Come, sit by me!

I don’t know if all churches are like this but when I was growing up, we went to a fairly small church. We sat in the same spot every Sunday as did everyone else. Once I awhile, either someone new would come or someone would come that didn’t come on a regular basis and they would sit where one of the regulars usually sat. It was hilarious to see the reaction of the regular when they walked in to see “their spot” taken!! It made me wonder. If we were already in our seat and a visiter came in, would we offer them a seat next to us? If they were well dressed and clean we might. What if they were in dirty clothes and unkempt? Would we then? You don’t have to respond but think about it with some real honesty. Would you? James 2:1-13 is too much to put here but you can look it up. It talks about favoritism. It uses this very example, the rich well dressed, or the poor in rags to show us how we use favoritism. James doesn’t sugar coat it. If we show favoritism we are discriminating amongst ourselves and have become evil judges! (Verse 4) when Jesus went to the cross, he went for just the clean cut wealthy folks right? So if we are unfortunate enough to be born into a poor family then we should never think about getting a seat in his house and feel welcome right? Don’t we know better? He died for sinners. That’s all of us! Rich or poor. Clean or not. We are all stained by the same sin and only God himself could make us clean! How do we know when a stranger comes whether they will be one of those who will be saved or not? They certainly won’t consider it if we push them away and make them feel like the rest of the world has! Just because folks are different from us doesn’t mean they are not lovable!! Remember that Jesus gave his life for that person too just like he did for us! Dear Lord, we all are guilty of wanting to be around only those that make us feel comfortable. Help us to step outside our comfort zone and show love to those who maybe we normally wouldn’t! Forgive us for the times that we haven’t!!
Be a blessing in someone’s life today!!