JUNE 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

 JUNE 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another day You have given me breath and life, I pray that everything I do and say will be a reflection of the Grace so freely bestowed by the Loving Father on a sinner such as I. Lord there are so few things that we can do that really Honor and Glorify You so I pray that I will Trust and Obey You today and do that which You have planned and YOU HAVE WILLED ALREADY FOR MY LIFE! I lift my family up to You now in humble prayer, You know the needs in the depths of our heart and soul and so I place them in Your Healing Hands. Lord Jesus, You have told us that if we believe on You that we will become “One” with You, just as You and the Father are “One”. Grant it Lord that we see the Heavenly Prize of Belief, the Daily Comfort of Faith, and the Joy and Peace of Your Forgiveness.           AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is the “Way” and He certainly has a “Way” of Teaching that makes the Lesson stick with us and with this “fishy” Lesson Jesus Teaches us some valuable Truths of God about “Faith” using a “fish” and a single “piece of money”. The scene is set when Peter is approached by the temple tax collectors from the Capernaum synagogue and they in effect inform Peter that Jesus is delinquent on His “taxes” and they are wondering if and when Jesus is going to pay the temple tax? (Matthew 17:24) Peter told them “Yes” and then went to tell Jesus. When Peter entered into the house where Jesus was staying, and even before Peter could ask Jesus if He was going to “pay the temple tax”, Matthew records that Jesus “anticipated” that Peter was going to ask Him about taxes. (Matthew 17:25) This simple word “anticipated” tells us volumes about God and we should pull over at this point and examine all the connotations surrounding the meaning and reality of the fact that even before Peter could say a word, that Jesus KNEW what Peter was going to ask. The popular translation for the word used for “anticipated” in Matthew 17:25 is “prevented” and is used in the sense that when Peter started to speak that Jesus in effect said “I know what you’re going to ask Me so let Me ask you a Question first” which further identified and confirmed the deity of Jesus Christ because only the Divine Omniscient God knows everything that happens without having to depend on reports from outside sources. Only Jesus demonstrates that He is God and has all the Powers of God, and only Jesus reveals the Omniscient character of God to us as another Truth of God!!! The fact that God knows everything about us is considered by some to be an invasion of privacy but to those that have nothing to hide, it is a comfort to know that not only does God KNOW everything that happens to us, that God CARES about how those events affect our eternal soul and uses each circumstance to prove that He is a Loving and Caring God and that He only wants the best for our future.  God uses every circumstance in our chaotic lives to point us to the Truth of God that He will “Teach” us through the Holy Spirit how to “learn” kingdom wisdom from everything if we will Trust God to decide what is “Right” and “Wrong” in our daily lives. Therefore when we read that Jesus “anticipated” what Peter was going to ask, we should understand that “Divine Anticipation” as God telling us “I Got This!” and Trust and Obey Him when He tells us how to handle the situation — even if the solution seems as “far-fetched” as “going fishing” in order to “pay taxes” ——— and add to that the fact that all Peter had to do was take the first fish he caught, look in the mouth of the fish and find in a single coin with the exact amount to pay taxes for two, not just one! This is the Truth of the Economy of God: God always provides the simple solution and that when we depend on His Provisions that we always have “enough” — regardless of the size or quantity needed, GOD ALWAYS PROVIDES “ENOUGH” !!! God never solves a problem without putting His Signature on it and that “Signature of God” is that the only possible explanation to the “solution” is the unexplainable “Mystery” of God. Who was the last person that could tell you your problem before you spoke a word and then solved your problem by some outrageous solution like getting the exact amount needed to pay your taxes in a single coin from the mouth of the first fish you caught when you went fishing instead of paying your taxes? I know, I know, it doesn’t make any sense at all, and I think that is just exactly the point, if we can make sense of it then we will take credit for it but I can just imagine Peter laughing while dropping the coin into the tax collectors hand along with several fish scales and then going home and having himself a big fish fry wondering — who’s going to make the tartar sauce?!?!?