JANUARY 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-15: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 JANUARY 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-15: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, today is another day of abundant life that You have provided for us and we know that we deserve death and would still be dead in our sins today were it not for Your Mercy and Grace and Your Great Sacrifice on the cross at Calvary to purchase our Redemption from the punishment of our many iniquities — Lord let us “lean not” on our own understanding but let You Guide our steps and Light our path! 

Jesus we are so undeserving of the Mercies that You Renew each morning because of who You ARE, You shower us with blessings, so Lord Jesus I offer up that which I have and that simple offering my Lord is my praise and prayers, praise for You and prayers for others, keeping neither for myself for Your Grace is Sufficient for me! Forgive me for all the ways I have failed You, El Shaddai and keep me centered in Your Will!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was not only proven to be the Messiah by the evidence of His Birth to a virgin who had nothing to gain but death by stoning from the Jewish community to which she belonged to by claiming God was the Father of her unborn child, Jesus was also linked to the “purpose” of the Messiah by several outside forces that He could not have possibly manipulated as a young Child and certainly Jesus could not have arranged these events while still in His mother’s womb! 

The purpose of the “Messiah” in both Jewish tradition and today’s Christian viewpoint, is one of “Kingship” which became an issue that pointed to Jesus as the “Anointed One” when the then King of Israel, King Herod, met with the “wise men from the East” that had traveled to Jerusalem and were asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:1-2) This inquiry from credible “wise men” that knew of the “birth” of the “King of the Jews” from prophecies of old and had traveled a great distance because they had seen a “sign” in the heavens, came to Jerusalem for they knew that the event had happened in Judea.

 Again we must note that these are all outside agencies and events that neither Jesus nor His followers could possibly arrange. Matthew recorded and made a note that when “wise men” stood before Herod that they said to King Herod that the child “has been born” which really caught the attention of the then seated king of Judea! Matthew documented Herod’s reaction when the sitting King of Judea heard the wise men declare that the “King of the Jews” had already been born:

 “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when [Herod] had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, [Herod] inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea…’” and then the chief priests and scribes quoted the prophet Micah who wrote, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.” (Matthew 2:3-6 and Micah 5:2)  

Modern Jews still do not accept that Jesus is the “Messiah” and their main argument is that the “mashiach”  will be just  a human and not God and will be a human leader like King David who will win great battles for Israel and not a “savior” who will save “His people from their sins”. The Judaism concept of “mashiach” is not God Himself becoming flesh but “mashiach” is a human that will become a powerful king 

and rebuild the temple, re-establish traditional Jewish worship in the re-built temple, and also “mashiach” will establish a government in Jerusalem 

making it the center of all world government.  

(Does this sound familiar to world events unfolding in 2024?)

Herod however was not concerned about these concepts of the “one born King of the Jews” but Herod was concerned about the “Kingship” of one that had fulfilled prophecy! Herod was concerned enough about his own kingdom in Judea that the sitting King of Judea tried to enlist the services of the wise men in finding the already born “King of the Jews”. But when the wise men were warned by God not to return to Herod, Herod “sent forth soldiers and put to death all the male children 

who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under…” (Matthew 2:7-16) 

This act of Herod reacting to prophecy about “one who has been born King of the Jews” was also prophetic in its execution for the prophet Jeremiah had written beforehand in Jewish Scriptures that there would be “A voice heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:15) 

Matthew also documented another  “Divine Intervention” on behalf of Jesus which came as an “angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream” and after the prophetic “Virgin Birth”  the wise men had bestowed gifts on the “young Child Jesus” and the angel said, “Arise take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt” … thus fulfilling the prophecy by Hosea stating, “Out of Egypt I called My Son” (Hosea 11:1) 

The simple fact that all these events that came about while Jesus was still a “young Child” are events that are historical facts and had these events been fabricated after the crucifixion of Jesus, the “conspiracy” and false claims would have been quickly refuted by the Jewish rulers and the chief priests and scribes living at the time of the death of Jesus — but historical documents do not contain any such records that dispute what Matthew wrote about Jesus — the only records that exist support Jesus as having fulfilled the prophecy of the Messiah according to the prophets of old. 

So Matthew in the first 3 chapters of his Gospel of Jesus Christ has established as historical fact and “eye witness testimony” that Jesus had already by the young age of 2 or 3 years old had fulfilled 4 major “Messianic Prophecies” written hundreds of years earlier by God’s own prophets and these critical prophecies and their fulfillment could not have been “fabricated” without receiving great criticism from the chief priests and scribes and further — if it were the apostles and disciples of Jesus that had “fabricated” the stories after the death of Jesus, their fabrications would have been exposed by the religious authorities and their fabrications would have resulted in their own deaths! 

If the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Divine Truth was simply a fabrication by a few radical followers then the fulfilling of prophecy by Jesus would not be documented so well in the New Testament writings — writings that have been Divinely Protected for thousands of years, all these circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus only adds credence to the TRUTH that Jesus IS CHRIST!!!  

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THE PATRIOT’S PULPIT

Comment: 1/15/24 Monday 4:50A - Today in my morning devotionals it became clear to me that God has provided a set of promises that are much more binding and contractural than anything man can put together or legislate by law and the “reason” that it is so binding IS SIMPLY because it is a “PROMISE FROM GOD” and all the “POWER AND AUTHORITY” in HIS PROMISE is because it is in HIS WORD! This is the CREATOR GOD telling us exactly what we are to do and how to do it and it carries DIVINE AUTHORITY because it is “THUS SAYS THE LORD”. 

In Genesis, as God was “Creating” the “heavens and the earth”, we read that on Day 1 God showed us HIS TRUE POWER  and HOW TO GET THINGS DONE  when to start the Divine Process GOD USED HIS WORD TO MAKE IT HAPPEN: 

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) 

Note that all of creation was completed by “Then God said…” and what God “said” became “REALITY” because it was what God declared with HIS WORD! So today as I was concentrating on  John 1:9-12 I had the impression that God is making it clear and easy for us because all we have to do is LISTEN  and BELIEVE GOD’S WORD IS THE TRUTH … BECAUSE IT IS! Read the following 4 verses and see what God PROMISES to us if we BELIEVE what HE SAYS:  

John 1:9-12

9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

10  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 

11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

Everyone that “listens” to God and “believes” His WORD  have what our Founding Patriotic Fathers wrote into our Declaration of Independence that our “inalienable rights are endowed by our Creator” and they believed it strongly enough that all government officials are required to take an “oath” to abide by God’s Law and and swear to “tell the TRUTH, the WHOLE TRUTH, and nothing but the TRUTH, SO HELP ME GOD” and the only way to get it RIGHT is to KNOW GOD’S WORD! 

There is no way to separate LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS and PERSONAL FREEDOM from following GOD. Every attempt of the power elites to separate man from God such as removing prayer from public schools or allowing the taking of LIFE from the UNBORN is anti-God and therefore is anti-Freedom and there is no other word for it than “murder” and “slavery”. AMERICA has compromise AMERICAN VALUES and allowed the separation of God’s Moral Standard from governing the AMERICAN PEOPLE so if God is not your “standard” then what do you have to replace it? If you don’t have GOD’S TRUTH then what do you have to replace it? If you don’t listen to God then who are you listening to? There is either GOD’S MORAL STANDARD or there is no “standard” at all! 

I woke up today to a fresh blanket of white snow and thought how easy God can cover everything and marveled that this one snow will get some things done that Patriots have been praying for now for months, keep praying Patriots that God will cover AMERICA with HIS GRACE like He covered us with His Treasure of Snow — KNOW THAT HE IS GOD!!!

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