DoublePortion_October2023_8.5x5.5_REV.indd

Bigotry- As Naaman expressed, “‘Are not the Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I be washed in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went off in a rage” (2 Kings 5:12). Does this not represent a typical spiritual debate in our day? How can you say Jesus is the only way? After all, don’t all religions point to God? Can’t I just follow the precepts of Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, or Judaism for that matter, and end up just as well? We’re all going to end up in the same place in the end anyway. And yet Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (Matthew 7:13,14, John 14:6). Being a Christian isn’t easy, yet becoming one is simple. Just like for Namaan, the instructions are basic and clear. “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). It is tragic and mind boggling that billions of people through out history have failed to follow these simple steps, ending up in hell, separated from God for eternity. Similarly, Naaman was doomed to a life of disease and debilitation. It was after his servants said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then when he tells you,‘Wash and be cleansed’!” (2 Kings 5:13). Naaman responded with a surrendered will, proved by the following: Obedience- “So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times” (2 Kings 5:14). “He who obeys instructions guards his life, but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die” (Proverbs 19:16). Overcom ing his contemptuousness, Naaman obeyed, paving the way for his:

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