Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Holy and mighty God, Father of compassion and grace, my heart is broken because of several in my family who do not know your Son as their Savior and Lord. Transform me to be more like Jesus by the power of your Holy Spirit. Give me wisdom to know when and what to say. Give me discernment to know when to be silent and to simply demonstrate the character and compassion of Jesus. In the name of your Son, 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

Judas (the son of James) and Judas Iscariot. This Judas was the one that gave Jesus to his enemies. Jesus and the apostles came down from the mountain. Jesus stood on a flat place. A large group of his followers were there. Also, there were many people from all around Judea, Jerusalem, and the seacoast cities of Tyre and Sidon. They all came to hear Jesus teach and to be healed of their sicknesses. Jesus healed those people that were troubled by evil spirits {from the devil}. All the people were trying to touch Jesus, because power was coming out from him. Jesus healed them all! Jesus looked at his followers and said, "What great blessings there are for you poor people! God's kingdom belongs to you. What great blessings there are for you people that are hungry now! You will be filled. What great blessings there are for you people that are crying now! You will be {happy and} laughing. "People will hate you because you belong to the Son of Man. They will make you leave their group. They will insult you. They will think it is wrong even to say your name. When these things happen, know that God will bless you. At that time you can be happy and jump for joy, because you have a great reward in heaven. Their fathers were mean to the prophets in the same way that these people are mean to you. "But it will be bad for you, you rich people, because you had your easy life.

"It will be bad for you, Chorazin ! It will be bad for you, Bethsaida ! I did many miracles in you. If those same miracles had happened in Tyre and Sidon, then the people in those cities would have changed their lives and stopped sinning a long time ago. They would have worn sackcloth and put ashes on themselves to show that they were sorry for their sins. But on the judgment day it will be worse for you than for Tyre and Sidon. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No! You will be thrown down to the place of death!

Then Jesus went home. But again many people gathered there. There were so many people that Jesus and his followers could not eat. Jesus' family heard about all these things. They went to get him because people said that Jesus was crazy. Jesus said this because the teachers of the law said that Jesus had an evil spirit (devil) inside him. Then Jesus' mother and brothers came. They stood outside and sent a person in to tell Jesus to come out.