HOLY WEEK

Christians were gearing up for the Holy Week. Churches that have reopened have breathed a sigh of relief. Many were carefully planning events for kids, and outreaches to share the gospel. Numerous churches were being cleaned as guests were being invited. And Christian social media was full of posts about…Shoes?

What went wrong? As Passover was starting Christians were posting about a pair of expensive, albeit, blatantly satanic shoes. They were focused on the pentagram displayed on the shoe, and that drops of human blood were in the limited edition shoes. And they were revolted that it was going to be 666 pairs of shoes. Which is a ‘bad’ number poorly misinterpreted by popular and more recent end times views.

#Canceled

May I ask you this: Did you post it and add your voice to the outrage? As cancel culture may be coming towards your views, did your behavior toward these shoes display the same spirit and attitude in wanting to cancel the shoes? I mean, what do you expect from a world you’re not preaching the love of Jesus to?

Now that I have your attention…when was the last time you prayed for those spiritually lost and wayward music stars, or prophesy destiny and decree the life giving power of Jesus over them? Have you reached out to them or people they attract, sharing God’s love?

Duped by Marketing Ploy

Christians were unfortunately duped in a marketing strategy that distracted them and is distracting them this Holy Week. Instead of posting on the love of Jesus and His victory for the world by His shed blood on the cross, people tried to dissect the name of the brand on the shoes. Pictures of believers waving palms for Sunday services were posted from my friends overseas, with invitations of ways to hear the gospel. But here in the United States, many Christian’s posts focused on the wrong blood during Passover weekend. 

Many of those posts lacked a call to prayer or call to decree over the designer(s). Instead, every share online helped generate more demand for the shoes, driving the price higher. And Christians were distracted as they fell into the manipulative hands of the marketers and helped generate more views of a demonic music video. Helping sear those images into millions of people’s minds…The enemy and the world is laughing. I’ll be honest that I didn’t want to write this article, but we’ve been duped. 

Focus on Jesus, Not on the Shoes

In no way am I condoning the shoes and their blatant message. But my wonderful Christian friends, what happened to our wisdom or discernment? Did you not pause and think before posting and sharing about the shoes that the timing of it was perfect to distract you from the purpose of Passover and Holy Week? During Holy Week Christians are calling for the cancellation of shoes while the lost world calls for the cancellation of Christ. And Christ was set aside by Christians posting about shoes.

This is Jesus’ week, around the world. We need to reach people with His love. We will be disgusted, appalled and shocked by many more things. But what the world needs is God’s love through you. And the viral posts shared by millions of Christians this week was a marketing ploy (free advertising). And distraction from the main thing the world needs right now. By posting about it, perhaps it stole your joy accomplished by design. My encouragement to you is to turn your heart and mind to gaze again on Jesus. Setting all distractions aside with a new commitment to reach people in His love. 

Jared Laskey, M.Div., M.A. in Christian ministry, is the founder of Fireborn Ministries and host of the Adventures in the Spirit podcast. He lives to see Jesus awaken this generation to the power of the Holy Spirit. Jared loves teaching people how to hear God. He has recently published the Spirit-Empowered Journal, available on Amazon, and e-courses Entry Level Prophecy, The Last Days, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit and more on charismacourses.com. His testimony of how God supernaturally healed him of PTSD is in Joan Hunter’s book, Miracles for Veterans.