Life Is Too Short To Wear Tight Shoes

Word of the Day
Today's word is: erudition
/er'u*di"tion/ noun
The act of instructing; studied book learning; profound scholarly knowledge. The Devil's Dictionary ((C) 1911 Released April 15 1993) says this is "Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull."
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I had an epiphany this morning in church. Have you ever had one of those? I had a realization that will be life changing for a few of my more relaxed readers. I have found Biblical basis for wearing comfortable, removable shoes to church. I have found basis to justify taking off my shoes in worship service. It may seem small or insignificant to you, but this is major to me. There is no reason on earth to bind a foot into an uncomfortable shoe for the benefit of someone else. Follow my path of reason, please.

~~~Today's study notes that I am currently using the New American Standard Bible translation, from The Open Bible edition of Thomas Nelson Publishers.~~~

Go look up Exodus 3:5. God is about to call Moses to the greatest adventure from the "burning" bush. God tells Moses, "remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." This is quoted to the people in Acts 7:33. Also, there is Joshua 5:15. The last sentence of the whole chapter is Joshua complying with the command to remove his sandals. In Isaiah 20:2, Sargon, the king of Assyria, was told to take off his shoes, and his clothes, and to fight naked and barefoot, in order to shame Egypt. Isaiah apparently went naked and barefooted for three years, and the king was fighting God's symbolic and physical fight in the proper manner. (I don't advocate stripping in church, however. Just taking off the shoes.)

This motion of removing shoes is seemingly meaningless to American culture, because we don't have the same dusty, dirty, dingy, dry plain to walk through. We don't comprehend the washing of feet to be a symbolic moment of servitude, because we don't have to wash our feet when we go to someone's home. The Japanese and Chinese cultures remove outdoor shoes before entering a home. My Chinese landlord takes his shoes off outside my home, that I rent from him. I was happy to see that, because I don't wear shoes in the house unless I am leaving it. I am a sock-footed dancing queen! It keeps the hardwood polished, and clean.

Matthew 18:20 says, "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst." When we worship God, He is in the place with us. When we worship God, we are on Holy Ground. By this reasoning, we could say that we should not only remove our shoes, but we should prostrate ourselves (basically flatten the body on the ground face down) in the face of such holiness. God is so beyond what we see as special. He is Holy, Perfect, and fortunately for me, Forgiving. In Christ we are given freedom, that legalism is destined to misunderstand, and try to remove from us.

So what would happen if next Sunday, you got out into the aisle and took off your shoes, and knelt and bowed to God?

Now, I am not saying that you should make a spectacle of yourself. This is NOT a moment to be drawing attention to yourself. Worship is not about YOU. Worship is about GOD. We need to study what God wants from us in our worship. I want to challenge you to think about the commands to remove shoes. We are to be paying attention to the way we approach God, and if we don't do it right, there are dire consequences. Remember that the man who touched the Ark of the Covenant was still struck dead, even though he thought he was helping. God hasn't changed His mind about the directives. The 10 Commandments are still there, and we are still not supposed to have another god we put above Jehovah God.

Now, wear those flip flops to church, and take them off! Put your feet on the cool tile, or the soft carpet, and hope there are no spiders sneaking up on you. Consider that your feet are on Holy Ground, and your heart is worshiping the God of gods, the Great I Am. And remember that He told many great men before you to remove their sandals.