Acts 28

1 Once everyone was accounted for and we realized we had all made it, we learned that we were on the island of Malta.2 The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold and we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and gathered us around it.3 Paul pitched in and helped. He had gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from its torpor by the heat, struck his hand and held on.4 Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting his just deserts.5 Paul shook the snake off into the fire, none the worse for wear.6 They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god!7 The head man in that part of the island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days.8 Publius’s father was sick at the time, down with a high fever and dysentery. Paul went to the old man’s room, and when he laid hands on him and prayed, the man was healed.

9 Word of the healing got around fast, and soon everyone on the island who was sick came and got healed.
Rome10 We spent a wonderful three months on Malta. They treated us royally, took care of all our needs and outfitted us for the rest of the journey.11 When an Egyptian ship that had wintered there in the harbor prepared to leave for Italy, we got on board. The ship had a carved Gemini for its figurehead: “the Heavenly Twins.”12 We put in at Syracuse for three days13 and then went up the coast to Rhegium. Two days later, with the wind out of the south, we sailed into the Bay of Naples.

14 We found Christian friends there and stayed with them for a week.
And then we came to Rome.15 Friends in Rome heard we were on the way and came out to meet us. One group got as far as Appian Court; another group met us at Three Taverns—emotion-packed meetings, as you can well imagine. Paul, brimming over with praise, led us in prayers of thanksgiving.16 When we actually entered Rome, they let Paul live in his own private quarters with a soldier who had been assigned to guard him.17 Three days later, Paul called the Jewish leaders together for a meeting at his house. He said, “The Jews in Jerusalem arrested me on trumped-up charges, and I was taken into custody by the Romans. I assure you that I did absolutely nothing against Jewish laws or Jewish customs.18 After the Romans investigated the charges and found there was nothing to them, they wanted to set me free,19 but the Jews objected so fiercely that I was forced to appeal to Caesar. I did this not to accuse them of any wrongdoing or to get our people in trouble with Rome. We’ve had enough trouble through the years that way.20 I did it for Israel. I asked you to come and listen to me today to make it clear that I’m on Israel’s side, not against her. I’m a hostage here for hope, not doom.”21 They said, “Nobody wrote warning us about you. And no one has shown up saying anything bad about you.22 But we would like very much to hear more. The only thing we know about this Christian sect is that nobody seems to have anything good to say about it.”23 They agreed on a time. When the day arrived, they came back to his home with a number of their friends. Paul talked to them all day, from morning to evening, explaining everything involved in the kingdom of God, and trying to persuade them all about Jesus by pointing out what Moses and the prophets had written about him.24 Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it.25 When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted: “I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet:

26 Go to this people and tell them this:
“You’re going to listen with your ears,
but you won’t hear a word;
You’re going to stare with your eyes,
but you won’t see a thing.

27 These people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.”28 “You’ve had your chance. The non-Jewish outsiders are next on the list. And believe me, they’re going to receive it with open arms!”30 Paul lived for two years in his rented house. He welcomed everyone who came to visit.31 He urgently presented all matters of the kingdom of God. He explained everything about Jesus Christ. His door was always open. <\n>

Romans 1

1 I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God’s words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God’s friends.2 The sacred writings contain preliminary reports by the prophets3 on God’s Son. His descent from David roots him in history;4 his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master.5 Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus.6 You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!7 And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah.8 I thank God through Jesus for every one of you. That’s first. People everywhere keep telling me about your lives of faith, and every time I hear them, I thank him.9 And God, whom I so love to worship and serve by spreading the good news of his Son—the Message!—knows that every time I think of you10 in my prayers, which is practically all the time, I ask him to clear the way for me to come and see you.11 The longer this waiting goes on, the deeper the ache. I so want to be there to deliver God’s gift in person and watch you grow stronger right before my eyes!12 But don’t think I’m not expecting to get something out of this, too! You have as much to give me as I do to you.13 Please don’t misinterpret my failure to visit you, friends. You have no idea how many times I’ve made plans for Rome. I’ve been determined to get some personal enjoyment out of God’s work among you, as I have in so many other non-Jewish towns and communities. But something has always come up and prevented it.14 Everyone I meet—it matters little whether they’re mannered or rude, smart or simple—deepens my sense of interdependence and obligation.15 And that’s why I can’t wait to get to you in Rome, preaching this wonderful good news of God.16 It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else!

17 God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”
Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral18 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.19 But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is!20 By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.21 What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.22 They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life.23 They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.24 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out.25 And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!26 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men.27 Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.28 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose.29 And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous,30 fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way.31 Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded.

32 And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!
God Is Kind, but Not Soft

Romans 2

1 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors.2 But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.3 You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard?4 Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.5 You’re not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment.6 Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you—7 Real Life for those who work on God’s side,8 but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!9 If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended.10 But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up.11 Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.12 If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely.13 Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.14 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience.15 They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong.

16 Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.
Religion Can’t Save You17 If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation,18 a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines!19 I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out,20 feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God.21 While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t steal!” are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you?22 The same with adultery. The same with idolatry.23 You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law.24 The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.25 Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with God’s law. But if you don’t, it’s worse than not being circumcised.26 The reverse is also true: The uncircumcised who keep God’s ways are as good as the circumcised—27 in fact, better. Better to keep God’s law uncircumcised than break it circumcised.28 Don’t you see: It’s not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew.29 You become a Jew by who you are. It’s the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.