JANUARY 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, each day is a special day if we start that day with You! Lord my prayer as I awake and start planning my day is that I “seek first the kingdom of God” and allow Your Holy Spirit to direct me down paths of righteousness and then teach me Your Ways as only the Holy Spirit can! Lord, what a privilege to sit under Your Teaching and open Your Holy Bible and let Your Holy Spirit guide us through Your Holy Word —
Your Eternal, Matchless, Life-giving Word!
Lord, I pray now for all parents to see the importance of living their day-to-day lives in Christ and the impact and influence that living for Christ has in the lives of their children. Parents themselves living for Christ will be the greatest step they can take as parents to bring their children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!!! AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
JESUS used JQ#01 to get us to thinking about our responsibility towards others by using “salt” which must give up its “essence” to be flavor to the world, and “salt” is also universally known to contain healing properties as well but regardless of its use, it must be applied to the circumstance and in each case, the “salt” is consumed. Jesus used “salt” to focus our attention not on ourselves but on our responsibility to others!
As we move from JQ#01 to JQ#02 please remember that “Context is king”. JQ#01 context for being “salt” & “light” is Matthew 5:1-16. The context for JQ#02 is Matthew 5:18 - 6:24 and Jesus continues His Lesson on looking first at ourselves to make sure that we are prepared to take care of others, this is what the airlines advise when they tell parents to first put on their oxygen mask in order to be able to assist others! It is imperative that we read the context around each question and in doing so it becomes obvious to even the most casual reader that Jesus is The Master Teacher and as such we must understand that when Jesus asks a Question He is not looking for knowledge for Himself but His Intent is to impart knowledge to the student.
When Jesus asks His Question, He is making a common sense statement that if one really wants to learn the TRUTH of GOD then one must answer honestly within themselves the Questions that are asked to see if we are seeking the TRUTH of GOD and are willing to listen to the Answer! Jesus never spoke without Teaching, His every breath, every step, every moment of silence — every action Jesus made were Lessons Jesus uses to Teach us how we are to live our lives by following His Perfect Example! Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us for a Divine Reason, and He had a Divine Purpose for being born in a manger and growing up as “one of us” yet
He lived His Life without sin! How did He do it?
Jesus accomplished this Miraculous Feat because He knew the Father’s Will for His Life and was Obedient to do that which the Father had Taught Him.
Jesus told this to His disciples just before going into the upper room for His final earthly Passover with His disciples,
“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-50).
Our study of the Questions that Jesus asked should be studied from this specific viewpoint: “Therefore if Jesus asks a Question then He is engaging us to dig deeper to learn the TRUTH of GOD because He is trying to Teach us what the Father Taught Him, and the result of our efforts will be everlasting life!!!” We should never take anything Jesus said lightly because in His own Words, Jesus is speaking only the Words that the Father God in Heaven spoke to Him and then sent Him to earth to speak God’s Words to us!
We should be in AWE of these Words spoken by Jesus and exclaim as even His enemies did who heard Him: “The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46). Let us then consider the next Lesson/Question:
JQ#02: “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …
and if you greet your brethren only,
what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)
The context in which Jesus asked JQ#02 is in Matthew 5:43-48 and we should dig deep because every Word spoken by Jesus is a Kingdom Treasure!!!
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THE PATRIOT’S PULPIT
Comment: 1/29/24 Monday 4:52A - Good Morning Pats! We were able to take Paul to church last night to hear some good ole Gospel singing and then to stop by and get a milkshake — life is good! Just the little things are enough if God is in them and I think deep in my heart that if we could just get enough people back to enjoying the simple things in life that the difficult things we are drowning in today’s fast and furious world and our insatiable obsession with “More, More, More” would melt into the true peace that completely surrounds all those that understand that “Little is much WHEN GOD IS IN IT” and know the joy of “sharing” what little you have with others. Hanging onto money and power or killing yourself to climb the ladder success is so sad when the TRUTH is that whatever GOD PROVIDES is ENOUGH.
The Holy Spirit gave me an “insight” to the “Razor Wire” scenario that is being played out before the world and that insight is this nuance:
“BEING WILLING TO DIE FOR LOVED ONES
TO PROTECT WHAT WE LOVE IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT
THAN BEING WILLING TO KILL THE ENEMY BECAUSE OF HATE!
AMERICANS THAT ARE WILLING TO FOLLOW GOD
AND STAND TOGETHER IN GOD’S NAME TO HELP EACH OTHER
AND WHO ARE NOT AFRAID TO UNITE IN FAITH IN GOD’S NAME
TO PROTECT OUR FAMILIES FROM THE ENEMY WILL BE VICTORIOUS
AND THESE GOD-FEARING AMERICANS FIGHTING TO DEFEND LIFE
WILL HAVE NO FEAR PROTECTING OUR LOVED ONES IF WE TRUST OUR FAITH TO KEEP US SAFE. THERE IS NO HARM OR HURT THAT GOD CANNOT OVERCOME OR HEAL AND BY STANDING TOGETHER AS ONE UNITED PEOPLE UNDER GOD, THE ENEMY WHO ARE FIGHTING JUST TO TAKE LIFE WILL DARE NOT CHALLENGE GOD’S PEOPLE STANDING FIRM IN THEIR
BELIEF IN SAVING LIFE!!!
NEVER FORGET
“GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE! FOR GOD DID NOT SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEM THE WORLD BUT THAT THROUGH HIM, THE WORLD WOULD BE SAVED!!!”
(JOHN 3:16-17)
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