What a busy month this has been!  We finished up our conference season with two big conferences--HEAV (Virginia) and CHEC (Colorado), and then this week we have been delightfully consumed in wedding preparations!  Our second son, Mike, will (God willing) marry his beloved Jessica tomorrow!  If you have a moment, please pray for the joyous details of the final hours and safe travel of guests as these two godly, pure young people are united in Christ for life.  We are also praying that their wedding will be a powerful witness to unsaved family members on both sides.  THANKS for caring for our family in this way; you are so kind when you join us in prayer!

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Today, in my quiet time, I was reading the story of Naaman, in 2 Kings 5.  As you remember, Naaman was a bigwig from Syria--a commander of the king's army--but he is also a leper, and hearing from his Israeli slave girl that he could be healed by the prophet in Israel, he comes in all his worldly pomp with letters from his king to be healed by the King of Israel.  The king has no faith and cannot heal him, but he sends him to Elisha, the prophet.  I came to the place where Naaman stands before Elisha's house and Elisha does not come out and show himself, but sends word by his servant that the commander should go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and then he will be cleansed.  Proud Naaman is incensed: 2 Kings 5:11-12 (ESV) 
    "But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, 'Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?' So he turned and went away in a rage."

Now, here's the interesting part.  I've read this story before (and so have you, probably) and I was expecting his servants to draw near and say something like what I've always read in translations like the KJV: 2 Kings 5:13 (KJV) 
    "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?"

However, the ESV reads this way: "But his servants came near and said to him, 'My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?'" 

Isn't it interesting, the emphasis these two translators saw?  Checking back into the KJV, I noted that "if," "do some," and "it" were not in the original Hebrew.  I love the emphasis of the ESV translation: the prophet, a simple servant of God and not a great man, who is not overawed by your worldly pomp, has given you a great word (that humbles you in its simplicity and its focus on a rather humble river in Israel).  The accent is on the "great word" of God, not on the "great deeds" of man.

In my life, how many times have I missed the greatness of God's Word to me because of the humble servants through whom He sent it?  Note that Naaman heard of the prophet through a little Israeli slave girl, and went from the pomp of Isreal's court to find a lowly prophet, who commanded him to do a simple task in order to be healed and blessed by a major miracle.

In my life, so many great and good blessings have come from obeying God in what seemed simple, ordinary, and small.  Daily devotions, for example, have yielded huge blessings: encourgement, faith to go on, and in more recent times, release from years of oppressive fears.  Daily homeschoooling lessons faithfully excecuted led to scholarships for my children for college--money we never could have provided for them--and the Tapestry of Grace curriculum, which now blesses thousands of other families.  Faithful and small acts of obedience concerning loving unsaved family members have led to new levels of closeness and the ability to witness silently of the joy of living in Jesus.  Serving in church events and walking closely with others have led to amazing levels of sanctification and joy in community such as few that I know have experienced.

Dear sisters: let us press into the Word of God as revealed in Scripture and purpose to see the injunctions given there as GREAT WORDS.  Let us pray, as we ought.  Let us love as we ought.  Let us renew our minds as we ought.  Let us serve as we ought.  In all things, let us seek the seemingly humble, small, and simple acts of obedience and faith, knowing that they are GREAT WORDS to us from a loving Heavenly Father, Who only wants our best. 

Amen, Lord Jesus, through your grace and mercy, we can access the faith to first be cleansed of our own sins, and then turn in obedience to You and receive Your living Word.  Strengthen us, O God, according to that word, that we may humble ourselves, obey, watch Your great works, and rejoice in You evermore!