “foundation” as we look at what Jesus Teaches about  “false prophets”.

FEBRUARY 21 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 21  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 Jesus for the work that You have given us to do in Your Name. We know that You can do all things and that in reality You do not need us but You chose to let us participate in the Kingdom Work with You! O Blessed thought that Your Spirit empowers us and we can proclaim because of Your Grace that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13) Lord I praise You because I know I have no value to the Kingdom unless I do my deeds in Your Holy Name — I praise You also because You value me because that is what You have chosen to do — therefore I can quote Your Holy Scripture with great joy, “I have chosen you, to be My own precious possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:60) Lord Jesus, I pray daily to be crucified that daily I may be raised with You for I pray as did John, “[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS in Matthew 7:9-10 Jesus asks Questions with obvious answers and I believe that Jesus does this to make us realize that we overlook the obvious about “our Father in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9). The most Obvious fact from Matthew 7:9-10 is that if an Almighty God that can do anything His heart desires, choses to send His Only Begotten Son to become one of us, that “our Father in Heaven” has only “good” intentions for us on earth!!! God would not give His Only Begotten Son a “stone” if the Son “asks for bread” and the Loving Father would not give His Beloved Son a “serpent” if He asked for a “fish”!!! This should make it obvious to us that the Father desires good things for us. Jesus almost reprimands us for not understanding the “obvious” because Jesus immediately scolds us with the answer to His two “obvious” Questions in Matthew 7:9-10 by stating the “obvious” answer to us: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11) The fact is that God desires good for all men and is Teaching us that to be like Him that we also should desire good for others as Jesus immediately follows with another Truth of God: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) If we study the teachings of the “Law” and the “Prophets” the main theme God Teaches us over and over through them is that we are to desire good for others and not evil. All ten of His commandments God gave as the “Law” through Moses are “God’s Laws” intended for our good and each “Law” deals with how to prevent being “evil” to God and to others! The “Prophets” deal with the history of man and the cycle of man choosing evil, the judgment of God that follows man’s choice, but then God providing a “Way” back to the Father through His Redemption and Grace — (more examples of the “Law of Choice and Consequences”) — Then we have Jesus stating emphatically that He came “to fulfill the Law” (Matthew 5:17”) and later Jesus connects “God’s Law” to “God’s Love” as Jesus proclaims: “A new commandment I give you; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34) One cannot read the Bible as a whole without seeing a Loving Father who wants only good for His Family! For God, through His Holy Word, has provided a “Way” for us to be heirs with Him! God came to the world of fallen man and offered us Grace and Kinship for He Promises that “…as many as [receives] Him, to them He [gives] the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who [are] born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13) It should be obvious that “our Father in heaven” Loves us and desires only good for His children—all we need to do is to “ask” the “Way” and “seek” the narrow gate, knowing with all “Faith in God” and confidence in His Goodness that our loving Father will “open” whenever we “knock”!!! (Matthew 7:13-14).   

FEBRUARY 20 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 20  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, Jesus, Jesus, the only Name by which man can enter the narrow gate to heaven. Jesus is the Name that all generations call out to for salvation. Jesus, we bow humbly before You because You so richly deserve all praise and honor. There is no Name other than Jesus that man can call upon for Hope, there is no other Name but Jesus that brings so much Hope to our hurting hearts. Lord, I realize that there is no good in me but only through Your Name can I give anything good to my generation. Jesus, Holy Spirit of God, I yield to Your Will, I will “wait for the Lord” to see how You would have me serve You and Your kingdom. Forgive me of all sins, even the hidden sins, that I will be made Holy.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS starts this passage in Matthew 7:7-14 out pretty simple with “ASK-SEEK-KNOCK” but Jesus has a way of reaching deep into us with these simple questions and revealing some of the deeper Mysteries of God. Let’s examine the 2 simple Questions Jesus asks in this section, keeping in mind that Jesus came to Teach us about the Father: (1) “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9) (2) “Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:10) When you answer these two identical Questions from the viewpoint of the Truth that Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, we can immediately see that if we “ask” of “our Father in heaven” that He will give us only “good” things. Jesus is saying that if we will stop and look at the things the Father has already given us that we should have supreme confidence that He has only “good” intentions for our future. Isaiah quotes God Himself: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) There is another great Truth of God that is contained in these simple Questions in Matthew 7:9-10 that is often overlooked ——— simply, Jesus, being the Son of God, is the most reliable source of Truth about the Father that we could possibly have!  We could read the entire New Testament with the single thought that Jesus is the Son of God and we would see all the characteristics of the Father whom we seek to know being revealed by the Son! The fact that God chose to have a Son should thrill our hearts and souls because if God had chosen not to have a Son then how could we think of God as the “Father”? And if God really chose to be “childless” then we would not have any confidence that we could possibly be considered for “adoption”! To think of God as merely a Supremely Powerful Being gives no “Hope” that an inferior being such as man could ever aspire to inherit the kingdom — however, our HOPE comes from the Biblical Fact that The Supreme Being in all His Superiority has reached down as a “Loving Father” and says to us, “You are not inferior, I created You in My image and I have chosen YOU to be part of MY Family! I love you so much that I sent My Beloved Son to walk among you  TO SHOW YOU THE WAY and to bring you HOME — if you will only believe in THE SON, THEN THE FATHER will make you joint heirs OF THE FATHER’S KINGDOM” These Questions in Matthew 7:9-10 were answered when God sent His Son and made Him the Bread of Life for us and “our Father in heaven” has provided for us with great abundance, if we will but only look to the Son to see the Father. We will see further glimpses of our LOVING GOD and HEAVENLY FATHER  standing with open arms in the narrow gate as we finish Matthew 7:10-14!