Newsletter May 2009
Pride and Greed
2 Kings, chapter 5 tells about Naaman’s leprosy. He was captain of the king of 0 army and he had leprosy. The Syrians brought back captives from Israel. One was a girl who waited on Naaman’s wife and said 5:3 ‘‘And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.’’ One who heard her went and told Naaman and the king was told and he said that he would give him a letter to the king of Israel. When the King of Israel read the letter he thought the Syrians wanted to quarrel with him. Elisha heard about it and told the king to send him to him.
5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12 Are not the Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damasctis, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and he clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Pride almost cost him his healing.
Read the rest of the story and you will see that Elisha would not take any of the gifts that Naaman offered him; but his servant decided that he would take the gifts for himself. He went in secret to Naaman.
And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. 23 And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. He took them into the house and hid them, and when Elisha asked where he had been, He told him he had gone no where. 26 And he (Elisha) said unto him went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? 27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
2 Kings 5:22
We know that blessings and cruses are past down to the 3rd and the 4th generation. We forget that each generation adds another generation to it, so some of the traits of past generations may show up beyond the 3rd & 4th generations. You look at old photo pictures and see that one of your children looks like a distant relative and are amazed. They are not only physical traits but personality traits as well; good or bad are passed down.
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
James 3:13
Do You Have Balance in Your Life?
Don’t be weighed down, stooped over carrying a load of unforgiveness ( I use this word all the time and now I see that it isn’t in any dictionary that I looked in. I will continue to use it.) It just wears you out. When I was under a lot of pressure and felt that I was misused, I would go out and work in my flower garden and the peace of the Lord came over me, and I just wanted to continue and ignore the work that I needed to do in the house. I would go in all worn out and didn’t have the energy to take care of the house. I didn’t balance my life very well. Do you have the same problem? It isn’t fair to your family; for you are not teaching them to have an orderly home and how to use their time to the best advantage. Teaching them life skills that they will take with them, and sooner or later they will remember them and use them. Do you put in eight hours working in the house to accomplish that goal?
Do you a spirit of anger and feel that you have a right to be angry, you need to heed the message of Proverbs 9:12: ‘‘If thou be wise, thou shall be for thyself: but if thou scorest, thou alone shall bear it’’.
Today it is a different story, women work outside the home to have the things they want their family to have; the list is never ending. The children are left to fend for themselves at a time when they need the most supervision. Children are having babies. The schools are handing out condoms to protect them from venereal diseases, but they sometimes fail to protect them. People forget that sin is sin and leads down the path to destruction, to abortion and often to failed marriages. The past haunts them, keeping them from trusting. They think it may happen again and there isn’t the unity of oneness that makes for a happy marriage.
Many people are out of work and don’t know what to do. They fear that they will not be able to put food on the table and that they may lose their homes. Others are ready for retirement and now don’t have the assurance that they will have the funds to live the lifestyle they planned to live. They know that Social Security is running out of money and they can’t depend on it. It may be reduced. The retirement funds are in jeopardy. They aren’t worth as much as you taught they were.
It may bring them back to realizing that things are not important and turn them to a real relationship with our Lord and Savior and to depend on the Word of God and His commandments to see them through; bringing all of us back to our Christian heritage, ‘One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.’
Amen, and again we say Amen
If you haven’t asked the Lord to be ruler over your life, why not do it now. You will never be the same. If you have backslidden He is always willing to restore you. Accept Jesus and the Holy God who created this wonderful place for us to live. Just look out your window and see the wonder of it all.
Say this prayer
Dear Lord I am a sinner
I don’t want to live this way any more
I ask you to forgive my sins (list them out loud)
I want you to be the ruler of my life
To live in my heart forever
To guide me in all righteousness
I thank you for coming into my heart
Please fill me with thy Holy Spirit
And give me the gift of tongues, Amen
Read the Bible everyday. Start with the Book of John. Read the Psalms and The Book of Proverbs. Find a church that will not compromise God’s Word. Upon arising in the morning ask God to guard your mouth that you will only speak and do what He leads you to do.
You must ask to speak in tongues in order to receive this gift: It is a way of praying the perfect will of God for the situation. Satan cannot understand what you are saying so he can’t try to stop your prayer from being fulfilled. You can ask the Spirit to reveal the prayer to you. He sometimes gives someone the gift of tongues without them asking for he has a special purpose for them to fulfill.
Pray for all the nations in the news that are involved in strife, especially Israel and the United States.
Please keep Hearing God’s Voice in your prayers.
We want to be an interdenominational group, so pass this information on to your friends.
God Bless,
Rosemary