This will please the LORD more than offering him cattle, more than sacrificing a full-grown bull.

In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Here, then, is my receipt for everything you have given me---and it has been more than enough! I have all I need now that Epaphroditus has brought me all your gifts. They are like a sweet-smelling offering to God, a sacrifice which is acceptable and pleasing to him.

Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God.

Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents always, for that is what pleases God.

(SEE 13:20)

We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

Esau hated Jacob, because his father had given Jacob the blessing. He thought, "The time to mourn my father's death is near; then I will kill Jacob."

When the messengers came back to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you. He has four hundred men with him."

Jacob was frightened and worried. He divided into two groups the people who were with him, and also his sheep, goats, cattle, and camels.

The man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel."

But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. They were both crying.

LORD, may all their curses come true if I have not served you well, if I have not pleaded with you on behalf of my enemies when they were in trouble and distress.

In the meantime Saul kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest

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.

and after he had eaten, his strength came back. Saul stayed for a few days with the believers in Damascus.

He went straight to the synagogues and began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God.