HE NEVER CAME DRESSED THAT WAY AGAIN THE EARLY BIRD

Here’s a story from an unknown author.

I had asked him a few years ago, “Have you ever been to a church service in your life?”  We had just finished a pleasant day of visiting and talking. He hesitated, and then with a bitter smile he told me of a childhood experience some sixty years ago.

He was one of many children in a large impoverished family.  His parents had struggled to provide food, with little left for housing and clothing. When he was about ten, some neighbors invited him to worship with them.

The Bible class had been very exciting.  He had never heard such songs and stories before.  He had never heard anyone read from the Bible before. After class was over, the teacher took him aside and said, “Son, please don’t come again dressed as you are now.  We want to look our best when we come worship the Lord.”  He stood in his ragged, unpatched overalls, looked at his bare, dirty feet and said, “No ma’am, I won’t ever!”  And he never did.

There must have been other factors to have hardened him so, but this experience formed a significant part of the bitterness in his heart. I’m sure the Bible teacher meant well, but what if she had studied and accepted the teachings found in the second chapter of James?  What if she had put her arms around that dirty, ragged little boy and said, “Son, I’m so glad you are here, and I hope you will come every chance you get to hear more about Jesus!”

I pray that I might ever be open to the tenderness of a child’s heart, and that I might never fail to see beyond the appearance and behavior of a child to the eternal possibilities within.

Yes, I saw him in the church house for the first time last Wednesday. As I looked at that immaculately dressed old gentleman lying in his casket, I thought of the little boy of long ago.  I could almost hear him saying, “No ma’am, I won’t ever!” …. and I wept.[1]

End of story.

Some times the thing that keeps people away from Christ are Christians.

Some times, the place that shoos people away from God are churches.

God does not reside in places that discriminate people, and this is why many churches are nothing today but concrete monuments of what it used to be.

Ask yourselves this question.

When a raggedly dressed person enters your church building, do you accord him with the same kind of welcome as you would a man in an Italian suit?

What if a man with pierced ears, nose and eyebrows sporting hair with blues streaks in leather jackets and he enters your worship service how and what do you feel?

We simply have to realize that Christ would welcome all of them.

Read the Bible again.

He did not require any dress codes, but only legalistic Pharisees would.

To churches that do not understand the love and the grace of God let me offer a piece of advice.

You don’t need more theology and you don’t need more programs or doctrines. What you need is more grace to know the Savior and to understand His quality of love.

Then and only then would Christians and churches be able to bring people to Christ.