Book of Common Prayer

1 I am Paul the apostle, a messenger from God. Men did not call me to be an apostle. Men did not make me an apostle. Jesus Christ and God the Father made me an apostle. It was the same God the Father who raised Jesus from death.

² All the Christian brothers who are with me and I, send greetings. To the churches in the province of Galatia:

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you with his loving kindness and give you peace.

⁴ Christ gave his life to pay for the wrong things we have done. He did this to set us free from the wrong ways of this world. This is what our God and Father wanted him to do.

⁵ All the praise for this belongs to God for ever and ever. Yes, it does!

⁶ I am very much surprised. It is so soon, and you are leaving God who called you by the love of Christ. Instead you are listening to another good news.

⁷ There is really no other good news. But some people are making you think wrong things. They want to change the good news of Christ.

⁸ We are wrong if we tell you a different kind of good news. Even an angel from heaven is wrong to tell you something different. Let a punishment from God come upon us if we tell you a different kind of good news.

⁹ We have said it before, and I say it again now. A curse be on any one who tells you a kind of good news which is not the good news we have already told you.

¹⁰ Now, am I trying to please men or God? If I were still trying to please men, then I would not be the servant of Christ.

¹¹ My brothers, I want you to know this. The good news which I told you is not man's good news.

¹² No man told it to me. No man taught it to me. But it was Jesus Christ who showed it to me.

¹³ You have heard how I lived while I was still under the law of the Jews. I troubled the church of God very much. And I even tried to stop the church people altogether.

¹⁴ I knew more about the law of the Jews than many of my own age among my people. I wanted much more than they did to obey the laws which our fathers passed down to us, even the ones that were not written.

¹⁵ But God chose me to be an apostle before I was born. And he called me by his love.

¹⁶ God wanted to show his Son to me so that I might tell people who are not Jews about him. I did not go and ask any other person about the good news.

¹⁷ I did not go to Jerusalem to the men who were apostles before I was. But I went away into the country of Arabia. Then afterwards, I came back to the city of Damascus.

²¹ Jesus crossed over the sea again to the other side. Many people came to him while he was near the water.

²² One of the rulers of the meeting house came to him. His name was Jairus. When he saw Jesus, he kneeled down before him.

²³ He said, `My little daughter is dying. I beg you, come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.'

²⁴ So Jesus went with Jairus. Many people went with Jesus and pushed against him.

²⁵ A woman among them had a sickness for twelve years. She was bleeding all the time.

²⁶ Many doctors tried to heal her. She spent all the money she had to pay them. She was not better, but was getting worse.

²⁷ When she heard of Jesus, she came among the people behind him. Then she reached out and touched his clothes.

²⁸ She said to herself, `If only I touch his clothes, I will be well.'

²⁹ The bleeding stopped right away. She could feel that she was healed of her trouble.

³⁰ Jesus knew right away that power to heal went out from him. He turned around among the people and said, `Who touched my clothes?'

³¹ But his disciples said to him, `You see all these people pushing around you. Why do you ask, "Who touched me?" '

³² He looked around to see who had done it.

³³ The woman was afraid and trembled. She knew what had happened to her. She kneeled down in front of Jesus and told him the truth about herself.

³⁴ He said to her, `Daughter, you were healed because you believed. Go and do not be troubled. You are healed.'

³⁵ While Jesus was still talking, some people came from the ruler's house. They said, `Your daughter has died. Why trouble the Teacher any more?'

³⁶ Jesus heard it. He said to the ruler, `Do not fear. Only believe.'

³⁷ Jesus did not let anyone go with him only Peter, James, and his brother John.

³⁸ They came to the ruler's house. Jesus saw that there was trouble. People were crying and making much noise because the ruler's daughter had died.

³⁹ When he came into the house, he said to them, `Why do you make so much noise and cry? The girl is not dead, but is sleeping.'

⁴⁰ They laughed at him. So he sent them all outside. Then he took the girl's father and mother and the three disciples into the room where the girl was lying.

⁴¹ He took her hand and said, `Talitha cumi!' That means, `Little girl, I tell you, get up!'

⁴² The girl got up right away and walked around. She was twelve years old. The people were very much surprised.

⁴³ Jesus said, `Do not tell anyone about this. Give the girl something to eat.'