God's goal is not to bring us down.

God's goal is to lift us up.

God's goal is not to push us in a corner and hide us.

God's goal is to pull us away from the corners and use us.

That's his plan. Imagine this storyline. A decorated military

commander with a terminal disease encounters an unexpected messenger with impossible hope.

It's not a fairy tale. it's true. And today, on

Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall unpacks the dramatic plot about a Syrian officer whose search

for healing led him down a meandering path. In the end, he discovered God's surprising way of

salvation. If you've ever wondered why coming to Christ feels too simplistic or too formulaic,

this ancient account will challenge your convictions.

Chuck titled his message,

Naiman, the officer whose leprosy was cleansed.

Let's pray together. How good you are, Father, to bring young men and women from really thousands of miles away

to minister to us, to use various media to touch a heart that's

searching and lonely, to bring someone across another's path, to be of encouragement and

assistance and accountability, to cultivate a friendship between opposite kinds of people

and to have that friendship grow into a relationship, and to have the spiritual life deepened

and to walk with Christ strengthened.

It was no doubt that way with Paul and Timothy and with Silas

and with Barnabas and with Dr. Luke. It certainly was that way between David and Jonathan

and so many through the scriptures who grew together.

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