Study Desk

It's because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops.

Because of the covenant I made with you, sealed with blood, I will free your prisoners from death in a waterless dungeon.

Household gods give worthless advice, fortune-tellers predict only lies, and interpreters of dreams pronounce falsehoods that give no comfort. So my people are wandering like lost sheep; they are attacked because they have no shepherd.

"I will strengthen Judah and save Israel; I will restore them because of my compassion. It will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, who will hear their cries.

Listen to me and make up your minds to honor my name," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "or I will bring a terrible curse against you. I will curse even the blessings you receive. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you have not taken my warning to heart.

Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord 's altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn't accept them with pleasure.

You cry out, "Why doesn't the Lord accept my worship?" I'll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows.

After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother," the angel said. "Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

"Get up!" the angel said. "Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead."

"God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!' because heaven is God's throne.

And do not say, ‘By the earth!' because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!' for Jerusalem is the city of the great King.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.

I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,' and they go, or ‘Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,' they do it."

Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, "Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened." And the young servant was healed that same hour.

Then he touched their eyes and said, "Because of your faith, it will happen."

But the Pharisees said, "He can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons."

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Don't carry a traveler's bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick. Don't hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to be fed.

You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.