Category: Religion

Blisters (Eph 6:15)

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  (italics added) Ephesians 6:14-15, NKJV

I run.  I have for several years now.  I don’t really run because I like running, although I do enjoy the benefits and the feeling after a good long run.  I started running in order to get some discipline in my life, so I decided to train for a marathon.  Fast forward a few years.  I got really lazy in my training and only did the long runs one year and…. as you might guess… injured my heel which has plagued me with planar fasciitis for over a year.  Fast forward again.  About a year ago, I started changing my running style to take all the impact out of my running by going to more of a “barefoot style” running – simply put, I land on the ball of my foot and then let my heel touch before springing off my foot for the next step.  This style takes a while to build up stamina and strength in your calves as they do A LOT more work.

Last year, I purchased a pair of shoes called Vibram Five Fingers which are basically gloves for your feet with “fingers” for your toes and all.  They have zero support and are basically a sole for your foot so you can run barefoot style without gettting cut up or bruised from rocks and stuff in the road.

I say all that to say this.  Yesterday, I ran too far in my shoes and I got serious blisters on both feet.  I had been running about 2-2.25 miles in the Vibrams and then I would change into my running shoes and run 2 or 3 more miles.  That is my normal M.O.  That is what I do and how I build up endurance.

Yesterday, I tried to run 4 miles in my Vibrams.  This is NOT me.  At 3.3 miles, my feet were so hot (where the blisters are now brilliantly showing themselves) that I took my shoes off and walked the rest of the way home barefoot… in the grass… gingerly.

On the way home, Papa brought to mind Eph 6:15.  The NIV version says “…with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.“ When I asked how this all fit together, He showed me:

Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad.  (I Peter 3:14-17, The Message)

and

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.  (Psalms  139:14, NKJV)

What God showed me in that I don’t have to be anyone else.  While I can look to others who are farther along this life of transformation; those I consider spiritual giants; those heroes of the faith;  I am NOT to strive to be like them. God made me to be me.  According to the Ephesians passage, I am to know and understand and live in Truth and Righteousness.  This brings all glory to God.  But I don’t have to wear anyone else’s shoes.  When I do, I get blisters, they rub my feet wrong.  They slow down my pace.   I just have to be me (crucified) in Him.  If I try to be someone else, I am not living the 1 Peter passage.  I won’t “Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why I’m living the way…” I am.  I praise him for make me just like I am.  I am free to be me in Him.  That’s how I’ll be most effective for His purposes and to give him all the glory and praise that He is due.

Running After Papa…

Greatest Enemy of Faith

YouTube Link:  What This World Needs [Casting Crowns]


Lyrics | Casting Crowns lyrics – What This World Needs lyrics

I heard this song while I was running today and I had to listen to it a number of times over the miles.

While the entire song is lyrically and musically amazing, it was the spoken words during that song that captured my attention during my run.  Here they are.

People aren’t confused by the gospel,
They’re confused by us.
Jesus is the only way to God,
But we are not the only way to Jesus.
This world doesn’t need
My tie, my hoodie,
My denomination, or my translation of the Bible,
They just need Jesus.
We can be passionate about what we believe,
But we can’t strap ourselves to the gospels.
Because we’re slowing it down
Jesus is going to save the world,
But maybe the best thing we can do
Is just get out of the way.

I recently was exploring that “Digg” is and stumbled across a link and subsequent comment chain on a quote written on a Church billboard. The quote was a quote from Martin Luther (although it didn’t give credit to Martin Luther) saying “Reason is the greatest enemy of Faith.”

While Martin Luther may have been right for the message he was preaching at the time, I’m really beginning to feel like the words of the song express a closer reality for today… ‘Christians’ are often the greatest enemy of Faith over anything else.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Jesus called it two thousand years ago.  Every time he used the word “hypocrite” he was speaking to the religious leaders; to the church. (Matt 6:2, 5, 16; Matt 7:5; Matt 15:7-9; Matt 22:18; Matt 23:13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29; Matt 24:51; Mark 7:6; Luke 6:42; Luke 12:56; Luke 13:15)

In speaking to them Jesus said:

Matthew 15:7-9 (ESV)
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

That, I fear, is the condition of The Big-C Church, particularly in America.  How did we get from a single body of believers to a system of religion that has so many denominations and differences of opinion and interpretation on what THE SAME BIBLE says?

We got there because men – in their pride – decided they didn’t like what they heard so they went somewhere else.

Now, here we are – 2000 years later – with such watered-down Christianity that we have watered-down faith.  Most churches in America don’t see God move the way he did at Pentecost.  Why?  The Bible clearly says he’s the same God, yesterday, today and tomorrow and that HE WILL NEVER CHANGE.

To me it all comes back to Galatians 2:20 (one of my life verses).  I have to die to myself, to my wants, to my desires, to my “rights” so that Jesus can live through me and be seen.  When people see Jesus, they are attracted to Him… they want to be with him.

I have to get out of the way.  We (believers) have to get out of the way.

Easy to say, hard to do.

Running After Papa…