When Paul had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept openly as they embraced Paul and kissed him. They were especially grieved by his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

When they came to him, he said, “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I arrived in the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, especially in the trials that came upon me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and Greeks alike about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. . . .

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder. What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. . . .

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.” Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again was such an abundance of spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. (The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir also brought from Ophir a great cargo of almug wood and precious stones. The king made the almug wood into steps for the house of the LORD and for the king’s palace, and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had such almug wood been brought in, nor has such been seen to this day.)

And now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. . . .

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD. . . .

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. . . .