All the wealth you lost will be nothing compared with what God will give you then.

Whenever you plant your crops, the Lord will send rain to make them grow and will give you a rich harvest, and your livestock will have plenty of pasture.

But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

How happy everyone will be with plenty of water for the crops and safe pasture everywhere for the donkeys and cattle.

Jesus told them another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field.

Jesus told them still another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A woman takes some yeast and mixes it with a bushel of flour until the whole batch of dough rises."

He said to them, "Go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to all people.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.

A few days later there was a meeting of the believers, about a hundred and twenty in all, and Peter stood up to speak.

Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.

But many who heard the message believed; and the number grew to about five thousand.

I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow.

There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done.

After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd---no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

In days to come the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it,

and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the LORD, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people."

The righteous will flourish like palm trees; they will grow like the cedars of Lebanon.

that still bear fruit in old age and are always green and strong.

As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.

The desert will sing and shout for joy; it will be as beautiful as the Lebanon Mountains and as fertile as the fields of Carmel and Sharon. Everyone will see the LORD's splendor, see his greatness and power.

I will be to the people of Israel like rain in a dry land. They will blossom like flowers; they will be firmly rooted like the trees of Lebanon.

Once again they will live under my protection. They will grow crops of grain and be fruitful like a vineyard. They will be as famous as the wine of Lebanon.

May the king be like rain on the fields, like showers falling on the land.

The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore; they ate and drank, and were happy.

"I will give water to the thirsty land and make streams flow on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your children and my blessing on your descendants.

"One by one, people will say, 'I am the LORD's.' They will come to join the people of Israel. They each will mark the name of the LORD on their arms and call themselves one of God's people."

I will increase the number of descendants of my servant David and the number of priests from the tribe of Levi, so that it will be as impossible to count them as it is to count the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore."

"I don't know, sir. You do," I answered. He said to me, "These are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb.