SEPTEMBER 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#29 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” (Matthew 22:42)

 SEPTEMBER 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#29  “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”  (Matthew 22:42)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, O the joy of calling on the Name of all names, for You are the Living, Loving, Redeemer and Lover of my soul. You are the Way, yeah the only Way to Live, for we spend our days in death when we do not turn to Thee for our Daily Bread. Lord, I praise You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit for the Grace and Mercy in the Plan of Salvation!!!  We, Lord, are deserving of death, yet even though we reject you time and again, You always extend Your Love and Forgiveness to us if we but Repent and turn to Thee. Lord, I am a chief sinner for I will lay my sins at the foot of Your cross but I do not let go of them and end up picking them up again with my selfish desires?!? O Lord Jesus, You are Loving and Forgiving and each time I return to Your Grace You receive me with open arms — so Lord I return yet again, forgive this sinner daily!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is now addressing a group of Pharisees and scribes that “were gathered together” and after they had responded that Christ was “The Son of David” to the Question Jesus had asked them about “Whose Son is [the Christ]?” (Matthew 22:42), Jesus asked them a final Question from a Psalm of David (Psalm 118) but the Pharisees and scribes were unable to answer His Question from the Holy Scriptures which they were supposed to be “the authority” on! Their inability to answer the Question Jesus asked them proved that Jesus knew more about the Scriptures than they did so the Pharisees from that day on “did [not] dare question [Jesus] anymore.” (Matthew 22:43-46) But Jesus had more to say about the problem Israel had because they were following the “doctrines of [the] men” that had defiled their “offices” for the sake of self-promotion. These “leaders” had “usurped the power of God” for themselves by imposing their false doctrines on God’s chosen people. Jesus had previously Taught His own disciples this Lesson about seeking positions of high office for Jesus had responded to a similar situation when He was asked to give special consideration to a couple of His disciples, Jesus stated about “True Power and Authority” : “…but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.” (Matthew 20:23) and then Jesus elaborated further about the problem with our assuming “power” without it being given by God when Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you…Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28). It is interesting to note that this Lesson on “True Power and Authority” and submitting to the will of God and being obedient to the Father’s Plan for our lives came just after Jesus had told His disciples, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matthew 20:18-19) So it should have been no surprise that in this last week of His life on earth that His disciples would see that the events were unfolding just as Jesus had prophesied and that Jesus would expend so much of His energy Teaching about the abuse of power. What we as children of God should be aware of in our lives is mainly that God has a Plan for Salvation and that the Plan of Salvation includes “repentance and the remission of sin” and that our eternity is determined by how obedient we are to the Purity and Holiness of the Commands of God and His Plan of Salvation and not on the “defiled doctrines of men”!!! Jesus had taught “…no one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep [God’s] commandments.” (Matthew 19:17) The fact that Jesus continues teaching the multitudes about the abuse of power and seeking high office for self promotion can be understood as an extension of Jesus Teaching an earlier Lesson on humility “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. [but] …whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:3-6) So now Jesus is going to conclude His Lessons on “True Power and Authority” as we read “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying…” (Matthew 23:1) and Jesus calls out the “scribes and the Pharisees” by name and pronounces 7 “Woes” on them and on those who seek to “lord” their God-given “authority” over those under their rule!!! Surely it is obvious that this Lesson is not a “knee-jerk” reaction by Jesus, He has been addressing this problem all along and now He concludes by announcing 7 "Woes" on those that are guilty. Let each of us stop and consider this simple logical question, “If this subject is so important to Jesus that He would be this thorough in His Teaching this Lesson throughout His entire ministry, then shouldn’t we give it a proportional amount of our attention as well?!?!?!?!”

SEPTEMBER 16 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#29 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” (Matthew 22:42)

 SEPTEMBER 16  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#29  “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”  (Matthew 22:42)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I thank You for those times that You make Your Presence “Known” when we least expect it, which in retrospect I see that it is those times that I need you most for I have drifted off the path and had You not given me a “course correction” I would have wandered off into the world and all its dangers. Lord, I better understand the necessity of “chastisement” and why David wrote of the Good Shepherd, “…Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me…” for You Lord know when to use Your “rod” and when to use Your “staff” and You always use them in “TRUTH” and in “LOVE” — Lord, I pray that my spirit yields itself completely to Yours and that my heart is always receptive to Your Love for I know that Your Plan for my life is to give me a “Hope” and a “Future” — Forgive me of my daily shortcomings and keep me forever on Your Path.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been “questioned” by the “legalists” as they have sought to prove that their “doctrines of men” and their “authority” was the ruling power in Zion and Jerusalem but they were blinded to the Truth of God that Jesus IS the Messiah and that God has sent Him to bring “repentance and salvation” to those that follow the “doctrines of men” instead of the “Commands of God”. The Pharisees and the scribes had been the loudest in their contentions with Jesus and had “questioned” Him on more occasions than any of the other ruling groups! Jesus had put the Pharisees in their place on more than one occasion, but now in His final week before the Passover in Jerusalem (where Jesus will complete the Father’s Work and fulfill all the Law and the Prophets), Jesus answers all the “questions” posed by each group and then Jesus, as the Master Teacher, Teaches the Final Lesson to the “legalists and power mongers” with a couple of Final JESUS Questions back-to-back — “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying,” (1) “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” and when the Pharisees answered, “The Son of David” Jesus quoted the Holy Scripture from a Psalm (Psalm 110) that King David had written about the Messiah and then Jesus asked the Pharisees this followup question: (2) “If David then calls Him ‘LORD,’ how is He his Son?”  (Matthew 22:41-45)  The Pharisees were the ultimate authority in Israel on the Law of Moses and the Holy Scriptures and yet with all their combined knowledge they were unable to answer Jesus and Matthew records: “And no one was able to answer [Jesus] a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.” (Matthew 22:45) Now that there would be no more questions taking up the precious last hours of His earthly ministry, it would be reasonable to assume that Jesus would move on from Teaching Lessons on “True Power and Authority” and leave the Pharisees to face the “judgement” that had already been assigned to them and to all that follow the “doctrines of men” as consequences to their disobedience to the Commands of God and the defiling of their Holy Offices: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whom it falls, it will grind him to powder.” (Matthew 22:43-44)   However, once Jesus had finally silenced all the contention and confrontation from the “legalists/power mongers” He did not move on to another Lesson but Jesus gives one final summation to the problem and pronounces “Seven Woes” on the “scribes and Pharisees” as He once again calls them, “hypocrites”! Our common sense should tell us that if Jesus continues to Teach on this subject of the “hypocrisy” of “following the doctrines of men " and “defiling Holy Offices” and “usurping the Power of God” for themselves that this must be a Very Important Topic that Jesus wants to make very clear to all that “have an ear” to hear what the Spirit has to say about being “obedient to God” as the Number One Priority in our daily lives!  Before looking at this “Final Summation on True Power and Authority” that Jesus is about to deliver on the subject, it is prudent for us to stop and consider the “gravity of the situation” in our own lives as we let the “doctrines of men” creep into our daily lifestyles ——— we must realize that those in power, regardless of their gender, generation or nationality, succumb to their own selfish desires as they gather unto themselves more and more power and these power mongers defile their respective offices and the fruit of their labor is “defiled doctrines" which Jesus is telling us as God told Adam and Eve in the garden, “…for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Remember also that Jesus had just Taught us “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:6) Perhaps since Jesus commands us to “take heed” that we should at least try to understand what the consequences of not listening to Jesus might be — or you can turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Truth of God and consume the “leaven” and the “forbidden fruit” but then you must accept the consequences of your choice to ignore God’s Son Jesus whom God the Father has sent to bring “repentance and salvation” to us and Who has personally given us so many warnings by His Holy WORD!?!?!?  

SEPTEMBER 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#29 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” (Matthew 22:42)

 SEPTEMBER 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#29  “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”  (Matthew 22:42)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord we awake each morning to a new circumstance in our earthly life and are aware that our lives are constantly changing as we get one day older, then another year older as our bodies grow older each day, even with our best efforts to stay in the best of physical health. It is when we realize our “mortality” that we can see how God has revealed Himself to us through life itself, for we experience physical birth, are nurtured by our parents, become independent and yet we are always moving one day closer to death which will overcome even the strongest of physical bodies! Yet as we see the physical world decay, we see God not as a physical corruptible God but as a Spiritual Incorruptible Creator God that is Eternal and Unchanging! This Eternal God has demonstrated His Power over both life and death so we can see the physical world and our physical bodies decaying into death and dust but through that mortal lens we can gaze into God’s Immortality — we have HOPE in our “spirit” when we hear this Eternal, Incorruptible, Unchanging, All-Powerful God tells us to call Him “Abba Father” and then His Son tells us how to “Be Born Again” and become “Spiritual” Heirs to the Kingdom of this Awesome, Gracious, Merciful God, knowing that our Spirit is Eternal for it has joined with the Eternal Unchanging Spirit of God! Thank You LORD, for NEVER CHANGING and for ETERNALLY EXTENDING YOUR GRACE!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is now in His Final Week, He has made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with the multitudes crying “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” (Matthew 21:9/ Psalms 118:26). Jesus made His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilling the Prophecy of the Messiah that the prophet Zechariah had written 600 years earlier about the entry of the Messiah into the city of Jerusalem: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9) Once Jesus entered Jerusalem His first order of business as the Messiah was to clean out the temple and return it to a “house of prayer” and immediately Jesus was questioned “By what authority are You doing these things?” (Matthew 22:23) which started Jesus Teaching 3 Parables on “The Supreme Authority of GOD” revealing 3 Spiritual Laws that demonstrated that “True Power and Authority come from God, and God alone!” Jesus concluded the Lessons on True Power and Authority with the declaration that it is the Commandments of God on which “…hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40) Jesus has been spending His Last Days Teaching the Truths of God that the legalists (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of Zion) had become blinded to because of their selfish desire to “be like God” {power mongering} and to have “authority” over the people. Jesus continued addressing the “legalists/power mongers” and one can only assume that Jesus knows that “legalism/power mongering” and following the “doctrines of men” were the most detrimental things to those “…seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33) therefore Jesus continues His Last Week of Lessons on resolving this “legalism/power mongering” issue for “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” (Matthew 22:41-42). This is a good question for everyone who might be questioning the “True Authority of God” keeping in mind that Jesus is the Son of God sent to take away the sin of the world and bring repentance and salvation! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

SEPTEMBER 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 SEPTEMBER 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You are greatly to be praised. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that You are the Beloved Son that pleased our Father God. Lord, only You are worthy of the honor and glory of the praises of every soul that ever lived for only You indeed did anything that directly affected every soul that has ever lived or will ever live!!! I am not worthy to stand in Your Presence, Lord no one is worthy compared to Your Glory. Lord Jesus, You have already paid the price for every sin that has been or ever will be committed so we know that IF WE REPENT  our sins WILL BE FORGIVEN   We are undeserving of Your Love which You freely give, we are equally undeserving of Your Forgiveness; however, Your Grace and Mercy are abundant and “endureth” forever, as does Your Love!         AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught three parables on “True Power and Authority” after asking the Question (JQ #24): “The baptism of John — where was it from? From heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25) Once Jesus had their focus on the “Source of True Power and Authority” Jesus then told them the Three Parables to demonstrate that God alone is Sovereign and all earthly authority is given by God — but the problem with following “men” is that power in the hands of men not tempered by the fear of God always leads to “abuse” of those powers. Once Jesus had Taught the Three Parables the religious leaders and political forces united to try and “entangle Him in His talk” and regain their former power by showing their superior intellect — but what were they thinking, would you like to match wits with the Supreme Knowledge? First the Pharisees and Herodians posed a question about paying taxes and Jesus Taught Spiritual Law #1 — “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) and when they knew they had no argument they tucked their tails between their legs and left Jesus. But, “the same day” the Sadducees tried to use the Law of Moses to “entangle” Jesus as the Sadducees asked about the tradition of brothers raising up offspring with a deceased brother’s wife and asked Jesus, “Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her?” (Matthew 22:28) Jesus quickly put them in their place by reminding them that they were “mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) Jesus then taught from the Law of Moses Spiritual Law #2 — “The Great I AM GOD is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32) The Sadducees failed in their attempt as did the Pharisees and the Herodians and they too went their way. However, “…when the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law?’” (Matthew 22:34-36) Jesus responded with Spiritual Law #3 “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39) Then to make it perfectly clear to the “lawyer/legalist”, Jesus stated unequivocally, “On these two commandments (Spiritual Law #3) hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)  So now Jesus completes the Lesson on “True Power and Authority” by making His detractors consider the True Source of Power, then Jesus Taught in succession Three Parables on “True and Supreme Authority” and then Jesus gave us 3 Spiritual Laws that confirm God IS the “True and Supreme Authority” and is still “Active” and in “Control”. Why do we have such a hard time letting God be God? Why do we try to assume the “power and authority” for our own self-gratification? Jesus spent a lot of time and energy when His time and energy were about to be extinguished on a cross at the Passover so shouldn’t we “listen to Him” like God said if we truly want to be free and know the pathway to “eternal life”?!?!?!?  

SEPTEMBER 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 SEPTEMBER 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, the Son of God Most High all Praise and Honor is Yours and Yours alone. God has declared JESUS His Only Begotten Son, God declared the He is well pleased with “HIS SON” and commands us to “LISTEN TO HIM”. Lord Jesus, the mystery is why did You become flesh, suffer all things in life as we must suffer them and why would You even bother to “Talk” to us at all? Lord we continually choose to go our own way, we defile all the blessings You bestow upon us, we daily quench the Holy Spirit You have sent to comfort us and still You are there offering us forgiveness of all our iniquities and reward Repentance with eternal life! The Truth of God is that it was His Choice to Love the world and to have His Plan to save us from ourselves — O Glorious Plan but at such a Great Price and Divine Sacrifice! Lord Jesus, each day You are there with fresh Mercy and we find ourselves once again ready to start a new day so we seek to be centered in Your Will and covered by Your Grace. Thank You Lord for Salvation and for turning our evil thoughts and wicked ways into Praise and Thanksgiving for You have finished Your Work, all we have to do is know You cared enough about us not to let us remain in our sin and You have provided a solution to our sin problem through Repentance, soften our hearts that we may hear the gentle call of God and accept His Gift!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus cleansed the temple and made it a house of prayer as God had originally intended for His Holy Temple in Jerusalem and once in the temple Jesus answered prayers and healed all who came to Him in the temple and yet His last week on earth was spent in contention with the religious and political rulers? These “contentions” were all centered around “power and authority”. Jesus used each “confrontation” to Teach another Truth of God as He addressed each group and exposed the Truth that they were not interested in the work of God but in maintaining their “status quo” in their respective positions of “authority”. Jesus confronted the Pharisees and Herodians and Taught Spiritual Law #1 - “Render unto God the things that are God’s things.” (Matthew 22:21) and it was recorded that when the Pharisees and Herodians “…[heard His] words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.” (Matthew 22:22) As soon as word got around that the Pharisees and Herodians were not able to “entangle Him in His talk” that “The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: ‘Teacher…” (Matthew 22:23) and it is interesting to note that the Sadducees started their confrontation the same way the Herodians and the Pharisees had started, by calling Jesus, “Teacher”. This greeting exposed one of the main problems all the groups were having, and that was that they did not recognize Jesus as the Chosen One, the Messiah. Jesus is the Master Teacher but He is first LORD, so the Sadducees started their attack on God without acknowledging that Jesus was in fact the Son of God sent to fulfill the Law that God Himself had given to the world. The Sadducees concocted an imaginary scenario where there were seven brothers who all married the same woman according to what Moses had taught about raising offspring of a deceased brother and then posed the question to Jesus “Therefore, in the resurrection {in which the Sadducees did not believe in}, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” (Matthew 22:23-28) The question Jesus had asked the Pharisees and Herodians still applied, “Why do you test Me?” and Jesus quickly summed up the problem and showed the Sadducees their wrong thinking about the things of God as Jesus answered them: “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) So once again Jesus went right to the point and exposed to the Sadducees that it was their interpretation of "power and authority" that was the true “mistake”. Jesus then said, “But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God…” (Matthew 22:31) . So Jesus confronts the Sadducees with the Truth of God that God IS the POWER, and that God HAS ALREADY SPOKEN ——— our problem is that we ignore what God has already told us and we interpret His Commands in a way that satisfies our selfish desires! Jesus then gave them Spiritual Law #2 as He asked the Sadducees if they remembered the Scriptures where God is quoted describing Himself to Moses — “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32) So now Jesus has addressed the issues brought against Him by the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees and instead of them “entangling" Him in His speech, Jesus has Taught them two Spiritual Laws that state that all power  belongs to God and that God is a living God and still involved with our day-to-day lives as stated in Spiritual Law #2 - “God is the God of the living”. This says to me, that as long as I have breath and life that I must subject myself to the "authority" of God for I have no “power” to interpret or change what God has already spoken to us concerning the pattern of how to live our daily lives abundantly and to inherit the promised land and eternal life ——— or would you rather listen to men who are interested in maintaining their “power” over the people at all costs, including death to all that get in their way?!?!?!?

SEPTEMBER 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 SEPTEMBER 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, the Only Begotten Son, was Obedient to the Father’s Will, endured a Cruel Sacrificial death, and though He was Innocent, Jesus took upon Himself the pain that must be paid for each and every sin in the world — a pain that cannot be described in terms that can fully expresses the agony that Jesus, the Very Son of God Suffered on our behalf, for You Lord Jesus are Innocent yet You became Guilty for our sakes, and there is nothing we can do but to raise Praises of Gratitude to say Thank You for becoming sin for us! Lord, this world consumes us daily and even on the best of days we truly fall short of Your Glory and on the worst of days it seems like we have somehow blinded ourselves and let the lusts of the world call us away from Your Path of Light into the darkness of disobedience. Forgive me Lord and turn my heart from the world back to Your Word.          AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus used this Question “Why do you test Me…?” not as a Question per se but to let the legalists plotting against Him know that He knew that they were “testing” Him! The first group to try “testing” Jesus was the Pharisees who sent their disciples along with the Herodians which should have raised suspicions and eyebrows in Jerusalem because the Pharisees and the Herodians were political foes but had joined forces on this occasion to attack Jesus? Historians list the Pharisees as a Jewish sect that believed the way to God was through keeping the law as written in the entire Old Testament and “According to Josephus, the Pharisees were the group most influential with the people, [the Pharisees] were noted for their accurate and therefore authoritative interpretations of Jewish law, and had their own traditions and way of life to which they were faithful. They had a simple standard of living and cultivated harmonious relations with others.”  The Herodians differed politically from the Pharisees in that the Herodians wanted to restore a Herod to the throne in Judea and the Pharisees wanted to restore the kingdom of David.  Jesus posed such a great threat to both sects and political parties that they put aside their political differences and were plotting together how to kill Jesus to protect their traditions and centuries old way of life in which they held “offices of power” over the multitudes. Thousands of years earlier there was a multitude of Israelites that were slaves in Egypt and God sent Moses to free them for Egypt’s power and authority and now Israel is crying for “deliverance” from the power of the Roman Empire and God sends His Only Begotten Son to deliver them from their bondage to sin and to free them from the “political powers” that now enslaved the multitudes with their interpretations of God’s Law. The first attack coming from this hybrid group did not catch Jesus off guard because He had earlier Taught His disciples, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:15) This quote from Jesus taken in this context of Him Teaching in the temple of God in Jerusalem at the Passover feast (which celebrated their “exodus” from Egypt) makes the warning of “leaven” even more critical in understanding that Jesus had come to set the multitudes free  that they might for themselves go in and inherit God’s “Promised Land”.  The joining of these political foes against Jesus demonstrates the desperation of  “power mongers” to retain their “powers” at all costs, in this case they were willing to do what Jesus had just Taught in His Three Parables on “Power and Authority” that “Then last of all [a certain king] sent his son to them, saying, ‘they will respect my son’ — but — when they saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’” (Matthew 22:37-38) 

This attack against Jesus by political foes uniting forces to maintain their respective “offices of power” is a reflection of our modern society as we have seen that all politics and political parties are on the “attack” against God and His Authority, our political parties who are “political foes” are united in their attempt to undermine God and His Law and it is all done that they might retain their political office — Does the term “Political Correctness” ring a bell?!?!? It is also interesting to note that the “attack” from the Pharisees (the lawyers) and the Herodians (doctrines of men) centered around asking Jesus “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:17) which is obviously about “money and power” and physical things of the world — so that is why Jesus turned their “test” into a “Spiritual Lesson” as He had them look at the image of Caesar and Jesus Taught Spiritual Law #1:  “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”. (Matthew 22:21) This Spiritual Law #1 enforced  two other Truths of God (1) “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” (1 Timothy 6:10) and (2) “Thou shalt not make …any graven image…Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them…for I the LORD your God [AM] a jealous God…” (Deuteronomy 5:8-9) Whenever we find ourselves questioning the “authority of God” we should revisit the Lessons of Jesus and these “Spiritual Laws” given to answer the “legalists” and the “doctrines of men" which are simply man’s interpretation of God's Law enforced by earthly authority on the populace — can any law be truly “legal” if it is not approved by the Divine Law Giver???

SEPTEMBER 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 SEPTEMBER 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, each day as I awake to start another day, my mind turns to thoughts of this daily prayer to You and my soul is touched that You and the Father have made Yourself available to us 24/7/365-Forever! You Lord have never changed and we know You are the same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow and that is a comforting thought, especially when I think that Your Character is based solely on WHO YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO BE and not on what this world of sinners chooses to do — Lord, we lie, we cheat, we steal, we are sexually immoral to a fault, our society is now killing our unborn children and we claim we have the “right” to decide by a majority vote the moral standard by which we desire to live in moral decay — and all along we reject the only solution to our growing problem — Your Forgiveness! Yet, You Lord continue to LOVE us and extend Your Invitation of Forgiveness and Salvation because that is WHO GOD CHOOSES TO BE! Lord Jesus, I know I fall short of Your Glory even on my best days and I fully understand that all my good deeds done by this defiled body are but as filthy rags so LORD JESUS, may I decrease and let You increase in my daily life and may I grow daily in Christ until the day that Your Righteousness will shine in my life instead of my wretched soul casting a dark shadow that surrounds a sin-filled life!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been greeted as the Son of David by the multitudes but the religious leaders were skeptical that this was the Messiah and therefore they started confronting Jesus trying to “expose” Him as an imposter but each “test”, Jesus used these “exams of His Character” to prove that He was the Chosen One and then used the circumstance to reveal another Truth of God. If we look at this next section <Matthew 22:15-40> we see that the religious rulers, scribes, and elders that were holding onto their “traditions” and the “doctrines of men” were blinded to the Truth that Jesus was God’s Son. Even though their “physical” eyes beheld Jesus doing “wonderful things” their “spiritual” eyes were blinded by their desires to maintain their lofty titles and important offices, hence they “plotted” against Jesus — but “how” they intended to catch Him was like trying to put out a fire with gasoline! So far the religious rulers have included the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees. Each of these “power and authority” groups had sent representatives which were “lawyers” and they were trying to use “the law”  to expose “The Law Giver” and instead of putting out the “fire” with their “legalist gasoline” they were actually fanning the flames! Jesus in this section not only proves He is the “Law Giver” and has come to “fulfill the Law and the Prophets”, Jesus also uses these attacks to introduce “THREE Spiritual Laws” as He answers each attack from these set out to prove Him a fake? The THREE Spiritual Laws are: Spiritual Law #1 — “Render unto God the things that are God’s things.”  (Matthew 22:21); Spiritual  Law #2 — “The Great I AM is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32); and Spiritual  Law #3 — “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and also you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40) Jesus introduces the THREE Spiritual Laws with a question directed at the religious rulers that had “plotted” against  Him: “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18) The Holy Scriptures then documents how Jesus answered the questions of the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees and their “legalist” attacks and used each situation to Teach the THREE Spiritual Laws. This is a good time for all of us to reflect on all the times that we as individuals and as a society have tried to “legislate morality”  according to our own selfish desires and blinded ourselves to the Truth of God that He is the Law Giver and not “one jot, or one tittle” of God’s Law will pass away until all the Law is fulfilled — IN GOD’S WAY and IN GOD’S TIMING — and when we realize that LAW is really the thing that belongs to God, then we will begin to uphold Spiritual Law #1 and “Render unto God the things that are God’s” and we will find ourselves healed of our “spiritual blindness” !!!