the shoes.

today we're reading Romans 15:5-9.

read this text

I really didn't want to address this but the Lord is persistent in His pursuits and He has placed it on my heart SO let's talk about the song and the shoes. If you are aware, great. If you aren't aware, a rap artist named Lil Nas X released a music video that included the sexualization of the devil and hell, and then went on to create satanic shoes. As you can probably tell, Christians got angry. Now I want to get right into it. 

There are two things that I want to address. ​

The first is that we have to stop being shocked that the devil is working. 
Not only that, the devil didn't just start working because of pop culture. 
The devil has been working to disband the work of the Lord since the beginning. 
Think about this: if the devil tempted Jesus, the son of God and Savior of the world, do you really think he's going to leave some broken sinners alone? 
We aren't exempt from attacks from the evil one when we have God on our side; we are PROTECTED from attacks from the evil one when we have God on our side.
Amen?

The second is that Christians are talking about how they're offended by the imagery of the devil and the satanic shoes, and I get it. 
But what's more offensive to me is the fact that Christians, people who claim to have their heart set on Christ, have told a person they are going to hell so much that they begin to embrace eternity without the Father. 
After lots of backlash, Lil Nas talked about how he had been victimized and hurt by the church. 
​He tweeted this: 

"I spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of the (expletive) y'all preached would happen to me because I was gay. So, I hope u (sic) are mad, stay mad, feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves."

The sad thing is the church have spent the last week in a rage fit about satanic shoes (that no one is forcing anyone to buy) when in reality the church caused this to happen in the first place.
We talk about how we want the world to know Jesus, but we act like we don't want anyone to know Jesus. 
The saddest thing is that we as Christians are falling into the devil's trap by taking our eyes off of the Lord and setting our attention on him. 
The devil wants us to be mad at him. 
The devil wants us to be full of hatred. 
Let me remind you an important truth: 
When we as Christians serve to glorify God, we defeat the devil. 
By glorifying God every where we go, meeting our enemies with love, and worshipping & glorifying the Name above all names: we are defeating the devil. 
By keeping our eyes set on Christ, we are defeating the devil. 
By looking up to Christ, we are leaving the battle to the Lord to conquer (spoiler alert: God wins). 
How do we go forward?
Set our eyes upon Jesus, as Hebrews 12 calls Him "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith". 
I'm not really sure when we got to this point, but Jesus never told us to condemn people to hell.
John 3:17, the verse right after the most famous bible verse ever, is this: 
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through  him."
​Jesus also set such a perfect example of love, compassion, mercy, and sacrifice. 
In Luke 6:35-36 Jesus says: 
"I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind." 
The harsh takeaway about this whole situation is this:

If we as Christians are more offended that people have embraced hell than the fact that we have caused people to embrace hell, we have our eyes fixed on the wrong issue.

Our only command is to love as Christ loved us, share love as Christ has shared it with us, and teach love as Christ has taught us.
That is the fulfillment of the great commission.
​When we have our eyes fully set on sharing the love of Christ rather than our own desire to 'fix this world', our lives will begin to look like models of love, rather than hate. 
I love Lil Nas X, not just because Old Town Road was a bop, but because God created Him just as He created me. 
I want, more than anything, to see Lil Nas and every other person who has felt like him in heaven. 
I pray that they are led to Christ and that they know the fullness of God's inclusive love rather than a human distortion of exclusivity. 
With all that being said, I'll leave you with my favorite verse of the passage: 
​"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."