Study Desk

"You can't decide who rides for me and who doesn't. You can't ride for me unless my Father sends you. And only those who my Father sends me will be raised up to life on the last day.

That's why the Scriptures say, 'God will personally teach them how to ride for the brand.' You see? God ain't going to send nobody to me who hasn't listened and done what he told them to do.

"Listen to the truth. Anyone who rides for me has eternal life.

Those who ride for me will eat my flesh and drink my blood. I will live in him, and he will live in me.

The Father gave me life, and I will give that same life to the cowboy who rides for me.

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."

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

Even now, there are some of you who do not believe what I tell you." Jesus had known from day one that some of these who claimed to ride for him were counterfeits. They would be the ones who quit when the going got tough.

Then he added, "That's why I told you that you wouldn't be able to ride for me unless God sent you."

Then Jesus turned to the twelve cowboys who rode for him and asked, "Are y'all going to quit, too?"

Then the time came for the Jewish Festival of Tents, and

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

Anyone who rides for God will be able to tell if my teaching is from him or it is merely my own.

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.

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.

When they found him said, "I won't be here for long. Then I'll be going back to where I'm from.

"Is there a single one of us leaders who have fallen for his lies? Is there even one of us who believes in him?

but was back at the main church early the next morning. He drew quite a crowd. He sat them all down and taught them how to ride for God's outfit.

They kept hounding him for an answer, but when he stood up, he said, "Stone her. But only the man who has never sinned, not even once in his entire life, may throw a stone."

Jesus repeated himself later, "I am leaving soon. You will look for me, but you'll only find death when your sins catch up to you. You can't find me because you can't go where I am headed."