Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

Luke 13. 22  Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23  Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, 24  “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26  “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27  “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ 28  “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29  People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingd

Luke 13. 18-19  Then he said, “How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use? It’s like a pine nut that a man plants in his front yard. It grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches, and eagles build nests in it.” 20-21  He tried again. “How can I picture God’s kingdom? It’s like yeast that a woman works into enough dough for three loaves of bread—and waits while the dough rises.” 22  He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem.

Luke 13. 0-13  He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God. 14  The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.” 15-16  But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?” 17  When he put it that way, his critic

Luke 13. 6-7  Then he told them a story: “A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren’t any. He said to his gardener, ‘What’s going on here? For three years now I’ve come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?’ 8-9  “The gardener said, ‘Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.’”

Luke 13. 1-5  About that time some people came up and told him about the Galileans Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus responded, “Do you think those murdered Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die. And those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them, do you think they were worse citizens than all other Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die.”

Luke 12. 54  He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55  And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56  Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? 57  “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58  As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59  I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

Luke 12. 49  “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50  But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51  Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52  From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”