Friday; January 3


          Last Sunday morning, a friend of mine preached a sermon about a guy by the name of Gehazi.  You may not be too familiar with him (I sure wasn’t), but his story comes near the end of the account of Naaman being miraculously cured of leprosy by Elisha.  You see, following his healing, Naaman wanted to repay Elisha, but the prophet refused to take anything in return.  However, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi decided to cash in on Naaman’s good fortune.  He used Naaman and lied to Elisha for some material gain; but, unfortunately for him as II Kings 5 comes to a close, it is Gehazi who ends up with leprosy. 
          There are several lessons in this text, but one that I want to highlight is God’s good (and free) gift.  Naaman followed God’s instructions and because of it was healed.  Elisha wasn’t going to put additional conditions on God’s miraculous gift of healing, nor was he was going to manipulate it into something that benefited him.  When Gehazi did, he paid a price.  Now, here is the question for today, do we try to add requirements to God’s free gift (salvation) that He doesn’t demand?  Yes, there are steps that need to be taken to experience forgiveness, but those are imposed by God and should not be added by His servants.  When we place extra burdens or requirements on salvation, we become just as guilty as Gehazi.  Let’s not use God’s free gift as a way to accumulate social, political, financial or personal gain.  Again, there are measures that must be taken to be saved, but we must never forget the essence of forgiveness, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). 
          Think About It!

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