Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Father, use me to open people's hearts to Jesus. In fact, dear Father, please open my heart to allow Jesus to act with complete authority in my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

A few days later, Jesus came back to Capernaum. The news spread that Jesus was back home. Many, many people gathered to hear Jesus speak. The house was full. There was no place to stand, not even outside the door. Jesus was teaching these people. Some people brought a paralyzed (crippled) man to Jesus. Four men were carrying the paralyzed man. But they could not bring the man to Jesus because the house was full of people. So the men went to the roof above Jesus and made a hole in the roof. Then they lowered the mat with the paralyzed man on it. Jesus saw that these men had much faith. So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Young man, your sins are forgiven." Some of the teachers of the law were sitting there. They saw what Jesus did, and they said to themselves, "Why does this man say things like that? He is saying things that are against God. Only God can forgive sins." Jesus knew that these teachers of the law were thinking those things about him. So Jesus said to them, "Why do you have these questions in your minds? The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. But how can I prove this to you? Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say to the crippled man, 'Your sins are forgiven.' {No one could see if it really happened.} But what if I say to the man, 'Stand up. Take your bed and walk'? Then you will be able to see if I really have this power or not." So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, stand up. Take your mat and go home." The paralyzed man stood up. He took his mat and walked out of the room. All the people could see him. The people were amazed and praised God. They said, "This is the most amazing thing we have ever seen!"

Related Scripture Readings

So Jesus came to them and said, "All authority (power) in heaven and on earth is given to me. So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach those people to obey everything that I have told you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of the world."

The next day John was there again. John had two of his followers with him. John saw Jesus walking by. John said, "Look, the Lamb of God !" The two followers heard John say this, so they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw the two men following him. Jesus asked, "What do you want?" The two men said, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" ("Rabbi" means "Teacher.") Jesus answered, "Come with me and you will see." So the two men went with Jesus. They saw the place where Jesus stayed. They stayed there with Jesus that day. It was about four o'clock. These two men followed Jesus after they heard about Jesus from John. One of these two men was named Andrew. Andrew was Simon Peter's brother. The first thing Andrew did was to go find his brother, Simon. Andrew said to Simon, "We have found the Messiah." ("Messiah" means "Christ. ")

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. 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."

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