FEBRUARY 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#03 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

 FEBRUARY 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#03  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Jesus, Jesus, O the Privilege it is to call on Your Name! Lord each day I have need of Your Mercy and Grace and each day my heart overflows with Praise for You because You have abundantly supplied all that I need, in spite of my continual stumbling. 

Lord, You know my heart and I am getting more secure in Your Love because I know that You know the depths of my sinful nature and yet Your Grace abounds deeper still — not because of anything I have done to deserve even the smallest of Your attentions, but You continue to Forgive all of my transgressions that I present to You daily and You Lovingly Guide me to Your Peace because that is Who You chose to be for our sakes! 

O the Mystery of God, that the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Pure Innocent Redeemer who chose to die on a cross for the guilty, to suffer the agony we deserve and give us access to Your Heaven. Praise the Forgiving God!!!     

AMEN 

THE JESUS QUESTIONS   

JESUS started JQ#03 with a section on “worry” and in this section Jesus uses 8 Questions to get us thinking about “worry”. This section in Matthew 6:25-34 contains several verses that the Holy Spirit impressed upon me on my Spiritual Journey to Truth that I feel has led me back to the right path when the world had closed in on me like it so often does to all of us. 

When you finally get back on the right path again you see that it was some form of “worry” that distracted you and just that quick when we take our eyes off the Truth and let the world and all its worries get our attention we find ourselves off the main road — if we are lucky we will be on a stretch of road that has “warning bumps” to get our focus back where it is supposed to be and the Spirit will redirect our wayward steps and correct our course back from the Broad Path of Destruction to the “Narrow Paths of Righteousness”! Matthew 6:33 is one of those verses for me that has kept me focused on Jesus and when my eyes are firmly fixed on Him, for Jesus again and again tells us that worries and wrong doing have no place in our life. 

I will attempt to share how my wanderings into darkness were redirected to the Light and the right paths from this section where Jesus Teaches us about “worry” by stating very emphatically: 

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…” 

(Matthew 6:25a) 

It is a very bold statement but let’s consider JESUS is making it! 

The “Therefore” comes immediately after Jesus had stated in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve God and mammon” and the implication here is that if you chose to “serve God” then there is no need to “worry”. Jesus uses the next 7 verses (Matthew 6:24-32) to show that “worry” is primarily caused by serving “mammon” but closes with two powerful verses (Matthew 6:33-34) that show how to eliminate “worry” — spiritual speed bumps if you will — so let’s look at each of the 8 Questions in this section and apply them to reducing “worry” in our lives.

 JQ#3a —“Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”

 (Matthew 6:25b) 

Each Question that Jesus asks is to make us stop and think about the simple Questions we encounter in our daily lives and give Him back a simple answer that shows Him we are listening to His Teachings. For instance, when I read this passage with the intent of “learning from Jesus” I can more easily come to an answer because Jesus never asks a Question without a specific answer in mind that will Teach followers a specific point that will make our life better if we bother to listen to His Question and answer Him honestly, keeping in mind that if we listen to our answer back to Him that we will indeed learn the Lesson He is intent on Teaching and 

within every Jesus Lesson is a Truth of God!

 I am sure that if you stop and consider that 

“life IS more than food” 

and 

“the body IS more than clothing” 

then you will start to see what Jesus is trying to Teach and the answer then is a simple “Yes, I see now that You have corrected my course”. 

Read Matthew 6:25 again and literally pray your answer to Jesus through your prayer and then “wait on the LORD” for the blessings that He will pour out!

FEBRUARY 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#03 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

 FEBRUARY 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS    JQ#03  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life…Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord there is nothing I can do to merit Your favor but You place within our grasp the very “Power” that brings Eternal Life with Perfect Fellowship with the Father. That “Eternal Life-Giving Power” is contained within our Free Will which you have so graciously bestowed on all that call upon the Name of the Lord, 

even our LORD JESUS. 

Help me Lord to always be mindful that each and every choice that I make in my daily life has an effect on my Eternity. Lord, too often do I overlook the “divine responsibility” and the magnitude of the importance that exercising my Free Will automatically carries with it! Lord, influence me today to make those good choices for all my tomorrows.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS concludes JQ#02 with “No one can serve two masters…you cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) 

and then He introduces JQ#03 with this statement:  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.” (Matthew 6:25A) 

Once Jesus has firmly established our line of thinking to consider our day-to-day, everyday experiences He then asks His Question to make us laser focus on the 

Truth of God  to follow:  

JQ#03  “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” 

(Matthew 6:25b)  

Jesus uses “Questions” as a Teaching tool by asking Questions that He fully knows the answer to — He asks the Question, not that He needs us to impart knowledge to Him, He asks the “Question” to impart His Knowledge which is Perfect to us, thereby Jesus uses “Questions” get us actively involved in the thought process and Teaches us to take just another step to being “perfect”. 

In this Matthew 6:25-34 section Jesus asks 8 separate questions but all of them deal with “worry”. Since Jesus uses Questions as Teaching tools, if He asks effectively the same Question 8 separate times in quick succession it logically follows that He must be Teaching on an important subject. From JQ#02 this thought emerged “why tax collectors?” and that question was answered with the obvious everyday observable fact that “taxes and tax collectors” are a “universal” reference that everyone can relate to, and in JQ#03 Jesus addresses a topic that is also “universal” and affects everyone I know — “Worry”.   

Again, as is the Teaching style of Jesus, He introduces the topic with an absolute “Truth” and then gets us to “think” about the “Truth” He has just spoken. This JQ#03 section starts out with one such “Truth” when Jesus says: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; not about your body, what you will put on…” (Matthew 6:25a) and then to emphasize His point, Jesus asks a simple series of Questions that reinforce the Lesson He is Teaching. 

This teaching method can be compared to a college professor first stating the object of the lesson and then turning immediately around and gives a test question like “What did I just say?” So Jesus states the “Truth” that we should “not worry about our life” and lists some everyday choices we make such as what to eat and drink and what to wear. He immediately makes us stop and consider a Question with an obvious answer just to make His point. Jesus says “not to worry” and then He asks the deep Question that will lead us to a “Divine Truth”! He ends His opening statement with His main Question in this section:

 JQ#03 “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” 

(Matthew 6:25b) 

His Question at the end of verse Matthew 6:25 is the main Question in this section of Matthew 6:25-34 therefore it needs to be “chewed on” for a little while — therefore, since the “Question” is a basic question about yourself and your everyday life, shouldn’t we stop and consider that Jesus thought it important enough to Teach an “everyday Truth” that we in our “everyday lives” must deal with 

“day-in-and-day-out”?!?!  

If we meditate on “Why” would Jesus bother to “Teach” us about simple “everyday” things we will come to understand that our “everyday, day-in-day-out” lives are important to Him because it is important to “our Father in heaven”!!! 

 When Jesus starts with what is actually a command: “do not worry about your life”, we should assume that 

Jesus is Supremely Confident that our Father in heaven 

is going to take care of our needs,

 therefore the Divine Truth is that 

“God will supply all our needs” 

and that our “worrying” never helps anything so we should ask the simple-obvious-logical-everyday question: 

 “What do we think we can accomplish with our worry that God hasn’t already taken care of in His Master Plan for our day-to-day lives?” 

We get into Spiritual “trouble” when we make our “worry” a greater power than our “Faith in God” — 

Trust God that when He commands you “Not to worry” that He HAS YOUR 6!!!

FEBRUARY 08 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)

 FEBRUARY 08  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, there is nothing to do but to TRUST that You are the TRUTH, made flesh and dwelt among us to reveal the Father in heaven to a lost and dying world, and by knowing the TRUTH, there is HOPE for a world lost in darkness of sin! 

And in knowing the Son of the Living God, through FAITH there is PEACE - a PEACE that cannot be understood with our limited and finite intellect therefore it can only be perceived and applied to our lives through the the Lens of Faith in Almighty God, leading us down Paths of Righteousness — a road that all believers travel safely down as the LIGHT is ALWAYS ON! 

Jesus leads us down this PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS for He has gone before us 

and has come to SHOW US THE WAY HOME! 

Lead on Jesus!!!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS has established with JQ#01 that we are “salt” and “light” but Jesus makes it clear that these are “God-given” talents and foundational character traits and as such they should be used for “kingdom work” and developed fully for God’s Glory!

We have been blessed by God to be trusted to “enter into His Labors” so we should use what God has given us to help others and we should let the “LIGHT” of God shine in the darkness that seeks to consume the world! In JQ#02 Jesus pointedly asks us again to consider that when we are doing “kingdom work” that we should be doing kingdom work to HONOR THE KING and therefore the best way to HONOR God is to “imitate” God and that is best done by “Loving others” who are as equally undeserving of God’s “LOVE” as we are! Jesus then commands us to “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and to make it a “command” and not a “suggestion”, do not miss Jesus declaring “you SHALL be perfect” and not “maybe you can” — No, it is the imperative command, “you SHALL”!!! 

God never gives us instructions without first making sure that we have all the provisions necessary to complete the task God has given us to perform and once Jesus tells us to “Be perfect” He then proceeds to give us instructions — there are 4 main areas of helping others that Jesus addresses, warning us that when we help others for the kingdom’s sake that we are to avoid being “hypocrites” in order to please God. So far we have seen (1) we are to do “Charitable Deeds” (2) we are to “Pray” and we are to (3) “Fast” (Matthew 6:1-18) and (4) “Serve God” and avoid serving “Mammon” for God shows us clearly that all our desires should be directed towards God and His Kingdom. 

Jesus uses a series of Good Action/Bad Action events to demonstrate this point: (A) “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal…” (Matthew 6:19) BUT — “…lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:20) TRUTH A: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

(Matthew 6:21)  

Then (B) “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. (Matthew 6:22) BUT “…if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. TRUTH B: “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” 

(Matthew 6:23) 

Jesus sums up the Good/Bad Lessons with this TRUTH OF GOD: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” 

(Matthew 6:24) 

This makes it clear that everyone is going to “SERVE” someone else and God shows us that the Master of the earth is Mammon and the 

Master of Heaven and Creation is God, 

so the logical question is: 

“Are you going to serve that which is not eternal and is plagued with destruction such as the things of this world or are you going to serve 

“GOD”, the ETERNAL Creator of the Heavens and the earth and the Giver of ETERNAL Life?” 

I, myself, can only tell you — 

“As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!” 

(Joshua 24:15) 

FEBRUARY 07 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)

 FEBRUARY 07   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, Lord and Savior, Redeemer and Friend, may every breath I take be used for Your Glory, let every thought I have be only thoughts of your kingdom, and may all my deeds be done in Your Name and for the kingdom’s sake. I have no desire but “serving" the King of kings and Lord of lords! Forgive me when I fail You with some careless thought or deed that draws me back to the world, may all my thoughts be used to grow the kingdom — keeping nothing for self.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS used JQ#01 & JQ#02 to focus our efforts on others and He gave us a couple of warnings to avoid “hypocrisy”. Jesus commanded us to do “charitable deeds” and “to pray” (Matthew 6:1-8) and in regards to "how" we pray Jesus gave specific instructions that when we pray (not if we pray — but “when” we pray ) that our prayers should be just as if we were talking to the Father and not just using “vain repetitions” because “…your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him…” (Matthew 6:7-8) Jesus then gives us the “Model Prayer”: 

“In this manner, therefore, pray: 

Our Father in heaven, 

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come. 

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our transgressions

As we forgive those who transgress against us.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." 

(Matthew 6:9-13) 

Jesus then amplified the importance of our forgiving others as He immediately made it plain that God forgives us because of our personal attitude that we harbor in our hearts toward others: 

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

 (Matthew 6:14-15) 

Again Jesus has told us plainly what God expects of us (After “endowing” us with Free Will CHOICE) and to make it clear Jesus gives us motivation as He lists the “rewards” and the “penalties” (CONSEQUENCES) of obeying (Actions that results from our Free Will CHOICES) the commands of “our Father in heaven.” 

After Jesus discussed “charitable deeds” and “praying”,  Jesus then instructs us in “fasting” and just like Jesus warned us about the first two steps to “perfection”, Jesus also warns about “fasting” that we should “not be like the hypocrites” putting on a show to impress men, 

“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” 

(Matthew 6:16-18) 

It is interesting to note that the first three steps we are to take to being “perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect” is to take these steps outside the spotlight of men — for Jesus warns us that if we do anything to impress men then we will be seen as “hypocrites” in the Father’s eyes. Jesus says our motivation to taking steps to perfection should be to gain favor with “our Father who is in the secret place, and sees in secret” who will know that we took the steps for Him and Him alone and that we will TRUST GOD to “reward” us as HE DESIRES!!!

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THE (LAST) PATRIOT’S PULPIT

Announcement 2/7/24 Wednesday 4:29A - I have been journaling since 2001 but in reality I have inwardly been journaling as long as I can remember, but I am “being led” to “back off” and “Allocate” my “Resources” to living my day to day life in the here and now to be better prepared to provide for my family. 

I have not “had a vision” but my spirit within me is nudging me 

to “do more” and “say less”. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not shifting in any of my “Patriotic” beliefs whatsoever, in fact, it is just the opposite as I feel that I need to be doing more to preparing myself for the upcoming “change” that is coming to AMERICA and the world because of the LIGHT that is being cast upon the darkness that has overtaken the world. There is going to be “wailing and gnashing of teeth” and everyone that is not prepared will be caught up and affected when the wounded creature realizes there is no escape and decides to take out as many “innocents” as possible, evil is evil and it only gets uglier the more it is exposed and we are just now getting a glimpse 

of how really, really evil that evil really is. 

I say this as a way of encouragement to “everyone that has ears, let him hear” because when it goes down it will strip the last layer of decency from  their disguise and when “they know” that “we know” then the real war between “good and evil” will begin and it will be of a magnitude that those not “spiritually” prepared will be wounded deeply and some will not recover. 

So, the “good guys” that remain after evil has exploded as it is going to explode on the innocent, we will not only have to deal with the “evil” bad guys, we will have to deal with the “wounded” good guys as well — I know this sounds awfully dark, but there is going to be a “very dark period” before final victory of the  “LIGHT” over “darkness” that will take many off guard and that my dear friends and Patriots is what I am going to try and prepare myself and my loved ones for so that when we do get “through the valley of the shadow of death” we will be able to “HELP AS MANY OTHERS AS WE CAN”! 

The reality is that my “words of warning” that I speak are not helping on any real scale and what I “do” between now and the end of the summer  of 2024 is going to have more “impact” than a few typed words. 

My parting Patriotic “advice” is to make sure that you optimize all your “Resources” and “Allocate” them wisely to prepare to provide for your immediate family for when “push comes to shove”  we are going to need strong Patriotic prepared families to rebuild after the STORM is over. 

War always produces “casualties” and there is always “collateral damage” so “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!” 

I will continue to daily post “The Jesus Questions” on my blogspot “thelaymanspulpit.blogspot.com" and my daily prayers. I started the “The Jesus Questions and Daily Prayers” blog in February 2016 and will continue to post daily as long as the internet is up. It has never been about generating a “following” as I have only had 1 (yes that is 1 and 1 only subscriber/follower) since February 2016 (there have been over 2000 posts) and I have not missed a day posting and I will continue to post because the posts are not my writings but the words are the “inspired WORD” that were given to me and I was told by the Holy Spirit to post them (and I will continue to do so until instructed to stop posting,) I was posting “The Jesus Questions” not for other people to read but as a reminder to myself where those WORDS came from and I get great peace out of reading them everyday and in this crazy world that is only going to get crazier, we will all need the “peace that passeth all understanding” which can only be found in the 

WORD OF GOD! 

This will be my last “email” and my last “Patriot” post, I am still right here and hope to hear from you, I will answer any questions you may have so “give me a buzz.” 

Ross: Let’s get the “rabbit thing” going.

Dom: Stop by now and then, I love seeing you and your beautiful family!

Janie: Let’s get together for supper at least once a month if you and Johnny can make the time.

Phil: You have been and always will be my “best friend” and we know in our hearts that distance and time have no impact on TRUE FRIENDSHIP — LOVE YA!

PRAY FOR AMERICA!!!

Your friend, fellow Patriot, and Brother in Christ,

Lanny (of Lanny and Debbie)

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