“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (Matthew 13:43 NLT). Christ’s parable of the wheat and tares concluded with this: “The righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom.” In other words, those who denied their own righteousness and
“Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds” (Matthew 13:18 NLT). In Jesus’ parable of the sower, He described four heart conditions that determined their receptivity to the gospel. Jesus explained the meaning of the parable to His disciples. He explained that the “seed” is the message of the Kingdom,
“For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart” (Matthew 12:34-35 NLT). Jesus responded to the words of the Pharisees who had accused him of healing by
“But Jesus knew what they were planning. So he left that area, and many people followed him” (Matthew 12:15 NLT). Jesus and His disciples were preaching town to town, when they entered a certain town on the Sabbath and entered the synagogue there. The Pharisees heard that Jesus was there and in order to accuse
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won” (Genesis 32:28 NLT). Jacob got a new name after wrestling all night with God. The name “Jacob” means “grasping the heel” or “pulling the
“I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps!” (Genesis 32:10 NLT). As Jacob returned to the land of Canaan with his wives,
‘The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor. Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do”‘ (Psalm 12:5 NLT). We tend to turn our eyes away from the helpless, fearing they may ask us for
“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (Matthew 9:37-38 NLT). Jesus told His disciples that multitudes of people were ready to be led into the Kingdom, but there weren’t enough workers to
‘Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts?”‘ (Matthew 9:4 NLT). When Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man, some religious teachers who witnessed it said to themselves that he had committed blasphemy. For only God can forgive sin. Yet, Jesus “knew
“His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite” (Genesis 25:9 NLT). Isaac and Ishmael buried their father, Abraham, in the same tomb he had bought to bury Sarah. These two sons became two great peoples. The Jewish nation came