Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Loving Father in heaven, you are holy and righteous. Only because of your grace and the intercession of the Holy Spirit do I have the boldness to come into your presence in prayer. Please give me that same boldness, touched with gentleness and respect, to share with my friends the wonderful things you have done in my life. In the name of Jesus, your consummate gift of grace, I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

At that time Jesus' followers came back from town. They were surprised because they saw Jesus talking with a woman. But none of them asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told the people in town, "A man told me everything I have ever done. Come see him. Maybe he is the Christ. " So the people left the town and went to see Jesus. While the woman was in town, Jesus' followers were begging him, "Teacher, eat something!" But Jesus answered, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." So the followers asked themselves, "Did somebody already bring Jesus some food?" Jesus said, "My food is to do what the One (God) who sent me wants me to do. My food is to finish the work that he gave me to do. {When you plant} you always say, 'Four more months to wait before we gather the grain.' But I tell you, open your eyes. Look at the {people. They are like} fields ready for harvesting now. Even now, the person that harvests the crop is being paid. He is gathering crops for eternal life. So now the person that plants can be happy together with the person that harvests. It is true when we say, 'One person plants, but another person harvests the crop.' I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work for. Other people did the work, and you get the profit from their work." Many of the Samaritan people in that town believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman had told them about Jesus. She had told them, "He (Jesus) told me everything I have ever done." The Samaritans went to Jesus. They begged Jesus to stay with them. So Jesus stayed there two days. Many more people believed because of the things Jesus said. The people said to the woman, "First we believed in Jesus because of what you told us. But now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know now that he really is the one that will save the world." Two days later Jesus left and went to Galilee. (Jesus had said before that aprophet is not respected in his own country.)

Related Scripture Readings

Jesus left that place and went to the area of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that area came to Jesus. The woman shouted, "Lord, Son of David, please help me! My daughter has a demon inside her, and she is suffering very much." But Jesus did not answer the woman. So the followers came to Jesus and begged him, "Tell the woman to go away. She is following us and shouting." Jesus said, "God sent me only to the lost people of Israel (the Jews)." Then the woman came to Jesus again. She bowed before Jesus and said, "Lord, help me!" Jesus answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs." The woman said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the pieces of food that fall from their master's table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! I will do the thing you wanted me to do." And at that time the woman's daughter was healed.

To answer this question, Jesus said, "A man was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Some robbers surrounded him. They tore off his clothes and beat him. Then the robbers left the man lying there on the ground. He was almost dead. It happened that a Jewish priest was going down that road. When the priest saw the man, he did not stop to help him; he walked away. Next, a Levite came near. The Levite saw the hurt man, but he went around him. He would not stop to help him either; he just walked away. Then a Samaritan man traveled down that road. He came to the place where the hurt man was lying. The Samaritan saw the man. He felt very sorry for the hurt man. The Samaritan went to him and poured olive oil and wine on his wounds. Then he covered the man's wounds with cloth. The Samaritan had a donkey. He put the hurt man on his donkey, and he took him to an inn. At the inn, the Samaritan cared for him. The next day, the Samaritan brought out two silver coins and gave them to the man that worked at the inn. The Samaritan said, 'Take care of this hurt man. If you spend more money on him, I will pay it back to you when I come again.'" Then Jesus said, "Which one of these three men (the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan) do you think showed love to the man that was hurt by the robbers?" The teacher of the law answered, "The one that helped him." Jesus said to him, "Then you go and do the same {for other people}!"

But you should keep the Lord Christ holy in your hearts. Always be ready to answer every person who asks you to explain about the hope you have. But answer those people in a gentle way with respect. Always be able to feel that you are doing right. When you do that, the people who say bad things about you will be made ashamed. They say these bad things about the good way you live in Christ. They will be made ashamed for the bad things they said about you.