FEBRUARY 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#05 “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

 FEBRUARY 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#05  “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Thank You Lord for the new day You give us each morning and the Hope that comes with knowing that You are in control of our lives for an eternity of sunrises! Lord, I thank You for the bright sunlight that greets me each day and for the warmth and Light of Your Holy Word. Lord Jesus, You came to earth to seek and to save that which is lost and Your Words were designed that in our lostness we might find the Way so Lord as I open Your Word this morning I look to Your Light to guide my Way.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS starts this Lesson on knowing where to find success in life by going to the “Source of Life” who is God Himself. There is a huge blessing found in this opening statement by Jesus that we so often just read over without stopping to understand the implications of what Jesus is saying!? Let us read it again but this time think of the “Divine Implications” coming from the Son of God — “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) The most obvious and most important question to ask is “Who can make this kind of promise and keep it for ‘everyone’?” Jesus is telling us that God is in control of everything in the universe and God is “our heavenly Father” so if we go to Him and “ask” for His Advice, “seek” His Truth, and “knock” on the door of His Understanding, that God Promises to Give us His Good Advice based on His Eternal Truth and the Door to His Infinite Knowledge will be opened wide for us to enter into His kingdom! The “Law of Choice and Consequence” was introduced yesterday in order to take a stab at why Jesus would end His JQ#04 Lesson on “judging others” with a warning to “…do not give what is holy to the dogs…” (Matthew 7:6) ? — the Holy Spirit has been Teaching me the “Law of Choice and Consequence” for several years now in my morning studies and it brings to “light” the problem of our society abandoning the Holy Moral Standard given to us by the Eternal Holy God. The “Law of Choice and Consequence” was established by the One Holy Creator God before the foundations of the earth and supersedes any “laws” that may be “legislated” by any society — in other words, according to God’s Law of Choice and Consequence you are free to choose to take someone else’s life but that action has a predetermined “Consequence” which will apply to every individual that faces that “Choice” — if you “choose” to let the person “live”, the “Consequence” of that “Choice” is to be given God’s Mercy and Grace but if you “choose” to take that person’s “life” the “Consequence” of that “Choice” is to suffer God’s Wrath for the “Consequence” of “taking someone’s life is called murder” — God has declared that “murder” deserves “punishment” — and the issue here is simply that the “Law of Choice and Consequence” is “Eternal” and cannot be changed by any society that decides that it is “legal” to “take the life of someone else”! God has declared “taking the life of someone else is murder” and it will remain “murder” in the eyes of the “Moral Law Giver” for eternity! Only by making a “law” that is applied equally to every human being  is that “law” fair for every individual of every generation, regardless of race, nationality, religion, or social status!!! God has already “judged” that “murder” is “Wrong” and God Himself has declared the penalty — it is our responsibility as “stewards” of “God’s Moral Law” to make sure that the “legislation” of our society aligns with God’s Moral Law and that God’s Moral Law is applied equally to every living soul! That is why Jesus told to us to “judge not” — because when we use the definition of “Right and Wrong” that has been established by immoral legislation which contradicts God’s Moral Law then we are usurping the Power of God — it is pointless to “judge” because God has established already what the penalties and rewards for our actions will be! It is our responsibility to learn and to know what God declares is “Right and Wrong”!!! When I answer truthfully this Jesus Question in both verses Matthew 7:9 & 7:10 there is a deeper burning Lesson that Jesus always Teaches with His simple but powerful Truths about the Father which the Son reveals to us through His Question/Lessons. The Bible cannot be read without a great curiosity about God being generated in our souls and I personally believe that God inspired the Bible to be written in such a way that we would want to solve the “Mystery of God”. Once the curiosity has been sufficiently stirred by the Old Testament and the Prophecies of the “End Times”, the New Testament and the Teachings of Jesus flood us with special visions of God. The Son of the Living God Himself became flesh and dwelt among us to reveal the Father God to us. I personally started my “Journey to Truth” not knowing much about God but I did have a great curiosity to “really know the Creator”. My personal journey has been “documented” by personal journals that I have kept since 2001 and God has revealed Himself through those journals to me through my day-to-day living. The Holy Spirit blessed me to have that initial curiosity to want to know God and I was further blessed with the desire to “take notes” as I made my “Journey to Truth” by seeking God. This curiosity was tempered with advice from the first Pastor that got me to thinking about actually “knowing” God. Pastor Brian Walls told me to study “World Views” and that advice fixed firmly in me the thought that the Word of God is the “inerrant Word of God” and the foundation of our Christian World View. This passage in Matthew 7:7-14 is a great place to start and even though I didn’t know much scripture when I started my early journals, I did know “…seek and you will find…knock and it will be opened…” —so it was this section that started me down my journey and through my study of the WORD.  Jesus Teaches us these simple Truths of God with His Lessons, all of which clearly shows us who the Father is! This passage Teaches us that in order to find the answer to “who is God” and “what is Truth” that we only need to “ask”, “seek”, and “knock” and when the door opens we will see God standing there with open arms saying “Welcome Home!!!”. The “Truth” is that if we are to get to a destination we cannot just think about it being there, we actually need to perform a physical action towards achieving our destination and God is gracious enough to bless our actions with positive dependable results and moves us forward one step at a time. God can be found — God Himself has promised to reveal Himself to us but we must be actively involved in “asking, seeking, and knocking” about Him — {Word of Caution} — the action should be done with the desire to know God, and He will reveal Himself! Jesus reveals some wonderful characteristics of God the Father by passages like Matthew 7:9-14 and our study of these Lessons is a great “first step” for us to take on our “Journey to Truth”. It is these characteristics of God that teach us the “faith” we should have in God’s Holy Laws and the confidence that if we follow His Laws the results of our choice to follow Him will have “Divine Eternal Consequences”.