Here are proverbs that will help you recognize wisdom and good advice, and understand sayings with deep meaning.

They can make an inexperienced person clever and teach young people how to be resourceful.

so that they can understand the hidden meanings of proverbs and the problems that the wise raise.

Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.

At the entrance to the city, beside the gates, she calls:

Are you immature? Learn to be mature. Are you foolish? Learn to have sense.

What I say is the truth; lies are hateful to me.

To those with insight, it is all clear; to the well-informed, it is all plain.

"I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels; nothing you want can compare with me.

Wisdom has built her house and made seven columns for it.

She has sent her servant women to call out from the highest place in town:

But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.

He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.

and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town.

But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

It was he who "gave gifts to people"; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers.

You will be handed over by your parents, your brothers, your relatives, and your friends; and some of you will be put to death.

Everyone will hate you because of me.

while others grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them.

You will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time will come when those who kill you will think that by doing this they are serving God.

With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once,

They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

And Saul approved of his murder. That very day the church in Jerusalem began to suffer cruel persecution. All the believers, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria.

But Saul tried to destroy the church; going from house to house, he dragged out the believers, both men and women, and threw them into jail.

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.

About this time King Herod began to persecute some members of the church.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword.

I persecuted to the death the people who followed this Way. I arrested men and women and threw them into prison.

The High Priest and the whole Council can prove that I am telling the truth. I received from them letters written to fellow Jews in Damascus, so I went there to arrest these people and bring them back in chains to Jerusalem to be punished.

And when your witness Stephen was put to death, I myself was there, approving of his murder and taking care of the cloaks of his murderers.'

That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I also voted against them.

Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews;

three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water.