Study Desk

I'm standing right here in front of you, but you still don't believe I am who I say I am.

I didn't ride all the way down here from heaven to do what I want, but only what my Father tells me to do.

Your ancestors ate manna from heaven in the desert, but they all died.

But any cowboy who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will pull him up out of the grave on the last day.

I am the real bread that rode down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die in the wilderness like your ancestors did (even though they did eat manna) but will live for eternity."

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.

Then Jesus said, "I picked y'all, but one of you has made a deal with the devil." He was talking about Judas Iscariot, one of the original twelve, who would double-cross him later.

Jesus replied, "My time to go to Judea isn't right now, but you can leave if you want to.

This world won't turn against you, but it has already turned against me because I tell it like it is—this world is full of evil people.

So, y'all go ahead and go to the festival, but I won't go before my time."

After his brothers had left for Jerusalem, Jesus headed there at a long trot, too. But he went in secret.

At the festival the Jewish leaders were all asking where Jesus was, but no one had seen him.

Those who speak on their own are after personal glory, but the cowboy who seeks glory only for God is a man of truth. There will be nothing false about him.

Moses gave y'all the Law. There are a lot of teachers and preachers of the Law, but not one of you obeys it. Not only that, but you are trying to kill me."

But I'm not the only one who did work on the day of rest. Y'all do too when you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. (Actually, circumcision came from our ancestors and not Moses.)

You say that you circumcise on the Sabbath so that the child will follow the teachings of Moses, but then you get mad at me for healing a man's whole body on the same day. You cut off a piece of man on the Sabbath and call it holy, but I make them whole, and you call me possessed.

But how can that be? We know this cowboy and where he comes from. The Messiah is supposed to show up, but nobody will know where he came from."

but I do. And he sent me here to you."

At this they tried to arrest him, but he just walked out like nothing had happened.

You'll think you know where that is, but you don't. And you cannot go where I am headed back to."