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He said to them, "You know better than most that a Jew is strictly forbidden to associate with a Gentile or visit him; but God has taught me to call no one unholy or unclean.
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So for this reason, when sent for, I came without raising any objection. I therefore ask why you sent for me."
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"Just at this hour, three days ago," replied Cornelius, "I was offering afternoon prayer in my house, when suddenly a man in shining raiment stood in front of me,
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who said, "`Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your charities have been put on record before God.
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Send therefore to Jaffa, and invite Simon, surnamed Peter, to come here. He is staying as a guest in the house of Simon, a tanner, close to the sea.'
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"Immediately, therefore, I sent to you, and I thank you heartily for having come. That is why all of us are now assembled here in God's presence, to listen to what the Lord has commanded you to say."
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Then Peter began to speak. "I clearly see," he said, "that God makes no distinctions between one man and another;
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but that in every nation those who fear Him and live good lives are acceptable to Him.
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The Message which He sent to the descendants of Israel, when He announced the Good News of peace through Jesus Christ--He is Lord of all--that Message you cannot but know;
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the story, I mean, which has spread through the length and breadth of Judaea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism which John proclaimed.
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It tells how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, so that He went about everywhere doing acts of kindness, and curing all who were being continually oppressed by the Devil--for God was with Jesus.