Quotes About Faith

Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will appoint this responsibility to them

and will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

They presented these seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They began to argue with Stephen,

but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”

So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,

where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

and told him, ëLeave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.í

So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.

He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.

God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

ëBut I will punish the nation that enslaves them,í God said, ëand afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.í

Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.

When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.