Shoes

I have always been “blessed” with short broad feet.  Peasant feet I call them.  Hold me up well and are generally sturdy, but they have always been a bother when it came time to get a new pair of shoes.

I remember being taken shopping for shoes as a kid.  Mum always insisted I get leather shoes so they would stretch around my feet.  I have never agreed with Mum about everything, but I do with this one.  I was always taken to a store to be fitted properly, and the attendant always did the best they could to fit my not so standard sized feet.  I think the fact that Mum’s feet were always a trouble to her, caused at least partly by the fact that she was never able to try shoes on, meant that she insisted on good shoes for me. She lived way out in the country, and they did their shopping by mail order.  Shoe sizes were hit and miss.  Poor Mum had really weird feet, with toes that sat on top of each other…..the works.

As I grew older, I wanted to start wearing high heel shoes.  Mum wisely made me wait.  I remember being around 12, which was the going age in my neighbourhood, and wearing a pair of what must have been 1” heels to high school dances and to church.  Wow!  I remember comparing heels with the girls I grew up with and we were tremendously excited to be wearing these “grown up” shoes.  We were terribly jealous of the older girls in our street, who were wearing 2 ½” stiletto heels!  Although we did have a giggle at how they struggled to walk properly on our grass footpaths!
Eventually I went to work, and was now in charge of choosing (and paying for) my own shoes.  I soon discovered that stiletto heels were impractical for work, and opted for around a 2” heel that was a bit thicker, and just saved the higher thinner heels for social occasions.  I also discovered that they didn’t really make “pretty” shoes that fitted short broad feet, and I was too vain to wear “sensible heels” and “sensible” toes…what were termed “matrons’ shoes”.  Fortunately for me, square toes became fashionable, which gave the illusion of a broader shoe.  But not really.  They were invariably tight on my little toes.  I had stuck to Mum’s advice and usually bought leather shoes, even though they were more expensive.  They did eventually stretch, and the shoes  were sort of comfortable…eventually.

Now I am older, and have a neurological condition, which affects my balance.  I can no longer wear high heels, I feel as though I’m going to fall off.  I wear the flattest shoes I can find, but I still wear leather.  And, thank goodness, they now seem to be catering for ladies with a wider foot.  Or is it just that I have started wearing matrons’ shoes?

No more trying to fit my shoes into something that doesn’t really fit in the name of fashion.  But are we guilty of doing that to God?  Do we try to make Him something He isn’t to fit our ideas?  Do we do the same with the Bible, and only take certain verses, or take them out of context so that we feel better about how we think things should be done?

I find that legalistic religion and cults are very guilty when it comes to this.  They put him in an ill fitting box.  They say, look!  Even Jesus was subject to the sabbath! Look! God was flesh and blood!  Look!  God was this!  God was that!

Here is God…immortal invisible, God only wise.  In light inaccessible hid from our eyes. (As the hymn says).  We can’t even look on Him and live, and we try to make Him….well like a big grandfather figure…or something we feel in charge of.

We introduce prophets, like EG White, or Joseph Smith, who make things up and tell us this is the word of God.  Well hello, no it’s not.  Fiction yes, fantasy yes, truth no.  These same people tell us we must worship God on certain days, and worshipping on other days is the mark of the beast.  Or they tell us that the Bible is corrupted, and not to be trusted, while saying their own works are faithful and true.  Or they tell us we must eat certain food, or not eat certain food.  Health is the right arm of the gospel, and we must not eat meat.  Did Jesus miss the memo?  No alcohol, even though the Bible does not prohibit meat or alcohol.  They tell us we will have our own planet!  We might find good old Enoch on it!

And these prophets steal the words of other people and tell us they are the words of God.  Seems God showed them which words to steal so it’s ok.  People have such weird ideas in any case, and these prophets prey on that.

And the leaders of the churches carry on the delusion.  They know the truth about these prophets.  They know the lies, but they continue to deceive their flocks.  They are like the false shepherds that Jesus talks about that leave the flock to be scattered by the wolf.  In fact they ARE the wolf.  I think there will be a special part of hell reserved for these people.
Basically these people are trying to take our focus away from Jesus, away from the Gospel.  Sometimes it’s a case of you must do this to be saved, or yes, we are saved through the blood of Christ BUT…..

We are saved by grace.  Not by works.  Not by grace plus law, because that is still law.  The law was to point us to Christ.  It was a signpost.  The sabbath was a signpost.  They were shadows pointing us to the reality.  And here we have false prophets, false leaders, false shepherds pointing to the signposts, the shadows, themselves, anything but the Reality.  Satan must be laughing himself silly about this.

 

Why should we be satisfied with the counterfeit?  Why not point to the Real Deal?  We are told by these prophets that Jesus Christ is not the whole truth.  But wait there’s more they say!  Ignore the Bible, ignore the words of Christ, and just accept the truth of what WE say, while we make it up as we go along.

Jesus said the He was the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father but through Him.  And here we have people who know better than the Saviour of the world, the Creator of the world, the Son of God, the Word of God, taken on flesh. You know I think that’s a pretty good resume.  I mean apart from writing a few books of fantasy what have these prophets done?  Apart from leading people away from God I mean….

Yes, I am worked up.  God is immortal, and infinite.  He is majestic and glorious.  He is clothed in splendour.  I could go on forever describing Him.  His ways are beyond our ways.  With our finite, mortal minds, we cannot understand His mysteries.  I’m fine with that.  He is all seeing, all knowing.  He knows what has happened, He knows what will happen, He knows what is happening now. Some days I’m going well to know my name!  I’ll leave Him in charge thanks!

I’m not going to put Him in a box.  I’m not going to try to pretend I’m cleverer than Him.  I’m going to continue being in awe of Him, and thank Him for creating this world, and for creating me, and all those who are near and dear to me, and for sending His Son to save me, and redeem me, and for giving me the promise of eternity with Him.

I look forward to the day that I get to see Him in His splendour and majesty.  I do not want to try and lessen any of His power.  I NEED Him to be in charge!

My feet need to put in comfortable, well fitting shoes;  they need to be protected and safe. God GIVES protection and safety. Neither my feet nor God need to be confined. God CANNOT be confined.

1	Immortal, invisible, God only wise, In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.
2	Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might; Thy justice like mountains high soaring above Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
3	To all life Thou givest, to both great and small; In all life Thou livest, the true life of all; We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, And wither and perish, but nought changeth Thee.
4	Great Father of Glory, pure Father of Light Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight; All laud we would render, O help us to see: ’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.
5	Immortal, invisible, God only wise, In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.