JULY 15 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, keep my eyes always on You, keep my focus on the Hope
that You lay before us as we follow Your Way, keep my heart longing
to be “One” with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
as I know that You will keep me showered in Your Mercy and Grace
that my life will be Abundant with Peace and Joy. Lord Jesus,
You are Gracious and Forgiving so keep me centered in Your Will.
Give us each day our daily bread and keep me ever mindful
that if God be for us, who can be against us!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus, being the Master Teacher, spends as much time on a
particular subject as is necessary to bring His disciples to the point
that they “understand” what He is “Teaching” with His Question-Lessons.
This section of Scripture has been a Lesson on sin
and He has again
made the crystal clear point that if we fail to “understand” to perceive the
Truth of God
in the Lesson that the “consequences” of our misunderstanding
will have an impact on where we spend our eternity.
When Jesus says
“Woe to the world because of offenses.”
(Matthew 18:7)
and in the very next sentence He points to our personal
responsibility for our sin by the example,
“If your hand or foot causes you to sin,
cut it off and cast it from you”
(Matthew 18:8)
then those verses leaves no doubt that it is ourselves
that is the originator of our sin;
it is not “the-devil-made-me-do-it” myth ———
the devil himself has deceived us with his rebellious suggestions
which are nothing more than lies ———
but,
the originator of our sin is us,
our sin is personal
and we should be well aware that the
Truth of God
about sin is what King David wrote:
“Against You, You only,
have I sinned
and done this evil in Your sight.”
(Psalm 51:4)
The other worldly myth this verse destroys is the myth that
if we have not involved someone else and that what we are doing
is “personal” then it is not a sin (???) then we miss the point
that sin is against God
and we do not have the right
to decide what sin is
or what sin isn’t.
We suppose wrongly that without God there would be no sin
and that is what the world is trying to get us to believe, that there is “no God”
and that whatever we want to do with our own bodies that we
have the “right” to “choose” what we will do with this earthly body
because we are wrongly assuming that there is
no “sin” because there is no “God”!?!?!
When your mind is turned away from God and His Standards of Morality
then you have committed the “unpardonable sin” —
for God has ordained each soul with Free Will and if we “choose” to turn
from Him and live without Him then His Hands
are tied because we tied them with our wrong-thinking about God!
God will not force Himself on us,
therefore if we turn our mind from Him
then He will respect your
God-given Free Will
and therefore our “sin” cannot be pardoned because
the only One that can “pardon” sin is God
and if you turn from God and refuse to acknowledge
His Power of Forgiveness
then God cannot forgive you; hence, the
“unpardonable sin”.
The Truth of God is that the definition
of sin is being disobedient to God,
and the enemy of God lies to us and says that to free us from
our responsibility to God all we have to do is believe the “lie”
that there is “no God” ———
but a world without a Fair and Just God making the rules
must take on the awesome responsibility
of making our own “rules”
and being our own “god” ———
and all of us has proved with our own lives
that we cannot take care of ourselves properly,
much less take care of the moral good of everyone else!?!?!
Here is the reality facing mankind:
There is no “life” without God
for life without God
leads to death and destruction!!!
God is the Creator and there would not be a reality without Him
and regardless of what the majority decides is a “law”,
that does not have any impact on the
Reality of God and God’s Moral Standard
that He has established ———
mankind cannot make God go away
nor can mankind legislate “morality” ———
HERE IS TRUTH
God has declared what is “good” and what is “evil”
and God has declared what is “Right” and what is “Wrong”
and those that refuse to follow God’s declarations
are in Truth the “lost sheep”.
JQ#21b asks “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep,
and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine
and go to the mountains to save the one that is straying?”
(Matthew 18:12)
So the world-without-God will tell you that since “there is no God”
that your answer must be that if you are “lost” then “tough luck”
because there is “no shepherd” and if you can’t find your own way back
then you will have to accept your own “fate/destiny”.
Jesus is pointing out with this Question that God is going to take care
of ALL of His “sheep” and that if we “stray” from
His Protection and Provisions that He will do whatever is necessary
to bring us back into the “fold” and keep us safe.
“Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven
that one of these little ones should perish.”
(Matthew 18:14)
Jesus says back in verses 8-10 that
we are going to be held personally responsible for our sins
and that our sins will lead us astray but then Jesus concludes
with the “Hope” that if we listen for the Voice of the “Good Shepherd”
that we will be “found” ———
our “Eternal Hope” is that He is searching for us
and is calling for us to let Him save us from our sin against God,
but if we refuse to hear Him then we will be “lost in our sin”
which leads
“into the everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8)
Do you want to take the responsibility of providing for your own eternity
based on a “worldly myth” that man invented for his own selfishness ———
or do you want to Trust the Creator God
who unselfishly gave Himself that we
might “not perish but have everlasting life” with Him?
The voice of the
Good Shepherd
is asking in that
“still small voice”:
What do you think?
