Yesterday I had to go do what we all have to do every now and then. Get some new shoes. My old ones were tearing apart and I decided it was time to get something new. I did my shopping at Payless. Personally, that's exactly what I wanted to do. Pay less.

I looked at the selection and remembered something I often thought. Why do we go for shoes that tie? I used to wear velcro all the time. Velcro is so simple. You put it on, strap it up, and it stays. You don't have to bend down (which is hard for me with a steel rod strapped on my spine) and tie shoes constantly or worry about slipping over strings or put up with someone saying "Your shoes are untied."

I got something different. I got shoes with a zipper on the front instead. They work just as well but it left me something to think about. It seems natural that people like to complicate things and make them hard to understand.

D. James Kennedy on his radio program tells of how he was asked by a seeker, "You mean I can accept Christ and just live as a I please?" Kennedy as a Calvinist (which I am not) is a firm believer in eternal security (Which I am) and replied "Be my guest."

Some might think Kennedy was wrong in saying that but the more I thought about it, the more I thought he was right. We're scared to say that maybe because we don't trust Christ enough. We don't trust Christ enough that he can change the hearts and desires of the ones he indwells.

It seems the real essentials of faith are so simple and we complicate things. I think of how today I was in a chat where I was instantly branded as a heretic for denying the rapture. I merely hold to the Second Coming. I know some on this list and some who read this will disagree but to me, it just makes the most sense. Otherwise, I hear that this is a coming but not a coming and we have to differentiate between the comings. The Scripture is clear though on the Second Coming. Why not go there?

I can also think of questions of skeptics. How do you justify Hell or the deaths in the flood or the slayings of the Canaanites? You know, when I was growing up, those weren't questions. I thought they were simple. You do good. You get rewarded. You do evil. You get punished. Why do so many miss that?

I think all truth is really simple. We just like to complicate it. Some people think it's amazing God lived as a man. I agree and it's called a great mystery but I personally have a greater mystery. I can see how God could live in a perfect man but how could he live in me or you?

So as I look at my shoes I sit back and think "Simple." God is simple. The faith is simple. The essentials are simple. Like I told a skeptic today, "God hasn't made it hard. He's made it as easy as possible to get to Heaven. All he asks is that you sign on the dotted line."

Isn't it great to serve a simple God?

In Christ,
Nick