God of Reversals - Naaman

2 Kings 5 opens with a pretty fascinating statement:

"Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master and highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper."

This verse tells us a lot about Naaman:

*he was Aramean (Syrian)

*captain of the army of the king

*great man in his master's eyes

*highly respected

*valiant warrior

*leper

But what struck me was the little phrase - "because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram." Naaman was a gentile soldier who God used to bring victory to Syria over Israel. The victory was not because Syria was more powerful or because Israel was unprepared, but because God gave the victory to Syria.

Remember, when you study the Word, you need to look for God - enlarge your understanding of Him. This verse tells us that at times God works in gentiles' lives and gives His people into the hands of their enemies.

The story goes on to tell that when Syria plundered Israel, a young girl was taken captive, who ended up being the servant to Naaman's wife. She told Naaman's wife that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal her husband. Immediately a letter was written to the king of Israel on behalf of Naaman, demanding that he cure Naaman, sent along with a hefty gift of money.

The king panics and goes into mourning because he has no idea what Naaman is talking about, knowing that he could not possibly heal Naaman, but Elisha hears that the king is mourning and he steps in and saves the day. "Send him to me and I'll take care of it."

So Naaman journeys to the house of Elisha with his horses and his chariots - quite an entourage, not a secret meeting but almost a parade - and knocks on Elisha's door. Elisha sends a servant to the door who tells Naaman to go into the Jordan River seven times and wash himself, and he will be clean.

Naaman becomes enraged that Elisha would not personally come to the door, but sent a servant in his place and he prepares to leave. What Elisha has asked him to do made no sense to him whatsoever. He reasoned that in Syria, there were better rivers than the filthy Jordan (I added "filthy" because I've seen the Jordan before) and if Elisha wouldn't come out to heal him, then he would simply leave.

But Naaman's servants intervened and basically reasoned with Naaman to go ahead and give it a try. Of course we all know the end of the story. The seventh time he comes out of the water, Naaman is healed of his leprosy. He then makes this statement:

"Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel..." (2 Kings 5:15)

...and then offers gifts to the Lord through Elisha, because he wants God's forgiveness. He knows that when he returns to Syria, he must enter the house of a false god and he wants to take dirt from Israel back with him so that when he offers a sacrifice, it would be to the God of that dirt (or that land, Israel). Elisha refused the gift and also eased Naaman's conscience by telling him to "...Go in peace." (v.19)

Okay, great story, Kristen. Tell me something I didn't know.

Just a few observations about the God of Reversals:

*God disciplines through outside sources - don't think that God's hand is not in it just because you are being called on the mat by an unbeliever. God is in control and uses whatever He pleases to get His children's attention and to accomplish His will

*God took away Naaman's debilitating, fatal disease - reversal of life - he was an unclean, walking dead man and God gave him life

*God also took away Naaman's debilitating, fatal spiritual disease - reversal of spiritual life - Naaman was given a glimpse of the God of Israel and it was irresistible!

*And finally, God wants obedience. He blesses obedience, and sometimes what He asks us to do doesn't make sense, but if we obey, He will bless. Dunking in that dirty river seven times made no sense to Naaman, but obedience brought cleansing and spiritual awakening. It brought him life.

What has God asked you to do that makes no sense? Forgive a repeat offender? Restore a broken relationship? Move from your comfort zone and plant a church? Open your home to a child who is not your own? Submit, submit, submit?

Naaman's story teaches me that the God of Reversals simple wants us to follow Him. How many times have we instructed our children to do something because our age and experience has taught us the hard way, but it makes no sense to them? What do we say to them? "Just trust me on this one..."

We need to trust the Lord and follow His lead because what seems strange to us, makes all the sense in the universe to Him.

One final observation - when Naaman was cleansed, what was his response? Did he walk away and say, "Well, of course, I am healed because I am a valued member of society and God knew what a great catch I would be?" No, he offered whatever he had to the Lord, begging his forgiveness.

When we see the hand of God work in a mighty way, what is our response? I think that I am so accustomed to God's gracious hand, that I don't even look for it anymore - I just expect it to be there. It's time for that to stop. It's time for me to fall on my face and beg forgiveness and offer all I have to the God of Reversals.

May your faith be strengthened and your walk be enhanced by looking at Naaman today! And may you respond in joy, just as Naaman did.

Final Day in Rome

On our last day of touring, we went to the Forum and the Colosseum. This first picture shows that the area we toured was rather centrally located. The Forum was the gathering place for the people. There were races and political courts that were held on this location. Each emperor built his own basilica there as well. You can see in this first picture (which we did not take, but because it shows the area so well I decided to use it) that there are several remains of aqueducts, amazing water transportation systems that Rome perfected throughout their empire. There are also many arches in this area, built by the various emperors to mark certain victories. As each arch was built, when an emperor would return to Rome victorious he would walk through the arches of the other emperors and end in the place that he would build his next arch.

This picture is inside of the Forum. It is said that Nero built a residence that spread from Palatine Hill to Capitaline Hill. These remains could be part of that residence.

This was Titus' arch. He had it erected after he ravished the Temple in Jerusalem and flattened the city in 70 A.D. On the inside of the arch is a picture of the looting of the Temple and in it, one of the characters is holding a menorah above his head. This is the earliest image of a menorah that is on record, and when Israel became a nation again, they used this image as part of their national symbols.

You can see the menorah in this picture.

This picture shows Titus' arch with the menorah with the Colosseum in the background. I threw this in for perspective.

On our way to the Colosseum, we passed Constantine's arch. As you can see, it is decidedly bigger than the other arches. Constantine, as I mentioned in a previous post, was a believer and the persecution that Christians endured under Nero all but disappeared under Constantine. I kind of wondered if all his buildings and statues and arches were bigger because God enlarged his wealth and his posterity because of his conversion...

The Colosseum was built by Titus about ten years after his victory in Israel. The Romans loved the games and whether they were man against man or man against animal, they were always to the death. It was kind of strange imagining the gathering in this spot with the sole purpose of watching someone be slaughtered. The games were free - a gift from the emperor to his people. There were open arched entries all the way around the building and it was said that it would only take 25 minutes for the place to fill or empty.

Here you can see straight ahead, the place where the emperor would sit (above the arch). We are on ground level but the ground is gone. These alleys and rooms were where the prisoners and animals would be held before the fights. Imagine how dark it would be down there, with no windows. Here the Christians would pray before being brought into the light to lay their lives down for Jesus Christ. Nero instituted the slaughter of believers. Before that, gladiators would be offered the right to fight for their lives. If they won 7 games they could win their freedom. Hardly any of them made it that far.

So that ends our trip to Rome. It is truly an amazing city. I think I may need to go back with my husband some day...

Thanks for sticking around for the tour!

Rome Continued...

I posted this picture first, because it is a great reminder that everything in Rome is designed with the Vatican in mind. This was taken on top of one of the seven hills in Rome and when you walk to the far end of this picture, there is a beautiful landscape of the city. By the time we got to the wall to look out, we realized that in the center of the landscape was St. Peter's Cathedral. You can see it in this picture, in the dead center.

Our third day in Rome (second day of touring) started at the catacombs, where over 500,000 Romans were buried, including a pope or two. Since they have been discovered, the Catholic church has been working to remove many of the bones of the residents, but when you go down into these underground burial sites, the smell is still disturbing. I am not sure if it is because of the moist conditions added to the half million bodies, but it stays with you. We were not allowed to take pictures, so you'll have to trust me that it was creepy down there. You walk through narrow corridors, that occasionally have larger rooms hewn from the stone on either side, filled with long narrow rectangles carved into the stone to lay the bodies.

The tour groups were large and there were many in different languages going on at the same time, so I know I missed a majority of the narrative. There were mosaics high on the walls - pictures created to commemorate various Christian leaders. During the time of Nero, when the Christians were being persecuted, they would secretly meet down in these burial caves. That was probably the only reason why I wanted to see them.

It took about 40 minutes to get the stink out of our sinuses when we surfaced again.

The rest of that morning was filled with some quick site seeing. Rome truly does have seven hilltops on which the city was built. I think we stopped at three this day and hit a few more on the next day. Here are a few of the highlights from our ride:

This is our beautiful babes sitting on that wall I mentioned earlier, with Rome in the distance.

At that site was a church - my mom liked this mural because Mary is not hovering over Jesus like she is in most of the paintings. It was interesting - in the pictures where Mary is next to Jesus or behind him, her head is typically elevated higher than Jesus'. Keep an eye out for that when you seeing paintings of Christ. It will help you know the painter's view of Mary. Technically, when the church spread into Rome, there weren't Protestants and Catholics. When you look at the art, in the early years there is not an emphasis on Mary. As Nero tried to snuff out this religious movement, there was a bond that held the church together and it was not Jesus' mother, but Jesus Himself.

The girls found this tub outside of the church and thought it would be cool to jump inside and get their picture taken...what do you think?

One of the stops we made had a large wall surrounding an enclosed garden and basilica (church). In the middle of the wall was an old door with an empty key hole. There was nothing ornate about the door, and when we pulled up, it looked like we were parking in the back lot of a run down high school or something like that. The guide had us all get out and look into the key hole. And this is what we saw:

If you click on the picture you might be able to see it better. Foolish me - I thought it would be a statue of Jesus, reaching out his scarred hands to the sinner, but it was St. Peter's Cathedral. Hmmm...

We also stopped at several fountains in the middle of the city - not the normal City Hall structure that we see in America. This fountain is called Trevi Fountain. It has been in many movies, like "Three Coins in a Fountain" and was packed with tourists, taking in its beauty.

And finally, I wanted to include this square that we stopped and looked at. Behind me are large statues, probably 20 feet high, that Constantine carved for his bath house. (We'll talk more about Constantine later, but everything he did was on a massive scale.) There are some government offices in this square and there is also the "only place that you can get married outside of a Catholic ceremony" in these buildings. That is what the guide said - not sure if she meant that you could go to the justice of the peace here or what. I don't think they delineate between Christians and Catholics in Rome. You are either Catholic or you are not...

Anyway, the reason I posted this picture is because at the back side of this square was a large banner with a man's face on it. The man's name is Gilad Shalit, and he is an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas near the Gaza Strip in June of 2006. When we were in Israel, they were preparing for a week long march, protesting his capture. The march started in the north of Israel and for a week, thousands of people walked the length of Israel, crying for Shalit's release. Orit told me that the day after we left, she would join the walk for the day, since it was going past where she lived.

This is a big deal in Israel, this man's release. When we walked into the square, I saw the face of the man (boy) and my first thought was, "Wow, he looks like that Israeli soldier." Of course, it was him and I was struck at how this issue is not simply an Israeli issue - there are groups all over the world demanding his release. Israel has offered 1,000 terrorists in exchange for this one soldier - the only condition is that the prisoners cannot live in the main area of Israel, they can only live in the Gaza strip. Hamas will not accept these conditions.

So, in closing, I am asking that you pray for Galid Shalit's release. I cannot imagine what he has been through, but this means a lot to Israel.

Trip Continued - On to Rome

The day we flew to Rome, which I believe was a Tuesday, began at 2:00 in the morning. We had returned home from Galilee at about 10 at night, and at that point, everyone showered and packed. I woke everyone up at 2, and we were in the car by 2:30. We arrived at the airport at about 3:15 at the airport, 2 and a half hours before our flight and we hardly had time to spare.

Mary and Hannah were marked as suspicious, and were stopped at every security check along the way. They also went through my suitcase, but it didn't pan out as thrilling as the two young girls' suitcases, so I wasn't quite harrassed as much as they were. We arrived at our gate with about 20 minutes to spare and soon, took off for Rome...or should I say Frankfurt. We flew through Germany and again, the girls really don't like the Frankfurt airport. We finally arrived in Rome early afternoon and headed to the hotel.

After settling into our rooms, we decided to make our way to Alfredo's, the original Italian restaurant that invented the famous Alfredo Fettuccine pasta dish. As the story goes, Alfredo's wife was terribly ill after having a baby and he was worried she would die. He went into his kitchen and determined he would make something she would eat. So he boiled up some homemade noodles, doused them with real butter and stirred in grated parmesan cheese. And voila! - (Yea, I know that's French) - she ate it and it a-save-ed her life-a! (There's the Italian)

Of course, when we arrived, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, so we went back to the hotel, slept off our jet lag and went back for dinner.

End day one.

Day two began with a tour of the Vatican. The Vatican is located in Vatican City, which is a country all by itself - it is not a part of Italy but is a nation all its own. Strange, huh? Thousands upon thousands of people converged on the grounds, of course with the hope of a glimpse of the Pope, which would miraculously take years if not centuries off their time in purgatory but that's a whole other story.

I am going to flip quickly through these pictures and try to explain what you are seeing but the first thing you need to know is that the Vatican is a museum. They have artifacts from every archeological dig known to man and if the dig was in Italy, they claimed the best items in the name of the Pope. So when I entered, thinking I was entering a church, I quickly realized that it is kilometer after kilometer of pagan images and man-worship. Mary was evident but not as strongly promoted as the concept of Pope.

That leads to the second thing you have to know. The point of the Vatican is to pound into the visitor the fact that Peter was given the keys to the kingdom by Jesus, therefore the Pope has ultimate authority here on earth. Painting after painting after statue depicts the scene of Jesus handing keys to Peter, usually with St. Peter's cathedral in the background.

And finally, for every painting of the life of Christ that is on display, there are four to five paintings of the lives of various popes. That speaks for itself.

Okay, on to the pictures:

You are not allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel and you are really not supposed to talk either, so this is a poster of some of the paintings. This was my favorite room of all and it was rather small in comparison to the rest of the Vatican. I think I liked it the best because all it's paintings mainly focussed on three things - Christ's life, Moses' life or various people holding various forms of the scriptures, representing the transfer of the Word through the ages. In addition to these pictures, there was one REALLY AWESOME painting by Michelangelo of the final judgment. Incredible...I could have sat and looked at that alone for an hour...
This is just an example of a hallway of artifacts taken from archaeological digs...these are busts of Romans...
This was pretty impressive - it's Nero's bath tub - it was about 16 feet in diameter - a small pool, per se...you can see how big it is by looking at the people standing to the right...
This is the hall of maps - nearly a kilometer of large wall hangings, all mapping out Italy and Rome's empire - all done without satellite imaging or even an airplane...interesting, huh?

This is the ceiling of the hall of maps...why let good space go to waste?

This is inside St. Peter's Cathedral. Let me explain what you are seeing. That dark brown gazebo in the back center is built above where Peter is supposedly buried. Only the pope is allowed to stand inside that gazebo and administer a service. It is MASSIVE! Then throughout the main room here there are statues of various saints - my favorite was probably the one of Helen, Constantine's mother, who promoted using the cross as a Christian symbol. Also I think a lot of popes are buried within the walls and floor...

Can you also see the wooden barrier to the right of the picture? This was a long wooden barricade, maybe 12 feet wide and ran nearly the length of the room. If you looked inside the barrier, there were mosaics on the floor, similar to what you see in the middle of this picture, but each mosaic represents the biggest catholic church structures in the world. Very strange...they didn't want anyone walking on them...

Oh, and there is a pope buried in a glass box that you can see there, too! Very yucky...

This is outside, in the square looking at St. Peter's Cathedral. The picture doesn't do it justice, except for the fact you can see how little the people are and how big the buildings are. Pillared buildings surround the square and there are specific points that you can stand on that give the image of open spaces or closed pillars - hard to explain - you'll just have to go to see what I mean. Do you see around the roofline of the buildings are statues? Various saints throughout the ages - they are massive...

After the Vatican, we went to...Alfredo's, of course! There is a story behind this, as well. A few years ago my mother took my son and his best friend (Hannah's brother) to Rome. They went to Alfredo's twice on their trip and to this day, Nathan and Christopher vow to return, solely for the fettuccine. So, since they went twice, we HAD to go THREE times...oh, the competitive spirit of siblings...

After Alfredo's, we went...shopping, of course!

And after shopping we had a fashion show in the hotel rooms! Very fun...

Final thoughts on the Vatican...

I love a good museum. The next time I go to Rome, I am going to try to see if they would close their doors and only let me wander the halls for about three days straight. I don't know if they'll do it, but there is SO much to see and it is VERY, VERY crowded that it makes it hard to soak it all in.

As soon as I got past thinking I was entering a place of worship (God-worship), then I was fine. But there is so much worship of man going on in that place, it was rather overwhelming at times. So much history, so much abuse - I want to watch my Luther movie again now that I have seen the splendor of the Vatican, so that I can understand his outrage against the sacrifice forced upon the common man to create this heaven on earth.

Okay...next post we'll see more of Rome...