JULY 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#21 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

 

JULY 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#21  

“What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, 

forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

Jesus, we give You all the Praise for You are the One that is Worthy of All Praise. 

Lord Jesus, the more I study Your Word, the more I realize

 what a tremendous Sacrifice that You made and when I consider

 that the world has always turned from Your Sufficient Grace

 to the disappointments of the world, it really is amazing that 

You would become our Salvation at such Great Expense!?! 

 Lord, I shudder to think of the many times that I have rejected Your Truth

 and chased after the pleasures of this world and Lord, 

the scary part is that occasionally I will let my physical desires 

dust off old memories of my worldly life and for a moment 

I forget the despair that my disobedient spirit caused in my old life 

and I turn from Your “Way” back into the shadows of this world, 

but then Your Grace shines the Light of Truth on my iniquity 

and I can see and appreciate what Great Love You have demonstrated

 towards all sinners and I return to the well lit path of the 

“TRUTH of GOD” and the “joy of my salvation” 

and once again raise my voice in Praise to the One

 that Sacrificed so much to set me free from sin.    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus addressed not only the Truth of God that we are “equipped” by God

 with the necessary tools to “answer” all the questions life presents to us

 but He also revealed in greater detail the difference between living 

a temporary life in the “physical” world with our flesh 

and preparing our souls for our “eternal spiritual” life in the “spiritual” world —

 

Jesus has drawn us a clear picture so far that illuminates 

in our darkened mind that the “Spiritual World” is “Eternal” 

and that all “souls” will spend their “Eternity” either 

in the Presence of God in Heaven 

or those “souls” that choose to reject God 

will spend their “Eternity” separated from God in Hell. 

With JQ#21 Jesus is Teaching us that if we will use our God-given 

intellect to make good choices with our Free Will 

that we will be able to “reason” that

 the “world” offers us nothing “eternal” 

and the “eternal” offers us nothing “worldly”. 

Jesus points out to Peter with JQ#21 that if Peter will stop and “think” 

that Peter will see this distinction being played out in our daily lives

 as Jesus asks Peter 

“From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, 

from their sons or from strangers?” (Matthew 17:25) 

Peter gave the correct answer when he said 

“from strangers” (Matthew 17:26) 

At this point we should stop and think about “taxes” and the fact 

that “taxes” are part of this “physical” life but we should also

 understand that Jesus is pointing out that if we follow Him that 

just by living our daily lives and looking at everything from a 

“spiritual” perspective that we will see God’s Provisions 

for us to be able to make our way through this “physical” world

 without compromising our “souls” — 

Jesus instructed Peter to pay the “temple tax” and fulfill his 

“physical/worldly” obligation but Jesus also instructed Peter

 to trust that God will provide his daily needs through his daily life 

which was fishing. We have a valuable Lesson to learn from

 “fish” and “taxes” if we look at this “miracle” from God’s Perspective! 

We can go about our daily lives and realize that 

God knows our needs before we ask 

but we must “trust” Him and do those things 

that He instructs us to do — 

Jesus used the “fish” because Peter knew about fishing, 

but God is able to provide our needs using the things we are familiar

 with but we have never looked at them from the perspective that

 God has placed us in that position so that when we open 

our “spiritual” eyes and “Trust” Him with our “Spiritual” hearts 

that He will be able to show us His Glory 

which is Always Surrounding our Daily Lives 

but we just don’t stop and “Think” about what we see 

from God’s Perspective! 

Who would have ever thought that paying “taxes”

 could be a way to Glorify God?