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It was on the road at midday, Your Majesty, that I saw a light much brighter than the sun, coming from the sky and shining around me and the men traveling with me.
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All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, "Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by hitting back, like an ox kicking against its owner's stick.'
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"Who are you, Lord?' I asked. And the Lord answered, "I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
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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.
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I will rescue you from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles to whom I will send you.
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You are to open their eyes and turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through their faith in me they will have their sins forgiven and receive their place among God's chosen people.'
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"And so, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the vision I had from heaven.
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First in Damascus and in Jerusalem and then in the whole country of Israel and among the Gentiles, I preached that they must repent of their sins and turn to God and do the things that would show they had repented.
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It was for this reason that these Jews seized me while I was in the Temple, and they tried to kill me.
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But to this very day I have been helped by God, and so I stand here giving my witness to all, to small and great alike. What I say is the very same thing which the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:
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that the Messiah must suffer and be the first one to rise from death, to announce the light of salvation to the Jews and to the Gentiles."
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