Study Desk

The Lord says, "You have said terrible things about me. "But you ask, ‘What have we said about you?'

"But for you who honor me, goodness will shine on you like the sun, with healing in its rays. You will jump around, like well-fed calves.

"But I will send you Elijah the prophet before that great and terrifying day of the Lord 's judging.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was engaged to marry Joseph, but before they married, she learned she was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.

but he did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to the son. And Joseph named him Jesus.

‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not just an insignificant village in Judah. A ruler will come from you who will be like a shepherd for my people Israel.'" Micah 5:2

But God warned the wise men in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they returned to their own country by a different way.

But he heard that Archelaus was now king in Judea since his father Herod had died. So Joseph was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee,

"I baptize you with water to show that your hearts and lives have changed. But there is one coming after me who is greater than I am, whose sandals I am not good enough to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

He will come ready to clean the grain, separating the good grain from the chaff. He will put the good part of the grain into his barn, but he will burn the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out."

But John tried to stop him, saying, "Why do you come to me to be baptized? I need to be baptized by you!"

Jesus answered, "It is written in the Scriptures, ‘A person lives not on bread alone, but by everything God says.'"

These people who live in darkness will see a great light. They live in a place covered with the shadows of death, but a light will shine on them." Isaiah 9:1–2

"People will insult you and hurt you. They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you because you follow me. But when they do, you will be blessed.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its salty taste, it cannot be made salty again. It is good for nothing, except to be thrown out and walked on.

"Don't think that I have come to destroy the law of Moses or the teaching of the prophets. I have not come to destroy them but to bring about what they said.

Whoever refuses to obey any command and teaches other people not to obey that command will be the least important in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys the commands and teaches other people to obey them will be great in the kingdom of heaven.

But I tell you, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be judged. If you say bad things to a brother or sister, you will be judged by the council. And if you call someone a fool, you will be in danger of the fire of hell.

But I tell you that if anyone looks at a woman and wants to sin sexually with her, in his mind he has already done that sin with the woman.

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife forces her to be guilty of adultery. The only reason for a man to divorce his wife is if she has sexual relations with another man. And anyone who marries that divorced woman is guilty of adultery.