It’s not a good idea to attend a relative’s wedding dressed as if you had just finished cleaning a dirty, steaming garage.
Your appearance and smell would not only be a big distraction to people, but also would be highly offensive to the ones being married.
It’s a matter of respect, isn’t it?
For the event to have the meaning and joy anticipated for so long — perhaps for a young lady’s entire life — each attendee should present himself or herself in a way that shows respect for the event and joy for the honorees.
In a far more significant way, our preparation for worship should be the same.
We should present ourselves to God in a way that shows respect for the event and joy for the Honorees — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
When we don’t consider their feelings regarding what they see when they look at us, we’re clearly saying that we don’t value them ahead of ourselves.
A passage in today’s devotional reading drove home the point of coming to worship with repentant hearts ready to confess sin and ask forgiveness.
“Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God.” (Hebrews 9:13-14)
To attend a worship service with a guilty conscience unwilling to repent of sin is like attending a relative’s wedding without making the effort to clean up and change to nice clothes.
It’s disgusting and terribly offensive, actually, when you think about it.
Let’s not put God in the position of having to observe our prideful refusal to confess sin and seek forgiveness.
Let’s take care of the repentance business before the church service starts so that our worship will allow God to focus on the praise we’re lifting up to Him rather than the sinful pride that we’re unwilling to surrender to Him.
If you’ve not entered into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ by verbally confessing Him as Lord and having your sins covered by His blood in baptism (Romans 6:4-6, Galatians 3:27, I Peter 3:18-21), please do so as soon as possible.
Not just so that your soul will be saved, but also that you can worship the living God in the way that He deserves and desires.
As always, I love you
Martin
