Study Desk

After the men had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood up before them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me. You should not have sailed from Crete. Then you would not have all this trouble and loss.

The sailors were afraid that we would hit the rocks, so they threw four anchors into the water and prayed for daylight to come.

Just before dawn Paul began persuading all the people to eat something. He said, "For the past fourteen days you have been waiting and watching and not eating.

After he said this, Paul took some bread and thanked God for it before all of them. He broke off a piece and began eating.

The people thought that Paul would swell up or fall down dead. They waited and watched him for a long time, but nothing bad happened to him. So they changed their minds and said, "He is a god!"

There were some fields around there owned by Publius, an important man on the island. He welcomed us into his home and was very good to us for three days.

We stopped at Syracuse for three days.

We found some believers there who asked us to stay with them for a week. Finally, we came to Rome.

Three days later Paul sent for the leaders there. When they came together, he said, "Brothers, I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors. But I was arrested in Jerusalem and given to the Romans.

Paul and the people chose a day for a meeting and on that day many more of the Jews met with Paul at the place he was staying. He spoke to them all day long. Using the law of Moses and the prophets' writings, he explained the kingdom of God, and he tried to persuade them to believe these things about Jesus.

Through Christ, God gave me the special work of an apostle, which was to lead people of all nations to believe and obey. I do this work for him.

First I want to say that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because people everywhere in the world are talking about your faith.

There are things about him that people cannot see—his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do.

They traded the glory of God who lives forever for the worship of idols made to look like earthly people, birds, animals, and snakes.

They traded the truth of God for a lie. They worshiped and served what had been created instead of the God who created those things, who should be praised forever. Amen.

In the same way, men stopped having natural sex and began wanting each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and in their bodies they received the punishment for those wrongs.

He has been very kind and patient, waiting for you to change, but you think nothing of his kindness. Perhaps you do not understand that God is kind to you so you will change your hearts and lives.

God will reward or punish every person for what that person has done.

Some people, by always continuing to do good, live for God's glory, for honor, and for life that has no end. God will give them life forever.

For God judges all people in the same way.