ARE YOUR FEET BEAUTIFUL?

When did Jesus wash the feet of His disciples? 

• It was just before he walked out to the Garden of Gethsemane where He was arrested. 
• From there He walked to His trial and then to His execution where His feet were nailed to a cross.

After that Jesus died and was buried in a tomb. 

• After three days He returned walked along the dusty road to Emmaus with two disciples. 
• Later He walked into the room to visit His disciples. 
• He walked straight through the door as though it was not there. 

After that Jesus spent 40 days with His disciples, walking with them as He had done before the cross.

• But the day came when Jesus was taken up into Heaven. 

• Before He left them, Jesus gave them a command to go. They did not have horses or chariots but they had feet and they went.

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Mark 16:15 (NIV) 

• The King James Version says EVERY CREATURE.
• In Ancient Greek, the word for CREATION could also mean human cities built by men.

...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who WENT ABOUT doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38 (NKJV) 

• If you drive to church, you do well but if you have new neighbours, do you walk to their front door with a cake or a bunch of flowers?
• If you see a beggar in the city, do you walk across the road to talk to him?
• When you see a lonely person at a party, you can walk across the room to start a conversation.

Abraham was the Father of our faith and our example. He heard the command of God to GO and he WENT.

He left Iraq and walked to Syria and from Syria he walked to Israel. Then he walked up and down the Holy Land when he was well over 70 years old. As he went, he prayed and worshipped God and people SAW his faith.

• If nobody sees your faith are you a follower of Jesus? 

• Jesus did not just say BELIEVE. He said FOLLOW ME. To follow Jesus in those days, you needed to WALK with Him and it is still so today.

The Apostle Paul walked from city to city to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to men and women who had never heard. As he went, he prayed. How did he pray?

What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. 1 Corinthians 14:15 (NKJV) 

• I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; 1 Corinthians 14:18 (NKJV)

Paul’s target for mission was cities and towns. He was a busy man, working as a tent maker and preaching and teaching. 

How could the busy apostle find time to pray in tongues more than any of the enthusiastic tongue speaking Pentecostals in Corinth? 

Part of the answer is this: PRAYER WALKING.

• As Paul walked to a meeting, he prayed in tongues.

• As Paul walked from one town to the next, he prayed in tongues.

For Paul, faith meant WALKING.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And WALK IN LOVE, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2 (NKJV) 

When the Jewish High Priest killed and burnt a lamb to atone for the sins of Israel, the burning flesh was a sweet smell to God because He delighted to have mercy.

• God’s justice demands the death penalty for all sin.

Jesus walked to His execution as the sacrificial Lamb of God. He paid the penalty for my sin and your sin. 

• Will you walk with Him and GO to your neighbours?

• Will you buy a ticket, fly to the nations and walk the streets of foreign cities?

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news... Isaiah 52:7 (NIV) 

SET THE SLAVES FREE. RELEASE THE PROSTITUTES.

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Habakkuk 1:2 (ESV) 

• Every day we see reports of murders, assaults and suicide bombings. 

• Every day we read reports of the world’s fastest growing industry, the abduction of women and children for sexual slavery. 

• Millions are bullied and drugged while men line up to rape the victims over and over again.

If a woman is attacked in her home, we see it on the TV news but in every city there are brothels, prisons where serial rape is a daily business.

• So does God hear our prayers? 
• Was Habakkuk right when he thought God was not listening?

Nearly ten years ago I installed equipment to watch Christian TV channels broadcast free via satellites.

• I was inspired by some programmes but one thing grieved me. I saw excellent ministries campaigning against abortion (and who could disagree with that) but I saw only a few reports of human trafficking and forced prostitution. 

I was upset. 

Why so much indignation about the killing of unborn babies but so little fuss about millions of girls being kidnapped and raped all the time?

Think about it. How many abortions must there be in the sexual slavery business? How many? 

• Terrible as abortion is, I reasoned that the murdered unborn babies must go to heaven but the girls who are kidnapped and routinely raped will go to hell if we do not reach them with the Good News of Jesus.

My wise wife told me to stop fretting and start praying. I cried out to God.

I cried to God that He would raise up Christian leaders who would fight just as hard for sexual slaves as they do for the rights of the unborn. 

Several years later, I saw my prayers beginning to be answered.
Famous preachers like Cindy Jacobs and Joyce Meyer are fighting hard to save women forced into prostitution by force or by poverty.

• If you don’t agree with women preaching, read my last blog and think again. 

SHOULD WOMEN BE PASTORS AND TEACHERS?

• We desperately need wonderful anointed preachers like Joyce Meyer and Cindy Jacobs.

I also thank God, that God TV channel is actively campaigning on this issue.

http://www.god.tv/

One of the key concepts in the Bible is RIGHTEOUSNESS.
All of us are sinful and therefore UN-righteous. We need the forgiveness of God.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) 

The Living Bible makes the meaning very clear.

For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us! 

2 Corinthians 5:21 (TLB) 

But in God’s mind, there is no RIGHTEOUSNESS without JUSTICE.

• In Hebrew, Greek, French, German, Italian and Spanish the word RIGHTEOUSNESS also includes the meaning of JUSTICE. 
• In English these are two different words.

• God loves RIGHTEOUSNESS, which we often think of as moral and spiritual virtue.

• God also demands JUSTICE. We must do something to help victims of violence, cruelty and oppression.

Jesus preached in His hometown and announced His manifesto.

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; 

• He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, 
• To proclaim liberty to the captives 
• And recovery of sight to the blind, 
• To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV) 

Jesus announced the year of the Jubilee. 

• Every 50 years in Israel, all slaves had to be released.

I believe God is saying again: NOW IS THE TIME.

SHOULD WOMEN BE PASTORS AND TEACHERS?

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 1 Timothy 2:12 (ESV) 
Based on this one text alone, in the entire New Testament, some people want to exclude women from senior church leadership positions and from ministering as Bible teachers.

• It is true that other texts instruct women to be quiet in meetings but this is to do with orderly behaviour when listening to teaching. 

• It has nothing to do with whether women are allowed to address meetings or exercise spiritual gifts.

...the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 1 Corinthians 14:34 (ESV) 

The Old Testament Law does not forbid female leadership. 

• Deborah was one of the best rulers of Israel in the book of Judges. (Judges 5:7) 

• The prophetess Huldah gave instructions to King Josiah. (2 Kings 22)

• The Prophetess Anna announced in the Temple, that Jesus was the promised Messiah. 
• Her special ministry was endorsed by Luke and the Holy Spirit and also allowed by the Jewish religious leaders under the strict Law of Moses.

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul urges all believers to prophesy.

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV) 

We know Paul was also including women because he gave specific instructions to women prophesying in chapter 11.

...but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. 1 Corinthians 11:5 (ESV) 

But some say women should only be allowed to pray or prophesy aloud in meetings for women. The New Testament says nothing about special meetings for women. 

When Paul tells women to be quiet in meetings, he is teaching them to be orderly and not to interrupt when they should be listening. 

If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. 1 Corinthians 14:35 (ESV) 

Women in Corinth, who often had little formal education, were interrupting the meetings by asking their husbands to explain what was being taught.

• Were there women in the New Testament who exercised teaching gifts?

• Were there women to gave instructions to men in important matters of doctrine? 

We don’t know how many there were but there is one striking example of an important female teacher who gave important doctrinal instruction to a prominent male preacher.

Apollos was a powerful and influential preacher who had not been taught about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Acts 18:26 (ESV) 

Priscilla and Aquila were important leaders in the early church and they are mentioned six times, three times in Acts and three times in Paul’s letters. 

• In four of these six texts, Priscilla is mentioned first, which indicates her ministry was more significant than that of her husband.

In both Old Testament and New Testament times, female leadership was exceptional but certainly not forbidden by God.

• Why did Paul write that he did not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man?       

• If this is a general rule excluding women from preaching, teaching or leadership, why did Paul only mention it in one letter to one church leader? 

Paul wrote 13 letters to different churches. He taught about leadership and ministry in much of his writings but only here does he appear to restrict the role of women.

• The last words in 1 Timothy 2:12 are “rather, she is to remain quiet.” 

This might indicate that Paul is not excluding women from preaching, teaching or leadership but rather insisting on women behaving themselves properly in meetings and in relationships.

• In 1 Timothy 2:12 , Paul refers to a relationship between A woman and A man and then speaks of Adam (A man) and Eve (A woman). (1 Timothy 2:13-14)

• This says nothing about women addressing meetings and in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says women did and should prophesy in meetings.

So if you are a woman, PLEASE do not bury your talents or gifts.

• If you are a man, PLEASE be an agent of change and set women free.