AUGUST 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 AUGUST 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#24  “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?””  (Matthew 21:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, thank You for letting me see who I really am, a sinner, a dirty unclean disobedient child of God! I say again Thank You for letting me know that everything I do is but filthy rags … everything but one … Obedience to the Father’s will — for now that I know that You KNOW who I am and You have called me HOME  even though it is You that I have sinned against!?!?!?   I can say again, “Thank You Lord”!!! Knowing that I am a sinner is a good thing because I know that You KNOW and so there is nothing to hide from the One that says to my soul, “I know you are a sinner, that’s why I died on the cross for you! I KNOW you are a sinner —BUT — You are a child of the KING, REPENT and come HOME to the FATHER who FORGIVES.” When I know I am a sinner and know how worthless I am, it gives me gives me Great Spiritual Strength to know that if I OBEY the Father, and REPENT of my sins, that He stands WITH OPEN ARMS REJOICING and I hear Him say, “For this [child] of mine was dead [in sin] and is ALIVE AGAIN” [Luke 15:24] — “kill the fatted calf and we will celebrate!”    Sin is good for one thing, when you REPENT from your sins, you have a Loving Father calling you HOME!!!   OBEY the Father that KNOWS you are a sinner, REPENT and COME HOME to the FEAST HE HAS PREPARED for you!!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus leaves Jerusalem and walks to Bethany to spend the night and we wonder why He would leave the temple of God that He had just cleaned out and the city of God where He had just been declared “King” by the multitudes?  But it is not a mystery when we consider that Jesus had declared that He “knows the hearts of all men” (John 2:24) and “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”! (John 2:19) Jesus knew the mood in Jerusalem in spite of what the “multitudes” were “saying” so Jesus is demonstrating that by His leaving the city of Jerusalem and going to the little village of Bethany that our Spiritual Reality is not what we say with our lips but what we believe with our hearts! We know that the “houses” in Bethany were not like the grand houses in Jerusalem but then maybe Jesus wasn’t going to a “house” in Bethany but He was most likely going to a “home”. In fact, Bethany was the “home” of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and also Simon the leper. There are no big houses in Bethany so why would Jesus choose to abandon the “big city” and go “lodge” in a humble dwelling? There can be only one explanation, Jesus was going where there were people whose hearts had previously “welcomed” Jesus and He knew that He would feel “at HOME” with them! Bethany was a special place to Jesus, not because of the real estate in Bethany but because of the “real state” of some special hearts that made their “home” in Bethany, humble hearts, welcoming hearts in Bethany that Jesus simply could not find in Jerusalem!!! Therefore, Jesus shows us that He will “lodge” where there are warm hearts that welcome Him into their “home” because He is not concerned with the structure of the house! Jesus is showing us that what is on the outside is called the house but how we prepare the inside is what makes a “house” a “home”! Have you prepared a “grand house” for the admiration of the “multitudes” or have you prepared your “home” where Jesus would be comfortable “lodging” there?  God is demonstrating with every step Jesus takes toward Bethany that what is in our heart is of more value than what is in our bank accounts! Jesus was called the “Son of David” by the multitudes during the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; however, much of that could have been mass hysteria for the masses soon changed their rhetoric to “crucify Him”, but if they had read the scriptures they would have read where King David himself had written: “For You [LORD] do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart — these [sacrifices] O GOD, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17) The mystery is solved for me for I know that the hearts of Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Simon the leper were grateful hearts, open and welcoming to Jesus but in Jerusalem all Jesus had encountered were empty defiled temples and greedy, ungrateful hearts — so which would you choose? Would you rather “lodge” with friends and loved ones or stay in a fancy room filled only with rejection? Bethany is sounding like a pretty good place to spend the night don’t you think?  At least Jesus thought so ———