For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship came to me

Whoever wants to serve me must follow me, so that my servant will be with me where I am. And my Father will honor anyone who serves me.

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News.

God is my witness that what I say is true---the God whom I serve with all my heart by preaching the Good News about his Son. God knows that I remember you

Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion.

Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Do your work as slaves cheerfully, as though you served the Lord, and not merely human beings.

Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve.

All those people speak about how you received us when we visited you, and how you turned away from idols to God, to serve the true and living God

From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ--- To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been given a faith as precious as ours:

That is why they stand before God's throne and serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will protect them with his presence.

For I am the least of all the apostles---I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church.

But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God's grace working with me.

There is nothing in us that allows us to claim that we are capable of doing this work. The capacity we have comes from God;

Even after we arrived in Macedonia, we did not have any rest. There were troubles everywhere, quarrels with others, fears in our hearts.

But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud.

But his answer was: "My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak." I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me.

You remember why I preached the gospel to you the first time; it was because I was sick.

But even though my physical condition was a great trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you received me as you would an angel from heaven; you received me as you would Christ Jesus.

Watch, then, and remember that with many tears, day and night, I taught every one of you for three years.

My tears pour down like a river, because people do not obey your law.

I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

If you will not listen, I will cry in secret because of your pride; I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow because the LORD's people have been taken away as captives.

He came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it,

I wrote you with a greatly troubled and distressed heart and with many tears; my purpose was not to make you sad, but to make you realize how much I love you all.

I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross.

I remember your tears, and I want to see you very much, so that I may be filled with joy.

For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings.

To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;

when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!

Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots, in order to show that the supreme power belongs to God, not to us.

there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed.

Throughout our lives we are always in danger of death for Jesus' sake, in order that his life may be seen in this mortal body of ours.

Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman---but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.

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.

There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing.

When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress.

My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way,

Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer.

where he stayed three months. He was getting ready to go to Syria when he discovered that there were Jews plotting against him; so he decided to go back through Macedonia.

After many days had gone by, the Jews met together and made plans to kill Saul,

But one night Saul's followers took him and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

But the Jews stirred up the leading men of the city and the Gentile women of high social standing who worshiped God. They started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their region.

The apostles shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went on to Iconium.

Then some Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, decided to mistreat the apostles and stone them.

When the apostles learned about it, they fled to the cities of Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia and to the surrounding territory.

Some Jews came from Antioch in Pisidia and from Iconium; they won the crowds over to their side, stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead.

But when the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he and Barnabas went to Derbe.

But some Jews were jealous and gathered worthless loafers from the streets and formed a mob. They set the whole city in an uproar and attacked the home of a man named Jason, in an attempt to find Paul and Silas and bring them out to the people.

But when the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul had preached the word of God in Berea also, they came there and started exciting and stirring up the mobs.

In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends.