JULY 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, again I find myself adrift in the world, having taken my eyes off the prize of the high calling of God and without Your Mercy and Grace putting wind to my sail, I find myself dead-in-the-water. Lord forgive me of even the slightest turning to the right or to the left for all paths back to self must go through shadows and darkness. Lord only You are the Eternal Shining Light that will lead us beside the still waters where our souls are daily refreshed in Your green pastures and most importantly we can hear Your voice and know that the paths that You lead us down are paths of righteousness. Lord, You alone have the words of Eternal Life and You alone have the Power to Save, and You and only You can Wash us Clean with Your Precious Blood so that at times when we know we have fallen short of Your Glory again that You are there and will again reach down and pull us back into the fold and create in us a clean heart!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus summed up His Lesson on our proclivity of following the doctrines of men instead of staying steadfast and faithful in obeying the commandments of God with the final statements in His parable of the landowner that Jesus Taught His disciples. Jesus had begun the Lesson as He addressed the subject of divorce and pointed out that man has a doctrine that supports divorce but Jesus reminded us that man’s doctrines are not God’s doctrines. The doctrine of men caters to the desires of men and what men think is “best” for themselves and because of their selfishness they write the “laws of men” and declare them “legal” and impose those manmade laws on other men! Jesus showed the Pharisees the error of the doctrines of men by reminding them that God created both male and female and that God Himself gave the woman to the man as his wife and joined them into “one flesh” through the Spiritual Union of Holy Matrimony. Jesus then stated that the reality of marriage is that it is in the eyes of God that when a man and woman enter together into Holy Matrimony that “they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6) The Pharisees quickly shot back using Moses as their champion for the doctrines of men and the “legality” of divorce but Jesus shut them down by exposing that the basis of their “law of divorce” was based on the “hardness of [their] hearts” (Matthew 19:8) because they did not want to obey the “Intent and Command of God” thereby showing them that the doctrines of men carry no weight in the Final Judgement!  Jesus concludes the Lesson with the parable of the landowner by illustrating that it is the landowner that owns the land, it is the landowner that both seeks and hires the laborers, it is the landowner that decides what work needs to be done, and it is the landowner that establishes the terms of the landowner/laborer relationship! Of most importance though, it is the landowner alone that has the supreme authority to declare what is “lawful” for the landowner to do with his own land when the [landowner asks]: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15) Since Jesus had started the parable of the landowner stating “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out…” (Matthew 20:1) then the only conclusion we can make is that the “land” is God’s Creation and that God Himself is the “owner” of everything He Created. The biggest problem in our modern-day society is that man is still trying to write laws based on the desires of men instead of the moral reality that this is still God’s world and since God is Eternal then we are eternally bound to the reality that God has created the world, God has promised Good Things for our life that He has planned for us and “whatever is right [He] will give [us]” (Matthew 20:4) but we must “obey” His commands and live by the Moral Standards God Himself has established to give us a hope and a future! Jesus concludes with this final statement that is so applicable to our world today and all the Godless laws that man has passed to satisfy his desires for self gratification: “Or is your eye evil because [God is so] good? So the last [to enter into God’s labors] will be first, and the first, last. For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 20:16) The final question on this Lesson could be: “Could God be calling you but you cannot hear God because we no longer know His Still Small Voice because we have been listening to the shouting of men and their endless screams of what their doctrines try to establish as “lawful”?!?!? The problem is that God will only choose those who volunteer to obey His commands ——— It is your choice: (1) You may choose the doctrines of men and self gratification and be forever separated from God or (2) you may choose obedience to God and trust Him to give you “whatever is right and necessary” and enter into the “kingdom of heaven” and have eternal fellowship with the Good Shepherd?    

JULY 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, O the Glory of Your perfect Love shown by Your Sacrifice of self, and Obedience to the Father’s Will. You created the earth and then You left Your Glory in heaven to be born of a virgin to experience an earthly life which You created! Truly You are God, for no graven images nor carved idols has ever dwelt among their subjects and took the form of their created as the lowest and most humble, but Jesus, we can’t be too young or too old or too poor or too weak to receive Your Grace ——— You paid it ALL, You lived it ALL, You covered it ALL ——— ALL to You I owe!!! Lead and direct me hour by hour.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus used this section of scripture to bring our attention to the fact that God in His Sovereignty has the Right to do whatever God desires with His Creation (Indeed, is it not lawful for the Law Giver to do whatever He wishes with His creation?!?!?!?!)! There are those that fail to see that this is a very good thing for all of creation for God is Merciful and Compassionate! When men get involved with controlling other men there is always a problem! Because God can create with “infinite” limits, God is never selfish — but men cannot create so they try to use whatever advantage they have to take a larger share of what they see as “finite” resources — God being Sovereign and unlimited in His Power needs not to take from others to gain any advantage, what greater advantage can there be than being the One True Creator God? There is much wisdom in what Jesus Teaches us about God through this section on God’s Sovereign Right to do whatever He pleases with His Creation, especially in this parable of the landowner. The Truth of God is that God is Fair, Just, Compassionate, and that God desires to have a personal relationship with everyone! For those that will receive Him, He gives and gives and gives some more!! When we read phrases like (1) “[we] shall receive a hundredfold” (which is a large return on any investment), (2) “inherit eternal life” (eternal life is the best life available at any cost), (3) “and about the eleventh hour he went out and found others” we see an attribute of the Creator God that demonstrates that God is seeking to do good to His Creation and He will continue to do so until the very last soul is added to His Kingdom — but the phrase that is most revealing in my opinion is “whatever is right I will give you” (Matthew 20:1-6) which is the best wage anyone could possibly hope for. God makes it simple to please Him as demonstrated by the fact that He declares “Let the little children come to Me…for such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14) and for entry into heaven we do not need to accumulate earthly wealth but instead God makes it easy for us as He tells us to “sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven” and then God commands us simply “…come follow Me” (Matthew 19:21) !!! When I stop and think about all the demands that earthly men in positions of power have placed on our society and the despair caused by greed, then I get a glimpse of their lostness and we can then understand why men use phrases like “it’s a dog-eat-dog world” and “only the strong survive” and why in every society and generation since the beginning of man’s dominance over other men that there has always been “death and taxes” and why Jesus Taught “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). There are more laws passed by men usurping the Power of God than can be counted and the laws of the politically motivated men in an attempt to attain worldly power are supposedly written for society’s “safety” but the truth of these “power mongers” intent is revealed not in the law itself but in the “enforcement” of the law. When one man “lords” his power over another, the resulting circumstance, it is sad to say, always ends up to the advantage of the strong and powerful who are cursed with the greed for “more power” which in turn gives rise to the old adage “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”!!! God always uses His Strength to uphold the weak, and God gives believers an abundant life here on earth and JESUS promises that if we trust Him that we will “pass from death into everlasting life” (John 5:24) furthermore, God does not require any payment or taxes, just “faith” in His promise that “whatever is right [God] will give us” !!! (Matthew 20:4) It is to our advantage to become as “little children” in our lives and “trust” that indeed it is “lawful” for God to do whatever He desires with His own Creation!!!

JULY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS completely take my life, my career, my marriage, my health, my desires, and the innermost longings of my soul, take all of me and use it as You will for You know the will of the Father and all things that Glorify You, Glorify the Father. There is not a better thing that the created can do but Glorify the Creator. Lord Jesus, we are wonderfully and fearfully made and I want to make my life count in Your eyes, not in the eyes of a worldly boss or worldly friends. Jesus, I claim Your promise to finish the good work that You have started in me. I yield myself to the molding, the shaping, and the pruning of the Holy Spirit, and I pray that those things I don’t volunteer to yield, that the Holy Spirit will take them, all for Your Glory!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches many side Lessons in the parable of the landowner and He established at the beginning of the parable that the Lesson was about “heaven” (see Matthew 20:1) therefore the “vineyard” is God’s Creation and the “laborers” in the vineyard is mankind — the “landowner” is God and the parable highlights both man’s relationship to God and to God’s Creation. The obvious message in this passage in Matthew 20:1-16 was that God intends for man to “work” for “wages” and that God will do “whatever is right” for us if we enter into His labors with Him. There are a couple of not so obvious Lessons as well and yet if we stop and think about it (like Jesus has been Teaching us to do all along with His Lessons on the Truth of God), that we will see that God seeks each of us out and establishes a personal relationship with each worker. The parable establishes the Truth of God that even unto the “eleventh hour” God will seek us and wishes us to use the remainder of our time before “evening” comes to enter into His Labor. Also obvious but misunderstood by mankind is God’s “wage scale” which is found in John 3:16 [paraphrased] “For [the landowner] so loved [the laborers] that He gave [the same wages] to all that entered into the [work of God] which is believing that the Son came to save us from sin — and those wages are eternal life.” Jesus was always Teaching these “work” Lessons by the Example of His Life while in the flesh for even as a small boy of 12 years old Jesus said, “I must be about my Father’s work” (Luke 2:49) and then there was that time recorded in the Gospel according to John where Jesus made it clear that the Work of God involved “sin” and “Forgiveness" as He was asked “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1-2) and in His answer Jesus addressed the problem of living our daily lives with “traditions of men” not based on God’s Truth for Jesus replied to the “who sinned?” question thusly: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:3-5) We should learn that we have a “day” to “work for God” for when the evening comes(Physical Death) we will be given our wages (Judgement) so when God comes and asks you to be a “laborer” in His “vineyard” that the only way to “earn” your “wages” is to do the work of the One that is paying the wages to those that work in His “vineyard” while it is still day(Life)!   If Jesus Teaches a parable on earning kingdom wages then we should listen to the Son and get to work don’t you think?!?!?   Of all my studies about heaven I have never read about heaven having any ATM machines — of course it would be hard to figure out how to mount a steel box to streets of gold anyway don’t you imagine???  Besides, even if we could “take it with us” then just how much money would you have to take to heaven to pay “rent” on your mansion for say, 200 billion years? (Your pockets aren’t big enough!!!!!)

JULY 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You are worthy of all praise for there is no other that Sacrificed so much for so many. Lord Jesus, without that Sacrifice there would be no “hope” and no “future”  for it is by Your Wounds that we are healed and by Your Blood we are washed clean from the sin that our earthen bodies are enslaved to. Lord it is a mystery how that Your Spirit can first break us and then make us new! Praise be to the Only Begotten of the Father that was Obedient unto death because the Father Resurrected the Son in whom He was well pleased on the Third Day thereby giving us reason to “hope” and “trust” that God the Father has a Plan for our “future”!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus asked this Question in JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things” through a parable designed to show us another perspective of heaven so that we could relate to heaven through something we are familiar with in our earthly lives, this is the only way that we will be able to envision heaven because in reality heaven is so far different from earth that we cannot imagine what heaven is really going to be like! We are limited by our finite knowledge and because our experience is limited exclusively to our earthly lives and bodies — we simply do not have a vocabulary to describe it — therefore Jesus Taught about heaven using  parables about earthly things everyone is familiar with, and in this case Jesus uses a parable about a landowner who goes out and hires laborers. There are several Lessons within the Lesson that Jesus is Teaching which enforces previous Lessons Jesus has been Teaching about our time on earth and the first and most obvious Lesson is that in our daily lives, whether we are the boss or the hired hand, (both cases) require us to go to work to sustain our daily existence. The boss has to work at hiring others to do the physical labor which will free him to do “boss work”. The parable is about heaven because Jesus begins the parable: “For the kingdom of heaven is like” and then Jesus continues, “a landowner…” and concludes with the “landowner” going “out early in the morning to hire laborers” to work in the “landowners vineyard”. (Matthew 20:1) Since we know that Jesus is Teaching about “heaven” we can determine that the “landowner” is God and the “vineyard” is earth and we the people of earth are the “laborers”. The second Lesson-within-the-Lesson that we should learn is that God has chosen to do His work on earth through us which enforces the fact that this has been God’s Plan for mankind from the beginning. We read in Genesis, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,…then the Lord God took the man [He had formed] and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:7-15) So it was God’s Plan to “plant a garden” and His Intent was that mankind would “tend to and keep” the garden for Him but we should not miss the Divine Fact that mankind would be paid a wage for our labors for as soon as God put Adam in the garden of Eden, God said, “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat…” (Genesis 2:16) Also in 1 Timothy 5:18 and Luke 10:7 we are told “the worker is worthy of his wages”, Romans declares “the wages of sin is death” and Paul reminds the Thessalonians as he was teaching them about the kingdom of God that Paul said about working, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat” therefore confirming that God’s Plan is unchanging! From the first Adam (natural) to the second Adam (spiritual) God is still expecting His Creation to live in a symbiotic relationship as part of His Divine Plan [see 1 Corinthians 15:45]. In this current parable of the landowner Jesus points out that everyone’s wages are determined by a personal relationship with the landowner as we read that it was the landowner that “went out”  (Matthew 20:3) to find laborers and then the landowner himself “said to them” (Matthew 20:4a) — which indicates that God is the Creator and it is God that initiates the relationship and that God makes each relationship personal as He seeks us out and personally arranges with us the terms of the relationship. Personally I found great comfort when I read the “landowners terms” at the end of the passage — “whatever is right I will give you…”!!!  (Matthew 20:4b) This passage confirms that God is a Merciful and Gracious God that is Faithful and Just in His dealings with His Creation! God not only keeps the relationship on a “personal level” but He also guarantees that “whatever is right” that God will provide for each of us!! Jesus then Taught that God reserves the right to maintain His Sovereignty as Jesus then Taught the Truth of God that God is Sovereign over all creation and that whatever God declares “lawful” will be “right” and that we should trust Him because God has promised to do “whatever is right” — don't you think that trusting God who wants to “give” good things to us is better than trusting in the “doctrines of men” which even though they “promise” us good things that they are continually “taking away” our freedom in an attempt to gain power over us?  The reality is that those that seek to control others are always motivated by self-interest and always the relationship with power mongers results in more freedom being taken from us than is given by their empty promises. You can decide for yourself but I choose to go with God who has all Power and needs none from us and I will trust in His Mercy and Grace ——— however, it is your choice if you want to follow the “legalist” who desires to control your every decision ——— but I advise you to keep your eyes on the “legalist” every second and your hand on your pocketbook!

JULY 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 26  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, thank You for the moving of Your Spirit in so many lives and forgive us when we have been so bountifully blessed yet we don’t share the Joy of Jesus with others that are lost in darkness. Lord there is so much pain and sorrow and just plain lostness and there is Inexhaustible Light that is being kept under a bushel and I pray for forgiveness and the boldness to share You and the Love of God. Lord I will wait on You and trust that Your Spirit will renew my strength and that when You call, I will answer:  “Here I am Lord, send me”.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has addressed the problem we all have of following the doctrines of men by demonstrating the Truth of God that heaven is “Not For Sale” and eternal life cannot be earned by any amount of “good works”. Mankind has from the beginning been deceived into thinking we can “be like God” and our lustful eyes fall victim to the forbidden fruit and our lustful flesh quickly follows suit and we partake in the great lie because of our own volition — we are all sinners by nature and the problem is that the “doctrines of men” always turn us towards our inner prideful self which always focuses our attention on our lusts. The “doctrines of men” never attain the promise of eternal life but result only in our separation from the Love of God which has been poured out in a Crimson Flood for our Atonement which is the Gateway to Eternal Life in the Presence of the Great I Am!  Jesus Taught about “Sin” then He followed that Lesson with this one about living our daily lives following Him {{which is the only Pathway to God}} instead of following the “doctrines of men” which is the broad highway leading to destruction.  Jesus started this section illustrating that our traditions are established by man’s interpretation of God’s Divine Intent for mankind ——— note that there is a “spiritual problem” with filtering Divine Doctrine through a multitude of “defiled middle men” who must deal with their own selfish desires, thereby defiling the Divine Intent of the Holy God and His commandments which result in “traditions of men” being based more on our personal wants for our worldly self gratification than on God’s personal Words intended for our eternal self preservation. Jesus first demonstrated that our daily lives should be lived to glorify God and not self, then Jesus again used “little children” to demonstrate what the kingdom of heaven is made of. Jesus then showed through His encounter with the rich young man that was unwilling to part with his “great worldly possessions” that heaven could not be purchased nor could eternal life be earned by any amount of good works and the only way to have “treasure in heaven” is to respond personally to Jesus when He calls us individually to: “come, follow Me”. Jesus summarized these into this Truth of God: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:1-26) The disciples were amazed at this and Peter said to Jesus, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” (Matthew 19:27) Jesus responded to His disciples question with a promise that our “earthly actions” will result in “heavenly rewards”, in essence Teaching that this world is not our home, it is only a temporary dwelling place and whatever we sacrifice in this life on earth that in heaven we will “receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:30) Jesus has one more lesson in this section and it is another parable of a landowner hiring laborers for his vineyard which summarizes God’s position on the problem of “legalism” which is a by-product of the “defiled doctrines of men seeking worldly power”. If Jesus spends all this energy and effort to get our attention on this particular problem then doesn’t it make sense that we should give some thought to how much time we spend on the “doctrines of men” verses the “Word of God”?!?!?! The Truth is that only the Supreme Judge in Heaven can declare what is “legal” in the Kingdom of the King of kings!!!

JULY 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, may this day which You have blessed me with be used for a single purpose — to Glorify God. Lord I know that You have been leading me on my Journey to Truth for Your Light has illuminated my path and I pray that this day will be a day in which Your Love that You have poured into my life will be used to be a Light to dispel the darkness in someone else’s life, that this day will be a day that I give totally of myself for someone else that they will truly see You living in me and that they will start on their own journey to find the Peace, the Joy, and the Salvation that comes only from knowing Jesus.        AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, being the Master Teacher and the Perfect Example for us to follow, covers all bases and nuances of each Truth of God that He Teaches. This Lesson from JQ#22 is about knowing the difference between “obeying the commands of God” and “following the doctrines of men”, Jesus Teaches us to also be aware of not only “traditions” that previous generations have mistakenly fallen into that is contrary to God’s Law but we should be aware that in this world in which we all live that there are certain “desires of men” that have become totally acceptable lifestyles for a society — but even though these “desires of men” are legal by man’s law they are still in conflict with the True Law which is derived from the Commands of God! Jesus Teaches in this next section that we sometimes live our lives trying to achieve a worldly goal that can actually keep us from entering the kingdom of heaven if we adhere to worldly standards that is socially acceptable to men, and sadly these worldly standards based on the desires of men are even considered “successful” behavior by the majority of men. Jesus had just used little children as an example and had Taught His disciples, “Let the little children come to Me…for such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) Matthew then records an encounter Jesus had with a rich young man who “had great possessions” approached Jesus “and said to Him, Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16) The answer Jesus gave the rich young man who was seeking to “do good things” to “[earn] eternal life” is an important “Wake Up!” call to everyone that is absorbed with “possessions” and “gaining wealth”! Jesus made it very clear that no one can “buy” their way into heaven, neither can anyone “work” their way into heaven by doing “good things”. The response Jesus gave the rich young man laid out the only path to “enter into life” so that there could be no mistake what is required by God if someone wished to have eternal life. Jesus laid out the Pathway as He spoke to the rich young ruler;  “[Jesus] said to [the rich young man], ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into [eternal] life, keep [God’s] commandments.’” (Matthew 19:17) The rich young man had fallen victim to the “doctrines of men” that are still prevalent in our society today as we are taught to believe that “success” is measured by our “possessions” and proportional to the size of our “bank accounts”. Jesus really burst the rich young man’s bubble when He complemented the young man when the young man said that he already was following the commandments of God but then Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.” (Matthew 19:20-21) Wow ! Here the rich young man had to make a choice between having his “great possessions" here on earth or having “treasure in heaven” !!! The rich young man’s response was recorded by Matthew as we read, “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Matthew 19:22) Jesus had completely exposed the “doctrine of men” that says that success lies in possessions and worldly treasures for with His answer to the rich young man Jesus is Teaching that the only requirement to having “treasure in heaven” and “eternal life” is to “obey the commands of God and follow Jesus” !!! The disciples were “astonished” when they saw a rich young man with great possessions who had kept all the commandments turn and walk away from Jesus and they asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25) Jesus now had their full attention and He drove home to His disciples another Truth of God — “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With [the doctrines of] men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 19:26) It cannot be Taught any better that entry into the kingdom of heaven “cannot be bought nor can eternal life be earned by good works” ——— simply put; success with men is worthless in the sight of God — so now each of us is faced with the same deal, are you willing to trade all your worldly possessions and the praise of men to take up your “cross” and “follow Jesus” into the Promised Land and Life Everlasting?!?!?!

JULY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

 JULY 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#22  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, I have failed You in so many ways but Lord, I turn to You and to You alone for Forgiveness of my weakness of mind and my desire to satisfy my selfish desires. I know that “wanting” anything but Your purpose in my life is wrong. How can I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill me when I hold a memory of my old sin-ways locked deep in a special treasure box covered with selfishness and hid in the dark recesses of my soul? There is nothing I think or do that God cannot see and yet I think I can hold back a part of my old sinful self and hide it from God?  NO! I yield it ALL to God, and pray not my will but THY Will be done in my life. I can make no decisions for myself any longer that is outside the Will of God, I can only work to achieve His purpose with whatever condition I find myself in.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is always directing His Questions to a specific detail of God’s Truth such as JQ#21 drew our attention to the problem of sin which drew our attention to the great extent that God Himself has gone to in order to resolve our sin issue and now in JQ#22 Jesus is using a parable to summarize another problem that we encounter in living our daily lives - that problem being that if we are not fully aware of the issue then we will be unwillingly obeying the “doctrines of men” instead of the “commandments of God”! For example, Jesus begins this section with another encounter with the Pharisees who were the religious legalists of His time on earth and specifically the subject of divorce. Jesus rebutted the arguments the Pharisees were making by going back to God’s original intent for marriage by stating the Genesis account of the original creation: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27) Jesus continued from the original account in the Holy Scriptures with the original intent of God regarding marriage as He referred to this passage: “…But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:20-24) By going back and referring to the account of the original creation of man by God from the same Holy Scriptures the Pharisees were trying to make their argument from and reminding the Pharisees how God Himself instituted the first marriage between the first man and the first woman, the Pharisees could not argue against the Truth of God and God’s own actions and thereby Jesus completely nullified any argument the Pharisees tried to make about Moses allowing the Israelites to divorce “legally”. It is most important to note that the Pharisees were trying to use the argument that because a prophet of God from a previous generation had said divorce was “legal” so then it should be “legal” for this generation because of “legal precedence” established by Moses. “Legal precedence” is the main legalist argument of our present generation. However, Jesus reminded them of the Truth of God that even the prophets of God, even one with the stature of Moses, is not above the Law of God, for Moses, even though he had been chosen by God to lead Israel to the “Promised Land”, Moses himself was not allowed into the “Promised Land” because Moses had disobeyed God’s instruction to “speak to the rock” (Numbers 20:8) and thereby Jesus had nullified the Pharisees argument that it was “legal” to divorce their wives because Moses, being the representative of God, had said divorce was “legal”, and Jesus by pointing out that God, not Moses, is the final “Judge” and this lesson proved the Truth of God that only those things that are “legal” in God’s Judgment is the only basis for establishing a Moral Standard and declaring that which is truly “legal”. Jesus summed up this important TRUTH OF GOD as Jesus shut down the Pharisee’s argument that Moses said it was “OK” to divorce when Jesus concluded with this statement: “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:6b) Jesus continues this Lesson on the problem of “following the doctrines of men” verses “obeying the commandments of God” by using “children” to show the TRUTH OF GOD !  Jesus confirmed this TRUTH OF GOD when the disciples were arguing about “who is the greatest in heaven” and Jesus set a young child in their midst and said that they “must become as little children to even enter the kingdom of heaven” and here again the disciples were making a human mistake of trying to interpret what they mistakenly thought that God would do by rebuking those that were bringing their little children to Jesus for healing. However, Jesus once again demonstrated that what they “thought” was the “proper” behavior for children was not what God intended, “Jesus said, Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) Don’t you think if the disciples that were 24/7 listening to Jesus could be wrong about living their daily lives and the way they treated others that we who only occasionally listen to God could also be mistaken about how we interact with those in our daily world? If the disciples of Jesus had to be reminded that they must not live according to what they “supposed they knew what God had intended” but live their daily lives and interact with each other by studying and knowing what God has already demonstrated and declared Himself!!! Don’t you think we would be wise to re-evaluate our “traditions” and to weed out those things that we do that are the “doctrine of men” and make sure that we are “following the commands of God” in our daily lives?!?!?