Gehazi's Oops

Passage: 2 Kings 5

Story Synopsis:

Naaman was an important man, captain of the Aram military machine that had been kicking tail all over the Middle East. He was also a leper. An Israelite servant girl said that God would heal him if he visited his prophet Elisha in Samaria. He got permission and headed there. When he arrived, Elisha didn’t even meet him, but gave him instructions to wash seven times in the dirty Jordan River.

Naaman was furious and almost left. He had cleaner rivers at home and had travelled a long way to see a man that sent a servant to meet him. His own servants pointed out that if he had to do something difficult for healing, he would follow instructions carefully, so he humbled himself and washed in the Jordan seven times as instructed … and was healed of a deadly, contagious disease with no cure. Naaman had a complete change of heart and switched from worshipping false gods to confessing the God of Israel as the One True God.

That’s where the story usually ends when it’s told, but let’s go a little further. Naaman offers Elisha a gift. He had brought with him approximately 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothes. Elisha, refused, showing that God operated differently from the false gods that required gifts for their favor. Naaman left pleased and with a better understanding of who God is.

Enter Gehazi, Elisha’s servant. Gehazi secretly chases down Naaman and tells a lie to get about 150 pounds of silver and two changes of clothes. When he returns Elisha confronts him for corrupting Naaman’s view of God and Gehazi and his family are plagued with leprosy.

So where did Gehazi go wrong? Here are a few hints:

James 1:13-15 NIV

When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James)

Proverbs 23:7 ASV

For as he thinks within himself, so is he…. (Solomon)

Matthew 12:34 NIV

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks…. (Jesus to Pharisees)

Genesis 4:7 NIV

But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (God to Cain just before Cain killed Abel)

The battle of the spirit isn’t won or lost in the spirit, but in the mind. Gehazi’s first makes his mistake in 2 Kings 5:20, when he thinks to himself that Elisha let Naaman off easy. He missed the point of grace and seeks to get something in return for God’s favor. Naaman, a man who was culturally ingrained with Baal worship, where to get anything required giving something, left Elisha with an understanding of grace. Gehazi, a man who had been around grace in Elisha’s house for much, much longer, completely missed the point. You can see it in his language. Elisha said “as surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve ….” Gehazi said “As surely as the Lord lives …” but conveniently leaves off the “whom I serve” that would indicate that God is really his Lord and master.

Isn’t that just like us? Many sit in church every Sunday, hearing God’s Word, seeing God work, experiencing worship, but completely and utterly missing the point. They’ve experienced church their entire lives, hearing truth and understanding it, but never letting it inside. They believe in who God is, but have never taken the plunge to trusting Him to be their boss. In the end, the reward is spiritual separation from God, the source of everything good. Others, who experience God for the first time, completely turn their lives over to Him and are saved to live everlasting lives.

Romans 10:9-10 NIV

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Belief alone isn’t enough (James 2:19). You must make a confession of Christ as Lord (boss, master, and controller). A true confession means to admit that you’ve done it. If you haven’t really done it, it’s a false confession and holds no merit. When you’ve done this, leave me a comment and I’ll do what I can to help you start your new life!

Revolution 2008 Saturday Quiet Time

The Lion of Judah

"Life is yours to be spent. Not to be saved." -D.H. Lawrence

The modern American church has emasculated Jesus. I know. It sounds sick, and it really is. When Jesus is portrayed, he is usually profoundly Caucasian, has a thin build, speaks in a soft sing-song voice, and turns the other cheek in a wishy-washy milquetoast way at every opportunity.

I’ve read my Bible and it’s not the picture I get. I see a carpenter that has had to manhandle heavy wooden timbers since he was 10. I see an orator who speaks loudly enough to engage the attention of an entire crowd of over 5000 men not including women and children. (For comparison, the Falls Creek tabernacle can seat 7,253 people – and it uses lots of amplification.) I see a man powerful enough to drive businessmen away from their businesses when they were cheating people in the temple. I see someone bold enough to confront the most powerful men in the country and call them “whitewashed tombs”, and a “brood of vipers” when they were hindering people from coming easily to their God. I see the bravery of a man who approached a deranged demon-possessed man when others watched from a distance. I see a man who had the courage to knowingly walk into his own impending torturous doom head-on to save the people he loved.

My Jesus isn’t afraid to confront evil. He’s not afraid to protect the people he loves. Although he won’t squabble over details that aren’t critical, he doesn’t back down from a righteous fight and he isn’t afraid to correct when it’s a major issue. He aggressively spreads the good news of God’s redemption even when it isn’t safe.

This is the last day of camp. Tomorrow you will be home. Tomorrow, the enemy will use everything he has to bring you down and keep you there. Tomorrow, he will try to limit your influence and keep your camp experience at camp. You need a plan and today is the time to make it. Develop a strategy. Make a list of the things you need to do to integrate what you’ve learned into your daily life and to maintain the closeness you’ve developed with God this week. It’s going to take guts, determination and commitment.

My Jesus isn’t a wuss and he’s called me not to be either.

Deut. 31:6 (NIV)

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

John 16:33 (NIV)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

James 1:22 (Msg)

Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!

Challenge: Develop a plan for when you go home. If you need to eliminate a habit, make a plan. If you need to develop a new one, make a plan. Tell a friend so they can help you stick to it!

Revolution 2008 Friday Quiet Time

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

“There couldn’t possibly be just one way [to God].” --Oprah Winfrey

“All religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them.” --Eckart Tolle (Oprah’s spiritual advisor)

Eckart and Oprah have been saying that there are millions of ways to get to God. They say that every religion is equally right. This creates a problem. This means that any religion that claims to be the only way also must be right. However, if two create they are the only one that is right, you immediately have a paradox and that theology breaks down.

Logically, not everyone can be right. Everyone can be wrong, but not everyone can be right. The trick, then, would be to find the one that is correct. You can start by eliminating anything that has internal contradictions or logical errors. This will immediately rule out several. Then eliminate those that obviously violate reality or have to change as new evidence becomes available. Now eradicate those that have any false, ambiguous, or missed predictions. Finally, purge all those whose leader didn’t do what he said he would and those that lack proof. What remains is a religion that is consistent with its own doctrine, logical, conforms to reality, remains stable throughout history, has a reliable leader, and has reasonable proof. What remains is Christianity.

Yesterday, I exposed Jesus as the Lamb of God, who permanently removes our sin. Today, I want you to see that Jesus is the only way to God. He is the only Truth. He is the only Life. He is the only Way. There is no other method, work, deity, prayer, person or action that can save you. He is the only Truth. Everything said about him by an Old Testament prophet, or recorded that he has said has been proven absolutely correct and true. He is the Life. He was the source of life in the beginning (John 1:1-3), he holds life together now (Colossians 1:15-17), and he is the only way to have life in the future (John 3:16).

John 14:6 (NIV)

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 1:1-5 (NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Col. 1:15-17 (NIV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [16] For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. [17] He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

John 3:36 (NIV)

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

Challenge: If you haven’t accepted Jesus as the only way to God, talk with a sponsor. If you have, be sure to tell someone.

Revolution 2008 Thursday Quiet Time

The Lamb of God

What good is a lamb? Their wool makes great sweaters and socks that stay warm even when wet. A well-cooked lamb chop is pretty tasty. Beyond that, they don’t have much good purpose to us. However, to an ancient Hebrew, a lamb was so much more.

The Bible says that the tabernacle was designed as a representation of heaven. There was an outer court accessible to all men. Only the priests entered an outer room, called the Holy Place where they fulfilled various duties, but the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, was divided by a thick curtain that could only be entered once a year, and only by the High Priest after he had gone through a week long strenuous process of cleansing himself, and even then only with the blood of a perfect yearling lamb. Failure to follow these instructions to the letter resulted in instant death.

The Most Holy Place, often referred to as the Holy of Holies, was the holiest place on the face of the earth. It was representative of where God would dwell among His people. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant that had gone before the Israelites throughout their conquest of Canaan, the altar of incense, and a copy of the law to be a witness against the people.

The law exposes sin. It condemns. It was impossible to perfectly follow. It was designed to show that we all fall short of God’s perfection. We all do things we know we shouldn’t. We all leave undone those things we know we should do. The law witnessed against the Israelites just as it does before us today. There was no escaping the fact that humans were – and still are – imperfect and separated from God by that imperfection.

The blood of a perfect yearling lamb was sprinkled, atoning (covering) the sinfulness of the people. Until the next year when it would have to be repeated, the covering blood of a perfect lamb allowed our perfect God to stay in a relationship with imperfect people.

Then Jesus came and was proclaimed by John the Baptist to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus lived a perfect life. Even those who were with him nearly every day of the last three years of his life said they never saw him do even one thing wrong. He sacrificed himself and became the sacrifice whose blood permanently covers the sin that separates us from God.

Hebrews 9 (It explains this concept in detail, but especially verses 24-28 below)

For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Hebrews 10:1-2 (NIV)

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

Hebrews 10:10 (NIV)

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Challenge: If you haven’t done so already, be sure to seek out a sponsor and discuss how to claim Jesus’ sacrifice for yourself.

Revolution 2008 Wednesday Quiet Time

God is Love

“What is love? Baby don’t hurt me.” –Haddaway

“Hello. I love you. Won’t you tell me your name?” –The Doors

“Sometimes I feel I’ve got to run away” –Softcell

“She wants to see you again … see you slowly twisting in the wind.” –They Might Be Giants

Our music gives us a pretty screwed up image of what love is. Is it an emotion? Is it something you feel in response to an emotion? Is it a noun or a verb? Is it something you choose, or something you accidentally fall into? What’s the difference between love and romance? Ask the question “What is love?” and you’ll get as many answers as people you ask. One thing we do agree on though. Whatever it is, we all want it and lots of people will go to extreme lengths for it.

Most people confuse love with infatuation. Infatuation is that ooey-gooey feeling you get that feels like you swallowed warm hot chocolate on a cold winter day. It’s emotional and it produces a physical response that makes you feel good. It’s tricky. It’s possessive, obsessive, and unfortunately, it’s also self-centered. The objective of infatuation is to make you feel good. It may obsess on another person, but it really has selfish “I want” motives that focus on your own feelings.

True love, on the other hand is others-oriented. It is always focused on another person’s well-being. When you truly love, you care more about the other person than even yourself. You are willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure they stay safe and healthy. Their long-term well being is your goal and you will sacrifice your own well-being to make sure theirs is protected.

God is love. Not the love between a man and woman. Not the love between two brothers or close friends. God is an unconditional, proactive, unrelenting love without end or limits or boundaries and He’s focused that love on YOU.

That desire that everyone has for love is a built-in longing for the Creator. They chase infatuation, but what they really yearn for is true Love. You may have left a “significant other” at home. You may have brought them with you. This week, I encourage you to chase after true Love. Chase after God. He is the Love you’re craving.

1 John 4:7-10 (Msg)

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

1 John 4:15-17 (Msg)

Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's.

John 15:13 (NIV)

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Challenge: During your free time today, take a poll from youth at other cabins. Have them define “love.” It’s a great conversation starter.

Revolution 2008 Tuesday Quiet Time

I AM

I AM. It means “I exist.” Only a fool says there is no God. As Creator, I have placed adequate evidence so all who can reason can see proof of my existence. Evidence of Me can be seen in the brilliance of a diamond, the symmetry of a flower, the intricacy and order of DNA, and the expanse and balance of the stars and planets. I AM.

I AM. I have intentionally set up laws of nature, then intentionally superseded them to prove my existence beyond nature. I established the second law of thermodynamics (entropy – the tendency of things to naturally seek chaos), then built order into my creation. I set up the laws of physics, then multiplied food for thousands not once, but twice. I mandated the law of life and death, then raised Lazarus from the dead. I required the law of punishing the guilty for sin, then took the penalty upon myself for you. I created the law of gravity, then ascended before dozens of witnesses. I AM.

I AM. My name is not “I WAS.” This week you may have left behind a difficult family life, problems that are stressing you out, or a relationship that takes all your time. You may have other baggage that has caused you to be distracted from Me. You are separated from those things this week to make it easier for you to find Me. If you dwell on those things this week, you will miss Me because My name is not “I WAS.” I AM.

I AM. My name is not “I WILL BE.” You may have big things coming up next week. You may have summer jobs, summer vacations, summer fun, and maybe even summer school. Those things may steal your attention or cause you to worry. I will be with you through each of those things as you go through them, but if you worry about those things this week you will miss me because my name is not “I WILL BE.” I AM.

I AM this week, today, this very moment. I AM with you. I AM loving you. I AM revealing myself to you if you will watch and listen. I have been since before the world began and I will continue after it is gone. In every moment … I AM.

Exodus 3:13-14 (NIV)

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

Psalm 14:1a (NIV)

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Job 36:26 (NIV)

How great is God--beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 6:25-34 (passage on worry)

Challenge: Spend the time you need today to “release” yourself from past mistakes, baggage and things you left behind. Trust God to help you through next week’s problems and ask him to remove those things from your mind this week. Concentrate on spending each and every moment in God’s presence (a form of the “present”).