Beautiful Feet

Romans 10:15
As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."

I love this song by Lecrae. It's a really good song just going to warn you it's rap but it's clean and not only that it glorifies God.

Beautiful Feet ft. Dawntoya
© Reach Records
Carlos was born in killa cali/
was walking down an alley/
he caught a bullet in his head that left him bleeding badly. He lost everything at that moment except his life/
he lost his hearing, lost his movement and he lost his sight/
he laid there in a coma/
but man nobody cared/
the Gospel preached in his neighborhood? Nobody dared/
But los got up out the coma got and was able to hear/
a missionary shared the gospel to his open ears/
He got saved got trained got discipled/
back to the hood/
you could find em preaching the bible/
He led a homie to Christ from his same hood/
part of Church plant/
come on now aint his name good/
This is blessing but I'm stressing that this is not the norm/
we need leaders and believers to help carry it on/
but who would minister in a sinister part of town/
I pray if Jesus is calling you that you would be found/

Eric used to go to bible study as a kid/
he got older and started doing what the hood did/
a rival gang caught him slippin tried to take his life/
but then the gun jammed up so them beat him nice/
he woke up in the hospital singing Bible songs/
praise God he had a place to learn the Bible from/
but then he gets saved and wanna preach Christ they make him change his whole culture and whole way of life/
he gotta get him a bachelors wear a suit and tie/
go to seminary/
by then all of his boys will die/
Jesus came to invade culture outta Nazareth and used a couple fisherman who people saw as hazardous/
the feet are beautiful if only they'd go/
if ain't nobody in hood preaching how will they know?/
Eric is better used taught trues in his context/
somebody please plant a church in his projects.

In Luke 4:16 on down to 21 Jesus says he's messiah says he's the chosen one But more than that he quotes Isaiah/
that shows our savior targets oppressed captive blind and the broke I'm saying/
He had a heart for the poor had a heart for the low/
and 1st John 2:6 is way we should go/
In Deuteronomy even tho they under the law/
the tithes every third year the poor got em all/
I ain't sayin you wrong if you live in burbs/
Im sayin turn your attention to the hood cause we hurting/
man if you ain't burdened please pick up your word an/
tho this world is going down while we here we can serve him/
we bring this to the streets because we knew the streets/
I pray that more would be burdened to have beautiful feet/
you never knew the streets but truth is what you preach/ I pray to God you'd be burdened for beautiful feet.

Go, go, go (run with those beautiful feet)Go, go, goYou hold the truth that saves so run and shout it to the worldThey can't believe in something they ain't never heardGo, go, go and run with those beautiful feet

What to do? (LOTR, Part I)

Hey all, I know this isn't necessarily a Bible study, but I posted this on my blog and thought I should share it.  here goes...

As those of you who faithfully read my sometimes weird and crazy posts know, I have been rereading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.  And, if any of you have looked at my "quotations" page, you know that I have found a good-sixed bit of beautiful language, unsightful truths, and just plain funniness (I don't care if that isn't a word) in the first 150 pages of the novel.  Several in particular stuck out to me...serious ones, that is.

I thought I'd share this one with you.  To give you some background (for non-Tolkien people), in this particular section, Gandalf (the wizard, not a sorcerer, but more like a...I don't know) and Frodo (a hobbit) are sitting in Bag End (Frodo's home) and discussing many serious things, such as the Dark Lord Sauron, his One Ring, and ancient Middle-Earth-ian lore.  There, if that wasn't confusing enough...

'Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.'

'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.

'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times.  But that is not for them to decide.  All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'

Don't we all, at some point in our lives, utter Frodo's very words?  "I wish it need not have happened in my time..."  We feel hopelessly lost, or just plain discouraged.  We don't know what to do.  Or if she should even do anything at all.  Luckily for us, though, we have Gandalf to answer us.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

So what do we do?  We can sit on our bums and sulk and feel sorry for life, or we can do something.  But what?  What can we possibly do?  I mean, we're not talking some superstar, or some famous athlete here!  We're just little old Ellie, or Tiny Tim, or etc.  We're not even Frodo Baggins, hobbit ordinaire (yes, ordinaire).  We don't have a One Ring to destroy, a Balrog to fence with, or a Nazgul to chop up.  So what can we do?

Have you ever heard Michael Card's song "A Fragile Stone"?  I won't list the entirety of the lyrics, but these four lines stuck out to me.  (Hang with me, here, I'll get back to Frodo and Mr. Wizard in a sec.)

A stone that is dropped in the water

Will vanish and soon disappear

But the waves that move out from the center

In time they will reach everywhere

I don't know about you, but those are pretty "duh" words.  Everyone knows that when you drop a stone in a pond, there are gonna be ripples spreading soon enough.  But do you know that you could be that stone?  No, I don't mean that someone could dump you in a pool and...no, I don't mean that.  I mean that you don't have to be a hobbit with a magic Ring to make a difference iin the world.  A little smile could be your way of changing it, or a wave or a kind note of thanks.

So this all circles back to "what to do?"  When you see someone sitting alone at school, at church, at youth group, at something else, are you going to laugh and point at that person? turn away? or are you going to "WWJD?" yourself and go sit with them?  If you do the latter, you're being a stone falling into a placid pool (the world's the pool, Ok?)  You're saying "Hey, I'm tired of sitting around moping because life sucks.  I'm going to go against the grain and stand out.  I'm going to be in the world and not of it.  I'm going to show God that I care about His children, whoever they may be, and I'm going to sit with that kid, no matter what he/she has been dubbed."

So, even though Satan, after a defeat and a respite, is coming back in bigger force, you're going to be like Frodo and do something about it.  (And no, please don't go looking for Orcs and Mount Dooms, Ok?  :P )

I don't know about you, but I've decided that I'm going to let God do what He wants to do with me.  That's what I'm going to do.  How about you?

-Ellie

PS See how many people we can get to comment on this...and take action afterward!  (YCF buddies, here's your chance!) 

Rom-12-2 Update

We have come up with some ideas to use this blog in a different way. It is great but there is one idea to help improve it and trying to get more people reading it and active on it. We are thinking about starting a Bible study. We will do this by a few writers will write the lessons and other people can put their thoughts and responses and a comment. But don’t be worried the members of this blog will still be able to post as always. I love the verses and song lyrics that you put on here and wouldn’t want to change that. We will get more information and post more about it as soon as possible. Please tell your friends too can we can get a lot of people reading this blog and involved in the study. We are very excited about this and hope you are too. For information and how to get involved email us at initnotof@gmail.com

Thank you,
Calsie Rael