Acts 16:1–40

¹ Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father. ² The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. ³ Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, so he took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. ⁴ As they went from town to town, they delivered the decisions handed down by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. ⁵ So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. ⁶ After the Holy Spirit had prevented them from speaking the word in the province of Asia, they traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. ⁷ And when they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not permit them. ⁸ So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. ⁹ During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ As soon as Paul had seen the vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. ¹¹ We sailed from Troas straight to Samothrace, and the following day on to Neapolis. ¹² From there we went to the Roman colony of Philippi, the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. ¹³ On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river, where it was customary to find a place of prayer. After sitting down, we spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵ And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. ¹⁶ One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!” ¹⁸ She continued this for many days. Eventually Paul grew so aggravated that he turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” And the spirit left her at that very moment. ¹⁹ When the girl’s owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace. ²⁰ They brought them to the magistrates and said, “These…