JULY 06 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)

 JULY 06  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, there is always praise on my lips when my heart dwells on You, God very God, being born of flesh into the physical world as we are and then by Your Life on earth You showed us the “Way” to being “Born of God” into “His Kingdom” which is “Eternal”. Lord I trust my soul to You, Lord Jesus I know my eternity is in Your hands and that puts a song in my heart and praise on my lips for the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Forgive me of my daily iniquities, truly I have not attained the “perfection” You cheer us towards but Lord You have given me that “Blessed Hope” which my soul holds so dear, Praise and Glory to the Only Begotten of the Father, MY JESUS.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has used two questions from the world so far in this section to teach us multiple Truths of God by answering those questions from the world with Questions of His Own which come from Heaven itself! Remember in Matthew 17:24-27 the first worldly question came from “those who received the temple tax” and their question was to Peter as they asked him, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”. That is about as worldly as it gets and Jesus demonstrated the superiority of the Spiritual over the physical world when Peter went to ask Jesus what to do about taxes? As soon as“[Peter] had come into the house [where Jesus was]…Jesus anticipated [his question]” and before Peter could ask, Jesus started revealing several Truths of God that only this worldly situation could create a circumstance that allowed God to demonstrate His Glory! Too often in life we fail to see that our “worldly problems” are just “spiritual opportunities” to glimpse the Glory of God and His Infinite Provisions of Mercy and Grace [“freely bestowed on all who will believe”]! God demonstrated to Peter the Truth of God that God KNOWS our need even before we ask and God will provide for that need in a way that cannot be mistaken as a “worldly” solution if we will just Trust and Obey the instructions of God. God also demonstrated to Peter the Truth of God that God will use our daily lives to solve our daily problems and that God will equip us with all the tools for success but we must live our lives to honor Him and then we must Trust Him for the results. Peter was a fisherman and though Peter had caught many, many fish before, Peter had never fished the way God told Him to fish and the result was quite a miracle in Peter’s life. The second worldly question came from the disciples themselves as the fell into the worldly trap of “one-upmanship” and asked Jesus, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1) This question from the disciples demonstrated they had not yet grasped the Truth of God that God is the Supreme Power of the Universe and it is the Power of God that had been the True Power revealed in every miracle that Jesus had been performing ——— His healing of the multitudes, the casting out of demons, and the Divine Power that could calm a raging sea! Yet the disciples were be so blinded by the world and the world’s lust for “power” that they could observe all the miracles coming from God and then have the audacity to ask, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” !?!?!? God however, demonstrated yet another Truth of God and instead of slapping a big knot on their dumb heads, Jesus showed His Great Patience with them and instead of a rebuke (which in my opinion we all deserve), Jesus used the worldly circumstance to Teach a great “Spiritual” Truth by using a child as the answer to their question: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him…” and then Jesus answered their “worldly” question with this “Spiritual Truth” — “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4) and with one simple demonstration Jesus showed the superiority of “Spiritual Compassion” over “physical competition”. Now that Jesus had their attention again and knew they were back on the same “spiritual” page with Him, Jesus moved to His next lesson about pre-requisites for entry into the kingdom of heaven  which will reveal even more Truths of God. Just like we would never imagine a “fish” being a solution, we cannot imagine how God can give us insight into heaven using a “child” and then one of the greatest Lessons on Heaven as He introduces us to “lost sheep” — immediately we regress and ask the worldly question: “What in the world does a little child and lost sheep have to do with getting into heaven?” — my scriptural answer to that worldly question is with an angelic question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  (Luke 24:5)