Usually, I don't post more than 1 comment on my blog, but I had a remarkable epiphany today, and I wanted to share it with you. Read my other post for today as well.
I was listening to Laura Ingraham's radio program today. Laura was remarking on the casual dress she has begun to notice in church recently, and she was taking calls on the subject asking for listeners opinions.
Personally, I have always adhered to the viewpoint that there is nothing wrong with jeans and T-shirts in church. I thought that as long as you worship, it didn't matter what you wore, and that is a valid point. As a friend of mine once put it, "When Jesus returns, he isn't going to wait for you to change clothes."
However, one man called with an interesting point. One I had not thought of previously. I cannot record verbatim what he said but I will relate as best I can what he said.
Basically, he mentioned that in Biblical times, men were commanded to bring only the best selections of livestock to the temple for sacrifice. Sickly and weak animals were considered an insult to God. In the same way, God wants us to bring the very best to church to worship Him, therefore, you should always dress in your very best clothes out of respect for God and others.
Most of my readers know, by now, that I am a stubbornly opinionated man. But this was one of those rare times when something that someone said has influenced me to change my opinion.
He is right. From now on, when I go to church, I will dress as nice as I possibly can.
Now, for Laura's featured "lie of the day":
"I don't think a presidential candidate opposed to stem cells could be re-elected...er, elected," claimed Sen. Arlen Specter," claimed Sen. Arlen Specter, on CBS's Face the Nation.
THE TRUTH:
President Bush was just re-elected holding the view that federal support for embryonic stem cell research should be limited!
Let me interject my humble opinion here: Sorry, Laura, this time you are mistaken. Senator Spector was stating an opinion. For you to call this statement a lie, you would have to have access to his thoughts. He may be lying about what he thinks, but you don't know that. If he really thinks that, he is not lying.
But your point is made, nonetheless.
One other note: As I was arriving home for lunch today, I saw several young people walking down the street, west to east. Each one was wearing a T-shirt with the words, "Pro Life" emblazoned across the front. I stopped them and asked them what they were doing, and they informed me they were a pro life group walking across the United States in hopes of bringing awareness to the thousands of pre-born babies killed every year in our country. I linked to their website on my blogroll. Please visit their site to offer your support.
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10 comments:
"I am a stubbornly opinionated man."
My kind of guy, Mark.......
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As far as dress to church......Prager has spoken on this numerous times. --> Today in fact.
You wouldn't show up to the Academy Awards in shorts and flip-flops, so why should you go to church in them?
I'm an old dude (34 lol), who wears slacks and a polo to most things, and am constantly called OLD!
I don't really care, I just like to present myself in a civilized way.
Hey Mark,
I wanted to thank you for checking out my blog. I just started it. Yes I do BBQ and not grill. Well, I do grill but, only on rare occations. By the way, I too do the T-shirt and jeans thing at church but, I have to say, with the moral decay the Clinton's caused in this country, it is hard to get anyone to go to church. Jeans or no jeans. I will take them however they come.
By the way, I would like to see some rub and sauce recipes. Have you tried Splenda. I used it once. I was out of sugar. It worked fine.
All my rub and sauce recipes are top secret. sorry.
The secret to good BBQ sauce is the amount of Kerosene you put into it...
As to what to wear to church, my Mom always taught me that you wear your very best. No matter what that was. If you only ha jeans and a Tee shirt, then you wore the very best jeans and Tee shirt you had.
She always tried to make sure that I had a nice outfit to wear to church, though.
The last couple of times I have been to church, I wore Khakis and a Polo shirt.
Where you go to church has a lot to do with it though...
While staying with my grandmother once when I was about 9, she had a fit because I had not brought any lacy panties to wear to church. Seems she believed you should dress up right down to your undies to go to God's house. I agree.
However, it is important to remember that we should be motivated by honoring God with what we wear and not anyone else. This can be said for everyday of the week, not just Sunday. If we look like slobs everyday, it doesn't exactly help our witness or bring honor to the name of Christ.
I'm not saying to wear your three-piece suit and tie when you mow the lawn, but I think that people now don't have a good grasp on what is appropriate--especially the teenage girls I see lately.
To quote my grandfather, "My Blessed!"
I was always brouhgt up with the belief that you dressed well on Sundays to show respect. Just as when appearing at the White House you should not appear in flip flops b/c even though you may have not voted for the man, you still should dress with respect for his position and for the place that you are in.
I'm not advocating dressing disrespectfully, but I think the whole "Dress Up for Jesus" thing in the original post should be viewed with caution. It verges on saying that "if only we dress well enough" we will be an acceptable sacrifice to God. Not true. No matter how many pairs of lace panties you wear, no matter how many three-piece suits are in your closet, we all fall short of the glory, and that's why Jesus came. WE will never be acceptable without HIM. We should not make a mockery of HIS sacrifice by emphasizing Sunday morning attire over the sinner's heart.
When those of us who believe are taken up to be with Him in the rapture of His church, what we are wearing will mean absolutely nothing, in fact there is a wide spread belief that we will all go naked.
That being said, I think I will dress better in the future, out of respect for Him, and also because I don't want to be the proverbial "stumbling block" on which an unbeliever would be tripped up.
When this life is over, and we stand before our Creator, He will say one of two things. Either He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant", or He will say, "Depart from Me, you accursed. I never knew you."
I think I will prefer hearing the former.
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