Shema

We love God! He has radically changed who we are! Let’s talk about it! It should be a natural expression & overflow of our lives. When we do this, when people look at us, they see that we love God (Mt. 5:13-16). There are various terms for it - living out loud, being salty (Mark 9:50, Colossians 4:6).

When we live out loud, Foreign Soils calls that making a shema statement - from the Hebrew word for “hear” in Deuteronomy 6:4 (shema means hear – with the connotation of hear and obey).

What does the Bible say?

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,
the Lord is one!
You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
when you walk by the way,
when you lie down, and when you rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ~

Loving God with all our heart, soul, & strength and putting God’s words in our heart should lead us to talk about Him and His words constantly – inside and outside; verbally and nonverbally; when we’re resting and when we’re moving…If someone looks at us, they should see or hear something that points to God!

We encourage you to make shema statements daily wherever you go, within your home and outside of it!

How does one shema?

A shema is simply adding something spiritual into the conversation (God, Jesus, Bible, church, spiritual, blessing, etc.). Examples include:

• “God (or Jesus) bless you!”
• “Isn’t this a beautiful day that God has made?”
• “When I was reading the Bible this morning…”
• Telling a Bible story
• Wearing a shirt with a spiritual statement

God is drawing people to Himself. We're not responsible for making people interested.

If people know you are a spiritual person, they will come to you when they have spiritual questions. They might not respond at first, but when God begins tugging at their heart, they know where they can go for answers.

Bad shemas happen! Laugh and move on.

An easy trap to fall into is doing a shema action (for example doing something kind) without including a shema statement, but this gives us the glory. {Have you ever heard someone say: She’s such a nice person!} When we include shema statements with shema actions, we point the glory back to God.