Lesson 14 English Fluency Exercise

Lesson Text 7:54-8:3     (Acts)

Read the Lesson Text aloud.   Read the entire section until you can pronounce each word correctly, reading each paragraph without pausing.   Practice until you can read the entire Lesson Text with good English pronunciation.   Click on the or icon if you want to listen to the English speaker.

    As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger.   But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God.   "Look," he said. "I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God."   With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands.   Then they all rushed at him at once, threw him out of the city, and stoned him.   The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul.

    They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."   He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not remember this sin against them."   That very day the church in Jerusalem began to suffer cruel persecution.  All the believers, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria.

    Some devout men buried Stephen, mourning for him with loud cries.   But Saul tried to destroy the church.   Going from house to house, he dragged out the believers, both men and women, and threw them into jail.