MAY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#18 “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

 MAY 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#18  “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

MAY 28  LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Your Grace is sufficient. Lord, let this journey that You have placed before me  reflect a prayer prayed in 2004 where I prayed “Lord, help me take my head knowledge and convert it into heart knowledge because I know what I should be doing but my heart keeps hanging on to the old nature, take me away from the old nature and clothe me as You promised with a new creature that I may ‘…go and sin no more…’ against You and Thy Kingdom.” Lord Jesus, we need Thee every hour!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is relentless in getting His Teachings across to us and He desires for us to look deep into our own lives and souls so that we can truly understand “Who” He really is and “Why” the Very Son of God took on flesh! When we think that we have come to a deep understanding, most often it is in reality still just a “surface” knowledge of His Grace. Jesus with His Questions makes us stop and think on a level that always takes us “deeper still”! The disciples have experienced Jesus first hand in their daily lives as they have literally spent 24/7 with Him and have seen Him accomplish miracle after miracle yet, Jesus with every Lesson and Life Experience always pointed to “our Father in heaven” as the source of His Power, so if anyone knew “Who” Jesus really is, it should have been the disciples that had seen Him calm the wind and the waves twice already and healed the multitudes every where He went! The disciples have seen Jesus take a few loaves and fishes and feed thousands and thousands just by breaking bread and praying to His Father to bless and to provide and God being faithful, answered all the prayers of Jesus. The disciples had just been given a great Lesson on discernment when Jesus taught “beware the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” as the Pharisees and Sadducees were teaching “doctrines of men” and not “God commandments” to men, and we read in Matthew’s gospel that, “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matthew 16:13) This Question would make the disciples stop and answer Jesus from the literal viewpoint of what they had heard other men say about who they thought Jesus was but we just like the disciples will miss the Lesson Jesus is about to Teach because the Main Question Jesus is asking is, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) This very important personal Question is not a Question Jesus asked His disciples to give Jesus knowledge or information for we know that Jesus “knows the heart of men” so by now the disciples should know that when Jesus asks a Question that He is about to take us “deeper still” and sure enough this Question is a lead-in Question that Jesus uses to get us to focus our attention on another Truth of God! This method of Teaching is starting to reach His disciples and it is at this point of studying about Jesus that we also should pause and reflect on the Person of Jesus and look not at what men say about Jesus but dig deep into our personal experiences and ponder what it is that we really “know” about Jesus and not just what we have “heard” what other men think about Jesus. Jesus is asking a Question that will change your personal viewpoint for eternity ——— answer this Question from your personal experience and Jesus will change your heart from “I heard” to “I know”. Everyone who hears the question will find that what we think about Jesus is our “reality” of Jesus and don’t you think you know what is in your heart of hearts better than what men tell you should be in your heart? Think about this lead in Question and then answer what I believe to be the most important answer in regards to your eternal soul as you honestly answer Jesus face-to-face as He asks you this very, very personal question, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) 

MAY 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 MAY 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, take our daily desires and make them the will of the Father. When we start our day with prayer to the Only Begotten who died for our sin, let it be as Paul told the Corinthians, “We…plead [within ourselves] … not to receive the grace of God in vain…” but that with all our hands find to do that we will be doing it for the Glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Lord let us hear anew each morning Your Prayer for us that we will be “one with the Father” and know that it was the Father’s Will that His Only Begotten Son would be obedient the the Father’s Will and die on the cross for our sins, so let us as well be obedient to the Father’s Will and take up our cross daily and follow Jesus for we know He is One with You and has prepared a place that we may be together as “ONE” for eternity, but only through the shed blood of Jesus who purchased our “pardon” ——— Praise God from whom all blessings flow.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is pictured as God giving the “gift” of “understanding” to His newly created world as God’s first recorded act of addressing sin was accomplished with the first words God spoke to address the “darkness” of the earth as God declared, “Let there be light, and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3)  We know that “light” is the “understanding” that Jesus keeps trying to Teach us because the “Light” is the greatest weapon against the darkness of sin and the “Light” IS the LIGHT (UNDERSTANDING) OF JESUS who as the apostle James wrote of Jesus, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally…” (James 1:5) This advice to seek wisdom came as James was addressing the fact that “knowing the testing of your faith produces patience…” and then the solution was to ask God for wisdom for the Truth of God that Jesus is Teaching with the “bread” Question is that we must eat the “good” bread that God Himself provided, just as He sent Manna from Heaven to feed the Israelites while they were learning to follow God while wandering in the wilderness. So if God gives us “Light” to dispel the “darkness” then we should develop the “understanding” that “man cannot live by bread alone…” (Matthew 4:4) but to resist temptation by consuming the word of God. So Jesus uses the “bread” illustration to give us “understanding” that our only way to fight “sin and darkness” is to abide in the “Light of His Word” — the “Light” is Jesus ——— “[Jesus is] the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” (John 1:9) Jesus had been Teaching the disciples all along that by our “belief” that we will be “healed of our infirmities” and Jesus was continually “Teaching” and then asking “do you understand(?)” and then to make sure we get the point, Jesus gives us a deeper explanation by using examples of everyday things that we have a common knowledge about ——— so the “bread” Lesson Jesus is Teaching in this passage is to remind us that our “need” for “bread” is “daily” and it is by “understanding” of the Word of God  “DAILY” that we nourish our spirits, in essence we fulfill the prayer Jesus prayed when the disciples asked Him to “teach us to pray” and Jesus prayed: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…” (Matthew 6:9-11) So if Jesus is the Light and He has come with the single purpose to reconcile our sin so that we may have fellowship with God the Father in heaven, don’t you think it would be wise to “UNDERSTAND” that in order for “bread” to nourish our bodies that we must “consume” it?  As Jesus told the Pharisees that were continually testing Jesus as to being the Son of God — Jesus told them “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” (Matthew 16:4) Jesus is the fulfillment of the sign of the “prophet Jonah” as the “Bread” was “broken for our sin” and the “Blood” was shed, and the “Light” was buried IN DEATH but on the THIRD DAY Jesus rose victorious over “darkness, sin, death, and the grave”!!!   Don’t you think that’s a pretty good days work on a loaf of “Bread” and a drink of “Living Water”?

MAY 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 MAY 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Jesus, Jesus ——— there is NO other Name that we can call on that produces such “LIFE” as that which You Provide for believers ——— abundant and free, for You have paid the price for the penalty of sin! All sin, which was taken upon Yourself as You faced death and the grave all alone on that Cross at Calvary has been atoned for by Your Blood which was shed for the sins of the world! Who can explain the mind of God that chose to correct the sin problem by such a Great Sacrifice of giving to an undeserving world the Precious Gift of His Innocent, Only-Begotten Son so that God’s Grace could be extended to all that “Repent” and turn from their sin. No, we cannot explain the mind of God but we can see and know for ourselves the Heart of God because His Plan for us and our “Good” has been executed and as Jesus said when He had accomplished ON THE CROSS the “Work” of the Father, “It is Finished!” Praise the Heart of God and the Great Sacrifice of His Son that all who believe “shall not perish”, so my prayer Lord Jesus is “lead us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake and deliver us from evil” for Your’s is the Eternal Kingdom Forever!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is the fulfillment of the words Abraham spoke to his son Isaac as both were being obedient to the Will of God and were climbing the mountain where God had commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a “sacrifice”, when Isaac turned to his father Abraham and asked, “…but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham who had been told by God, “…take now your son, your only son Isaac…and offer him…” turned to Isaac who was carrying the fire and the wood for this momentous sacrifice spoke these “Prophetic” words, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb…” (Genesis 22:8) God’s Plan of Salvation was revealed through Abraham’s obedience to the will of the Father when Abraham raised the knife to sacrifice his only son for an Angel of the Lord spoke and told Abraham not to harm Isaac!  Abraham had been Faithful in being obedient to God and had in effect “offered” Isaac and proved that he would be obedient to the Father’s Will. God had demonstrated that His Plan of Salvation also included a “Substitute” —— for God had intended from before creation to solve the sin problem of the world by providing Jesus as the “Lamb without blemish”, His Only Begotten Son (Genesis 22:1-14). We read the confirmation of God’s Plan to resolve the sin issue in the book of Revelation when at the end of time that there is scheduled the separation of the sinners from the repentant fulfilling the Teaching of Jesus in the parable of the “separating the wheat from the tares”  —— as the “repentant” will have their names written in “the book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world…”. (Revelation 13:8) but those that have not accepted God’s Plan of Salvation ——— Jesus Christ ——— will burn eternally in the lake of fire! Yes God is very serious about “Life” and God does not want any to “perish” so God provided the “Lamb” in the form of His Only Begotten Son Jesus who was “Sacrificed” for the sins of the world. Jesus is Teaching in JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” that the greatest problem in our lives is getting “bread” for our very existence and Jesus boldly states that “leaven” represents sin and death ——Jesus declares Himself as the answer to sin when He states: “I Am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35) It is important that we understand that God provides the “Bread and the Lamb” but we must be obedient to Him to “offer sacrifice” and to “beware” of the doctrine of sin that we allow into our lives (Repent) and consume the “bread” that gives “life”. Don’t you think it is reasonable to assume that since God wrote an entire book centered around His Only Begotten Son and His Death on a Cross as the Atonement of Sin, and that our Eternal Destiny rests on our “believing in Jesus”, and that God is truly serious about “sin”? The Bible front to back, every jot and tittle, is a picture of “Salvation — God’s Greatest Gift” — can you not reach out and accept His Gift? God not only will give you your “daily bread” — He is Gracious and Merciful and desires “abundant life” for you and He will also give you butter and jam for your “bread”!!!

MAY 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 MAY 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Thank You Lord that “our sin” took top priority in Your concerns. The more I study and see the mighty works of God accomplished in the life of this sinner and read of the mighty miracles God orchestrated among entire nations of sinners, I am overwhelmed with how much “effort” that the Father God, His Only Begotten Son, and the Powerful Spirit of God has expended on the correction of man’s greatest problem, PERSONAL sin. And to think that man volunteers to sin so easily and to recognize that man has brought the curse of sin upon himself, it makes Grace that much more Merciful! God who is uncreated and does not need us for His Self-existence, has chosen to address the “sin problem” for us and has gone to extreme lengths to provide “atonement” for our sins and a path by which we can attain His Forgiveness, and we fail to recognize that God has had a plan all along, from the first words God spoke after creation to the last words He will speak before time itself comes to an end — all His efforts have been to address sin in our lives! Praise God, for without Him there would be no life, no forgiveness, and no HOPE FOR A FUTURE!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus asked this simple Question but just like all Questions Jesus asked, the Question is for our learning benefit and not to provide information or knowledge to Jesus. If we find ourselves lost on a journey we will stop and ask directions but we know with all certainty that Jesus is NOT LOST so the Questions that He asks are actually to give directions to us. Jesus Teaches us by asking Questions that make us reflect on our “common knowledge” and He encourages us with the Questions to “reason within ourselves” by using the intellect that God has bestowed on everyone, and thereby Jesus Teaches that if we will but stop and look at the world around us and use our God-given faculties to consider the Truth of God that He reveals to us with our day-to-day experiences, that we will come to an “understanding” that will lead us into the knowledge of God and the beginning of wisdom. This Lesson Jesus is Teaching on “bread” is one such Lesson where Jesus uses something everyone of every generation and culture can relate to — bread. We can easily tie many Teachings of God together using bread like this passage which is specifically built around bread, and as Jesus mentions “leaven” our thoughts should turn to the Passover when God demonstrated His Power to “free” His people from our “slavery” and also to the greatest thing that enslaves every generation, “sin”, so the Passover is significant because of the command of God to eat unleavened bread as the death angel passed over all who had applied the blood and those that had complied with God’s commands were saved from the plague of death God released in order to free His people from slavery! Then, more bread as King David ate the “Showbread” as he went about doing the work of God. Jesus in this passage is recognized as the “Son of David” and Jesus is also using “bread” to accomplish His Work for the Kingdom, and soon the culmination of the entire ministry of Jesus will be summed up as Jesus takes a loaf of bread and “breaks bread” and declares “this is my body which was broken for you” (Matthew 26:26) and Jesus specifically stated: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” (Matthew 18:11) So we can easily see that bread has been used by God and that God has been “planning” our salvation from the first words God spoke, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) which was to address the darkness and emptiness of the world, which we all know is a picture of sin. The entire Bible is God executing His Plan for His chosen people to free us from our selfishness which expresses itself as “sin” as we reject God, yet God parts the sea and provides for our safety even in the worst storms and then to seal-the-deal, God because of His Love for this sinful world, “gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in [Jesus] shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) If we will but listen to the Master Teacher we can learn the Truth of God and apply even the simplest things, such as the eating of bread, to remind us of the Great Love of God and turn from our sin and as the multitudes did when Jesus healed them, we will marvel at His Grace, we will worship at His feet, and we will glorify the God of Israel. Don’t you think that GOD’S PLAN is a Good Plan?   

MAY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 MAY 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, Redeemer, my Rock and my Salvation, Praise Your Holy Name.  Lord Jesus when I look back at where the journey that seeking You has taken me, I am in awe of the “Way” that You have Provided for my needs, all my needs, both the “physical” and the “Spiritual”. Lord, I may never understand but my understanding should and shall not interfere with my Praise for the ONE that is Worthy, the ONLY ONE that is worthy — in You alone is “Truth”, and You alone can give “Life”. No greater “Love” has ever been given, no greater “Gift” will ever be given than the “Gift of God” of the “Sacrificial Lamb” — His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ — “Sacrificed of God” that man could be reconciled to his Creator in spite of all our sins and iniquities!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never asks a Question without a Divine Intent to Teach us about the Father!  Any time Jesus asks any Question we should really pay attention because the Master Teacher is using the Question to bring our focus on some “Spiritual Truth” by using our common everyday experiences to give us “understanding” of the supernatural life God gives so abundantly to all those that believe Jesus is the Savior and that as a believer in the Son of God that we are going to live for the rest of our “eternal” existence with Father God!!  JQ#17 taken by itself is a simple six word sentence with the longest word being six letters (keep in mind the whole earth was created in just six days) and the subject is a physical item that is experienced by every soul that has ever lived or will ever live on the earth ——— “bread”! When we look at the context surrounding this Question and see that the woman that came to Jesus requesting that her daughter who was “severely demon-possessed” (Matthew 15:22) be healed was first addressed by a statement that on the surface seems out of place for Jesus the “Healer”, as He initially stated to the woman: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” (Matthew 15:26). However, if Jesus is starting another “Teaching of Deep Spiritual Truths” then He will do so by using a “shared experience” that everyone can relate to and an “experience” that we already have a base understanding of. In this case Jesus has used the consumption of “bread” as the common experience and we see how He puts the consuming of “bread” in juxtaposition to “great faith”. Before you accuse the writer of grasping at straws let us look at the progression of this lesson of consumption of bread as a “Great Spiritual Truth” as Jesus puts the “Bread Lesson” down on the bottom shelf so everyone can get to it as we read from Matthew 15:21 through Matthew 16:12 the “Master’s Lesson” on “Bread”. In Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus heals a severely demon-possessed girl and uses the seemingly out of place phrase about throwing “children’s bread” to the “dogs” and the mother responded “even …dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:26-27) and Jesus then responds to the woman’s comments of eating “crumbs” [of bread] “from [the] masters’ table” with this great commendation to the woman: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” (Matthew 15:28) and then we see the results of her “great faith” as we read “and her daughter was healed that very hour.” (Matthew 15:28). Then Matthew records  that the “multitudes” brought to Jesus those in need of “physical healing” and Matthew notes “and [Jesus] healed them.” (Matthew 15:29) with the results of all those mighty works that the [multitudes] “glorified the God of Israel”. (Matthew 15:31)  The significance of “bread” in the works of God starts to surface when we consider the first comment Jesus made as the woman had first petitioned Jesus by declaring “O Lord, Son of David!” and Jesus responded “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:22-24). This “bread” Lesson then begins with a Jesus introducing the problem of “lostness” and we see the introduction of “[bread] crumbs…from the masters’ table” and Jesus then saying to the woman who realized the significance of “bread” in relation to her “faith” was rewarded by Jesus in the form of commending her on her “great faith” and then Jesus heals her “demon-possessed” daughter which was a “spiritual” ailment. Then Jesus immediately heals “physical” infirmities from the “multitudes” and then when Jesus mentions “compassion” for the multitudes we somehow end up talking about “loaves” of bread… [JQ#17] ?? Then the topic moves from “physical” infirmities to “spiritual infirmities” as Jesus, in response to another attack by the legalist of His day, introduces the “spiritual” concept of “leaven” of the false teaching of “the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6) and ends with this summary of the Teachings on “Bread” with this verse, “Then [the disciples] understood that [Jesus] did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:12) Are you still surprised by the simple “bread” Question JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34) or do you not consider that Jesus is asking you to take inventory of all the “false doctrines” that you personally consume as your “daily bread”?!?!? —just a thought.  There is a reason we have the cliche “You reap what you sow” and Jesus is telling us in His “Bread Lesson” that we make bread from the harvest of the seeds we’ve sown in our life!  

MAY 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 MAY 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, just saying Your Name stirs my soul in a way that no other name does! Lord, when I consider that I have just uttered the Name of the Everlasting God and that I have uttered it with the “Hope” and “Expectation” that I have gained an audience with the Creator, I can not fully comprehend why the Lord of lords and King of kings would listen to me? And when I consider it further, I am even more amazed, for the very reason I feel unworthy is the very reason that God sought me out — it is because of the fact that I am a sinner that He cares about my eternal soul and because God cares for every individual soul He sent a solution to correct the sin problem — the solution to my sin is to give my sin to Jesus because Jesus was sent from God as a “Gift” of Love to those that are lost in sin so that our sins can be forgiven just by calling on the Name of Jesus! O the Mystery of God that He cares enough for me to provide for my forgiveness — Praise His Holy Name and Glory to God!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus had been performing miracle after miracle for the multitudes and as the number of miracles grew, so did the multitudes following Jesus. The multitudes kept growing and Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude… and I do not want to send them away hungry…” and the disciples who had just witnessed Jesus performing miracle after miracle knew the Power of these miracles was God’s ability to provide for the needs of the multitudes, even in a wilderness setting. However, these disciples that had witnessed the Power of God jumped to a wrong conclusion of the statement Jesus had just made because they assumed that Jesus was going to do what He had done with the feeding of the five thousand where Jesus had commanded the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:16). However the disciples made the same mistake we make in our daily lives as we see God provide for our daily needs in a way that only God can do and then when the next need arises we seem to forget that God took care of us before and we let the world throw doubt into our carnal minds!  When we look close at what Jesus said about “compassion” for the “multitudes” we see that He did not command the disciples to look for food, all Jesus had said was “I do not want to send them away hungry…” and the self-centered disciples, just like us blurted out “Well what do you want us to do about it?” Jesus then asked this very important question to bring the disciples back to reality by asking JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) I can hear in that question Jesus saying to us, “When was the last time I failed to provide for your needs?” We are the creation and He is the Creator so we must Trust Him to equip us to accomplish that which He tasks us to do, be it feed ourselves or to feed 4000 in the wilderness! God has always provided in the past so why do we let the world make us think that God will abandon us in the future or that this time we are “on our own”?!?  Look at His Question and understand that by Him asking the disciples “How many loaves do YOU have?” Jesus is really saying to the disciples, “Look guys, the Father fed 5000 so do you think He has run out of bread, because surely YOU don’t think YOU have enough bread to accomplish that which only God the Creator can do?”!?!?!  Why is it that we fail to give God the Glory when every time we see God work we somehow think that He is doing His “last miracle” and we let the world convince us that God’s “magic lamp” will no longer work so we should return to our sin!?!? Jesus asked that Question to the disciples to bring them back to the reality that God’s Mercy and Grace endures Forever and His Provisions are both Limitless and Eternal!!! If we will but put what we have into His Capable Hands that He will Bless what we turn over to Him and we will be “filled” and we will find the Truth of God that He “is the Everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth, He will never grow tired and weary and His understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28) ——— just think how many loaves of bread that God has provided to the world since the Garden of Eden ——— and yet we ask God by our doubt: “Are You getting tired yet God?” ——— like we could take over for Him now that He is tired and is no longer able to keep the stars in orbit or the sun rising in the sky every morning and we with our limited understanding will keep the universe spinning right along with our great scientific knowledge that cannot even explain how a bumble bee flies !?!?!? Really, how many grains of wheat have you created??? 

MAY 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 MAY 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord each day You are there to draw us closer, even if we have drifted and stumbled in our earthly weakness and Lord Your Faithfulness to be there for us shines like a beacon of Hope for us, no matter how dark the night. Lord forgive me for not abandoning myself totally to You and the Father’s Work for You are Worthy and You have blessed me so abundantly that there is nothing to hold me back except my selfishness. You have NEVER failed to provide for my needs yet Lord I find myself worrying about tomorrow at the expense of the “Joy” I could have in You today. Lord Jesus, grant it that my “faith in You” will grow to be called “great” and that all my desires will be for You and that there be no thought of “self” except for the fact that I have abandoned my “self” to You.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is always the Son of God and He is always Teaching us the Truth of God so that our Faith in God will become the cornerstone of our daily lives that we may live the “Abundant Life” that God desires for each of us. When we look at this Question Jesus asked in Matthew 15:34 JQ#17: “How many loaves do you have?” our worldly tendency is to think to ourselves “This is really a simple question” and we miss the Great Lesson that Jesus is Teaching! The more I read the scriptures, the more I realize that there are Lessons in every story, in the order of the stories, in the number of stories, in the people of the stories, and certainly in all the Words that our Lord and Savior used to convey the “Truth of God” to the lost and dying world He came to SAVE! Study the Word enough and one glaring Divine Question emerges as one of those “Truths of God” and that question is: “Why would the all-knowing God of all creation, send His Son to the earth with the Plan of Salvation and the Gift of Eternal Life, and then waste His time and energy by asking such insignificant questions like ‘How many loaves do you have?’” Indeed, why would the Master Teacher ask about bread when He Himself has declared, “I Am the Bread of Life”? The “simple” Question becomes “significant” when we realize that God does not need us for anything, especially knowledge about His creation, nor does God need us to supply information to Him about loaves of bread, so the Question must be viewed not as a Question for His benefit or knowledge but for ours. To start understanding the “simple-but-significant” Question we must look to our faith in the Divine Character of God and know that Jesus coming to earth, taking on flesh, suffering on the cross, and defeating death and the grave was not so that we could inform Him of the number of loaves of bread we have! If Jesus asks us what appears to us as a “simple” Question we should immediately stop and look at the context of the Question and remember who it is that it is asking it. In this instance, Jesus had healed a woman’s daughter of severe “demon-possession” and stated to the woman, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” and then Matthew records “And her daughter was healed that very hour.” (Matthew 15:28) As soon as Jesus had healed the woman’s daughter and made His declaration about her “faith”, He “departed from there…went up on the mountain…then great multitudes came to Him.” (Matthew 15:30) Why the multitudes had come to Him is obvious — because Jesus had been healing, casting out demons, and doing “Kingdom Work” and it was obvious to those that were coming to Him that He had something to give them and that “something” that Jesus had and was freely giving to the multitudes was from God and well worth seeking Him out for! Matthew records that the multitudes that came to Him “[brought] …with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing and they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:29-31) Then in this setting of the multitudes glorifying God for the great works Jesus had been doing in the Father’s Name and for the Kingdom’s Sake,  “Jesus called His disciples to Himself” and made this statement to them before asking them the “simple” Question about bread —Jesus said, “I have compassion on the multitudes, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” (Matthew 15:32) Note that Jesus did not have to ask the Question until His disciples failed the “faith” test because they failed to look at the situation as an opportunity to glorify God ——— but instead the disciples questioned the ability of God to provide for the multitudes that He had just healed! The disciples, instead of asking “how” God was going to accomplish this great feat, they asked, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” (Matthew 15:33) It was at this point that Jesus begins His Lesson and He started it with JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) Once we see the context of the Question and consider “who” is asking and “why” is He asking us about the numbers of loaves in our possession, the question is no longer simple but is very serious! The real question here is “Do you question the ONE that has never failed to provide for the needs of the world or are you going to try to accomplish God’s Work with your meager means?” After all,  if you’re going to feed the multitudes yourself, then I guess it would be smart to inventory how much bread you have the ability to provide! Perhaps we need to read what Isaiah said about the Earthly Mission of Jesus: “As the rain and snow comes down from heaven (Jesus IS the Living Water that became flesh and dwelt among us) and does not return there without watering the earth, causing it to bud and flourish, so that it brings forth seed for the sower and  bread for the eater, so is [My Word] that goes forth from My mouth, [My beloved Son Jesus]  will not return to Me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent [Him]!” (Isaiah 55:10-11)  Remember always that Jesus is the Bread of Life and if you share Jesus then you have shared the One that can feed 5000 with two loaves and 5 fish and still gather up 12 baskets of left-overs!!! Without God we hunger, but with God we have plenty — more than enough!!!