JANUARY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#01 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

 

JANUARY  24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

   JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor,

 how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer

JESUS, we seek to find Your Truth and to know the “Way” and we praise You

 that You did not just “tell” us how to live but You became flesh and “lived”

 a life on earth so that You could Teach by “example”. Lord Jesus, as I

 search the scriptures I always end up searching my heart, for it is the 

desires of my heart that lead me to my actions and it is in our hearts 

that Your truth speaks the loudest. 

Lord, my desire is to be more like You in everything I do, say, think, and live!

 Lord, You know that I fall short “short of the glory of God” and yet — 

You still love me — Teach me Lord to stand tall in my shortcomings

 and love others with the love You showed the world

 by both Your life and Your death.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS 

JESUS has the “Authority” from God to “Guide” all who will follow Him

 to Heaven and to God Himself. This “Authority from God” has been 

documented in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the first three chapters

 where St. Matthew recorded how Jesus fulfilled the Messianic Prophecies

 and thereby is God’s Anointed One, God’s Only Begotten Son, 

the Son of Man who was born of Holy Seed from a “Virgin” womb! 

Those are the best credentials Jesus could have to prove 

His Authority to Teach us about God His Father.  

This blog attempts to accept the challenge from the Holy Spirit to read 

through the Gospel of Jesus Christ written by St. Matthew and to answer

 the Questions that Jesus asked. It is under this premise that we will

 continue our study on the Questions that Jesus asked during His earthly

 ministry starting at the beginning with the first Jesus Question 

encountered in Matthew’s account:

 JQ#01  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor,

 how shall it be seasoned?” (Matthew 5:13). 

 A comment received from Sharon Anderson who had accepted my

 invitation to comment on “The JESUS Questions” is filled with great

 insights that in reading and trying to answer these JESUS Questions 

we should keep in mind “3 things — …context, context, context…” 

which is great advice that I adopted immediately and advice that I pass

 on to the reader of this blog along with my open invitation for any and

 all comments the reader feels led to make on this blog — I still feel the urging

 of the Holy Spirit to get others involved in this deeper study of Jesus because

 He is “soon coming”!!!   

JQ#01 is about us being the “the salt of the earth” and with His Question

 there is a declarative statement, Jesus said “you are”, and not

 “you will become” or “you have been” but He states from His point of

 Infinite Truth that we “ARE”

 and that is where everyone needs to start — 

what we think about ourselves is not nearly as important as what Jesus “knows”

 about us! Jesus said very clearly that “You are the salt of the earth…”

 therefore we must first think of ourselves as “salt” and then we must

 answer the Question Jesus asks with 

JQ#01 “…but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?”. 

Sharon Anderson in her comment responded with some very good notes

 on the context (“context is king”) and that is where any study or discussion

 should start as I agree completely with Sharon that we must study context

 to get to the TRUTH. The “context” for JQ#01 is Matthew 5:3-16

 the “Beatitudes”.  In verses 5:3-11 Jesus uses the word “are” in each

 verse 5:3-11 and then again in verses 5:13 and 5:14 but in 5:3-11 Jesus

 says “Blessed are” and in 5:13 and 5:14 Jesus says “You are” .

 Sharon stated, “I think it behooves us to examine our own lives and 

see if our character and conduct line up more closely with the 

description in Matthew 5:3-11 or with 2 Timothy 3:1-5.” 

I agree that these “Beatitudes” were given to us as a Moral Standard 

and that we should also recognize that Jesus states emphatically that we

 “ARE salt” and also that we “ARE light”. 

Jesus was also very clear that we must be careful not to lose our “flavor”

 nor hide our “light”!  

The Life of Jesus was the most useful life ever lived and is without a doubt

 the brightest Light. Jesus stated that the “reason” we should live our lives

 as He lived His is so that the world will see our lives being lived for Christ 

and that 

“they may see your good works and

 glorify your Father in heaven.” 

(Matthew 5:16)