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Acts 12:1-19
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1 About that time, King Herod reached out to harm some who belonged to the church.
2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
3 And seeing that this pleased the Jews, Herod proceeded to seize Peter during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
4 He arrested him and put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out to the people after the Passover.
The Rescue of Peter 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.
6 On the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, with sentries standing guard at the entrance to the prison.
7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists.
8 “Get dressed and put on your sandals,” said the angel. Peter did so, and the angel told him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”
9 So Peter followed him out, but he was unaware that what the angel was doing was real. He thought he was only seeing a vision.
10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, which opened for them by itself. When they had gone outside and walked the length of one block, the angel suddenly left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
12 And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.
13 He knocked at the outer gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer it.
14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the gate, but ran inside and announced, “Peter is standing at the gate!”
15 “You are out of your mind,” they told her. But when she kept insisting it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.
17 Peter motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Send word to James and to the brothers,” he said, and he left for another place.
18 At daybreak there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.
19 After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there. -
Acts 10:24-33
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24 The following day he arrived in Caesarea, where Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
25 As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him.
26 But Peter helped him up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”
27 As Peter talked with him, he went inside and found many people gathered together.
28 He said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
29 So when I was invited, I came without objection. I ask, then, why have you sent for me?”
30 Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this, the ninth hour. Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me
31 and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been remembered before God.
32 Therefore send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, by the sea.’
33 So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has instructed you to tell us.” -
Acts 10:17-23
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17 While Peter was puzzling over the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house and approached the gate.
18 They called out to ask if Simon called Peter was staying there.
19 As Peter continued to reflect on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.
20 So get up! Go downstairs and accompany them without hesitation, because I have sent them.”
21 So Peter went down to the men and said, “Here am I, the one you are looking for. Why have you come?”
22 “Cornelius the centurion has sent us,” they said. “He is a righteous and God-fearing man with a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation. A holy angel instructed him to request your presence in his home so he could hear a message from you.”
23 So Peter invited them in as his guests. And the next day he got ready and went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa. -
Acts 10:1-16
/RSS FeedActs 10:1-16
1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was called the Italian Regiment.
2 He and all his household were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to the people and prayed to God regularly.
3 One day at about the ninth hour, he had a clear vision of an angel of God who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear and asked, “What is it, Lord?” The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have ascended as a memorial offering before God.
5 Now send men to Joppa to call for a man named Simon who is called Peter.
6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among his attendants.
8 He explained what had happened and sent them to Joppa.
9 The next day at about the sixth hour, as the men were approaching the city on their journey, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
11 He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air.
13 Then a voice said to him: “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 “No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and all at once the sheet was taken back up into heaven. -
Acts 6:8-15
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8 Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
9 But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They began to argue with Stephen,
10 but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
11 Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”
12 So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,
13 where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.
14 For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”
15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. -
Acts 5:12-23
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12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and with one accord the believers gathered together in Solomon’s Colonnade.
13 Although the people regarded them highly, no one else dared to join them.
14 Yet more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women.
15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
16 Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They went out
18 and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out, saying,
20 “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
21 At daybreak the apostles entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they returned with the report:
23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” -
Genesis 32:22-32
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22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
24 So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
25 When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
29 And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon which is at the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon. -
Genesis 31:1-21
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1 Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
2 And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,
5 and he told them, “I can see from your father’s countenance that his attitude toward me has changed; but the God of my father has been with me.
6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength.
7 And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8 If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore speckled offspring. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore streaked offspring.
9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
10 When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
11 In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’
12 ‘Look up,’ he said, ‘and see that all the males that are mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, or speckled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
14 And Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?
15 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered what was paid for us.
16 Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,
18 and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.
19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
21 So he fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Gilead. -
Genesis 24:33-49
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33 Then a meal was set before the man, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told you what I came to say.” So Laban said, “Please speak.”
34 “I am Abraham’s servant,” he replied.
35 “The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.
36 My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and my master has given him everything he owns.
37 My master made me swear an oath and said, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell,
38 but you shall go to my father’s house and to my kindred to take a wife for my son.’
39 Then I asked my master, ‘What if the woman will not come back with me?’
40 And he told me, ‘The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send His angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you may take a wife for my son from my kindred and from my father’s house.
41 And when you go to my kindred, if they refuse to give her to you, then you will be released from my oath.’
42 So when I came to the spring today, I prayed: O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if only You would make my journey a success!
43 Here I am, standing beside this spring. Now if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, ‘Please let me drink a little water from your jar,’
44 and she replies, ‘Drink, and I will draw water for your camels as well,’ may she be the woman the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.
45 And before I had finished praying in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
46 She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels as well.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.
47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
48 Then I bowed down and worshiped the LORD; and I blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who led me on the right road to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.
49 Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; but if not, let me know, so that I may go elsewhere.” -
Genesis 22:11-19
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11 Just then the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram in a thicket, caught by its horns. So he went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
14 And Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time,
16 saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,
17 I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
18 And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
19 Abraham went back to his servants, and they got up and set out together for Beersheba. And Abraham settled in Beersheba.
