Study Desk

The branding crew will be paid good wages, and the calves they brand will be those who will spend eternity on God's outfit. There will be a fine reward for those who did the calving and the branding when the time comes.

When they went to the well to talk to him, they begged him to stay for a while. He gave a two-day clinic at that little ranchito. He taught them who God was and how to ride for him.

but the folks in Galilee were accommodating. They had been in Jerusalem during the Passover and seen everything he did there.

so the Jewish leaders weren't too happy about it. They approached the man and said, "You can't be carrying your bedroll around on the day of rest. That is against our laws."

But I do not judge unfairly. I only judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is fair, and they will get what they deserve. I only carry out the will of my Father who sent me, not my own.

Huge crowds followed him because they had seen many of the miracles he'd done on the sick and dying.

Then Jesus lifted up the biscuits and thanked God for them and put them in a few different baskets to hand out to everyone. Everyone had as many biscuits as they could eat. He did the same thing with the jerky, and everyone got full.

They did as they were instructed and needed twelve baskets to get it all. The leftovers were more than they had started with.

When he didn't show up, they got on a boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum.

Then they reached out and gave him a hand as he climbed into the boat. His second foot had no more touched the floor of the boat than they felt the bottom scrape land. In the blink of an eye, they had miraculously arrived at their destination.

The next day, the crowd noticed the cowboys had only taken one boat and they knew Jesus hadn't been with them.

When everyone realized that Jesus and his cowboys were not around, they got in the boats to go look for him.

They found him in Capernaum and asked, "Hey Boss, when did you get here?"

They all replied, "We want to rope, ride, and brand for God's outfit too. What do we have to do first to saddle up with ya?"

They pondered this for a second and then someone shouted out, "Well, show us a miracle so that we know you are the Top Hand. We want to see what you can do. I mean, our ancestors got to eat bread from heaven while they rode across the desert.

"Well," they replied, "give us this bread every day like our ancestors had, and we'll eat it."

Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, "Is this too much for you?

Your real life is a spiritual one that comes from the Spirit of God. You think life is what you can see and touch, but it's not. Your flesh is like the color of a horse. It's nothing but decoration. My words are not decoration. They are the foundation of Spirit and the foundation of life.

Jesus was still teaching in the main church while they were talking and he addressed them, "Yeah, you know who I am and where I came from. I didn't come here by myself. I was sent here by the one who is Truth. You don't know him,

Still, there were a lot of cowboys who had been listening and started to believe in him. They said to others, "He's doing everything the Good Book said the Messiah, or God's Top Hand, would do."