JANUARY 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

 JANUARY  29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS    JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, each day is a special day if we start that day with You! Lord my prayer as I awake and start planning my day is that I “seek first the kingdom of God” and allow  Your Holy Spirit to direct me down paths of righteousness and then teach me Your Ways as only the Holy Spirit can! Lord, what a privilege to sit under Your Teaching and open Your Holy Bible and let Your Holy Spirit guide us through Your Holy Word — Your Eternal, Matchless, Life-giving Word! Lord, I pray now for all parents to see the importance of living their day-to-day lives in Christ and the impact and influence that living for Christ has in the lives of their children. Parents themselves living for Christ will be the greatest step they can take as parents to bring their children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!  Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS used JQ#01 to get us to thinking about our responsibility towards others by using “salt” which must give up its “essence” to be flavor to the world, and “salt” is also universally known to contain healing properties as well but regardless of its use, it must be applied to the circumstance and in each case, the “salt” is consumed. Jesus used “salt” to focus our attention not on ourselves but on our responsibility to others!  As we move from JQ#01 to JQ#02 please remember that “Context is king”. JQ#01 context for being “salt” & “light” is Matthew 5:1-16. The context for JQ#02 is Matthew 5:18 - 6:24 and Jesus continues His Lesson on looking first at ourselves to make sure that we are prepared to take care of others, this is what the airlines advise when they tell parents to first put on their oxygen mask in order to be able to assist others! It is imperative that we read the context around each question and in doing so it becomes obvious to even the most casual reader that Jesus is The Master Teacher and as such we must understand that when Jesus asks a Question He is not looking for knowledge for Himself but His Intent is to impart knowledge to the student. When Jesus asks His Question, He is making a common sense statement that if one really wants to learn the TRUTH of GOD then one must answer honestly within themselves the Questions that are asked to see if we are seeking the TRUTH of GOD and are willing to listen to the Answer! Jesus never spoke without Teaching, His every breath, every step, every moment of silence — every action Jesus made were Lessons Jesus uses to Teach us how we are to live our lives by following His Perfect Example! Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us for a Divine Reason, and He had a Divine Purpose for being born in a manger and growing up as “one of us” yet He lived His Life without sin! How did He do it? Jesus accomplished this Miraculous Feat because He knew the Father’s Will for His Life and was Obedient to do that which the Father had Taught Him. Jesus told this to His disciples just before going into the upper room for His final earthly Passover with His disciples, “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-50). Our study of the Questions that Jesus asked should be studied from this specific viewpoint: “Therefore if Jesus asks a Question then He is engaging us to dig deeper to learn the TRUTH of GOD because He is trying to Teach us what the Father Taught Him, and the result of our efforts will be everlasting life!!!”  We should never take anything Jesus said lightly because in His own Words, Jesus is speaking only the Words that the Father God in Heaven spoke to Him and then sent Him to earth to speak God’s Words to us! We should be in AWE of these Words spoken by Jesus and exclaim as even His enemies did who heard Him: “The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46). Let us then consider the next Lesson/Question JQ#02: “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47) The context in which Jesus asked JQ#02 is in Matthew 5:43-48 and we should dig deep because every Word spoken by Jesus is a Kingdom Treasure!!!