Study Desk

He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver. As a metalworker refines silver and gold, so the Lord 's messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to the Lord the right kind of offerings.

"I am the Lord , and I do not change. And so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not yet completely lost.

Bring the full amount of your tithes to the Temple, so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.

So then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from then to the birth of the Messiah.

Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly; so he made plans to break the engagement privately.

So when Joseph woke up, he married Mary, as the angel of the Lord had told him to.

When King Herod heard about this, he was very upset, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem.

So Herod called the visitors from the East to a secret meeting and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

Then he sent them to Bethlehem with these instructions: "Go and make a careful search for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him."

And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, "Herod will be looking for the child in order to kill him. So get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave."

So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Israel.

But when Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. He was given more instructions in a dream, so he went to the province of Galilee

and made his home in a town named Nazareth. And so what the prophets had said came true: "He will be called a Nazarene."

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires." So John agreed.

and said to him, "If you are God's Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says, ‘God will give orders to his angels about you; they will hold you up with their hands, so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.'"

The news about him spread through the whole country of Syria, so that people brought to him all those who were sick, suffering from all kinds of diseases and disorders: people with demons, and epileptics, and paralytics—and Jesus healed them all.

"You are like salt for the whole human race. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it.

In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.