APRIL 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?* “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

 APRIL 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#13 * Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*  “How can you, being evil, speak good things? ” (Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, Savior, and Son of God — what glorious names that You are Worthy to be called! There is no name like the Name — JESUS. Lord as I think about all the names that I can remember, even the most famous and legendary names, even among fictional names, there is ABSOLUTELY NO name that even begins to compare TO THE NAME OF JESUS! For with every name there is a set of characteristics associated with that name and there simply is NO other name that brings to mind all the attributes that we recall when we utter the Name of Jesus!!!  There has been no name associated with Salvation, with Eternity, with Forgiveness, with Mercy, and with Grace but the Holy Name of Jesus! May we ever speak the HOLY NAME JESUS and know the SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never Teaches us a Lesson that we cannot look at His Life and see that before Jesus Teaches us a Lesson, Jesus Himself has Lived that Lesson as an example for us to not only “hear” His Lessons but we can “look” at His Life and “see” the Lesson being Lived out before us. It is because Jesus Lives what He Teaches that HE has earned the right to ask us such a personal Question that He asks in JQ#13  “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”.  We can look at everything Jesus has done up to this point and we can see that Jesus Himself has been forgiving people of their sins, calling men to repentance, Jesus has cast out demons, He has healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, He has fed the poor and made the lame to walk, and He did all those things as He proclaimed, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus is saying that we are to look at His Life and know that His Life is “proof” that His Power comes from “the Spirit of God” and if the Spirit of God is moving so powerfully in your life that you must realize that “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28) Jesus is telling us, “Look at what I have done with My life and know that only the Power of God could accomplish these good works!”   Everything we have observed and know about Jesus points to the Divine Father! The only logical conclusion is that Jesus is sent from God with the Divine Purpose to make mankind aware that the kingdom of God is at hand! Each individual is given the knowledge of God and should personally evaluate our individual contributions to the “kingdom of God”! Jesus made this personal connection clear when He said we are either “for Him” or we are “against Him” (Matthew 12:30)! We should stop to consider what possibly could have been the “purpose” of God in sending His Only Begotten Son to the earth to be Sacrificed on a cross? To add to the obvious, God states in His written Word that He has done everything, from the creation of all things to the last breath you will breathe BECAUSE He loves us and wants us to be with Him in this “Kingdom” that He is preparing for us!   With all that God has done in preparing a place for us and preparing us for His place, then we should give a reasonable and honest answer to His simple Question, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”  This is such serious business that God would invest His Everything into revealing Himself to us and His expectations for us that He has placed “eternity” as the finish line and the ultimate failure in life is to end our life without the “hope” or the “assurance” of spending our “eternity” with the God who bestowed such “Grace” upon us — a “GIFT” to all mankind that came at such Great Personal cost to God Himself! Jesus follows this Lesson with some additional serious examples as in Matthew 12:31-32 where Jesus says that “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men” and “whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Then Jesus talks about trees with “good” fruit or “bad” fruit, and calls those that are against God a “Brood of vipers” who “being evil” cannot speak good things. Then Jesus declares “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37) It is easy to see that Jesus and God think this is very serious and there is our personal “eternity” riding on our answer — trust me, this IS A BIG DEAL, so what is the verdict that you are going to pass on yourself, “Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?”