JULY 04 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 04  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, another morning and another day to praise You for the “life” 

that You have abundantly poured out on us. Lord, we most often fail

 to see Your Glory in our getting up out of bed in the morning 

and our laying our heads on a soft pillow in that bed in the  evening 

and all the mercies that You pour out daily on such an undeserving world.

 Lord I pray that my heart will always be directed toward the 

Glory of God 

and that my Path will always be 

the “Way, the “Truth”, and the “Life” 

that is found only in living my daily life for Jesus. 

Guide my thoughts, Direct my steps, and Forgive me of my 

“spiritual” 

shortcomings for it is in Your Name and for the Kingdom’s sake

 that I pray.  

AMEN    

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY  2023  INDEPENDENCE DAY  

*******   “If The Son therefore will set you free, 

you will truly be the children of liberty.” JOHN 8:36 *******   

AMEN

JULY 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus ended JQ#20 by announcing His Resurrection to follow His Death

 and was using JQ#20 to Teach us about ourselves as He 

pointed out that we are a 

“faithless and perverse generation” 

and in this next series of Questions Jesus is pointing out how 

to correct the problem that each generation faces —

— that problem is how do we grow our faith and become Holy 

while living in the world that draws us away from God? 

Jesus never exposes a “wound” without applying “healing” 

to that wound and this Spiritual deficiency is no different.

 Jesus in JQ#20 said the root cause of our perverseness was our 

“unbelief” and that if we develop “faith” just the size of a “mustard seed”

 that we can grow our faith and increase in our Holiness. 

Jesus then announced yet again about His Resurrection. 

Then in JQ#21 we see Jesus Teaching us how to correct the problem of 

“unbelief” that was exposed in JQ#20 and if we study what Jesus Teaches

 in the next passages that we will learn that Jesus points out a 

shortcoming in our life and then Teaches us how to make a “physical” weakness

 into a “spiritual” strength! 

The context for these Lessons is Matthew 17:24 through Matthew 18:35 

and when this section of scripture is looked at as a whole Lesson 

we will see Jesus is Teaching us how to look at our daily lives 

and see how God is working and equipping us though our 

day-to-day existence to grow our faith and to become more like Jesus

 as we learn to see God in all that we do. 

This next Lesson starts with Jesus performing a miracle with a “fish” 

and “taxes” and then there are several Lessons that seem unattached

 but when viewed as a whole we see that Jesus is Teaching us 

how to relate to the world around us from a spiritual perspective 

and that always involves using the tools 

God has equipped us with to help others.

 

God never promotes Himself but has always sacrificed Himself 

for our needs and now He has announced His upcoming death 

which if we will but stop and “think” about “why” 

then we will see the selflessness of 

His Actions that benefit others! 

With JQ#21 Jesus is Teaching us how to use our daily lives to Glorify God 

and instead of always “thinking” about ourselves and getting lost in our selfishness

 that we must learn to “think” about others and care for them 

and trust God to take care of us. 

Jesus started this series of “faith” lessons with a “miracle” fishing trip

 and demonstrated how God can work through our daily lives 

and then Jesus continues this “faith” Lesson by focusing our attention 

on building our faith by considering others as He directs us 

to “think” about daily things in our lives such as “lost sheep”, 

the act of “forgiveness”, and considering our “fellow servants”. 

It is important for us to remember that Jesus always Teaches 

a series of Lessons and then He checks to make sure that we “understand” 

what He has been trying to Teach ——— 

and in this section Jesus is telling us that to 

“understand” others that we must “think” of others.

 I am sure that when Peter pulled up that first fish and found in its mouth enough

 in one piece of money to pay the temple tax for himself and Jesus 

that Peter stopped and “thought” about Jesus giving him a solution 

to his problem without Peter having to lay out the problem to Jesus 

because Jesus already knew Peter’s need! 

Then Jesus solved the problem by telling Peter to use his daily skills 

and trust God for the results and there in place of a problem in Peter’s life 

was a miracle! We all know about “taxes” so we can easily relate 

to that lesson and the next lesson on how to live a life pleasing 

to God starts with another problem we all seem to deal with 

and that is the need to be “better” than the next guy 

— or am I silly for assuming that you have never 

worried about “paying taxes” or “getting ahead”?