By: Victor Stanely Jr.
Out on Bail
Seven years ago in June 2011, I was sitting in Northern Virginia awaiting a court hearing where I was facing two counts of assault and battery. The DEA had taken down a crime ring I was part of in a state down south and the drug task force had dealt a significant blow to our operations in a state out west. The crew I worked with in Virginia had fallen apart and a close friend had been victim to a car bomb. My bank accounts had been frozen and then shut down. I had no money, no plan, no hope.
My feet had carried me into a life of crime that left me dejected, defeated, and desperate.
The shoes I wore took me down a ghastly path proclaiming the good news of money, power, corruption, pleasure, sex, and drugs. I had strapped to my feet the shoes of readiness given by the gospel of death and destruction.
Different SHoes
In Ephesians chapter six the Apostle Paul implores the Church at Ephesus to put on the whole armor of God that they might stand firm against the powers of darkness and evil spiritual forces. One of those pieces of armor are the shoes of readiness from the gospel of peace, these shoes are drastically different from the ones I used to wear. Ephesians 6:10-11, 15 says:
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil…15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. (ESV)
What does it mean to put on the “readiness given by the gospel of peace”? Two passages of Scripture come to mind when considering what that phrase means.
I used to be an evangelist of a different gospel, a gospel of wickedness. I was one of those people the prophet Isaiah describes in Isaiah 59:7-8:
7Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. 8The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.
WHere are you walking?
Those of us who are in Christ are children of the light. However, if our thoughts are set on sin and iniquity, if there is a trail of brokenness and destruction in our wake, then we must step back and consider the shoes we have on our feet. Pornography, promiscuity, marital unfaithfulness, and sexual exploitation are not harmless activities that leave no victims. These things are injustices that only cause turmoil — the #metoo movement has made us acutely aware of that. The fall of so many prominent Christian leaders has also brought to light the misogyny and disregard for women that runs unchecked in the church.
We’re all to blame for the state of our culture and church.
Let’s be real:
Anytime I yield to my own sexual lusts and desires then my feet swiftly carry me into the sins that continue to fuel the sex trafficking and pornography industries. My peace is robbed from me, just as peace is also taken away from the men and women in those industries. It causes my thinking to become twisted and I view my sisters in Christ in a perverse and sinful way. In all of this I no longer walk a path of peace, but rather my road is paved with desolation and chaos. I leave a trail of broken people in my wake.
Yet Isaiah offers us hope — 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.” (ESV)
Our feet not only carry us into situations and circumstances, they also carry us to people and places. When we meet these people and arrive in these places what message do we bring with us? According to the prophet Isaiah, the children of light are able to bring peace, happiness, and salvation.
What is peace?
Peace is “A state of wholeness and security embracing both the physical and spiritual dimensions and relating not only to the individual, but also to entire communities and relationships among persons.”[1]
We proclaim a King that restores souls and binds up those who have been damaged and pulled apart by a world that has disfigured and distorted love and sex. True happiness is given as we bring a message that calls people into a life worth living, a life with profound purpose from the very author of life. The message of salvation declares to the world that Christ reigns and has thrown off the chains of sin and death that once held us all captive.
We proclaim a Kingdom that is present here and now, where the weak, the broken, the poor in spirit, the oppressed, the marginalized, the outcasts, the rejects, and the neglected are called blessed, are called sons and daughters, are called kings and queens, are called beloved.
That’s the power of our King and that’s the peace we proclaim.
how do we acquire peace?
Two areas of advice I offer to help us walk in shoes that are tailored by the gospel of peace:
First, we need to ground ourselves in the Word of God and in a life of prayer. Reading the Word is important and necessary, yet we cannot neglect relationship with God through the practice of prayer and reflection. It is in this quiet place where the Spirit interrupts our souls and initiates the work of transformation in our lives. And it is in that quietness that Jesus begins to give peace to the deepest parts of our character and identity.
Fight to hear what God has to say to you and fight for space to speak with Him.
Second, make sure you have godly women in your life, true sisters in Christ who can help shape your thinking when it comes to loving and honoring women instead of objectifying and using them. Having several women in my life who constantly speak truth to me has been a major resource of the Holy Spirit for change in my soul. These women—if any of you ladies are reading this, thank you—are not afraid to confront me and challenge me. The first people to proclaim the good news of peace and resurrection were women, and I am grateful to have women in my life that continue to proclaim to me the resurrection and it’s call to holiness.
It becomes much harder to objectify women on the other side of a screen when you are intentionally working to honor the women around you. Fight to honor them!
a new Story
I used to arrive in places with a message of pain and oppression, not a message of peace. My feet were decomposing and brought ruin everywhere they went.
Yet as you read this in 2018, seven years after the circumstances I described earlier, I am standing in Asia where I am teaching Scripture, training people in ministry, and learning what it means to be a servant of God. If you would have told that young man I was seven years ago that he would be a missionary, a leader in his church, and a Bible teacher I would have laughed at you.
What happened? Christ snatched me out of that life of doom and hopelessness, He restored and revitalized me, and, well, He gave me a new pair of shoes. They are the shoes of readiness given by the gospel of peace.
I was rescued from the road to perdition, and now I walk on the path of the righteous, secured for me by the mighty death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
How about you, ready to put on a new pair of shoes? Come join us at Proven Men’s conference and be equipped to bring peace to a crippled world.
Victor Stanley Jr. is a student at Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity pursuing a degree in Biblical and Theological Studies. He serves as a missionary to Asia through the missions organization Outreach to Asia Nationals (OTAN) and also teaches their weekly missions discipleship group in Lynchburg, VA. Vic also serves as a member of the church leadership team at his local church, Church of the Good Shepherd in downtown Lynchburg, VA. Vic simply desires to faithfully and humbly serve God wherever He may lead him. You can read more of Vic’s writings at www.hebrews4.com
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[1] Allen C. Myers, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), 807.