For you heard about
  our way of life, 
  formerly  in Jewishness
that
I  was intensively persecuting
        the Church of God
and I was ravaging it, 

and I was advancing in Judaism,
beyond many peers,
              among my people, 
                       more  (than them)
a zealot for my ancestral traditions.

When he (God)
            who having selected me from my mother’s womb,
and  called (me), through his grace,
was pleased  to unveil his son in me,
in order that I might preach him amongst the pagan nations, 
immediately 
I did not consult with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up
to Jerusalem, to those who were apostles before me, 

but I went into Arabia, and 

I returned again to Damascus.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

For I making known to you all,
brothers and sisters, 
      the gospel
                which was preached by me, 
        is not according to humans.
For
I neither received it from humans,
nor have I been taught (it by humans)
but through what Jesus Christ unveiled (to me).

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

I am amazed
that so quickly
you turn away from
the one who called you
by the grace of Christ
to an alternative gospel. 

Not that there is another, 
– except there are some people who trouble you,
and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. 

But even if we
or an angel from heaven
preach
against what we announced to you, 
let them be cursed.

As we said before
and  I say again now
if anyone preaches to you against what you received
let them be cursed. 

For am I now seeking to win over people or God?
Or am I seeking to please people?
if I was still people pleasing, I would not be Christ’s slave.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

Paul,
– apostle
not (sent out) from humans,
neither through a human, 
but through Jesus Christ
and Father God, 
who raised him from the dead people, 

and those who are with me,
all the brothers and sisters

to the congregations of Galatia:

grace to you
and peace from God, our father
and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who gave himself
because of our sins
in order that he might rescue us
out of the present evil age
according to the will  of God and our Father,
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.