Renewed to Honor

This section of the story in 2 Kings chapter 5 focuses on Naaman. We know that Naaman was the commander in chief of the armies of Syria and possibly the right hand man as he was incharge of strategic, political and warfare and security. This was a very prestigious role that Naaman had earned. Some Jewish Rabbis say that his ruthlessness and his power resulted in God punishing Naaman with Tzaraat which is translated as Leprosy. For the sake of these notes, I would consider the word Leprosy.  Naaman was powerful and wise. In fact, it was God who had blessed him from the start. The verse says that Naaman was a powerful and influential man valued by the king greatly. His victory was a gift from God to Aram. Why would God bless a foreign nation to attack the Israelites? In Deuteronomy chapter 28, Moses tells the people that God would make the enemies of Israel punish the people of God if they are disobedient. Jehoram, the then king of Israel was the son of Ahab. Ahab and his wife Jezebe...

 This is the first person we come to. This is where the whole chapter and the story begins. The girl who was a slave was working for the wife of Naaman. She was a prisoner (a band of aramite raiders had captured her - possibly killing the entire village) with most of her family either killed or held captive and enslaved across the land of Syria. She had lost everything. Reading her story from the new testament makes the most impact on our spiritual life. We could say that she was never going to reach her full potential or her calling. But she remembered one thing which most Jewish children of that age and we should remember. We are not called to a task or a profession but rather to a God. This meant that she risked her life when she had to raise her voice. Slaves in general do not have a voice. They are not asked for their opinion. But deep within, maybe because she was treated well, I believe there is a working of the Holy Spirit in this girl that moves her to care and love her en...

I moved to Germany in the last week and having lived in many cities in my life and having to have moved a lot between countries both me and my wife, the move was easy. We are simply used to having our luggages packed almost all the time. I guess this is life. From London days and Basildon nights to a new life in the suburbs of Neidersachen ( Lower Saxony, Germany), a suburb in the middle of nowhere. Praise God for Internet, Telephone, Water, Rewe (akin to ASDA UK) ,  the brand "Ja" (the equivalent of ASDA Smart Price) and my wonderful landlords. Th house is a lovely thing and once we get it arranged, then we are going to be very happy. Last week we even had our first guest. Praise God! I always wanted to welcome people to my house and till date this is the first property that has been in my name (and I am just renting this one). So, what is the point of all this? Well, it is to tell the manner that I am overwhelmed at the amount of change in my life. I carry Euro in my ...

It's really been tough to get through this week! I felt lonely, lost and weak. Yes,  I have a bunch of close friends and family and yes my fiance is lovely and caring yet I needed more than what they could offer. I feel stretched beyond all measures. I have prayed more, cried more, worked more,  even socialised more this week than any other recent weeks. Sometimes you wish that the someone would just see you and tell you that you are doing a good job. Yet, it is not quite enough just because you are exhausted. I really want a long long hug where I could break into tears and yet, yet there is a discomfort.  I need more than a person. I really need God. I want to feel that He values my work. I am that stretched. Financially I got peanuts in my bank, I have a lot of responsibilities to fulfill as I am winding down my life in London. Emotionally I am quite torn from arguments with people and the loss of friends and lifestyle I had. And to add to it,  I been learnin...

I was reading an interesting article on Desiring God blog  by Maxwell , when it occurred to me about the point that was being made in it. We often see devotion as something we have to give God. Thus we often look at devotion as what an inferior being gives to a superior one. We who are Christians from childhood are told often that we must be devoted to God and those of us from a Pentecostal or Arminian heritage are told that God values us on our devotion to Him. While it may be slightly true, the truth is this. God doesn't depend on us. Let me illustrate with a personal example. My fiance is not much of a talker. So, to understand her means I would have to listen to her unspoken words, the hmm's, the nods and the facial expressions. I am sure that I am going to miss a lot of things she has not spoken to me about and more over she may fail to express in words her love and devotion to me. I now having discovered that, though it being really hard, I  am getting better to a...

I find obedience a by product of love.  I am engaged to marry and my fiance loves me.  Now because of this she obeys when I ask her to do something or other. God's justice is in his nature as much as his holiness, jealousy  and love. If we were to obey God only because He gives us gifts then we love the gifts and not God. In Job 2:10 it says if we are happy to get good gifts why can't we rejoice when we are hurt by God. God's desire for us to be obedient is because He wants us to find Him our only and greatest treasure. Absolute obedience comes with absolute surrender and I think it's this what we should wake up each day for. See where in our lives we have not surrendered. I find sometimes taking five minutes extra in my morning devotion a pain, but God let's me in my pace to surrender my hold onto my precious five minutes. The rewards is only going to be in heaven, and the reward is meeting Him in all holiness ; what we get here on earth is still His mercy. Even th...

How you see God's grace Embalm your view of sin and God, if you see grace only as a sinners plea , you fail to see the cross, If you see grace only as God's wrath, You miss to see HIS love, So behold the grace in all it is, For Christ has paid it all. ---- By Subin Abraham Mathew ---- Many often people see grace as a means to cover their sin but fail to see that grace is justice in the form of a cross ; this is exactly what John Newton said "It was grace that taught my heart to fear - and grace my fears relieved (meaning he saw that grace was like a hammer on sin at the justice of God, and in the next line meaning that he saw grace to be an "soft cotton wool" cleaning his sins)

I am not sure where I came across this poem, and then it did sound amazing, and so I learned it, memorized it, and took it into my heart. I think its most reffered as "answered prayer". So in a poetic manner I am quoting it, the author is unknown, however, Goodreads have quoted it to   Swami Vivekananda although his version is slightly different. I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity and God gave me brawn and brains to work. I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome. I asked for patience and God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait. I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help. I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities. I asked for everything so I could enjoy life.  Instead, He gave me life so I could enjoy everything. I received nothing I wanted, I received everything I needed.  Now, I have a ...

one day i may die. so as you. some may live till a ripe old age, other be killed at an young age, some may be caught in the rapture, others will be persecuted in the tribulations. But being a Christian, one thing is certain, that there is one day when our mortal body will be transformed to an immortal one. From that day on new things will happen. You will feel alive and be awake. You will not grow tired nor hunger or thirst. One such day, you may go for war against the accuser - the Satan. On that day you will see the death paying its debt. You may partake in the victory celebrations in the galaxy that day and the days to come. Then may be one day, days and night may cease to exist and time would be timeless. From then on you will live in the presence of the almighty. As you live there, you will see the Father, God of all. You will worship Him because he is there. You will see and know the Holy Spirit and realise that the Father is not the spirit, and the Spirit not the Father. ...

For many of us God sounds like a monstrous being, some one waiting to smite you if you do wrong. Well, yes God has been strict at many occasions but lets never forget that he is a loving father as well. God is love and care that the image of Zeus we have with thunder bolts in his arms to hurl at you. Jesus said, I call you a friend. I have your name on my arms. As I am trying to understand the grace of God, I learn more about his Holiness. As I understand his majestic nature I realise that God is not a king we know of but rather a loving father. We are then prince and princess in his kingdom. During my exam which is nearly over as I have one more to go on this Friday, I wanted to rest and feel and be filled in God presence. So I listened to a "nearer my God to thee" which is one of my favourite hymns. Normally, if you know Christian slow Hymns, aspecially Nearer my God to thee, you would expect a slow and calming effect like in the last scene of the 1997 Movie Titanic. i was...