I had been contemplating on a sermon that my pastor had preached and he had talked about 1 Samuel 16:7,”
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”Look at the picture on the right.
If you were walking anywhere, what is the first thought that hits your mind about this man?
Would you grab your purse and feel your heart start beating? Would fears start filling your mind.
Maybe you would walk by and resolve not to say anything. Think what a
disgrace.Grab the kids hands a little closer and walk a little faster.
What if you went surfing the internet and came across a picture of this same person,
here, and gasped with shock at what you discover?
It really made me stop and think when the pastor went…we all need God. God doesn’t care if you wear a suit or rags.
We need to be careful about making pre-judgements about a person, because the chances are…we maybe proven wrong, and what a relief if mentally we think, “Wow, glad I didn’t say anything,” but what about the miss opportunity then if we didn’t step up and say anything?
God cares about you. The “you” inside, not the “you” outside.
He cares about everyone.
There is a quote that goes,
“We can make a serious error and put the emphasis on the external to the exclusion of what is essential. Spirituality is not gained by conformity to a set of appearance standards. Please don’t make that mistake. A person can be straight down the line with an impeccable appearance and be as mean as the devil. They can just stab you in the back. God does not want that. He wants your heart as well as your appearance to be right. ……………………….We can make a serious error and put the emphasis on the external to the exclusion of what is essential. Spirituality is not gained by conformity to a set of appearance standards. Please don’t make that mistake. A person can be straight down the line with an impeccable appearance and be as mean as the devil. They can just stab you in the back. God does not want that. He wants your heart as well as your appearance to be right. “
I was thinking about that when during a conversation , a church was judged not by the sermon or if it was biblically based but the person was judging it by how the people arrived dressed.
I shared a story that I was told of a that pastor brought up the fact he was asked one time why he never wore a suit and was it because he couldn’t afford one.
He replied,”I own a few suits…and I will wear them to a wedding….or a funeral, but I come here to worship God, not for a fashion show. I want God to see what is in my heart, He’s not going to see me by what I wear.”
The person then criticized about how there were people wearing shorts in the church and they thought it was disrespectful and the pastor brought up, Galations 5:6,”For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. “
And reminded gently that the Pharisees were dressed up in fine robes, but inside…they weren’t concern about God. They thought by dressing up in finery and being showy, that SHOWED they loved God, but the reality…inside they were empty and the cup wasn’t clean.
Matthew 23:25,”Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. “
The pastor went, if we were so much more caught up in what we wear, that brings attention to us…not to God.
It’s not about what we wear that will define how faithful or how much we believe in God, it’s what goes on in our hearts and how we allow God to flourish in our lives that will define it and we have to make sure that we are not trying to create “works” or our own ideas of a “religious life” to justify serving God.
God will take care of dealing with that particularly person’s conviction about how THEY feel they should dress but , God isn’t going to say,”This person is wearing a suit, why aren’t you?”
If a person is going to show up in a scuba diver’s outfit…yes they will definitely stand out for sure and be thought of odd, but God isn’t. He isn’t going to think…”Hey that’s not *insert a brand name*, why are you here in church?”
There are Christains all over the world that dress differently than we dress here in the States, but that doesn’t make them less of a brother or sister.
Galatians 5:4You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
In the MSG version it goes, “When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.”
The focus becomes too much on yourself and it risks losing focus on who it is about….God.
God doesn’t want make loving him and worshipping Him HARD. If He did…we would all have to look like the pharisees in order to please Him.
Most of us probrably couldn’t go to church if we had to say…only wear clothes from *insert a high end designer here* God doesn’t require shopping at Neiman Marcus or at a thrift store to love Him, He just requires opening your heart to Him.
He does want us to repent of our sins…and He does want us to stop living a life that is sinful and disrespectful of Him, but He doesn’t want our dress to stop us from worshipping Him…and nor should we allow the dress of others stop them from worshipping Him either.
Matthew 11:28-30,”28. ‘Come unto me, all ye labouring and burdened ones, and I will give you rest, 29. take up my yoke upon you, and learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls, 30. for my yoke {is} easy, and my burden is light.’ “
God is not here to burden us anymore than we already are; He has come here to free us, all of us, irregardless how we are dressed.
I actually heard of an excuse why someone didn’t go to church was because they had nothing to wear and couldn’t afford to buy “Sunday clothes”. Income and dress isn’t a requirement to worship God.
I tried to encourage them to go to church irregardless. Just dress nice with what you have and go to church and they replied,” I can’t because the others look down on me then.”
Do we sometimes do that ourselves?
Condemn other fellow brothers and sisters because they don’t dress like us, and rather than encourage them to go to church, to have fellowship with other believers and encourage to come closer to God, we set up a man’s precedent and condition of how they should come before God.
Do we have the “well they should just go buy this and that if they really want to go?” whispering in our ears when we listen to others who don’t go to church.
That if they don’t do this…they aren’t allowed or good or worthy to be associated with, to be talked to, because
well..they don’t fit in so they are out of the club?
Or do we encourage our weak brothers and sisters and take the time to tell them that God loves them for them…not what they are wearing, where they lived, where they eat.
That no matter what their circumstances…God isn’t an elitist.
He loves all of us no matter our age, size or what we wear.
Look around us. How many lost brothers and sisters do we have that doesn’t know God because they feel because they don’t dress like June Cleaver or Ward, that God won’t love them.
God loves the current Mary Magdelenes of today’s world despite how they are dressed.
Remember Mary of Magdalene? She was a prostitute. Did God say, ulp, because she was a woman, a low class citizen and a prostitute, I’m not going to take time for her; She has no right?
No. He loves her…not her sin. He loves her enough that He wants her to be better than what she is and to see there is something better than what there is….but how many, can you think, are willing to care more about her soul and lead her to a better life and in the process, turn…turn from the sin.
Yes…He confronted her, but He didn’t say, first you have to do this and then this and then this….Instead, He said “First turn away from the sin…sin no more…” and she followed…and allowed Him, not the Pharisees, but Him, to work in and through her to change. She change because of a conviction of the heart.
I Corinthians 13:1
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
It doesn’t work that we how we dress is the only way that God loves us. He loves us no matter what. It’s man who won’t love man until they change the way they dress.
The trick is that when a person has fully allowed Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Saviour and geniunely repents of their sin, and allows the Holy Spirit to work in their life…their outward appearance will change when THEY are ready.
Some people come to know God due to a traumatic event. Maybe a drug overdose, maybe a long night alone, crying in the dark feeling lost. Most people who come to know God has a past and it’s because of the path of their past that led them to God.
Not everyone grew up as Christians. Some may never had even read a bible or had someone share the word of God with them. Some may never know the word of God or have someone take the time to share the Gospel with them and they will die, never knowing because someone didn’t think it was worth their time or comfort.
While society is quick to cast away our rejects because they don’t fit our standards or care to associate with them, God wants to get to know them and save them.
I love this quote that I saw posted that said,
JESUS didn’t go around inviting lost people to the temple… HE met them where they were. As did the disciples. I’m not saying that unbelievers didn’t come in on their own, just that it doesn’t look like that was the way of sharing the gospel. The modern way of doing things has taken the burden of leading others to CHRIST off of us as individuals and placed it on one man.
This is where balance comes to play. If we’re living our lives for CHRIST then others will see HIM in us. If we’re sharing HIM with the ladies in the grocery store, or inviting them into our homes then we have many chances every day to share the gospel.
Everyday is an opportunity to share and lead people to Christ. That’s part of our job too. It’s not just surrounding ourselves in a comfort zone because everyone that we choose around us, thinks like us, talks like us and dress like us.
Not when we are ready…when they are ready.
We may not give them a second glance, but God has.
He is working in their lives to change, but we aren’t helping when we are trying to push them down while God is working to lift them up…eventually something has gotta give and someone either goes down, or is lifted up.
For many lost souls….whose been burned by the church body, not the church, but the body, this is a hard struggle. To help them come back to God, we have to be living examples of how God loves us without setting up conditions that if you don’t do this, I’m closing the door on you.
There are many who honestly have NEVER read or owned the Word of God, they may never have grown up in a Christian home, have false beliefs about God and well….just never had someone take the time to really just talk to them.
Doesn’t make them worthless just more valuable to God.
Remember Saul.
Before he became Paul.
You wouldn’t want to run into him in a dark alley then, but God did. Did you know that afterwards…people for the longest time, STILL didn’t want to have anything to do with him because they cared about what they saw and know about his past and not his present or his future.
Who cared that God saved him and that he was saved; He had a past. A bad past. The people of his time didn’t like him so what if God does, they didn’t. He could starve for al lthey cared,but God cared.
He cared enough that he said, this is the man I will chose to share my word. Notice God didn’t pick a man with a clean past, who was cleanshaven and had no blood on his hands.
Romans 8:28,
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.”
When we strive to get to know God, it’s not just a personal journey, one on one…It’s also about getting to know God through our interactions with everyone….We are all children of God, not just a few select.
Every religion has a set of you have to do this, what you have to wear and what you have to eat and do to know God. Fail to do it and you fall short.
The list will show all this things that other religions require to know God on their terms, by man terms and determinations.
Religion is spelled “DO”.
Not ours.
Grace is spelled “Done”.
There is nothing else on that list for Grace.
It’s been done.
Jesus Christ paid the price. It’s done.
“When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30).
He didn’t mean He was going to die now…He didn’t mean it was over for those who were persecuted. He meant, the price has now been paid for our sins.
That is all it took. He died for us. For You…For Me. There is nothing more in the world we could do then.
Throw out the animal sacrifices and the legalism of the OT. It has been paid for by the sacrifical lamb, Jesus Christ.
You. Me. The druggie. The prostitutes, the ills of society. Paid for.
And all we had to do…was accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. That’s it.
We didnt have to drag out our best animal. We didn’t have to wear our best. Our best is now. In our hearts.
We just needed to say, “You are my Lord and Saviour”. No flourishes in our speech. No fireworks.
“When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30).
The ONLY way to God, isn’t how we dress or what we do. The only way to God is through Jesus Christ.
Notice He didn’t add, and those nice shoes we see in the window will get us there, it’s not the clean life becuase none of us had that. We all sinned.
John 14:6 (Emphasis added by me), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through Me.” .
Mark 1:17And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Sometimes the nicest, most God-fearing people are often the ones we least expect to look like they do.
Without judge, trial or jury, we have already judged them on basis of looks and because they didn’t make it easy for us, we’re not going to make it easy for them.
Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
It’s interesting in the MSG version it goes, “Galations 5:6, “For in Christ, neither our conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior; faith expressed in love.”
The face of our brothers and sisters are different culturally outward in how we dress or talk, but inside…we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.
We need to be careful ourselves that we don’t get so caught up legalistically wise that we may inadvertantely turn people away from salvation.
In the darknest of nights, God still holds His hand out to all of us.
The first Christians didn’t wear clothes of riches, probably didn’t take baths often since it would be far in and between and look vastly different….but ultimately….we all will meet in the same place when we truly serve God not by how we look, but how we serve Him from our heart.
“…..The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 NLT
Lord, Thank You for Your love and forgiveness for no matter how I look, what I wear or what I eat or do, I was unworthy ,”But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrifical death while we were of no use whateer to him.” Romans 5:8 MSG
Lord, help me remember it’s not all about how I dress or where I live or who I am outside, but forever make me Your humble servant so I may serve YOU, not You serve me but I serve YOU and that my life is Your life and my life is used by YOU to be a light to others Lord.
Lord, don’t let me find comfort in self-effort. Remind me that I can clean and clean and clean the cup and make it shiny and it will not matter to You if inside it’s filled with self-indulgence, greed and worldy thoughts that don’t lead to you Lord.”
Keep me humble Lord; I praise You for remembering it’s not what I have or get that is a blessing from You but what Your Son, Jesus Christ, is all I would ever need in this world. Heavenly Father, I pray for those who don’t know You, who are afraid to come to know You, don’t have people in their lives to lead them to You and just don’t know how to come to know You.
Heavenly Father, help me remember that angry person, that person dressed in a way I wouldn’t or talk in a way I wouldn’t or doesn’t look like the way I would, needs You more than the average joe, that looks talks and dresses like me.
Remind me that the single parent needs You, the drug addict, the abused, the hurt, the lonely. I can’t just play safe and wait for someone in a suit and tie.
They aren’t the ones You are worried about. You are worried about the ones who have fallen, who are fallen, who will fall. You are worried about the ones, society says, you don’t look right, talk right, smell right. They all need You and I’m not helping by turning the other way. Help me overcome fear Lord and have trust in You.
Help me remember….it’s not about embracing, accepting and encouraging their lifestyles…but it’s about embracing, encouraging and accepting the sinner…not the sin. Lord help me love but not love to the point of blindness.
It means to love people irrespective of the sins that we may see in them. It means accepting them and loving them just as they are without thereby “loving” their sins and practicing them ourselves………let us indeed love sinners — and don’t we all fit that category? — and hate the sin in our own lives, including the “acceptable kind,” that makes us poor representatives of the Christ we claim to serve. Source: Love the Sinner-Not the Sin
Hebrews 10:26-3126.
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27. but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses. 29. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30. For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Romans 11:22
Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
Help them Lord, they need you, we all need you. Change us to emulate You.
Help me remember I don’t have to go to Africa, or Asia or some far off country to help the lost, the needy, the unwanted. That we have them all around us. They are next door, down the street, at the grocery store, in the shelters, in prisons.
We all deserve Your love and grace…None of us are exempt based on how we looked or dress.
You gave grace to a dying thief on a cross. You gave grace to a man who hunted down Christians for a living. Teach me to not just hang around the cross but to go on the cross.
Help me embrace and use every moment to lift Your name up in glory and not just at the safety and comfort of my kitchen table.
Luke 12:29-40
29. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these hings. 31. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35. Let your loins be girded about, and [your] lights burning; 36. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37. Blessed [are] those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find [them] so, blessed are those servants. 39. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40. Be ye
thereore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Remind me each time I leave the safety of my home, the comfort of my home, each day is a day of witnessing to Your Love and Your Grace.
The lost and unsaved won’t wait for Sunday to come to church.
Salvation isn’t for Sunday’s only and how would they know the way if no one takes the time to show them the right directions.
Lord, give me strength and courage to share the Truth, the map, the way to You Lord.
It’s not about me Lord. It’s about You. My life is about you. It’s about showing the way to You.
This isn’t just my path alone to walk…It’s about lighting the way so others can follow too. We don’t pile barriers when we go hiking so others can’t go down the same hiking trail like we are…so why do we do that in our own lives sometimes? Lord, help me keep the path clear and help others find their way to You too.
Like a hiking trail is open to everyone, both experienced or not…so is the path to You Lord. Lord, Help me keep my life, words or the way I dress from becoming a barrier from getting to know You.
Lord, don’t let people look at me, or read my words or look at my life and go, “I don’t want to know the Lord,” Help me shine the light to you….
I Corinthians 13:1
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
People don’t want to go down a hiking trail that is filled with obstacles. People won’t be encouraged to try if there is a sign saying “Only these people may enter”.
Keep the hiking trail to God open. Help other hikers who are trying to find their way to God, no matter how experienced or inexperienced they maybe.
At one point before we started hiking…we all had to learn how to crawl too…In time, they will grow in experience and they will be able to handle the difficult climbs that often comes with hiking, and they will learn the way to dress for the hike, but in the meantime, if a hiker is going to wear heels to walk that path…let them, but help them with encouragement, don’t thrust hiking boots at them right off and say, “If you don’t wear this now , I won’t help you or guide you.”
We are all on different levels of our hike.
We can tell the hiker wearing heels, be off with you, and let them fall, or we can help them up and say, “Good try, keep trying, don’t give up, because God isn’t giving up on you either.”
Peter 3:8-11 NIV (New International Version)
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.For,”Whoever would love lifeand see good daysmust keep his tongue from eviland his lips from deceitful speech.He must turn from evil and do good;he must seek peace and pursue it.
photo credit: p_c_w
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