Hi friends, I'm 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 here is how it works. I'll read three chapters to you. You can listen or read along in your own Bible or online, and then I'll pray, and that's it. Today is day 22, and I will be reading

from Luke chapters 19 through 21. And this month, I'm reading in the CSB.

Luke 19. He entered Jericho and was passing through.

There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich.

He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd since he was a short man.

So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus since he was about to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him,

Zakias, hurry and come down, because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.

So we quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully.

All who saw it began to complain, he's gone to stay with a sinful man.

But Zakiya stood there and said to the Lord, look, I'll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone,

I'll pay back four times as much. Today, salvation has come to this house, Jesus told him,

because he too is a son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and to save the lost.

As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem,

and they thought the kingdom of God was going to appear right away. Therefore, he said,

a noble man traveled to a far country to receive for himself authority to be king and then to

return. He called ten of his servants, gave them ten minutes, and told them,

engage in business until I come back.

But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him saying,

we don't want this man to rule over us.

At his return, having received the authority to be king,

he summoned those servants he had given the money to

...