Gosh!I haven't been here for so long!The time is flying, I am tellin ya! But honestly, you haven't missed anything! There is nothing going on in my life right now. August was pretty dead and September is just waking up. Seems at least a little bit busier than August so far. Let's hope for that cause I hate when there is nothing going on in my life. I like to be busy, you know me - run from one place to other. But I didn't come here to complain! I actually have something I would like to share with you. Tomorrow I am in charge of Sunday school for children at our church and I am going to talk about Naaman and how he got healed by God. When I first saw this name, I had no clue who this man was and I had never heard this Bible story before. So I thought: "This is not good!" But then I was thankful for that cause I learnt something new. Besides the fact that I still have a lot of stuff to read in the Old Testament, of course. :) So let me tell you something about Naaman. You can find the original story in 2 Kings 5:1-27.

Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram, a great man in the sight of the king, but he suffered from leprosy. During one of many battles between Aram (Syria) and Israel, a little girl was taken captive and she was brought to Naaman's house to serve his wife. She knew about God’s prophet living in Israel through whom God did many miracles. His name was Elisha. She told Naaman's wife that this prophet could cure Naaman of his leprosy. Naaman went to see his king and told him what the little girl said. The king of Aram told Naaman to go and see the king of Israel, sending a letter with him. In this letter, he told the king of Israel to cure Naaman. So Naaman went to the king. He also took silver, gold and some clothes as a reward for his healing. When Naaman gave the letter to the king of Israel, the king read it and got very angry. He said he wasn’t God who can heal. He also thought that the king of Aram wanted to start a fight with him. He didn’t think of Elisha at all. When Elisha, the man of God, heard that Naaman was in the country, he asked the king to send Naaman to him. So Naaman went to Elisha’s house. Because Naaman was very important and proud man, he expected Elisha would come outside, pray to his God, put his hand on him and he would be healed. But he got a surprise! Only Elisha’s servant came to him with the message from Elisha. The message was that Naaman should go and wash in Jordan seven times and then he would be healed. However, Naaman got angry and left. He expected Elisha to come out, it hurt his pride. Naaman’s servants stopped him before he got very far. They told him that if he had been told to do some great thing, he would have done it, and he agreed that he would. So why not to do such an easy thing? So he went and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times and his skin became clean. Naaman was very happy! He knew then that God was the true God and this true God was in Israel. He decided not to worship false gods anymore. He went back to Elisha and he wanted to give him the gifts he had brought. Elisha refused to accept them. Elisha knew God had done the healing.

This is very nice picture of salvation. It was God's grace that healed Naaman from leprosy (by the way, the disease of leprosy in the Old Testament is used to represent sin). The same is true for us today - only God's grace through the death of Jesus Christ can heal us from all sin. It is connected with the obedience too - only after Naaman obeyed God and didn't listen to his own pride, he was healed. This story also shows that the grace of God cannot be bought with silver or gold or power or position or even works. We must come to God in faith. Moreover, God is using other people, even little children and also circumstances, such as the disease of leprosy, to bring one person to the knowledge of the Lord and get them healed.