Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of our fathers the apostles, may their blessings be with us.
Acts 7 : 44 - 8 : 1
Chapter 7
| 44 | "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
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| 45 | which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David,
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| 46 | who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
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| 47 | But Solomon built Him a house.
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| 48 | "However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
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| 49 | "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?
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| 50 | Has My hand not made all these things?'
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| 51 | "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
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| 52 | Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
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| 53 | who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it."
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| 54 | When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
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| 55 | But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
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| 56 | and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"
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| 57 | Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
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| 58 | and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
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| 59 | And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
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| 60 | Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
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Chapter 8
| 1 | Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
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The word of the Lord shall grow, multiply, be mighty, and be confirmed, in the holy Church of God.
Amen.
