Jesus compared people to trampled, rocky, thorn-choked, and fertile ground. Seed, representing the Word of God, can only thrive when it takes root in good soil. Saint Paul, once a powerful Pharisee, had zealously persecuted believers in the early Church. A blinding light and the voice of the Lord caused Paul to fall to the ground and led to his conversion. He became the “Apostle to the Gentiles.” Timothy received the gift of faith planted more gently by his grandmother and mother, but Paul had confidence in that faith as he took Timothy und
Read MorePeople had grown accustomed to strict observance of the Sabbath, fasting, and other rules and rituals. Using unshrunken fabric to patch an old cloak would pull at the tear. The Lord taught what worked for people clothed with faith in Him. He allowed the Disciples to pick heads of grain to eat when they got hungry while walking along on the Sabbath. Seeing a man with a withered hand in the synagogue, Jesus cured him on the spot. At the seashore, Jesus instructed the Disciples to have a boat ready so that the crowd wouldn’t crush Him as people
Read MoreJesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. He even invited a customs collector named Levi (Matthew) to become a Disciple. Like a doctor making house calls, the Lord came to heal people, physically and spiritually. He expelled whatever interfered with holiness. The Lord continues to teach with authority and to heal as needed, asking only that we have faith and cooperate! After a group of four men lowered a paralytic through the roof to reach Jesus, some scribes decried the Lord’s forgiveness of sin as blasphemy (irreverence or claiming equalit
Read MoreAfter feeding the spiritual hunger of a vast crowd, the Lord multiplied five loaves and two fish for the people to eat. The leftovers filled twelve baskets. Jesus then sent the Disciples and the crowd on their way so that He could pray by Himself for a while. Terrifying His friends by walking through wind and over waves to rejoin them in their boat, the Lord then calmed the sea and their fears. As the Lord continued to preach, heal, and Baptize people, news about Him spread. John the Baptist willingly and humbly became like a best man in the pr
Read MoreIn accordance with Mosaic Law, Mary and Joseph presented the infant Jesus in the Temple. There, a devout man named Simeon recognized the Child as fulfillment of a revelation that he would live to see the Christ. Magi defied King Herod’s instruction to report back to him after finding the newborn King, but Herod soon irately ordered the killing of boys aged two or younger anywhere near Bethlehem. Warned by an angel to flee, Joseph took the Holy Family to Egypt until after Herod’s death. Time went on, and John the Baptist told religious leade
Read MoreBelief comes as a blessing. The angel Gabriel proclaimed a wondrous plan to Mary, chosen to give birth to the Son of God. The angel also said that Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth, childless into old age, had miraculously conceived a son. When Mary greeted her, Elizabeth felt the exuberant movement of her unborn child (John the Baptist) and called Mary blessed for believing the Lord’s message. Elizabeth’s husband had his doubts at first but later gave their son the name told to him by an angel. On the first Christmas, the night became glorious
Read MoreJoseph knew that Mary’s expected child wasn’t his. Under Mosaic Law, pretending otherwise would result in God’s punishment of the Israelite nation. An angel came to reassure Joseph of God’s blessing. An angel also appeared to Zechariah, who doubted the message that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son in the couple’s old age. It seemed impossible! Zechariah lost the ability to speak until the day he named their baby in accordance with the angel’s message. The child became John the Baptist. In His ministry, Jesus offered to tell rel
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