Bible Verses About Select Readings

Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.

God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

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.

For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, who presented to the governor their case against Paul.

When Paul had been called in, Tertullus opened the prosecution: “Because of you, we have enjoyed a lasting peace, and your foresight has brought improvements to this nation.

In every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with all gratitude.

But in order not to burden you any further, I beg your indulgence to hear us briefly.

We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

and he even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him.

But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,

By examining him yourself, you will be able to learn the truth about all our charges against him.”

The Jews concurred, asserting that these charges were true.

When the governor motioned for Paul to speak, he began his response: “Knowing that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I gladly make my defense.

You can verify for yourself that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

Yet my accusers did not find me debating with anyone in the temple or riling up a crowd in the synagogues or in the city.

Nor can they prove to you any of their charges against me.

I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets,

and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.

After several years, then, I returned to Jerusalem to bring alms to my people and to present offerings.

At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia