FEBRUARY 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)

 

FEBRUARY 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#06 “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”

 (Matthew 7:16)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, today Lord as I awake with the “Joyful” thought that it’s going

 to be a “Good” day I stop and remind myself where that “joy and confidence”

 comes from — JESUS!!! — and my heart rejoices because You are 

the “Good Good Father” and you have “Good Plans” for us! 

Help me LORD to share with everyone that they may know that every day

 with God is a “Good Day”! My prayer is that our  “Good Father” will be

 revealed today to those that do not understand why the Cross 

is “Good News”!! Nothing but the Precious Blood of the Son of the

 “Good Father” could purchase such “Joy” — “Joy” everlasting because 

of Your Eternal Victory over Sin, Death, and the Grave! 

There is no thought so dynamic as God-Very-God 

choosing out of Love for the unloveable 

to be the Sacrificial Lamb for the Sins of the world, 

and the Son of the “Good Father”, willingly and in Pure Innocence, 

Suffering for all our sins on the Cross at Calvary! 

Then, in His Grave, He defeated Death, 

and on the Third Day was Risen by the “Good Father” 

to Eternal Victory over sin, death and the grave! 

Praise God, the “Good Father”, 

Jesus the “Good Son”, 

and the Holy “Good Spirit” of God 

from whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS with His unique JESUS Questions/Lessons proves that He IS 

the Master Teacher — for only the Master can Teach such Deep Truths of God

 just by getting His students to answer simple day-to-day questions. 

Jesus never Taught just one Lesson with only a single moral implication but 

with each Lesson Jesus revealed a Deeper Truth of God so that we could

 begin to glimpse God’s Bigger Truth picture for the world. Jesus is also 

revealing the Father and the Father’s Heart to us that we may come to know the

 Greatness of God’s Love. 

This next section was originally two JESUS Questions but after studying

 this section (Matthew 7:15-29) of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit made it clear

 that both Questions (Matthew 7:16 and Matthew 7:22) are in essence the same.

 These “JESUS Questions” should be studied for God’s Truth and to 

glimpse God’s Glory as we learn about the 

Magnificent Characteristics of Almighty God! 

As I stated before, when I first started reading this section it seemed like

 several small sections thrown in at the end of Chapter 7 but then as I 

read and studied, it now seems like Jesus is actually bringing up these

 questions to get our attention and then He Teaches one of His many 

parables using our curiosity generated by these simple Questions.

 Matthew 7:21 has always caused me discomfort but after applying the parable

 to my personal uneasiness I have come to another of those places where

 Jesus shines His Light on my discomfort and illuminates another “Peace” 

that can only come through a study of Holy Scripture. 

So not only is Jesus Teaching us God’s Truths, He is also confirming where

 we are to obtain the seeds of God’s Truths, 

where and how to plant God’s Truths, 

and how to know that through God’s Truths He is blessing our lives —

 which is the only True Peace we will ever find in our day-to-day lives. 

Read through the sections in Matthew 7:15-29 and UNDERSTAND THAT 

they are all Teaching Divine Truth as only the True Master Teacher can! 

This section starts with a warning:

 “Beware of false prophets…” (Matthew 7:15)

 then gives us a test to apply to false teachers:

 “Therefore by their fruits you will know them…” (Matthew 7:20)

 but then Jesus points out that only God’s Truths will stand as the “Witness”

 at our “judgment” when He declares:

 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you…” (Matthew 7:23) 

Jesus then Teaches us the parable of two builders which illustrates that 

we should choose wisely where we build our “house” and what we should 

use as the “foundation” of our “spiritual life”! See Matthew 7:24-27 

 for the parable but consider Matthew 7:15-23 as Questions to get us

 thinking along certain terms that adds Godly Truth to the Teaching of

 the parable of the two builders. I would also ask you to consider these 

as additional revelations from God on His 

“Law of Choice and Consequence” as there are several “choices” 

presented in this section and as always God is perfectly clear as to what

 He has already declared before the foundations of the earth as the 

“consequence” of our actions. Tomorrow we will begin deciding on 

materials to use to build our “foundation” as we look at what 

Jesus Teaches us about  “false prophets”.

FEBRUARY 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#05 “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:8)

 

FEBRUARY 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#05  “Or what man is there among you who,

 if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” 

(Matthew 7:8)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Praise You Lord Jesus for the work that You have given us to

 do in Your Name. We know that You can do all things and that in reality You

 do not need us but You chose to let us participate in the Kingdom Work

 with You! O Blessed thought that Your Spirit empowers us and we 

can proclaim because of Your Grace that we 

“can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13) 

Lord I praise You because I know I have no value to the Kingdom unless

 I do my deeds in Your Holy Name — I praise You also because You 

value me because that is what You have chosen to do — therefore I can

 quote Your Holy Scripture with great joy, 

“I have chosen you, to be My own precious possession.” 

(Deuteronomy 7:60) 

Lord Jesus, I pray daily to be crucified that daily I may be raised

 with You

 for I pray as did John,

 “[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS in Matthew 7:9-10 Jesus asks Questions with obvious answers

 and I believe that Jesus does this to make us realize that we overlook 

the obvious about “our Father in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9). The most

 Obvious fact from Matthew 7:9-10 is that if an Almighty God that can do

 anything His heart desires, choses to send His Only Begotten Son to

 become one of us, that “our Father in Heaven” has only “good” 

intentions for us on earth!!! God would not give His Only Begotten Son

 a “stone” if the Son “asks for bread”

 and the Loving Father would not give His Beloved Son a “serpent” if 

He asked for a “fish”!!! This should make it obvious to us that the Father

 desires good things for us.  Jesus almost reprimands us for 

not understanding the “obvious” because Jesus immediately scolds us with

 the answer to His two “obvious” Questions in Matthew 7:9-10 

by stating the “obvious” answer to us: 

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

 how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things

 to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11) 

The fact is that God desires good for all men and is Teaching us

 that to be like Him that we also should desire good for others 

as Jesus immediately follows with another Truth of God: 

“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you,

 do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) 

If we study the teachings of the “Law” and the “Prophets” the main

 theme God Teaches us over and over through them is that we are to desire

 good for others and not evil. All ten of His commandments God gave as

 the “Law” through Moses are “God’s Laws” intended for our good and

 each “Law” deals with how to prevent being “evil” to God and to others! 

The “Prophets” deal with the history of man and the cycle of man choosing evil,

 the judgment of God that follows man’s choice, but then God providing a

 “Way” back to the Father through His Redemption and Grace — 

(more examples of the “Law of Choice and Consequences”) — 

Then we have Jesus stating emphatically that He came 

“to fulfill the Law” (Matthew 5:17”) 

and later Jesus connects “God’s Law” to “God’s Love” as Jesus proclaims: 

“A new commandment I give you; as I have loved you, 

that you also love one another.” (John 13:34) 

One cannot read the Bible as a whole without seeing a Loving Father

 who wants only good for His Family! For God, through His Holy Word,

 has provided a “Way” for us to be heirs with Him! 

God came to the world of fallen man and offered us Grace and Kinship

 for He Promises that 

“…as many as [receives] Him, to them He [gives] the right to become

 children of God, to those who believe in His name; who [are] born,

 not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13) 

It should be obvious that “our Father in heaven” Loves us and desires

 only good for His children—all we need to do is to “ask” the “Way” and “seek”

 the narrow gate, knowing with all “Faith in God” and confidence in 

His Goodness that our loving Father will “open” whenever we “knock”!!! 

(Matthew 7:13-14).