<t /><p class="bodytext">Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified,<n id="1" /> &#8220;He told me everything I ever did.&#8221;

I have<n id="1" /> other sheep that do not come from<n id="2" /> this sheepfold.<n id="3" /> I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice,<n id="4" /> so that<n id="5" /> there will be one flock and<n id="6" /> one shepherd.

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors,<n id="1" /> saying to Abraham, &#8216;<b><i>And in your descendantsi>b><n id="2" /> <b><i>all the nationsi>b><n id="3" /> <b><i>of the earth will be blessedi>b>.&#8217;<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen<n id="1" /> went as far as<n id="2" /> Phoenicia,<n id="3" /> Cyprus,<n id="4" /> and Antioch,<n id="5" /> speaking the message<n id="6" /> to no one but Jews.

There he<n id="1" /> found<n id="2" /> a Jew named Aquila,<n id="3" /> a native of Pontus,<n id="4" /> who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius<n id="5" /> had ordered all the Jews to depart from<n id="6" /> Rome.<n id="7" /> Paul approached<n id="8" /> them,

<t /><p class="bodytext">So the next day Agrippa<n id="1" /> and Bernice came with great pomp<n id="2" /> and entered the audience hall,<n id="3" /> along with the senior military officers<n id="4" /> and the prominent men of the city. When Festus<n id="5" /> gave the order,<n id="6" /> Paul was brought in.

but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea,<n id="1" /> and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God,<n id="2" /> performing deeds consistent with<n id="3" /> repentance.

I have experienced<n id="1" /> help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except<n id="2" /> what the prophets and Moses said<n id="3" /> was going to happen:

When the local people<n id="1" /> saw the creature hanging from Paul&#8217;s<n id="2" /> hand, they said to one another, &#8220;No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself<n id="3" /> has not allowed him to live!&#8221;<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you<n id="1" /> a measure of faith.<n id="2" />

For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,<n id="1" /> regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia,<n id="2" /> that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.

But their minds were closed.<n id="1" /> For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read.<n id="2" /> It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.<n id="3" />

But we have rejected<n id="1" /> shameful hidden deeds,<n id="2" /> not behaving<n id="3" /> with deceptiveness<n id="4" /> or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone&#8217;s conscience before God.

For God, who said &#8220;<i>Let light shine out of darknessi>,&#8221;<n id="1" /> is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge<n id="2" /> of God in the face of Christ.<n id="3" />p>

For it is written:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;<b><i>Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children;i>b><n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry"><b><i>break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,i>b>p> <p class="poetry"><b><i>because the children of the desolate woman are more numerousi>b>p> <p class="poetry"><b><i>than those of the woman who has a husbandi>b><sc>.&#8221;sc><n id="2" />p>

But what does the scripture say? &#8220;<i><b>Throw out the slave woman and her sonb>, <b>for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the sonb>i><sc>&#8221;sc><n id="1" /> of the free woman.

in which<n id="1" /> you formerly lived<n id="2" /> according to this world&#8217;s present path,<n id="3" /> according to the ruler of the kingdom<n id="4" /> of the air, the ruler of<n id="5" /> the spirit<n id="6" /> that is now energizing<n id="7" /> the sons of disobedience,<n id="8" />

among whom<n id="1" /> all of us<n id="2" /> also<n id="3" /> formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath<n id="4" /> even as the rest&#8230;<n id="5" />p>

that you were at that time without the Messiah,<n id="1" /> alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise,<n id="2" /> having no hope and without God in the world.