Study Desk

and said, "Give this power to me too, so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit."

Simon said to Peter and John, "Please pray to the Lord for me, so that none of these things you spoke of will happen to me."

So Philip got ready and went. Now an Ethiopian eunuch, who was an important official in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia, was on his way home. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was going back home in his carriage. As he rode along, he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but could not see a thing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.

and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he might see again."

So Ananias went, entered the house where Saul was, and placed his hands on him. "Brother Saul," he said, "the Lord has sent me—Jesus himself, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here. He sent me so that you might see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

But Saul's preaching became even more powerful, and his proofs that Jesus was the Messiah were so convincing that the Jews who lived in Damascus could not answer him.

And so Saul stayed with them and went all over Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

And so it was that the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had a time of peace. Through the help of the Holy Spirit it was strengthened and grew in numbers, as it lived in reverence for the Lord.

So Peter got ready and went with them. When he arrived, he was taken to the room upstairs, where all the widows crowded around him, crying and showing him all the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made while she was alive.

So get ready and go down, and do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

So Peter went down and said to the men, "I am the man you are looking for. Why have you come?"

"Captain Cornelius sent us," they answered. "He is a good man who worships God and is highly respected by all the Jewish people. An angel of God told him to invite you to his house, so that he could hear what you have to say."

And so when you sent for me, I came without any objection. I ask you, then, why did you send for me?"

And so I sent for you at once, and you have been good enough to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God, waiting to hear anything that the Lord has instructed you to say."

So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for a few days.

So Peter gave them a complete account of what had happened from the very beginning:

The news about this reached the church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

So Peter was kept in jail, but the people of the church were praying earnestly to God for him.