JANUARY 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-18: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, today my first thoughts towards You are thoughts of “Thankfulness” that You have done those things the Father asked You to do so that sinners such as I would have a way to Eternally Fellowship with the TRINITY through the Miracle of Grace — a Miracle that was bought with a Heavenly Price and yet given with an Unconditional Love that can never be reproduced! It is Your Divine Love that is freely poured out on everyone that calls on the Precious Name of Jesus.
Lord, there is no way for us with our limited intellect to understand the Heavenly Dynamics that provides Grace to wretched souls because of the Holy Blood You Shed on the Cross on our behalf, nor why a Sacrificial Lamb could be slain before the foundation of the world — nor how the Shed Blood of the Lamb of God once applied to our Repentant hearts brings about the Miracle of Salvation — or why God Almighty The Great I AM would even consider the possibility of Forgiveness of the guilty and Offer His Only Begotten Son — O the Mystery of God to make such a Great Sacrifice of the Divine Innocent for the sake of sinful man!?!?!?!? LORD JESUS, HEAVENLY FATHER, HOLY SPIRIT our hearts overflow with three words: “THANK YOU LORD” for being the Great God You ARE!!! AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus comes on the scene in the 3rd Chapter of His Gospel according to St. Matthew after Jesus is announced as the “Lamb of God” by the Star Witness sent by God for One specific purpose: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe…that [JESUS] was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” (John 1:6-9) Matthew documents the fact that before Jesus came to be baptized by John that John the Baptist was already “preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’” (Matthew 3:2)
Matthew was Jewish and was a well educated Jewish scholar and very familiar with the Jewish Holy Scriptures (known today as the “Tanakh”— the Hebrew Bible consisting of three sets of books: Torah, Nevi’im <prophets and histories> and Ketuvim <writings>) and knew the significance of John’s message to the nation Israel for there had been 400 years of silence since Malachi the last prophet had written God’s declaration of the coming of the forerunner of the Messiah,
“BEHOLD, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” (Malachi 3:1a)
Matthew sensed through that same Holy Spirit that the LORD was once again speaking to Israel through His messenger, John the Baptist. This John who started declaring the need for repentance of sin because the “kingdom of heaven” was “at hand” is the “messenger” who was foretold by the prophet Isaiah whom Matthew quoted when he wrote about John the Baptist, “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD…’” (Matthew 3:3 and Isaiah 40:3) The impact of John the Baptizer on the nation Israel can be seen by the simple statement of Matthew: “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to [John the Baptist]” (Matthew 3:5) and the reason they were going out into the wilderness was to hear John preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and Matthew finishes his report on John the Baptist by stating that those going out into the wilderness to hear John preach about the kingdom of heaven “were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Matthew 3:6)
Matthew with these simple statements makes it clear that John the Baptist is not trying to build a church or establish a congregation for his personal benefit because of the remote location in the desert wilderness where John the Baptist was preaching therefore one must concentrate on the message that John the Baptist was preaching and that message was clearly “Repent”. The results of the Spirit filled message was that people who listened to God’s Spirit filled Message to “Repent” were “confessing their sins”! The success of John’s message from God to Israel was also noted by Matthew for John became so well known in the wilderness that he caught the attention of even the Pharisees and Sadducees who themselves were “coming to” John to be baptized in the Jordan. (Matthew 3:7a)
John’s reaction to the Pharisees and Sadducees must be viewed from the context that the Holy Spirit was leading John and speaking through John so when John calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7b) we can anticipate that when the Messiah comes upon the scene that the Messiah, being led also by the Holy Spirit, will address the problem of having a “brood of vipers” ruling the temple and leading temple worship in Jerusalem! This “brood of vipers” were also responsible to God for teaching God’s religious doctrines to the nation of Israel, doctrines from God intended by God to promote Israel’s worship of The Great “I AM”, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that had delivered them out of their bondage in Egypt and into the Promised Land.
So Matthew has now established that Jesus has fulfilled prophecy by His Birth, and now John who has fulfilled the prophecy that there would be a “forerunner” to the Messiah is about to see Jesus face-to-face for the first time! Have you ever stopped in your Spiritual Journey and considered that even though you believe and know who Jesus is, that there will come that first moment when you will stand in His Presence — face to Face — for the first time!?!?!?!?!?! “
Now” is a good time to stop and think about that “moment” for it is a “moment” in your “future” that was prophesied about you by the same Holy Spirit that prophesied about the Coming of the Anointed One and your reaction will uncover what you believe about Jesus in the secret parts of your heart and soul — and “Now” is the only time available for you to get that “moment” settled between you and your future with Jesus Christ Himself!!! The TRUTH of GOD is that one day your “moment” in His Presence will arrive and what you truly believe will be revealed as you stand face-to-Face with God at that very “moment” ——
BUT once the “moment” arrives it is already to late ——
you must be prepared BEFORE the “Moment” arrives ——
and the time to think about that “Moment”
and who Jesus really IS,
is “Now”!!!
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THE PATRIOT’S PULPIT
Comment: 1/18/24 Thursday 4:54P - Yesterday was “one of those days” that you’ll always have etched in your memory bank and when certain conversations come up I’ll say that Wednesday January 17, 2024 was a really crazy day and a great “FAITH” building day — and let me explain.
Deb always is up before 4:00a and gets everything going and a big fire roaring so when I get up there is a hot pot of coffee and a warm place in front of the fire and I get to settle in with my Bible on our big couch with the dogs under their blankets beside us and the cat stretched out in front of the fire. I always take a moment and marvel at how God has provided for us with so many little things but add them all up and there it is — the abundant life! Well yesterday just before 4:00A I could hear Deb throwing more wood in the firebox and the noise made Maggie run back into the bedroom and crawled in under the cover with me waiting for Deb to get settled into her devotional but instead of hearing the ice cubes dropping into her cup and her getting water to settle onto the couch I heard:
“Lanny, we don’t have any water.”
This is where I usually “panic” and jump up all stressed out but here is where the beautiful “FAITH” day started for me because I slid out of bed and Maggie followed me out to see what I needed to do and Deb was heading out to the pantry to get some bottled water and I walked over to check on the fire and tried all the faucets and sure enough, NO WATER.
I looked at the clock and it said 4:00A and the Temp was ZERO and the Room Temp was 69 but you could feel the fire warming the room. I was aware that I was calm — I had “Peace” and Deb came in from our outside pantry and joked that even our bottled water had ice in it. She started getting her stuff ready and I suited up in my long johns and thermals and put on my cold weather gear and headed out in the ZERO weather to see what could be done, did I say I was calm and had peace. I turned on the light in the big barn and went into my shop for my headlamp and as I walked into my shop to get the extra lights I saw the insulated coveralls that Deb found in the bottom of the shoe box yesterday while she was cleaning it out and brought them out to me while I was chopping the wood that was burning in the fireplace in this ZERO weather. The overalls were a gift from my brother and I had misplaced them but those coveralls started me thinking about the great provisions of God!
I picked up the headlamp and overalls and some extra firewood and took them into the fireplace to knock the chill off the overalls (a real nice pair of insulated Carharts) and throw a little extra wood on the fire because I knew I was about to get cold, real cold but I was “excited” like I was getting ready to go fishing or something! I put on my warm dry cold weather boots that I got about five years ago which I keep conditioned with mink oil to keep my feet warm and dry and my old pair of Thinsilate cold weather gloves I’ve had for over 10 years. All these items if purchased separately would cost a small fortune today but this is where God really shows off!
These items that were going to keep me warm while looking for the problem are more of a collection of one-of-a-kind items that bit-by-bit over several years with a piece here and another piece there and were all used while fixing other problems it occurred to me as I was putting them on and remembering when and where each came from, I realized that God was putting me in situations where I would learn a lesson and along the way God was providing the “tools” and “knowledge” I would need to get through all the difficult situations in “life” and I knew that all these things in the past along with God’s provisions for TODAY were going to “work together for good for them that love the Lord” and I knew then why I had “Peace” and why I was “calm” because I KNOW that God will provide!
I put on the overalls and gloves and headed out to start the day! My water was frozen all the way from the frost line where it enters the house and all the way into the hot water heater and into the house so I started by getting space heaters and heat lamps, my heat gun and started unfreezing from the main in and by noon I had everything unfroze up to where the water goes into the house and where the line goes from 3/4” copper to 1/2” Pex to go into the house I put the heat gun on the elbow which was exposed and surely frozen and keeping water from going into the house and when the ice was melted that’s when the busted pipe reared its ugly head and started spewing water everywhere! I had to shut the water off and knew I was going to have to replace pipe. We are “snowed in” up on our hill so I went into my “plumbing” inventory that I have built up and found a pile of “Shark-Bite” fittings left over from a remodel job I had done for someone at the church when I was doing handy man work 15 years ago and guess what — the scrap pieces were EXACTLY what I needed plus I was able to put in an extra drain valve (another small fortune for brass shark-bite fixtures, not to mention $/hr plumbers wages) and all I had to do was put together all these scrap pieces with the tools and knowledge from years of fixing things!!
By 3:00P we had running water and I split up another load of firewood and Deb put a hot meal on the table and just like that EVERYTHING was FIXED — GOD IS GOOD!
I think AMERICA and all AMERICAN PATRIOTS are about to get to experience what it is like to TRUST GOD FOR HIS PROVISIONS and KNOW that all our TRIALS are nothing more than lessons to PREPARE us to GET THROUGH THE STORM. Keep the FAITH and each time you are faced with a Problem then TRUST that what God has PROVIDED is ENOUGH — bit by bit and little by little God is moving and shaping us to be a GREAT NATION again but we each must do our part with what we have when the time comes and if a 77 year old man can fix a major, major problem like I did yesterday with a bunch of scrap parts and 15 year old tools while snowed in on a mountain, AMERICAN PATRIOTS can fix this mess we are in, but we have to
KNOW WHO IS THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD THINGS!!!
>>>IN GOD WE TRUST<<<
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