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It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
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He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes:
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obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries,
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greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness -
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all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."
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From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn't think he would be found, but he couldn't escape notice.
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He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet,
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begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter.
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He said, "Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there's any left over, the dogs get it."
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She said, "Of course, Master. But don't dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?"
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Jesus was impressed. "You're right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone."
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She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good.
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Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns.
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Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him.
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He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man's ears and some spit on the man's tongue.
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Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, "Ephphatha! - Open up!"
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And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain - just like that.