I haven’t blogged in forever and I don’t typically blog what others write but some messages are worth sharing and this is one of them. I wish I could say I had written it, it certainly resonated with every thing in my soul, but it is taken from a study that I am currently working through and it’s message is a great reminder, a great lesson for all believers everywhere. I hope you will take the time to read it (I tested it and it is a 7 -10 minute read), and worth every minute. I pray God will use it to sharpen us all as His vessels.
The topic of the study for this particular day was based on a passage, one of my favorites, from Isaiah 52:7-8:
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings new of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” The voices of your watchmen – they lift up their voices, shouting for joy together; for every eye will see when the LORD returns to Zion.”
As the feet on the mountain top in Isaiah’s days were beautiful so were the feet of Paul, Timothy, and Silas in their day.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:1 we read where Paul specifically asked the believers there to pray that the message they shared would spread rapidly and be honored just as it had with them. They shared the message. “The word wasn’t going FedEx. It was going feet-first and, when not by those three pairs, by the feet of the messengers who hand-carried their letters. Dusty, blistererd, calloused, beautiful feet.” We only have to look back to Romans 10: 14-17 to remember the importance of his prayer then and now.
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “ LORD, who has believed our message?” So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. (Romans 10:14-17 NLT)
“Whether or not we feel adequate for the task, we are the carriers now. We have vehicles for spreading the Word of God that our predecessors in the faith even a century ago couldn’t have imagiend. We each hold keys in our hands to the ignition of the gospel in our generation and sphere of influence.
Each day the sun comes up closer to the dawn of Christ’s coming. If the word of The Lord needed to speed ahead in Pual’s generation, how expeditious should it be in ours? These are days for deliberate acceleration. we have wheels. We have wings. We have ways. We have means. At least for now, many of us also have freedom of speech. Should that freedom be with withdrawn, we have an assurance tucked into the folds of 2 Timothy that is worthy of a standing ovation.”
“… The word of God cannot be chained!“ 2 Timothy 2:8-10 (9)
Hallelujah! “Feet can be chained, but God’s Word cannot. Believers can be bound, but God’s Word cannot. In 1573 a mother by the name of Maeyken Wens was arrested in Antwerp with other believers who refused to silence their declarations of Scripture. After she was burned at the stake, her son Adriaen, about 15 years old at the time, rummaged through the ashes that were left of his mother. There he found a telling keepsake. It was the screw they’d used to bolt her mouth shut.”
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The trumphs of His grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.
Jesus! The name that charms our fear,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ear,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
“For every messenger silenced, another messenger spoke. In the words of Acts 12:24 ‘Then God’s message flourished and multiplied.’ That’s the beauty of gospel math. It prefers multiplication over addition.
One tongue turned into a thousand. The Word rang like a church bell from prison cells. it climbed the steepest mountaintops and crawled on bellies underground. It seeped beneath bolt-locked doors and bore holes through cement walls. It made its way to cotton fields, rice fields, and killing fields and to TV screens, laptop screens, and cell phone screens. We are the circuit runners now with a 25,000-mile marathon before us, wrapped like a belt around the bulging waistline of this planet. The job is not yet done because Christ is not yet back.
Many have not yet heard.
Many are not yet His.
We get to drive where our predecessors walked. it’s time to stomp the accelerator. We don’t have to be teachers, speakers, preachers, or communicators to become runners of the Word. We can take it with us in our bones. “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of shoulder and spirit, joints and marrow” (Hebrews 4:12)Wherever we go, every word that abides in us arrives with us.” Boy, isn’t that a good reminder and reason to be hiding His Word away in our hearts, talking about it to our children, and carrying it with us wherever we go?
How about you, can you think of a few specific places you desire for the words of Christ that abide in you to arrive with you over the next month? If so it might free you up to hear these next words of this author, perhaps the most important of the entire lesson. “We don’t need all the answers to share the hope. We don’t need a class in methods to give a message. We don’t have to earn degrees in apologetics to evangelize. Filled with the ink of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul did us an enormous favor. He put into words the things “of first importance” in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (3).
“… Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said, He was buried and He was raised from the dead, just as the Scriptures said.”
The author goes on to say, ” We want to spend our lives studying the Word of God. It is our daily bread. it is milk. It is meat. In the gorgeous words of Colossians 2:2-3, we want to pursue ‘all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery – Christ.’ All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him. … We aren’t throughly equipped for our God-ordained works with our Bibles closed (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
All we have to know to sprint off the starting block with the saving words of Christ is the thing of first improtance: Christ, the divine Son of God, came to earth and gave His life for our sins. He was raised from the dead so that we could receive eternal life. We hold fast to this testimony until our final breath. We invite others to come to know Him too through their confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and the belief in their hear that God raised Him from the dead. “‘For everyone who calls on the name of The Lord will be saved’ (Romans 10:13).
‘Everyone.’ What a spectacular word!”
Romans 10:13 leads us right back to a portion of Scripture that I pointed out earlier, and bears repeating as I wrap this up.
But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
(Romans 10:14-15NLT)
One final word of encouragement from the author of this amazing lesson. “Since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, this earth has been riddled with thorn and thistles. The pavement gets hot. The sand, waist deep. you can get hurt out there, but here’s the thing: pretty feet are never beautiful feet.
Maybe we’ll prop them up at some point in heaven and let the swelling go down. Between now and then, tie your shoes, stretch your calves, tuck your coruage, and run your heart out with the news until the whole world knows.”