Book of Common Prayer

2 There was a time when you were dead. That was because of the bad and the wrong things you did.

² At one time you did those wrong things, just like the people around you. You obeyed the ruler who has the power over things in the air. That ruler is the spirit who is working now in the people who do not obey God.

³ At one time we too all lived like them. We lived to please ourselves. We did what our bodies and our minds wanted us to do. We were people with whom God was angry, just like other people.

⁴ But God was very, very kind. He loved us very, very much.

⁵ We were dead because of the wrong things we had done. He has made us alive with Christ. You have been saved by his love and kindness.

⁶ God raised us from death with Christ Jesus and gave us a place to sit with him in heaven.

⁷ He did this to show us in all times to come how much he can bless people and how kind he is. It was Jesus Christ who brought this kindness to us.

⁸ You have been saved by God's love and kindness because you believed. It was not because of anything you did, but it was a gift from God.

⁹ You were not saved by trying to do what the law says. So no one can be proud about it.

¹⁰ God has made us. In Jesus Christ God made us so that we can do good things. He planned that we should live that way.

²⁹ As soon as they came out of the meeting house, they went to the home of Simon and Andrew. James and John went also.

³⁰ Simon's wife's mother was sick and was lying down. She had a fever. Right away they told Jesus about her.

³¹ Jesus went to her. He took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her right away, and she began to do things to help them.

³² That evening when the sun went down, people brought to Jesus all the sick people and those who had bad spirits.

³³ All the people in the city crowded around the door.

³⁴ He healed many sick people. He drove the bad spirits out of people. And he did not let them speak because they knew who he was.

³⁵ The next morning Jesus got up long before daylight. He went out to a place by himself. There he talked with God.

³⁶ Simon and his friends went out after Jesus.

³⁷ When they found him they said, `Everyone is looking for you.'

³⁸ Jesus said, `We must go to the next towns. I must tell the good news to the people there too. That is why I came here.'

³⁹ Then Jesus talked to the people in all the meeting houses in all the country of Galilee. He also made the bad spirits come out of people.

⁴⁰ A man who was sick with leprosy [a bad skin disease] came to him. He kneeled down and begged Jesus saying, `I know you can heal me if you want to.'

⁴¹ Jesus was very sorry for him. He put out his hand and touched him. He said, `I want to. Be healed.'

⁴² As soon as he said this, the disease left the man and he was healed.

⁴³ Jesus talked strongly to him and sent him away.

⁴⁴ He said, `Do not tell anyone about this. But go and let the priest look at you. Moses gave a law about the gift you must give to God when you are healed. Give it to prove to people that you are healed.'

⁴⁵ But the man went out and told everyone everywhere what had happened to him. Because he did this, Jesus could not go into any large town freely. He stayed in places where only a few people were. There people came to him from everywhere.