When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, &#8220;Crucify<n id="1" /> him! Crucify him!&#8221;<n id="2" /> Pilate said,<n id="3" /> &#8220;You take him and crucify him!<n id="4" /> Certainly<n id="5" /> I find no reason for an accusation<n id="6" /> against him!&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The<n id="1" /> Lord<n id="2" /> said to him in a vision, &#8220;Ananias,&#8221; and he replied, &#8220;Here I am,<n id="3" /> Lord.&#8221;

&#8220;I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision,<n id="1" /> an object something like a large sheet descending,<n id="2" /> being let down from heaven<n id="3" /> by its four corners, and it came to me.

Therefore if God<n id="1" /> gave them the same gift<n id="2" /> as he also gave us after believing<n id="3" /> in the Lord Jesus Christ,<n id="4" /> who was I to hinder<n id="5" /> God?&#8221;

But while John was completing his mission,<n id="1" /> he said repeatedly,<n id="2" /> &#8216;What do you think I am? I am not he. But look, one is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet!&#8217;<n id="3" />

<p class="otpoetry">&#8216;<b><i>Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish!i>b><n id="1" />p> <p class="otpoetry"><b><i>For I am doing a work in your days,i>b>p> <p class="otpoetry"><i><b>a work you would never believe, even if someone tells youb>.i>&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

explaining and demonstrating<n id="1" /> that the Christ<n id="2" /> had to suffer and to rise from the dead,<n id="3" /> saying,<n id="4" /> &#8220;This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.&#8221;<n id="5" />

For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship,<n id="1" /> I even found an altar with this inscription:<n id="2" /> &#8216;To an unknown god.&#8217; Therefore what you worship without knowing it,<n id="3" /> this I proclaim to you.

When they opposed him<n id="1" /> and reviled him,<n id="2" /> he protested by shaking out his clothes<n id="3" /> and said to them, &#8220;Your blood<n id="4" /> be on your own heads! I am guiltless!<n id="5" /> From now on I will go to the Gentiles!&#8221;

Then Paul replied, &#8220;What are you doing, weeping and breaking<n id="1" /> my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up,<n id="2" /> but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.&#8221;

Paul answered,<n id="1" /> &#8220;I am a Jew<n id="2" /> from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city.<n id="3" /> Please<n id="4" /> allow me to speak to the people.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Then when Paul noticed<n id="1" /> that part of them were Sadducees<n id="2" /> and the others Pharisees,<n id="3" /> he shouted out in the council,<n id="4" /> &#8220;Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection<n id="5" /> of the dead!&#8221;

And that is what I did in Jerusalem: Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received<n id="1" /> from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote<n id="2" /> against them when they were sentenced to death.<n id="3" />

Paul replied, &#8220;I pray to God that whether in a short or a long time<n id="1" /> not only you but also all those who are listening to me today could become such as I am, except for these chains.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

Thanks be<n id="1" /> to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then,<n id="2" /> I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but<n id="3" /> with my flesh I serve<n id="4" /> the law of sin.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters,<n id="1" /> that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

<p class="bodytext">To the rest I say &#8211; I, not the Lord<n id="1" /> &#8211; if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face difficult circumstances,<n id="1" /> and I am trying to spare you such problems.<n id="2" />

But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing these things so that something will be done for me.<n id="1" /> In fact, it would be better for me to die than &#8211; no one will deprive me of my reason for boasting!<n id="2" />

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them &#8211; yet not I, but the grace of God with me.