Book of Common Prayer
The conversion of Saul
9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out threats and murder on the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and requested from him official letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that he could find people who belonged to the Way, men and women alike, tie them up and bring them back to Jerusalem.
3 While he was on the journey, and was getting near to Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice speaking to him.
“Saul, Saul!” said the voice. “Why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” he asked.
“I am Jesus,” he said, “and you are persecuting me. 6 But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men who were traveling with Saul stood speechless. They heard the voice, but couldn’t see anybody. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he couldn’t see anything. So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. 9 He went for three days, still unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.
27 You shouldn’t be working for perishable food, but for food that will last to the life of God’s coming age—the food which the son of man will give you, the person whom God the father has stamped with the seal of his approval.”
28 “What should we be doing,” they asked him, “so that we can be doing the work God wants?”
29 “This is the work God wants of you,” replied Jesus, “that you believe in the one he sent.”
30 “Well, then,” they said to him, “what sign are you going to do, so that we can see it and believe you? What work are you doing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; it says in the Bible that ‘he gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “It wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. It was my father who gave you the true bread from heaven. 33 God’s bread, you see, is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Master,” they said, “give us this bread—give it to us always!”
35 “I am the bread of life,” replied Jesus. “Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry! Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty!”
The father’s will
36 “But I told you,” Jesus continued, “that you have indeed seen me—and still you don’t believe! 37 All that the father gives me will come to me; and I won’t reject anyone who comes to me, 38 because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. 39 And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should lose nothing out of everything that he has given me, but that I should raise it up on the last day. 40 This is the will of my father, you see: that all who see the son and believe in him should have the life of God’s coming age; and I will raise them up on the last day.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.