So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination.

and said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

He gathered these together, along with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this business.

serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots of the Jews.

After we located the disciples, we stayed there seven days. They repeatedly told Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem.

Paul replied, “I did not realize, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You must not speak evil about a ruler of your people.’”

The commanding officer took him by the hand, withdrew privately, and asked, “What is it that you want to report to me?”

This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, when I came up with the detachment and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive too.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.

They did not find me arguing with anyone or stirring up a crowd in the temple courts or in the synagogues or throughout the city,

which I was doing when they found me in the temple, ritually purified, without a crowd or a disturbance.

Then Felix, who understood the facts concerning the Way more accurately, adjourned their hearing, saying, “When Lysias the commanding officer comes down, I will decide your case.”

Paul said in his defense, “I have committed no offense against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”

When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him.

When it was decided we would sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius.

The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius, treating Paul kindly, allowed him to go to his friends so they could provide him with what he needed.

With difficulty we sailed along the coast of Crete and came to a place called Fair Havens that was near the town of Lasea.

When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and a violent storm continued to batter us, we finally abandoned all hope of being saved.

When the fourteenth night had come, while we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected they were approaching some land.

Therefore I urge you to take some food, for this is important for your survival. For not one of you will lose a hair from his head.”