God

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

“Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

From Attalia they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had just completed.

When they arrived, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and apostles and elders, to whom they reported all that God had done through them.

After much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.

And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us.

Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?

The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

Simon has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to be His own.

‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,

so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things

that have been known for ages.’

It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Then he brought them into his home and set a meal before them. So he and all his household rejoiced that they had come to believe in God.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds.

For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.

Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.

Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.