Study Desk

Then He laid His hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and began to glorify God.

"You hypocrites!" the Lord replied, "Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?

When Jesus said this, all His adversaries were humiliated. And the whole crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things He was doing.

It is like a mustard seed that a man tossed into his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches."

Then Jesus traveled throughout the towns and villages, teaching as He made His way toward Jerusalem.

But they remained silent. Then Jesus took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him on his way.

When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.'

So the master told his servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be My disciple.

And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.

Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,

comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbors to tell them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!'

The younger son said to him, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.

After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.

Finally he came to his senses and said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death!

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.