Study Desk

And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent over double, and could not straighten up at all.

"And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this restraint on the Sabbath day?"

"Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

"Nevertheless I must go on My journey today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside Jerusalem.

"Whenever you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

"And another one said, 'I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.'

'For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.'"

"For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

"It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear."

"So he set out and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate.

"But he answered and said to his father, 'Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you never gave me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.'

"And he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'

"And his master complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.

"And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it is all gone, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

"But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.