But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter, having decided<n id="1" /> that they should avoid<n id="2" /> meat that has been sacrificed to idols<n id="3" /> and blood and what has been strangled<n id="4" /> and sexual immorality.&#8221;

He<n id="1" /> immediately took<n id="2" /> soldiers and centurions<n id="3" /> and ran down to the crowd.<n id="4" /> When they saw<n id="5" /> the commanding officer<n id="6" /> and the soldiers, they stopped beating<n id="7" /> Paul.

<p class="bodytext">Then Felix,<n id="1" /> who understood the facts<n id="2" /> concerning the Way<n id="3" /> more accurately,<n id="4" /> adjourned their hearing,<n id="5" /> saying, &#8220;When Lysias the commanding officer comes down, I will decide your case.&#8221;<n id="6" />

I punished<n id="1" /> them often in all the synagogues<n id="2" /> and tried to force<n id="3" /> them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged<n id="4" /> at them, I went to persecute<n id="5" /> them even in foreign cities.p>

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes &#8211; his eternal power and divine nature &#8211; have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people<n id="1" /> are without excuse.

<p class="bodytext">Therefore God gave them over<n id="1" /> in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor<n id="2" /> their bodies among themselves.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones,<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God,<n id="1" /> God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall,<n id="1" /> did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel<n id="2" /> jealous.

because they hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they constantly fill up their measure of sins,<n id="1" /> but wrath<n id="2" /> has come upon them completely.<n id="3" />p>

and with every kind of evil deception directed against<n id="1" /> those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth<n id="2" /> so as to be saved.

<p class="otpoetry"><b><i>and like a robe you will fold them upi>b>p> <p class="otpoetry"><b><i>andi>b> like a garment<n id="1" /> <b><i>they will be changed,i>b>p> <p class="otpoetry"><i><b>but you are the same and your years will never run outb>.i>&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin,<n id="1" /> and so<n id="2" /> he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,<n id="3" />

But as it is,<n id="1" /> they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies.<n id="1" />

For they deliberately suppress this fact,<n id="1" /> that by the word of God<n id="2" /> heavens existed long ago and an earth<n id="3" /> was formed out of water and by means of water.

<p class="bodytext">You are from God, little children, and have conquered them,<n id="1" /> because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

<p class="poetry"><b><i>hei>b><n id="1" /> <b><i>will rulei>b><n id="2" /> <b><i>them with an iron rodi>b><n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and like clay jars he will break them to pieces,<n id="4" />p>

The locusts<n id="1" /> were not given permission<n id="2" /> to kill<n id="3" /> them, but only to torture<n id="4" /> them<n id="5" /> for five months, and their torture was like that<n id="6" /> of a scorpion when it stings a person.<n id="7" />

The beast<n id="1" /> was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them.<n id="2" /> He was given ruling authority<n id="3" /> over every tribe, people,<n id="4" /> language, and nation,