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I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord said, 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.
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Stand up! I have chosen you to be my servant and my witness -- you will tell people the things that you have seen and the things that I will show you. This is why I have come to you today.
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I will keep you safe from your own people and also from those who are not Jewish. I am sending you to them
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to open their eyes so that they may turn away from darkness to the light, away from the power of Satan and to God. Then their sins can be forgiven, and they can have a place with those people who have been made holy by believing in me.'
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"King Agrippa, after I had this vision from heaven, I obeyed it.
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I began telling people that they should change their hearts and lives and turn to God and do things to show they really had changed. I told this first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and in every part of Judea, and also to those who are not Jewish.
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This is why the Jews took me and were trying to kill me in the Temple.
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But God has helped me, and so I stand here today, telling all people, small and great, what I have seen. But I am saying only what Moses and the prophets said would happen --
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that the Christ would die, and as the first to rise from the dead, he would bring light to the Jewish and non-Jewish people."
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While Paul was saying these things to defend himself, Festus said loudly, "Paul, you are out of your mind! Too much study has driven you crazy!"
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Paul said, "Most excellent Festus, I am not crazy. My words are true and sensible.