In today's world we will often hear people say that our religion should be private but that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is always personal but it is never private.
There is a wonderful story in 2 Kings 5. Naaman is the king of Syria's right hand man but he was leprosy. A simple servant girl tells him that there is a prophet in Israel that can heal him. Naaman goes to Israel and is healed (you can read the story in 2 Kings 5) but then what does he do? Instead of saying my religion is private so I do not want to face those terrible pagans in Syria let me stay here or saying my religion is private so I will continue to do what I have always done but in my heart I know differently. 2 Kings 5:17, 18 "If you will not," said Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD. But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this."
What is he saying? He said that when he went into the temple of Rimmon he would bow down but he would make it known that he was worshipping the One and Only true God. TO do this he took dirt and he spread it on the ground where he knelt down so everyone knew that he was worshipping the God of Israel.
Naaman was unlike Mario Cuomo the former governor of New York who said that his faith told him that abortions were wrong but as an elected official he would not allow his religion to interfere with his practice.
So where do we spread our dirt? How do we take our faith into the market place? into the place where we work, go to school, etc?
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