Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins. And don't start saying among yourselves that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham!

He began to think to himself, 'I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do?

The servant said to himself, 'My master is going to dismiss me from my job. What shall I do? I am not strong enough to dig ditches, and I am ashamed to beg.

For a long time the judge refused to act, but at last he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or respect people,

when Elisha's servant Gehazi said to himself, "My master has let Naaman get away without paying a thing! He should have accepted what that Syrian offered him. By the living LORD I will run after him and get something from him."

"Come on and have some more," he says, but he doesn't mean it. What he thinks is what he really is.

Some teachers of the Law who were sitting there thought to themselves,

"How does he dare talk like this? This is blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!"

For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill,

They all were filled with fear and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us!" they said; "God has come to save his people!"

There was much whispering about him in the crowd. "He is a good man," some people said. "No," others said, "he fools the people."

Some of the people in the crowd heard him say this and said, "This man is really the Prophet!"

Others said, "He is the Messiah!" But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee!

"Did he fool you, too?" the Pharisees asked them.

This crowd does not know the Law of Moses, so they are under God's curse!"

"According to our Law we cannot condemn people before hearing them and finding out what they have done."

A second time they called back the man who had been born blind, and said to him, "Promise before God that you will tell the truth! We know that this man who cured you is a sinner."

In that town was a woman who lived a sinful life. She heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house, so she brought an alabaster jar full of perfume

the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, "This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!"

The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in.

But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!'

Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else.

The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, 'I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.

And then they say to others, 'Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!' I cannot stand people like that---my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out.

Jesus heard them and answered, "People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.

Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: 'It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.' I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts."

And Jesus concluded, "So those who are last will be first, and those who are first will be last."

"Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.'

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. 'Yes, sir,' he answered, but he did not go.