Hi, friends. I am Annie F. Downs. Let's read the Gospels. The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

These are the stories of Jesus Christ's life on earth, the friendships, the parables, the sacrifices, the meals, the miracles.

So each month we read all four books. Go ahead and subscribe today. Join us as we read the Gospels together and invite your friends to join us.

Here's how it works. I'll read three chapters to you. You can listen or read along in your own Bible, and then I will pray.

That's it. Today is April 5, day five of this month, and I'll be reading Luke chapters 13 through 15, and this month I'm reading from the message.

Luke 13. About that time, some people came and told him about the Galileans' pilot 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 the other Galileans?

Not at all. Unless you turned to God, you too will die. And those 18 in Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed when the tower of salome collapsed and fell on them.

Do you think they were worse citizens than all other Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turned to God, you too will die. 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? 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.

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 18 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.

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.

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 18 years?

When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and red faced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.

Then he said, How can I picture God's kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use? It's like an acorn that a man plants in his front yard.

It grows into a huge oak tree with thick branches and eagles build nests in it. 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.

...