So, I am going to tell you a little parable here, but it is a true story. I was wearing old and worn out shoes which were too big for my feet. So, for my birthday, my husband bought me some new shoes which fit my feet much better. And I was excited to have the new shoes because they are a perfect fit, and I believe they will give me better support for walking.

But yesterday one of my toes in my right foot (with shoes on) began to feel like I had a bite or a splinter. My husband looked at it but could not find the source of my pain. So later I looked at it and I could see that it looked like someone had cut it, top to bottom. So he put some Vaseline on it, covered it with a band aid, and we are waiting for it to heal, for it hurts to wear a shoe.

John 8:37-44 NASB1995: I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.”

They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Now, shoes are used in a spiritual sense to represent our walks of faith in obedience to the Lord in the sharing of the message of the gospel of Christ (see Ephesians 6:14-15). And for me, I see getting rid of the old shoes and putting on new shoes as the gospel message, having to do with putting off our old lives of living for self and in sin and us now putting on our new lives in Christ Jesus in walks of surrender to the will of God. But when we put on the new shoes, we might suffer some pain from those who oppose us and who oppose the gospel message, and who cut us like they did to Jesus.

The Jews didn’t like it that Jesus suggested to them that they were slaves who needed to be set free. They didn’t like it that he told them that everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. But he cared about them enough to tell them the truth they didn’t want to hear. And he was honest with them. He admitted to them that he knew that they were seeking to kill him, because His Word had no place in them. They responded by accusing him then of being an illegitimate child, while claiming God as their Father.

But Jesus then let them know that if God truly was their Father, that they would love Jesus. And then he told them plainly that they were of their father, the devil, because they wanted to do the desires of their father, the devil. For they wanted to kill Jesus, the only begotten Son of God who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So their god was not God the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for they were still living to do what their flesh desired, not what God required.

And this is where many people are today who claim God as their Father and Jesus as their Lord, but in lip service only, and not in truth. For they are not listening to Jesus and to his teachings, and they are not putting sin to death, and they are not walking in obedience to the Lord. For they have not put off the old shoes (way of life), and thus they have not put on the new shoes (new way of life). For many of them do not want to have to suffer for the sake of Christ and for his gospel message, but they want things easy.

Now, going back to my parable. Even though it is painful, at times, to serve the Lord with my life and to share the message of the gospel, the message taught by Jesus and his New Testament apostles, I still have to put those new shoes on, even if it hurts, and I still have to walk that walk of faith, even when it pains me, for suffering is part of the Christian life. I have to be willing to suffer in order to see others set free from their slavery to sin and to now walk in freedom in obedience to our Lord, all for the glory of God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Should I Not Preach Jesus

Based off 1 Corinthians 9:16-10:13
An Original Work / July 4, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Woe to me should I not preach Jesus.
I’m compelled to preach the full gospel.
I make myself a slave to ev’ryone
To win their hearts to Christ.
All this I do for my Lord Jesus,
And for the sake of His Name;
Do it for the sake of His gospel,
So that I, its blessings gain.

Scripture notates the sins of others;
Written down for us as examples
To keep us from setting our hearts
On evil as did those of old.
Do not worship other gods of man;
Do not give your hearts to them;
Not partake in immorality.
Do not test your Lord and King.

So, be careful if you think you are
Standing firm in your faith in Jesus.
God has given his word to warn us,
So through faith we will not fall.
No temptation has o’ertaken you
Except what is commonplace.
God is faithful to not let you be
Tempted past what you can bear.
He gives the way of escape.

If God Were Your Father
An Original Work / January 15, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love