MARCH 05 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 MARCH 05  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another new day, another “Son” rise in my heart, the air is fresh with Your Mercies and Your Grace and my soul sings a new song and all these wonderful things are the Fruit of Your Divine Love. Lord let us decrease in our selfishness and darkness and let Your Light shine through us into a dark world just as the rising sun shines forth to dispel the night, may our “Light of the Risen Lord” burst forth so that those in need will be showered in “Hope” that the new day will be filled with blessings from the “True Light” which gives “life” to men!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS started us with JQ#08 on a very personal inward journey straight to the point of revealing that the source of a significant amount of the evil in our lives comes from “[thinking] evil in [our own] hearts” and just that quick Jesus lets us know that He is interested in every detail of our lives ——— Jesus doesn’t want us to be “hearers only of the Word” but He wishes to “transform” our view of the world through knowing the “Truth of God” about ourselves!!!  Yesterday we looked at how personal Jesus makes His Teachings as we looked at JESUS Question JQ#08 in Matthew 9:4 — and to answer His Question honestly we must first consider the Truth of God that He KNOWS that we have “evil” thoughts and they are not just in our “heads” but there is “evil” in our “hearts”!?!?!  Here again we find that in order to find the complete “Truth of God” in His Teachings we must look at the “Big Picture” and as Sharon Anderson said when we started this journey through the JESUS Questions — “context is king!” Also, in the completeness of His teachings we must look at every aspect that Jesus touches so we must dig deeper into the scripture to find those “gems” of understanding that can always be found by “digging deeper”. One tool that is helpful in going deeper in God’s Word is using “The Law of Choice and Consequence”. From the beginning God has been very clear that He KNOWS everything we do, say, and think — and He is very clear that our “Choices” will result in “Consequences” that God had “predetermined” before the foundations of the earth. {See JQ#06 “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)}  and God makes it very clear that our “actions” are the “fruits” of our “Choices” and our actions will result in those predetermined “Consequences”. God has reserved the right to determine the results of our actions but He has also made it very clear that He allows “Free Will” and He will never interfere with our “Freedom of Choice”! One of the big problems with this modern philosophy of “tolerance” is that the world has decided that God doesn’t exist, therefore His Laws no longer apply, and the world has established a new set of laws, the real world TRUTH being of course, God is not “dead” but is “the everlasting God” and has not had His Supreme Power lessened by man’s evil desires. Remember that God looked at the world in Noah’s time and “saw the the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6) God brought a great flood upon the earth as the “Consequence” (a form of punishment) for the “intent of the thoughts of [our] hearts [being] evil” and only 8 people in the whole world survived — so when Jesus, who is the Son of God, asks us point blank: “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) don’t you think that we should be very concerned that we have “grieved…[the Father’s] heart”!!! ———The Bible teaches us from Genesis to Revelation that God will always have Control and Power and will always KNOW THE INTENTS OF OUR HEARTS, therefore each generation is personally responsible for making the “Choice” that determines the “Consequence” of an individual’s eternity, and that “Choice of Eternity” is simple, (1) We “Choose” to Trust God and live according to His Law and we will inherit eternal life with the Father or (2) We “Choose” to make and live by our own laws and ignore God’s Law and live according to our selfish nature and we will inherit eternal separation from God. Let us look at the context of JQ#08 in terms of “Choice” and see if God is “consistent” in His “Consequences” as He has written them down in His Holy Bible for us to read and KNOW His Holy Word. In Matthew 9:2 we read, “…they brought [Choice] to [Jesus] a paralytic…And when Jesus saw their faith…” Jesus said to the paralytic “Son…your sins are forgiven [Consequence]”.  The Law of Choice and Consequence can be observed by looking at the actions of an individual and then seeing that our lives are a sum total of the “CONSEQUENCES” resulting from the actions we have “CHOSEN” in our lives — life is simply the results of the “Choices” each person makes and the “Consequences” are Eternal and have been predetermined by The Sovereign God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It works well to make a list of who-did-what-actions from these JESUS Questions and then see the result of the “Choices” that made them take those actions. For deeper learning purposes read Matthew 9:1-4 and list the person, the choice/action each person made, and then write the result (Consequence) of their “Choice”, for example in Matthew 9:2 we read “they brought to Him” which means “they” “Choose” to take the paralytic to Jesus so in the “Who” Column write “They” then in the “Action/Choice Column” write “Brought to Jesus the paralytic” and in the “Result/Consequence Column” write “Jesus both healed the paralytic and forgave him of his sins because of their faith” . You have just dug deeper into the Word, what do you think the “Consequence” of that action will be?

MARCH 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 MARCH 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Thanks be to our Savior, our Redeemer, for without His Love we could not even love ourselves, without His Salvation, we could not save ourselves, and without the price He paid on Calvary we could not redeem ourselves. Lord Jesus we need You more than we know for without You we have no purpose, no reason, but with You we can “go” with confidence knowing that You are the “Way” and the “Truth” and the “Life” !And even though we are weak we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens [us].” Lord I pray as I do each morning that Your Spirit will guide, lead, and direct me to the Narrow Gate and the Light of Your Love will shine through me to guide others.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS was asleep in a boat as the disciples panicked during the storm and when Jesus awoke He calmed the “wind and the waves” and His disciples “marveled” and wondered “Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matthew 8:27) Next we read “When [Jesus] had come to the other side…” He encountered a storm of a different nature in the form of “two demon-possessed men, exceedingly fierce…” and Jesus did to this storm what He had done to the wind and the waves, He calmed them! It is interesting that even though the disciples who had seen Jesus doing the miracle healing and calming the storm at sea wondered “Who can this be” — however, the demons did not wonder “who” Jesus was for when the demon possessed men saw Jesus they “suddenly cried out saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?’” (Matthew 8:29) The disciples had wondered “Who?” Jesus was after seeing Him healing, Teaching, and controlling the wind and waves but the demon-possessed men called Jesus by name and called Him the “Son of God”. Not only did the demon-possessed men know who Jesus was, they knew His purpose in regard to their personal situation as they asked Jesus, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29b) It is interesting to note that the demon-possessed men knew Jesus was the “Son of God” and that there was coming a “time” when there would be a “Judgement” and that their penalty would be “torment” at the hands of Jesus!?!? (Matthew 8:28-29) The disciples observed that the demons “begged” Jesus to let them “go away” which means that [the demons] knew Jesus had the power to free them — the disciples should have understood that Jesus controlled the wind and the waves which are “physical” elements and now they will observe that Jesus has control over the “spiritual” elements —  JESUS not only cast out the demons from the two possessed men but then Jesus allowed them to enter a herd of swine, which is a combination of the “physical” and “spiritual” worlds. After that incident we read “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city…” (Matthew 9:1) which begins the context for JQ#08a & JQ#08b. The fact that Jesus is in His own city is going to make this Question rather personal plus Jesus is introducing the most important personal event that will ever take place in our lives, and that event is the “forgiveness of sins”! Jesus introduces “forgiveness of sins” in His “own city” and He asks for our personal opinion by starting the Question/Lesson with “Why do you think…”. Jesus really gets personal when He bluntly says that what we are thinking is “evil”.  (Matthew 9:4) Jesus proves that He will not pull any punches with the “Truth of God” as He points out that the “evil” is “in [our own] heart”! It doesn’t get any more personal than this, we are at “home” and Jesus knows what is in our “own hearts” and He calls us out on our “evil thoughts and desires”! Jesus is pointing out with JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your heart?” (Matthew 9:4) that He knows what we hold dearest to our hearts and He identified our selfishness as “evil” but the Good News is the context in which He meets us on such personal ground. We see that some friends had brought a paralytic laying on a bed to Jesus and “When Jesus saw “their faith”, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.’” (Matthew 9:2) Sounds kind of personal doesn’t it? The message I get out of this Lesson is that even though our hearts are full of evil that if we will turn our attention away from our personal selfish desires and put our focus towards doing good for others that Jesus will honor our good intentions — it was the good intentions of some evil hearts that was the catalyst of Jesus introducing the “forgiveness of sins”!!!    

MARCH 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

 MARCH 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You know our hearts and therefore You know our minds, our intents, and most importantly, You know our desires. There is no place deep enough or secret enough within our wretched souls that Your Knowledge cannot penetrate — but there is no place that Your Great Knowledge penetrates that is not also filled with Your Great Compassion — HAVE MERCY ON ME O GOD!! Lord Jesus, fill me with Thy Spirit, anoint me with Thy Love, send me Lord into Thy Service that daily I may “die with Christ” that I may “live as Christ”!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS never asked a Question while on earth that was not asked without a Specific Spiritual Purpose and Divine Intent. Jesus is the Supreme Communicator and He uses these Questions to motivate us to “know” Him and His Divine Intent {see Matthew 7:23}; it behooves us therefore to study His Divine Questions and “trust” that His Divine Intent will lead to Inspired Insight into the “mysteries” of God. >>>It is a far greater advantage for us in these “earthen” vessels to gain a “glimpse” of “God’s Spirit” while on our soul’s journey to the “Truth of God” than to have secular knowledge and “gain the whole world, [but] lose [our] own soul” (Mark 8:36). <<<. It is hard for us to see the “big picture” because our mortal finite knowledge cannot wrap around an Immortal God’s Infinite Knowledge so through God’s Infinite Wisdom He takes us a step at a time just as Isaiah proclaimed to God’s people as they were learning God’s Ways: “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little…” (Isaiah 28:13) Because knowing the Whole Mind of God is impossible for us, Isaiah reminds us, “His understanding is unfathomable…” (Isaiah 40:28) For example, if we take each “JESUS Question” we have studied and look at the path Jesus has taken us down so far, we can see that even though each Question has its own “Divine Merits”, that if we look at them together as a “Spiritual Progression” then we learn another valuable lesson — God has a Master Plan which will be executed “precept upon precept, little by little”! For example, the Holy Spirit has led me to give a personal summary title for each lesson as I review the previous JESUS Questions before moving to the next one and this is what I have so far: JQ#01: “Salt & Light” —  JQ#02: “Unconditional Love” —  JQ#03: “Worry?”  —  JQ#04: “Judge Not”  —  JQ#05: “Ask-Seek-Knock”  —  JQ#06: “By Their Fruits”  —  JQ#07: “Of Fear & Faith”  —  “JQ#08: “Arise And Walk”. If you read the Questions in order you will see that Jesus Teaches individual Lessons but He is fulfilling Isaiah’s Prophecy that the Messiah will reveal God Himself to us by Teaching us “precept upon precept, line upon line”! Clearly the Divine Intent of the “JESUS Questions” is to give us Insight into God Himself and we will “know God” and our lives will become a “living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable unto God.” (Romans 12:1) The next “JESUS Question” is found in Matthew Chapter 9 and the context for JQ#08 is Matthew 9:1-8 with the JESUS Question being found in Matthew 9:4 where Jesus asks His followers to answer a very personal question, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) The Question itself shows us that Jesus expects us to “think” on our own and He never pulls His punches for He wants us to learn the “precepts” of God. By answering JQ#08 honestly we will come to a better understanding of the “source” of evil and it will make us take a serious Truthful look inwardly at our own heart. Jesus knows that we will not “grow our faith” if our “faith is not tested” and the harder the test, the stronger will be the results and it is through the “testing of our faith” that our “little faith” will enlarge to the point that we will have “great faith” like Jesus pointed out about the centurion and through our “Great Faith in God” we will have enough strength to not only help ourselves but we will also be able to help others - Jesus commands us, “Arise, take up your bed, and go…” (Matthew 9:6b)  

MARCH 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

 MARCH 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I pray that Your Spirit will continue to consume me, Lord I proclaim as Paul did, I know that I have not yet attained the goal but I press on to the finish which is a race that I cannot run on my own strength, Lord I need You, I need Your daily Mercy and Grace and I do TRUST You to finish the good work You have begun in me. There is nothing in me besides YOU that can move my soul towards the prize of the high calling of service to the Kingdom so therefore refresh and renew in me a “Right Spirit” and “create in me a clean heart O God”!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is asking a most revealing Kingdom Question with JQ#07 - “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) and so far we haven’t even really considered the context in which this personal Question was asked. We looked at the immediate circumstance of Jesus and His disciples being in a “great tempest” after they had followed Jesus onto a boat and then when the tempest beset them His disciples panicked — but Jesus was sleeping. Of course, we like the disciples, see the waves and the tempest and we consider the physical consequences of drowning in our storms but we miss the spiritual consequences of (1) following Jesus through the storm and (2) trusting Him to “calm” even the worst “tempest” in our lives and (3) to know that our “faith” in JESUS is the only thing in our earthly lives that has “Sublime Eternal” consequences. The larger context of the circumstances of the “Teachings” of Jesus to His disciples should also be observed in terms of what had the disciples seen Jesus doing immediately prior to them getting on the boat and then ask ourselves if those actions of Jesus should have built their “faith” in His Power and Divine Nature???  After Jesus Taught the disciples the parable of the “two builders” (Matthew 7:24-27) which introduced the concept that we should build the “foundation” of our “faith” on “solid rock”, (see 1 Samuel 2:2b “Nor is there any ROCK like our God.) Jesus then laid the “ground floor” of our “faith in Jesus” by (1) healing the servant of a centurion as Jesus connected His Healing Power to our Faith Building when Jesus told the centurion (A) “I will come and heal him.” (Matthew 8:7) and (B) “Then Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go your way; as you have believed, so let it be done for you.’ And his servant was healed that same hour.” (Matthew 8:13). Jesus continued His Lesson on His Healing Power when next He came to Peter’s house “ … [Jesus] saw [Peter’s] wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.” (Matthew 8:14-15) That very same evening the disciples had witnessed the villagers where Peter lived bringing “to [JESUS] many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick…” (Matthew 8:16) So Jesus gives the parable of the “two builders” to encourage the disciples to “build their faith” on Him and then He immediately demonstrates His Divine Power and Compassion for all people by “healing” both their “physical” and their “spiritual” ailments! When the tempest arose, the disciples acted like they hadn’t seen these Divine Attributes of Jesus — all the disciples could see was the “physical world” as they got into a boat, and then the boat gets in a great storm, and the wind and the waves of the tempest makes the disciples go into full panic mode — and the first thing Jesus says upon awakening and seeing their panic is, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) ???  JQ#07 should awaken us to the “obvious” that Jesus is in control of both the “physical” and the “spiritual” worlds and that He also has control over the natural world in which we live our day-to-day lives. If we also look at His Resurrection  we will see that He has control over our eternity as well so “Why are we fearful of the world and death” when all we have to do is to have FAITH in the ONE who died for our sins, rose the third day, sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us?    Jesus gave us all the resources we need to build our “Faith in God” but He wants us to hammer a nail or two ourselves!!!

MARCH 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

 MARCH 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer

JESUS, Lord I come before You this morning renewed and refreshed in Your Spirit and I praise You for Your Love. Lord, we deserve punishment but You Lord bore our sins and iniquities on THE CROSS AT CALVARY WHERE YOU DIED AND BECAME THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE FOR ALL SIN. Through Your Great Sacrifice our sins have been paid in full. Lord I know that I am not worthy of Your Love and that my unworthiness has been substituted by Your Righteousness and in the Father’s eyes I am an heir to the Kingdom because of what was accomplished by You, God, and the Holy Spirit on Resurrection Sunday — I pray that every day I will awake and arise to face the world and that I will keep full in my mind that You ARE RISEN victorious over the world and that You will walk with me every step of my Journey to Truth!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS 

JESUS in JQ#07 has begun Teaching the Importance of “Faith in God” in our daily lives and the Ultimate Importance of “Faith in God” for our Eternal lives!!! Our “Faith in God” cannot  become “sight” unless we understand that without the “Light of Jesus” we will remain blind and in darkness — for until we are “born again into the light” that the world is “without form, and void; and darkness” (Genesis 1:2) covers our daily lives. When Jesus asks a Question, He is challenging us to use our God-given intellect to open our spiritual eyes and exercise our “trust” in God’s Infinite Knowledge. In JQ#07 Jesus ties together two terms “fearful” and “faith” and His use of these two terms in such close proximity should get our attention. When I stopped and re-read the Question trying to see the “Sublime Obvious”, I was rewarded by seeing that Jesus asked the “Question” but He also gave the “Answer” while asking the “Question”!  The “Divine Obvious” that came to me was to look at JQ#07 in two parts but keeping them tied together like this: Part A (the Question) “Why are you fearful” and Part B (the Answer) “O you of little faith”. (Matthew 8:26a)  The Question is about being “fearful” and He answers His Question by directing our attention to our “faith”. Jesus puts the Question and the Answer together because He does not want us to over-think ourselves and therefore He makes it clear that we must grow our “Faith in God” if we desire NOT to be “fearful”. There is no other way to grow our “faith” without “Trusting God” and if we do not see God’s “Divine Obvious” world with our “spiritual” eyes we will not Trust God — and if there is no “Trust in God” then our lives will be lived in “fear” of the world that we see with our “physical” eyes! I believe it is of great importance in our “Spiritual Growth” that we acknowledge the “Divine Obvious” thing God did to address the problem of darkness in His Creative process — for in Genesis 1:3 the first SOLUTION spoken BY GOD in the new Creation was “Light” which God introduced into His newly created earth TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM that the earth was “without form and void” and was immersed in “darkness”. (Genesis 1:2a) The only source of power God employed was “the Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2b) and He demonstrated the Spiritual Power of God when in the next verse we read: “Then [after recognizing the emptiness and darkness] God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light [problem solved by the Spirit of God!].” (Genesis 1:3)  From these first three verses we see that God assessed the negative aspect of creation which is “lack of purpose” and “darkness” and solved the problem with  “the Spirit of God” speaking the solution with “let there be light.  — then — {through the Miracle of God’s Holy Spirit} “And there was light” . Just as God saw “darkness” as the problem and “light” as the solution, Jesus saw “fear” as a problem and “Faith in God” as the solution and the answer to all our questions and fears should be to focus our “spiritual eyes” on Jesus. Jesus told the most intellectual “Pharisee” of his generation named Nicodemus (who admitted Jesus was from God but Nicodemus wanted to know what Jesus had come to teach?)  Jesus told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and then Jesus made it perfectly clear that just as we have a “physical” birth into the world that we must have a “spiritual birth” to enter “the kingdom of God” when He tells Nicodemus: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) and in JQ#07 Jesus tells us to grow our “Faith in God” to calm our “fears” therefore we should open our “Spiritual Eyes” to see the growth potential in what God accomplished in His Crowning Glory of Resurrection Sunday if we just “BELIEVE” in God’s Only Begotten Son Jesus who defeated death and the grave and offers Eternal Life through “FAITH IN GOD THE FATHER”! 

FEBRUARY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07-02 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

 FEBRUARY 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07-02 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, All Glory and All Honor ARE Yours and Yours alone, for the best of men with the greatest of intentions ALWAYS fall short of Your Glory. Yes, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that You are the LORD of lords and the KING of all kings. There is no one like JESUS, the Only Begotten of our Father in Heaven, who from the beginning of time had an appointment with suffering and death and this same Jesus gave up His Glory in Heaven, descended to earth, became flesh, met His Divine appointment at the exact moment in history God had predestined before the foundation of the earth to Raise His Only Begotten Son Victorious over death and the grave on the Third Day, never will another time in all eternity match the Matchless Moment of the Salvation for ALL  mankind as Jesus bore our iniquities on His Shoulders and died for our sins, the Perfect Sacrificial Offering of God the Father for the sins and iniquities of the world!    And NEVER will 3 words mean so much to so many as Jesus declared that GOD’S WORK of SALVATION IS COMPLETE — JESUS SPOKE THESE 3 WORDS FROM THE CROSS — “IT IS FINISHED” !!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has raised two important topics for our consideration with JQ#07 and yesterday the Spirit led these writings to tie JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) into Lessons from the Resurrection because how can one be fearful of our lives when “God has demonstrated His Love towards us that while we were yet sinners God sent His Son to be the propitiation of those sins” (Romans 5:8)  which should also give us “great faith in God”!  Today that example of “faith in God” will be expanded to give some specific details that teach us that God has done so many things to reveal His Greatness to us that we should never be fearful of neither life nor death — yet we overlook the obvious things God has done for us in providing for daily needs in our day-to-day lives and we still stand fearful of the world?!? Every chapter and verse in all 66 books of our Bible Teach us a Lesson on who God is and what is His intention for the world. Mankind however, from the Beginning has been deceived by the world and each one of us has had to face the reality that God proves Himself to be a Loving-Forgiving God that Demands Justice, and is Jealous of His Glory. But each and everyone of us that faces that reality is given the most valuable gift anyone could receive and that “pearl of great worth” is that we are all free to choose God and Trust Him or we can also choose not to believe that God is who He says He is — The “Pearl of Freewill” is that we are free to choose our own “God/god” - but we must accept the responsibility of taking care of ourselves if we choose to believe in a false god of our own imagination - which if we choose to not believe in God, then we are “casting our pearls before swine”!  “Freedom of Choice” is the single greatest “test of faith” the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE will face!  ——— Let me give the most obvious reason that we should believe that God is who He says He is:  Our “little faith” is related back to Resurrection Sunday but has roots all the way back to Genesis 1:1-5. The first concept we can derive of God from His Word is from the very first verse in Genesis “In the beginning God created the heaven’s and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)     <<<<<<< The first characteristic of God is that He is the Creator (Provider) of everything that we have consciousness of, both in “heaven” and on the “earth”. What is overlooked about this passage is the obvious that if God “created” every thing “in the beginning” of all things, then God Himself was before the “beginning” and is Himself Uncreated. This is referred to by scholars as the “self-existence” of God. >>>>>>>    A. W. Tozer wrote in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy” that “Aside from God, nothing is self-caused.” (Chapter 5 “The Self-Existence of God” pg.25) — Only the Creator of all things can establish the laws governing all things and has control of all things and therefore we should recognize the obvious that He who controls all things is “in control of all things”!!! — It is a simple concept but JQ#07 exposes that fact that we overlook the obvious as we read “…Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.” (Matthew 8:26b). The significance of the fact that the disciples were in a storm yet Jesus Himself was asleep, and that when He awoke He immediately reprimanded His disciples in the boat with Him by asking them: “why are you fearful” (Matthew 8:26a) is, that after rebuking them about their “fear” of the world’s circumstances and their lack of “faith”,  Jesus turned immediately and addressed the source of their “fear” as “[Jesus] rebuked the winds and the sea” (Matthew 8:26b) !!! Only the Creator of all things controls all things and can take a “”storm” and produce “a great calm”. Think about all that God has done and documented in His Holy Word commanding us to “be anxious for nothing” and then answer the JQ#07 Question: “Why are you fearful?”  Fear is of the world and worldly circumstances but PEACE comes only from the “Creator of the heavens and the earth” and He-Who-Controls-All-Things!! It is a “CHOICE” to “fear the world controlled by doctrines of men” or  to “have PEACE from the Creator of the Universe” — “Choose this day whom you will serve”!!!! (Joshua 24:15)

FEBRUARY 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

 FEBRUARY 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

******THE MORE TRUTH OF GOD WE KNOW, THE MORE OUR FAITH IN GOD WILL GROW******

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, today You have revealed a glimpse of the “Divine Obvious” for us to ponder as we simply observe that we are in yet another day that has been provided by Your Grace and Faithfulness for if You were not Faithful to keep the stars in their place then we would not be experiencing another sunrise. You Lord control the entire universe and we can observe the “Divine Obvious” if we but open our eyes and see Your Glory being revealed by Your Creation, using our God-given “senses” we can see “YOUR FAITHFULNESS” being displayed daily in the Miracle of Life. Lord Jesus, I pray that I will never close my eyes to Your Truth but keep my eyes wide open and my heart softened to the myriad of ways You reveal Your Faithfulness to us on a daily basis. Lord as I contemplate another year of serving You, I pray that You would fill me daily with that desire to do those things with my life that truly serve and Honor You and Glorify the Father.  Lord I pray with my heart of hearts that I become one with You and the Father and that my life will be lived totally “in Christ alone”.  Forgive me of my many shortcomings and guide me in Your Truth.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS has been Teaching with His Lessons so far how we should view ourselves from a kingdom of God perspective with what Matthew describes as “sayings” of Jesus, then Matthew documents that what Jesus had been Teaching with these “sayings [of Jesus], that the people were astonished”! (Matthew 7:28) Matthew begins the next series of Lessons of Jesus with “When [Jesus] had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.” (Matthew 8:1) Remember that this series of Lessons started as Matthew had written about Jesus: “And seeing the multitudes, [Jesus] went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:” (Matthew 5:1-2)  —Jesus began His Teaching on the mountains with the Beatitudes and followed with the Lessons that “astonished” the people and now Jesus is coming down from the mountain and begins providing “Examples” of how to put action to our faith! Jesus came down from the mountain and began His Public Ministry of healing, first a leper, then the servant of a centurion who Jesus commended for having “great faith”, after that Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and Matthew records that the multitudes that had observed Jesus doing these works of God that “they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself [the Messiah] took our infirmities and bore our sickness.’” (Matthew 8:2-17 from Isaiah 53) Since Jesus has introduced the term “faith” when He healed the centurion’s servant, and considering that the next JESUS Question is JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26),  we should pause and think about “faith” in general. How the Holy Spirit has led me to teach “faith” to my third graders in Sunday School is to first ask them how they themselves define “faith” and then to take their definitions and show them how phrases like “belief in God” and “trusting in God” points to the basic Truth of God about “FAITH IN GOD”. God points us to the common sense fact that we must be careful where we direct our “faith” and who it is that we “trust”  — for “faith” is not the KEY, the KEY is “FAITH IN GOD”  and is best taught by answering the simple question “What do you believe about God and why do you trust Him?” However, we can have “Faith” in just about anything. We can believe in whatever we chose to believe so we must consider this elementary question about “Faith” — “What causes you to ‘believe’ and what causes you to ‘trust’?”  When we think about “faith” and “trust” we must admit that both can be applied to anything or anybody that we chose to have “faith in” or to “trust in”!  The degree to which we trust is a measure of our belief, for example each time you go to sit down in a chair is an expression of trust in the ability of the chair to hold your weight. Some of us look a little closer at the particular chair we are going to “trust” with our additional weight but over time our “faith” in chairs has been built upon exercising that faith in chairs by sitting in different chairs and we grow our trust in chairs each time a chair hold us up.  Our “FAITH IN GOD”  can only be strengthened by exercising that “faith” in Him by trusting Him with various areas of our lives and letting Him prove Himself to us each time we put our “Faith in God” to the test and thereby our Trust in God grows each time God proves Himself able to provide for our needs! Resurrection Sunday is one of those great times in our spiritual lives that we can build our “FAITH IN GOD” because of all the great things God proved to us when He raised Jesus from the tomb, gave His Son Jesus victory over death, and completed the Divine Plan for the Salvation of a lost world of sinners! God has done many things to show us that if we will study His Word that we will see time after time obvious basic “Divine Truths” about God that will develop in us great TRUST in God. As we contemplate our “FAITH IN GOD”, let us remember the last words Jesus spoke from the cross: “It is finished!”. (John 19:30) Jesus trusted God with His Eternal Life and allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross to be Sacrificed for our sins — and If Jesus had enough ““FAITH IN GOD” that He would Shed His Holy Blood and die on a cross for us, then we should have “Faith” in the One that has Provided for our Salvation!