Am I not a free man? Am I not an apostle? Haven't I seen Jesus our Lord? And aren't you the result of my work for the Lord?

As Saul was coming near the city of Damascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him.

"Who are you, Lord?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you persecute," the voice said.

One night Paul had a vision in which the Lord said to him, "Do not be afraid, but keep on speaking and do not give up,

He said, 'The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see his righteous Servant, and to hear him speaking with his own voice.

in which I saw the Lord, as he said to me, 'Hurry and leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your witness about me.'

But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant. You are to tell others what you have seen of me today and what I will show you in the future.

I have to boast, even though it doesn't do any good. But I will now talk about visions and revelations given me by the Lord.

I repeat, I know that this man was snatched to Paradise (again, I do not know whether this actually happened or whether it was a vision---only God knows), and there he heard things which cannot be put into words, things that human lips may not speak.

So I will boast about this man---but I will not boast about myself, except the things that show how weak I am.