Wearing Your Best to Church - Continued

This week I am continuing last week’s topic of “Wearing Your Best to Church”.

I think my friend was on to something when he asked if God cared what he wore as long as he was there. My father’s church planted a daughter church in the Houston area, and in the process, they bought the building of a church that had gone under. When they went to go clean up and get things set up, my father saw a sign that said, “Men without tie and jacket and women without a dress can not enter the sanctuary.” I know this is one extreme example, but it is this kind of stuff that turns people away from the church and I know this is not pleasing to God. It is a form of legalism or man-made laws that prevent people from worshiping God; just like the Pharisee in Matt 15.

15 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

² Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
³ But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
⁴ For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
⁵ But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
⁶ And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
⁷ Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
⁸ This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
⁹ But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
¹⁰ And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
¹¹ Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
¹² Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
¹³ But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
¹⁴ Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
¹⁵ Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
¹⁶ And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
¹⁷ Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
¹⁸ But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
²⁰ These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

I have not been talking about having washed hands or food, but about the Biblical principle given here.  That principle is that man-made rules are keeping people from worshiping, and sometimes, even finding God.  A suit and tie and a dress are not going to keep you from God, but man-made laws will. 

I will publish the conclusion of this article next week.

Wearing your best to church

I have a pastor friend who posts a daily question on Facebook that he has people comment on and then he likes to give a Biblical summary.  We agree on almost everything, and I have a great deal of respect for him.  A few days ago in his summary, he said that he felt that you need to wear your best to church because it is a sign that you are giving your best to God.  Twenty years ago, I would have agreed 100%; that was the way I was raised. I still always wear a jacket and tie to church myself, but a friend of mine gave me his testimony and it gave me a lot to think about. 

His testimony goes something like this.  When he was a young boy, he never went to church, in fact, most weekends his parents were sleeping off the alcohol from the night before.  One Sunday morning when he was 5 or 6, they had been doing some utility work in the neighborhood.  There was a huge pile of dirt there.  On the Sunday morning, my friend and another kid were out just playing in the dirt.  They were both with out a shirt no shoes and just covered in dirt.  It was a warm Texas spring morning they had been playing a little while.  Therefore, they were sweaty and the muddy dirt was all over them.  An older lady was on her way to church and saw the boys out there play and stopped to ask them why thy were not getting ready for church and they said they had never been to church.  She asked them to go to church with her and if they did, she would make sure they got donuts before church and a coke afterwards.  Of course, both boys agreed.  She has them get in the back of her car dirt, mud and all, no shirt or shoes.  She gets them to church she cleans there hands and faces and gives them the donuts and takes them to a Sunday School class and then takes them to church.  Then after service, the church had a coke machine in the basement and she buys them both a coke.  They had a great time and she tells them that if they meet her at that Conner next week she will take them to church.  They both agree and they go with her to church for a couple of years.  In that time, my friend became a Christian.

My jaw dropped at the story. I could not believe that my friend went to church with out a shirt and that he was not kicked out.  I will be honest I do not think I have ever been a member at a church that would have allowed the boys in the church door with out a shirt.  When my friend told me this story I had smart off about wearing something nice to church and was offended and point blank asked me why because God did not care what we were as long as we were there.  Then he told me his testimony.  I was greatly convicted about my thoughts on this manor.  

February 2013

Dear Blogger Friends

I know it has been months since I have bloged. Many people have asked why I have stopped writing. I really have not stopped, while I was busy thinking I was in control and making plans of my own; life happened. I have been in the hospital twice with what ended up as five ulcers. Sharon, my wife, also ended up in the hospital. My daughter got married and she and her husband are now expecting our first grandchild. With all of the doctor’s appointments associated with the all of the after care, I just have not had the quiet time to sit down and write. I hope that with the New Year, things will settle down or I will just have to make the time to sit down and write.

One topic that I had wanted to talk about in December was the meaning behind the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. It is called the Festival of Light. I will have to go into a lot of background to make some sense of this Holiday, so bear with me through the history lesson. When Alexander the Great died, his four Generals divvied up his territory, one being Syria and another Egypt. When the second generation of Generals had taken over, the Syrian General (Seleuces) got greedy and tried to take over Egypt. He was stopped when the Romans stepped in. This started the good relations between Rome and Egypt, which lead to Anthony and Cleopatra, which is another story. Nevertheless, I digress, Seleuces, on his way back home, takes his frustration out on Jerusalem. He knocks down the walls, kills a lot of Jews, loots the Temple and has the Hellenistic Jews sacrifice at least one pig on the alter in the Temple (the number varies depending on where you read). The Hellenistic Jews do this in hopes of winning favor with Seleuces and stopping the destruction. This is a precursor of the abomination of desolation talked about in Daniel. (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11).  This infuriates the Orthodox Jews. (This also explains why the Hellenistic Jews are looked down upon and their widows are ignored in the distribution of food in the book of Acts.) With this, the Hasmonean family moves to the mountain outside of Jerusalem where they gather others. Their leader’s name was Judah, whom they nicknamed the Hammer, which in Hebrew is Maccabeus, thus the name of the revolt is The Maccaben revolt. (This revolt is the subject of the book of Maccabes, found in Catholic Bibles. In Seminary, this is studied as part of Jewish history.) The Maccabes were able to kick Seleuces out of Jerusalem. Upon taking over the temple, they had to cleanse it. They only found one vase of kosher oil for the golden lamp stand in the temple, and it was only enough to last one day. It takes seven days for the oil to be made Kosher for the golden lamp stand. Once the lamp is lit, it is not to go out. They lit the lamp and it burned for eight days until the new oil was ready. The miracle of God providing the lamp light is what the Jewish people celebrate during Chanukah and this why Chanukah is called the Festival of Lights.