I believe that I can have beautiful feet. To accomplish this I am required to offer up my entire body to God. Romans 12:1-2 says:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
If I am to approve what God's will is I need to know what His will is. I'm pretty sure that is mentioned somewhere. Jesus talks about it in John 6:39-40.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
So God's will is that all who look to Jesus and believe in him will have eternal life. Jesus left the task of helping others to come to know him to his disciples right before he ascended into heaven. This is documented in Matthew 28:19-20.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Chances are that if you have come to know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour that somebody told you about him. That may have been a relative, a pastor, or a friend. They had beautiful feet. You may be thinking that I've lost it. I've probably never seen their feet. How can I know that they are beautiful? Romans 10:13-15 says so.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
If you look at this closely, you will notice six steps that have taken place. Just for fun I will call it the Kingdom Growth Cycle:
1) You have heard about Jesus
2) You believed what you heard
3) You called on the name of Jesus
4) You were saved
5) You were sent to share about Jesus
6) You went and shared about Jesus
I look at this cycle and I see one particular spot that it tends to break down. So many of us have made it to step 5. We have been sent to share what we have been shown about Jesus. Why don't we go? Step 5 is the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20 and it is the necessary step to restart the cycle. When we GO and we start this cycle in the lives of others we cause ourselves to have beautiful feet.
I'm reminded of when Jesus washes the disciples' feet in John 13. I can imagine what their feet looked like. We see how often Jesus and the disciples travelled and we know much of their travelling was walking. Roads weren't what they are today and shoes weren't what they are today. Their feet were dirty. They were likely calloused and probably a little worse for wear. Their feet were not physically beautiful. But Jesus saw what they would do for His kingdom after he was gone. He saw that they were his servants' feet. To Jesus their feet were beautiful.
I want beautiful feet. Not beautiful in my eyes or my wife's eyes. Beautiful to Jesus. I want the feet from Isaiah 52:7:
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Mike
