Study Desk

The next time Jesus taught beside Lake Galilee, a big crowd gathered. It was so large that he had to sit in a boat out on the lake, while the people stood on the shore.

Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked out the plants. So they did not produce any grain.

But they start worrying about the needs of this life. They are fooled by the desire to get rich and to have all kinds of other things. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything.

So they left the crowd, and his disciples started across the lake with him in the boat. Some other boats followed along.

So the evil spirits begged Jesus, "Send us into those pigs! Let us go into them."

and started begging him for help. He said, "My daughter is about to die! Please come and touch her, so she will get well and live."

The woman had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him in the crowd and barely touched his clothes.

Jesus became so well-known that Herod the ruler heard about him. Some people thought he was John the Baptist, who had come back to life with the power to work miracles.

Herod had earlier married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. But John had told him, "It isn't right for you to take your brother's wife!" So, in order to please Herodias, Herod arrested John and put him in prison.

The daughter of Herodias came in and danced for Herod and his guests. She pleased them so much that Herod said, "Ask for anything, and it's yours!

But so many people were coming and going that Jesus and the apostles did not even have a chance to eat. Then Jesus said, "Let's go to a place where we can be alone and get some rest."

But many people saw them leave and figured out where they were going. So people from every town ran on ahead and got there first.

Let the crowds leave, so they can go to the farms and villages near here and buy something to eat."

Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and handed it to his disciples to give to the people. He also divided the two fish, so that everyone could have some.

So they ran all over that part of the country to bring their sick people to him on mats. They brought them each time they heard where he was.

You are good at rejecting God's commands so that you can follow your own teachings!

One day another large crowd gathered around Jesus. They had not brought along anything to eat. So Jesus called his disciples together and said,

So they kept it to themselves. But they wondered what he meant by the words "raised from death."

They had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest, and so they did not answer.

So if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! You would be better off to go into life crippled than to have two hands and be thrown into the fires of hell that never go out.