Search This Blog

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Put Your Shoes On

Don’t go out without your shoes on. I remember my mom saying those very words to me and I hated it. Now barefoot weather is approaching; some places slower than others. But there are places where, even in nice weather, we don’t go barefooted. Soldiers in combat seldom are without shoes. In Viet Nam although it was almost always plenty warm to go barefoot, whenever we did any walking we usually had something on our feet. When we were on the move we always had our boots on.

In Ephesians 6:15 we are encouraged to put on specific shoes. In each of the more literal translations that I have these are described as the “preparation of the gospel of peace.”
Frankly I do not like the whole idea of “Soul winning classes.” Just my prejudice. But here I am commanded to put on the preparation of the gospel of peace… Get ready to share the gospel. To me, this relates directly to 1 Peter 3:15.

“but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear;”

Sometimes it feels like I’m the last person on the planet who reads the King James Bible. Everyone says they can’t understand it. Anyway, when you ask them to tell you about their hope, they almost always quote the KJV. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. I thought you didn’t understand that? Even Microsoft Word didn’t hiccough at “believeth” in that context.

The whole point is, can you, in simple English, give a personal answer to the question, “What do you believe and why do you believe it?” As I have thought and prayed about this, I do believe that these 2 verses (Ephesians 6:15 and 1 Peter 3:15) tell me that having an answer ready, is important.

Back in 2011 I wrote an article and tried to encourage people to write what they think they might say to someone who would ask them to “Tell me what you believe, and why”. No one replied. I will ask again.

Can you write down what you would say if someone asked you, “What do you believe and why?” I would love to see what some of you might say. If you would like for me to share that on this blog, I would like to do that as well.

Try to keep it under 1000 words. That doesn’t sound hard to most people but some of us like to write.

If you want to keep it just between you and me you can email me at rdeham47@gmail.com. You can also see my answer to the question at the link.


By the way comments are welcome. Thanks


It’s something to think about.

No comments:

Post a Comment