For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.