MAY 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, today there is nothing but Praise in my heart for You and the moving of Your Spirit that we have seen this week through Your Church. Lord we know that Your Church is not made of bricks and mortar but of flesh and blood and hearts that have been given to helping others ——— so Lord let us be more like You each day of our life and remember that how we treat others is a direct reflection on how we feel about You, thank You Lord for letting our vessels pour out Your Love on those around us that they too may drink of THE LIVING WATER!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus used the Example of His Daily Life as the Greatest Witness to the Power of God that the world has ever seen! In this event of another boat filled with His disciples and in another great storm where the wind and the waves of the world were “contrary”, Jesus walking on the stormy seas towards His followers demonstrates that the Creator God is in control of all circumstances and even if we encounter multiple bad storms in our life that God is in control of His Creation and the souls that He has placed in the world — and God is very much in control of our personal circumstances — but to see God working in the “storm” we must focus on God and not the storm!!! In other words, if we are to see God working in our “problems [storms]” we must focus on the “solution [God]” and not the “problems [storms]!!! 

 {{Part 1 Jesus and Peter walks on the water}} 

When the context surrounding this event in which Jesus asked “Why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31) is looked at from a “spiritual” perspective and the reader takes into consideration that this is the second event in which the disciples were out to sea during a storm, we can then make a comparison between the two events which appear at first reading to be the same event. Jesus always has a Reason and this event, though similar, has some distinct differences that Jesus uses to move us forward in our understanding of God and His will for our lives so let us look at not only what is similar with these two “boating-in-a-storm experiences” but what is different about them so that we can understand what Kingdom Lesson Jesus intends for His followers. The first “boating-in-a-storm” event is introduced with “Now when [Jesus] got into a boat, His disciples followed Him…suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea…but Jesus was asleep…His disciples awoke Him, saying Lord, save us! We are perishing! …Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.” (Matthew 8:23-26)  Before the first BOAT-IN-A-STORM ride Jesus had just Taught the parable of the two builders, cleansed a leper, healed both the Centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law, and had made this statement about “faith” ——— “Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” (Matthew 7:24 - 8:22) These were the events leading up to the first BOAT-IN-A-STORM trip so let’s compare those with this second BOAT-IN-A-STORM experience. The second boating experience starts with “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.” (Matthew 14:22) The event preceding the statement of “immediately Jesus made His disciples” was the feeding of the five thousand where instead of Jesus Himself alone doing acts of healing, His disciples had been active and were personally involved in the miracle feeding of the multitudes as Jesus had commanded His disciples “You give them something to eat” and commanded His disciples: “[You] Bring [the multitudes] here to Me” then Jesus broke and blessed the bread and made His disciples “serve” the “multitudes”. So the first difference is that the events leading up to the first boating storm experience was Jesus performing miracles and His disciples were observing but the events leading up to the second boating storm experience had His disciples actively involved in the public ministry of Jesus and doing “kingdom work”. The second difference is that in the first event Jesus got into the boat and His disciples had followed Him into the boat but in the second event, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat without Him and had commanded them to “go before Him to the other side”. (Matthew 14:22) The third difference that stands out is that in the first event Jesus is with them in the boat when the storm arises and His disciples were fearful of losing their lives so they awoke Jesus WHO WAS SLEEPING IN THE BACK OF THE BOAT but in the second event His disciples are alone in the “middle of the sea, tossed by the waves…”  and  “in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.”(Matthew 14:25) In the first event His disciples were panicked and thought they were “perishing” but in this event His disciples are only “troubled” and in this second “storm” His disciples began to “fear” when they thought they were seeing a ghost, “…they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ and they cried out in fear.” (Matthew 14:26) In the first event Jesus woke up and rebuked His disciples and the waves. Then after controlling the elements Jesus went back to sleep, but in this second event when the disciples cry out Jesus does not rebuke them but instead He reassures them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27) The second event marks a milestone in faith for His disciples because even though the waves are “contrary” Peter “answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’”(Matthew 14:28) and we read the one-word command Jesus gives to all of His followers — “Come”   (Matthew 14:29)   It is at this point where Peter fixes his eyes firmly on Jesus and steps out of the boat on “Faith” and Peter actually starts walking on water himself! What a Lesson to learn here because when Peter “had come down out of the boat, [and] walked on the water to go to Jesus” Peter clearly demonstrated that Peter had within himself all the “Power of Jesus” when his “Faith” was focused entirely on Jesus (Matthew 14:29) because it was only when Peter came out of the “Spirit of God [FAITH IN GOD]  within him” and became aware of the “physical world [storm] around him” that he began to sink — “But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord save me!’” (Matthew 14:30) I am sure that Peter’s faith was bolstered when “…immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him…” (Matthew 14:31) “and when [Peter and Jesus] got into the boat the wind ceased.” (Matthew 14:32) If we keep our focus on Jesus, we would learn as His disciples did, that “Truly [Jesus is] the Son of God” (Matthew 14 :33) and if we will reach out to Him and declare our need of a Savior, the Savior will draw us into His Salvation and Shelter us from the “storm” ——— or do you believe that you will get “lucky” and never encounter any “storms” in your life, nor is there any need of a “Savior” in our perfect lives?

MAY 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, it is overwhelming to think that each day You are right there waiting for my prayers! There is no time during the day that You are so busy that we must wait to get a moment alone with You, and never have I called on Your Name that You didn’t stop and give me Your full attention. Lord Jesus, help me to understand that You are God Almighty, All Powerful, and can do anything and everything You desire, yet with all Your Power You still spend Your Precious time to be with me personally! Lord, may I never take for granted this extreme privilege of praying to the Creator and KNOWING THAT YOU HEAR ME! Lord Jesus, forgive me of my shortcomings and cleanse me eternally of my iniquities that I may be One with the Holy Trinity!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus always used the events of His daily Life to Teach us Lessons to apply to our day-to-day lives. The events surrounding this particular Lesson addressed by JQ#15 are in themselves some great insights into the Character of God as we have seen many miracles from Jesus performed by the Power of God directed towards “healing” and each miracle Jesus has performed by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit reveals the Plan of Salvation that has been working in the world even before the sun and moon were made and hung in place on Day 4 of The Creation. This event recorded in Matthew 14:22-33 occurred just after Jesus had fed “the multitudes” and is one of those “Divine” events that Jesus uses to Teach us about ourselves and this Lesson reveals a deep “spiritual” Truth of our very own souls! If we will only recognize that Jesus is God and that only through exercising the Power of God can the Miracles of God be accomplished in our lives and the Lessons of Truth can be learned ——— and only through us letting Jesus lead us can we hope to be all that God has planned for us! God only wants good things for us and He desires that we have a “hope and a future” but our “hope” and our “future” must be centered around God and the “kingdom of heaven” and we, like Jesus, should be living our daily lives centered in the Will of the Father and doing “kingdom work”. Please note that the timing of this Divine Event happened just after Jesus was (1) rejected by His “own”, (2) learned of the beheading of His “forerunner” John the Baptist, and (3) Jesus, while seeking solitude, had shown “compassion” to the multitudes by the miracle feeding of “…about five thousand men, besides women and children…” with “…only five loves and two fish…”. We read, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side…” (Matthew 14:22) It is important that we notice that the miracle feeding of the “five thousand” was a “team effort” on the part of Jesus, His disciples, and our Father in heaven as we note three verses where Jesus is “delegating” kingdom work to the disciples: (1) “But Jesus said to [His disciples], ‘[The multitudes] do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’” (Matthew 14:16) then (2) “[Jesus] said (to His disciples after they had found the five loaves and two fishes), ‘Bring them here to Me’” (Matthew 14:18) and (3) then after Jesus commanded His disciples to tell the multitudes to “sit down on the grass” that Jesus “took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.” (Matthew 14:19) It is to be noted that the efforts of the disciples following the command of Jesus in this miracle resulted in Matthew writing, “So [the multitudes] all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.” (Matthew 14:20) Once we note that Jesus is involving His disciples in ministering to the multitudes, we can better understand why “immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him…” ! By His actions, Jesus is setting the precedent of “setting His disciples aside” for the “kingdom work” of ministering to the “multitudes”. Let’s keep in mind that Jesus is ALWAYS Teaching and this boat trip where Jesus commanded His disciples to “go before Him to the other side” will not be any different. The last time His disciples made a trip by boat, Jesus had been asleep in the back of the boat and when a great storm had come upon His disciples and during that voyage they thought they were going to perish so they awoke Jesus and Jesus asked: JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). In this passage in JQ#15 we read that “…the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary…” (Matthew 14:24) — so now His disciples after having seen Jesus perform several miracles, and after having participated personally in “kingdom work” of the miracle feeding of five thousand — the disciples of Jesus find themselves once again in a boat in the middle of a storm! But this time Jesus is not with them (or is He?)! Jesus is continually moving us forward but He also stops and Jesus has us take personal inventory of our “spiritual progress” as a Spiritual Lesson in “building our faith”. Do you ever find yourself thinking you have made progress on your journey but just that quickly you find yourself in another storm and “[crying] out for fear…” Matthew 14:26) ? The “storm” is the perfect time for you to stop and ask yourself, “Have I built my faith on the Solid Rock of the Kingdom of Heaven and Faith in God or am I going to sink in the sifting sands of the world?” 

MAY 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS Precious Jesus —“Thank You, You took my sins away, and I want to Praise You for all that You’ve done, so this is the prayer that I pray — please help me Lord to give of myself and to share with my fellow man, for You have said that there’s no greater love than to give your life for a friend, for all the souls lost, You died on a cross, You gave and You gave some more, so that sinners like me might truly be free, Your death opens life’s door!” (From a song given to me while in the “SPIRIT” in the late 1980s that I still sing/pray today.)     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches His Questions with “Reason” and “Emotion”. When we look at the “Reason” behind our answer to His Question, Jesus points out the Truth behind our “Choice” and the “Emotion” that is the “Consequence” of our “Choice” and the “Reason” why we made our “Choice”!  When I first read these words in JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31) many years ago when I had first embarked on my journey to God, I imagined seeing Jesus saying these words to me and shaking His head and I imagined that I heard a tone in His voice that caused me to feel shame!? Now many years later as I read those same words and look back on how I felt about Jesus in general at the beginning of my journey, I realize I did not “know” Him. All I could imagine before I “knew” Jesus was what I had seen from the world and from worldly men and I knew that I was guilty because indeed my faith was “small” at best and was close to nonexistent — so when I read Matthew 14:31 I can actually still feel the shame and hear a “rebuke” for that was what my life was like, I was “guilty” and was “full of doubt” and all I had heard from the world was “rebuke”! Now as I have been “walking” with Jesus for several years and have been learning to “know” Jesus and “understanding” that Jesus “knows” me but Loves me anyway, when I read Matthew 14:31 now I don’t feel “guilt” and I no longer hear a “rebuke”. What I hear at this point in my journey is a soft encouraging Voice full of compassion for my weakness and what I feel is a Loving Savior gently putting His hand under my chin and lifting my head up so that I can look into His smiling face and He says sweetly to me, “Hold your head up, ‘O you of little faith…’” and then He assures me, “I will never leave you nor forsake you…” (Deuteronomy 31:6) and then with calm assurance in His Voice He looks deep into my soul and says “your doubt will disappear when You trust me with all your heart.” I do not feel shame nor rebuke, I now know that I am “forgiven and loved” and that is a long way to come on any journey but it is well worth the trip! What do you feel when you read this statement Jesus made in Matthew? It is a great barometer on the state of your “spiritual” life and it is worth “understanding” just exactly what Jesus is saying to you and wanting you to feel in your soul as He speaks these words to you. The original words were spoken in a very unusual situation and volumes could be written about the story that unfolded when Jesus spoke these words to Peter. The story and the words make more sense if we look at the things that Jesus had Taught and done just prior to speaking these words to Peter so let’s look at the events leading up to this Question Jesus posed to Peter and we will better understand the “tone” that Jesus was using. Jesus had just been rejected as He had tried to Teach in “His own country” (Matthew 13:57) and then Matthew writes about John the Baptist who had proclaimed when he saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) and Matthew documents that John the Baptist had been beheaded and “When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself.” (Matthew 14:13a) We can feel Jesus wanting to be alone for He had been “rejected” by His “own” and now He has received news that John the Baptist who had proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah had been beheaded for teaching God’s Truth and we can sense Jesus is “dejected” ——— “But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities, and when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:13b-14)  What a great example Jesus lived for us so that in times when we feel “rejected and dejected” that we should learn the Lesson that the best way to help ourselves is to show “compassion” to others. Right after that event we then see Jesus feeding “about five thousand men, besides women and children” and He did it with “Five loaves and two fish” (Matthew 14:15-21) So when we look at these events and how Jesus reacted to them we can be greatly encouraged that we too can face these problems that come into everyone’s life at some time or another, or do you think that the best way to take care of “despair” is to “pout” your cares away?

MAY 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, O the sweet privilege to say the Name above all names, Jesus. There is great comfort in knowing that there is the Power of all powers in the Name of Jesus and we have been given the right to speak the Name Jesus and bring that Power to play in our lives! Jesus, I bow before You and humbly ask that You grant that my life will be given to serving You and that the way that I lived my life for myself before I started living for You will be buried with my sins. I pray that the New Life I now live with You in me will be used totally for the Glory of God.             AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never really leaves one Lesson standing alone and moves on to another separate Lesson, but Jesus always uses His previous Lessons to weave together our “understanding” of what “Life” with God really means, both now in the physical and what “knowing God” means for our eternal spiritual future! Jesus used every situation He found Himself in to “Teach” us “to know” our Father in heaven and to prepare us to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of heaven that the Father has established for all those that “Believe in God”. Those that “Choose” to “Believe in God” will spend eternity with Him by virtue of their “Choice”! After Jesus Taught the multitudes in parables He then went to His “own country” but was rejected because those that knew Jesus as the son of Mary could not see Jesus as the Son of God! Because of their “unbelief”, the “Spiritual Power” of Jesus was limited as we read Matthew’s account of Jesus being rejected by those in His “own country”: “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58) Lest we miss the Lesson contained here in these 6 verses to end the 13th chapter in Matthew, let us stop and consider that these 6 verses are just as “inspired” as are all verses in scripture and let us look at the context, for Jesus never used a problem to gain sympathy for Himself but was continually drawing our attention to the “Truth of God”! These 6 verses reveal what I believe is one of the most overlooked “Truth of God” as Jesus reveals how the Father has chosen to be “sovereign” and demonstrate His Power over all Creation. Think for a moment about the “Free Will” gift that God has given mankind and apply it to this situation where Jesus was rejected by His “own” with the results being that Jesus “did not do many mighty works there…”. A surface reading from a worldly viewpoint would say that Jesus was mad at them and was just “pouting” and that Jesus simply decided that He would not do any “mighty works” because of some form of punishment ——— but immediately we can see that thinking negatively like that goes against everything Jesus has been Teaching and against everything Jesus has been demonstrating with His life which was being Perfectly Lived through the Power of GOD to help others. The Truth of God that is overlooked is that when God gave us the “gift” of “Free Will” that God demonstrated His Supreme Confidence in His Ability to handle every circumstance and therefore God said that if we want to use our “Free Will” to reject Him that He promised to “honor” that “choice”, not because we deserve to have our “choices” honored but because God Himself “Chose” to bestow His Honor on our “Choice”.  The Truth of God is that the Power of God is bestowed on our “Choice” ——— in other words, God says: “If you want to use your Free Will to reject Me, that because of who I AM, I will not force you to accept Me, but I will remove Myself from you until you choose to allow Me back into your life!” Jesus is demonstrating that our “Belief in God” carries the the Power of God with it and although Jesus wanted to “Give” and to “Teach” the Lessons of the kingdom of heaven to the people in His “own country” that when they used their God-Given Power of Free Will to “reject Him” that He honored their “choice”! Therefore it was their “unbelief” that prevented Jesus from bestowing the blessing of “understanding” on them! God has proven that He will not take back any gift that He gives us and that we have a “spiritual responsibility” to use the “gifts” God bestows on us to help others but if we “choose” to trust in ourselves and reject God, that is exactly what we will get! God will respect our “choice” and we will simply have to go through life without God and that “Choice” will extend to our eternity as well, because it is only logical that if we choose to live without God then we have also chosen to die without God! I don’t know about you but I can’t think of a sadder circumstance than to have all the Power of God at your command but then “choose” to call God and His Omnipotent Power useless and dispose of it instead of using it in our lives as God intended with His “Gift” of “Freewill Choice”? Can’t you see that when we “choose” to live without God that we are wielding the only Power able to prevent God from working in our life!!! By rejecting God, we bring all these negative things on ourself because of our “unbelief” and “unbelief” grows from a single seed of “doubt”!!! Be careful how you use your Free Will, it has eternal consequences and it is totally in your control!! Can you hear Jesus asking, “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”

MAY 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You are the One that Loves us. Jesus help us to understand that Your Love is not based on who we are or what we do but the Love of God is based solely on the character of The One True God and who HE IS and what HE DOES. God is the giver of Free Will and God Himself said that LOVE is not what others do to you, but what you do to others ——— and we are to LOVE based not on what others do to us but what we chose to do to others, we can either go the way of the world and take-take-take or we can follow God and give-give-give. Help us Lord to attain “heavenly perfection” in that we choose to be like You and Love others unconditionally.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been faithful in Teaching us that “faith in God” is as important to our “spiritual” life as “air” is to our “physical” life. Jesus has been Living the Perfect Example in front of His disciples and they have heard His Teachings and have seen His Miracles and the only conclusion that everyone reaches is that “all these things” that Jesus has been Teaching and accomplishing by His Miracles must be from God! Jesus has been asking specific Questions that focus our attention like a laser beam on the areas in our faith that needs to be improved upon and as we saw in JQ#14, Jesus wants to make sure that we “understand all these things” and the only reason we can use to explain why Jesus would Teach in the Power of God, perform Miracles in the Power of God, and then make sure that we “Understand” the Power of God is that Jesus wants us to have “spiritual success” that comes ONLY from the Power of God!!! Therefore, Jesus never stops Teaching and He uses Questions to make us think on the Kingdom of Heaven and then He answers them plainly, He uses parables and then Jesus explains these Thought Questions clearly, but more importantly Jesus “Lives” His Life Perfectly so that everyone can see that “Faith in God” is to be used 24/7/365 in the way we live our daily lives. Jesus had just Taught the multitudes in parables but now Jesus “had finished these parables” and “He departed from there” (Matthew 13:53) . We read that “When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished…” (Matthew 13:54) and it is at this point that we get a glimpse of why Jesus starts JQ#15 with the statement, “O you of little faith…” for even though the people were simply “astonished” by His Teaching, they could not get over their “spiritual blindness” and were proving what Jesus had previously Taught that the “unbelievers” would have “eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear” (Matthew 13:14) and the disciples could now see that without “understanding” that we are blind and deaf to the “Spiritual Truth of God”. Jesus also had Taught about “fear and faith” once before when the disciples were out on the sea in a boat when a great storm had arisen and Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat and when His disciples woke Him up, Jesus had asked JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) After Jesus had gotten their attention with the storm and the “fear” Question, Jesus calmed the wind and the waves and probably went back to sleep. We find Jesus still Teaching His disciples that if we follow Jesus we will should always be learning from Him because He is always Teaching and Jesus always goes the second mile and makes sure we “understand His Spiritual Lessons” — even if that means that we have to be Taught the same lesson several times to truly “understand”! In this case Jesus is Teaching an advanced course on “Faith in God” and this time He will point out that our “little faith” will cause us to “fear” and Jesus Teaches us that “little faith” is the root of all our “doubt” because the logical conclusion of “doubt” is “fear”! Therefore Jesus is going to give His disciples several extra lessons on building our faith and also Jesus will expose that the root cause of a weak faith is allowing ourselves to “doubt” God! This first example happens in His “own country” and the disciples see a previous lesson coming to life as the people in His “own country” doubt that Jesus is really God because they knew the names of His earthly (physical) mother, brothers, and sisters so they must have missed Jesus proclaiming that “whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:30) The scriptures tell us that all those stuck on the “physical” realm have missed the “Spiritual Truth” that Jesus IS the Son of God and that “they [are] offended at Him” (Matthew 13:57) The results of their “doubt” (unbelief) is that they actually prevented Jesus from using the Power of God among them as we read, “Now He did not do many mighty works there [in His own country] because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58) Jesus is illustrating why it is important that we spiritually “understand” because where there is no “understanding” there is “doubt” and our “unbelief” is the worldly fruit of our “doubt and fear” ! Jesus is continuing to Teach us with every occasion that building our “Faith” on the “Solid Rock” is our best defense against the storms of life and will open the door to His Blessings in our life! Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, “What blessings have I missed because of my own ‘unbelief’” ?  

MAY 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, thank You Lord for the Grace that You extend to us at those times when we are  going through our worldly doubts and we entertain the fears the secular world tries to sell to us on a daily basis. Lord Jesus, we praise You that when we reject You for our petty reasons that You will Love us through the valley of darkness and lead us safely back to the Light of Your Perfect Love, so I pray that instead of cowering in the darkness that we will seek to find the warmth of the “Son” on and in our soul and know that even when we don’t care about God, GOD CARES ABOUT US!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus takes us through such serious Lessons and asks us Questions because all have “Eternal Consequences”!!! Then after asking what we in our limited intellect think is the hardest Question to answer, Jesus turns right around and asks another Question that hits us right between our “spiritual” eyes and penetrates to the deepest recesses of our hearts! Then just when we think it is safe to go back into the “spiritual” waters Jesus sounds the alarm at yet another danger, yet being the “Good Lifeguard” that He IS, Jesus gives us the chance to swim on our own while at the same time He assures us that He is there to keep us from “going under”. JQ#15 is one of those Questions —Jesus has already Taught us 13 very serious Lessons and then the 14th Lesson was to make sure we “understood” what He was “Teaching” and then He hits us with JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31) What an indictment on our efforts to follow Jesus and to become His disciple to experience His “Teachings” on such a deep personal level and then He turns around and hands us our “failing” midterm grade just when we thought we had arrived at some pinnacle of understanding! Such is the case for Peter and the disciples as Peter stepped “out of the boat” on faith but then let his worldly fears overcome his faith and Peter quickly sank beneath the waves of worldly concerns — while he was actually walking on water!!! This is a tremendous Lesson for us to learn on our journey to knowing the True and Living God as He will test our faith to its limits and we find that we are still mortal and as such are “finite” and limited, but each time we test God, we find that He IS GOD and as such He is “Infinite” and His Grace and Mercy are limited by nothing! Yet each time God saves us, He encourages us to use that “drowning” experience to move closer to Him! He reminds us that we should always strive to get closer to God with the main goal to become “One with God” and never, never try to stand alone away from Him. The best way to look at the deep Truth of God in JQ#15 is to look at the context in which Jesus made the statement “O you of little faith…” to Peter. Jesus had Taught His disciples the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” and had ended His Parables of the “Kingdom” Lessons with JQ#14 “Have you understood all these things?” (Matthew 13:51) and I am sure we would have answered the same way the disciples probably answered — “Yes Jesus, now we understand…” but do we really? Jesus started to show us that we really don’t get it yet as we start reading in Matthew 13:53 “Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables (JQ#14), that He departed from there.” (Matthew 13:53) This type of action on the part of Jesus so far has meant that He is moving to the next Lesson and so far each Lesson has been an extension of our “understanding” up to and including His last Lesson. We find that Jesus is ALWAYS TEACHING for His every breath was a Lesson for those that watched how Jesus lived His life day in and day out! So when we read that “He departed from [the lessons of JQ#14]…” that we can now assume that Jesus is moving on to teach us the next Lesson on our journey to know God. The context of JQ#15 is from Matthew 13:53 and runs through Matthew 14:36 and we should read this passage of scripture and look expectantly at everything Jesus does as we ask ourselves, “What is Jesus going to Teach us next?” By now if you have been learning all the previous lessons you are probably asking, “Will Jesus ever stop Teaching us?”

MAY 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#14 “ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’” (Matthew 13:51)

 MAY 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#14 “ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’”  (Matthew 13:51)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, my prayer today is very simple, forgive me of all my shortcomings, cleanse me of all unrighteousness, and create in me a clean heart O God!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JQ#14 “ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’”  (Matthew 13:51)     Jesus lets us know that it is important to Him that we “understand” His Teachings because once again Jesus Teaches His Lesson and to make sure that we “know” exactly what He wants us to “learn”, Jesus sits down and explains His parables point by point so that our “understanding” is complete. There is a deeper Lesson being Taught by “how” Jesus is “Teaching” than the extremely important “what” He is “Teaching” with His parables and that deeper Lesson is that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is demonstrating that when something is important enough to “Teach” then it is important enough to extend every effort to make sure the Lesson is “learned” and “Understanding is the key to learning”!!! Jesus again and again through this passage introduces these deep “Spiritual Truths of God” then stops and “Explains” in detail the meaning of the parables because each parable is a “Revelation” of God Himself and outlines the “detailed” Plan of God for mankind. Jesus had just Taught the “multitudes”  four very important parables (1) the sower and the soils, (2) The tares and the wheat, (3) the mustard seed, and (4) the leaven, and now Jesus takes His disciples aside privately and explains to them the meaning of these 4 parables and then adds 4 more parables. That there can be no mistake in what Jesus is trying to Teach His disciples, He uses very specific and plain terminology in each of the parables and because they are the same topic in each parable we can “understand” that Jesus is Teaching His disciples the mystery of the “kingdom of heaven” for Jesus specifically states these Truths of God in each parable: (Parable 1) The sower and the soil ———“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart…” (Matthew 13:18-19) (Parable 2) The tares among the wheat ——— “He who sows the seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels, therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in fire, so it will be at the end of the age.” (Matthew 13:37-40) (Parable 3) The mustard seed ——— “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…when it is grown…becomes a tree…and birds nest in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32) (Parable 4) The leaven ——— “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven…” (Matthew 13:33)  and then 4 new parables: (Parable 5) The hidden treasure ——— “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found…and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) (Parable 6) The pearl of great price ——— “Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45) (Parable 7) The dragnet ——— “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels come forth, separate the wicked from the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. (Matthew 13:47-50) and lastly (Parable 8) The householder ——— “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52) It cannot be mistaken after these very plain and specific “Teachings of Jesus” that His Lessons are intended for His disciples to know that Jesus is the Son of Man, sent by God to Teach about the great treasures of the ”Kingdom of Heaven” for believers and the “impending judgement” of those that reject God!  Jesus used the terms “enemy”, “wicked one”, “wicked”, and “devil” so that we will know that there is serious opposition to our knowing and seeking God that we will have to face while in the world. Jesus also made it clear that how we live our daily lives will eventually be judged by God and He will send His angels from heaven to “separate” the “good” according to God’s Standard from the “bad” and that everyone will be judged “at the end of the age”. The “Good” according to God’s Standards will be taken up into the “kingdom of heaven” and the “bad” will be “burned in the fire”! There is no confusion as to the “eternal consequences” of punishment associated with those that choose to live  a “wicked life” and Jesus makes it equally clear the “eternal consequences” of those that follow God and live a “righteous” life. After giving all these specifics of the “kingdom of heaven”, Jesus then point blank asks — JQ#14 “Have you understood all these things?” (Matthew 13:51) There’s nothing left for us to do at this point except to give Jesus the honest answer that He deserves for going the extra mile to make it clear what His Lessons are trying to Teach us … so, have you “understood all these things?”