Sunday Best

Ever heard the term "Sunday Best"?   Showing up to church looking your absolute best?  Men attend in a suit and tie and ladies come in their dresses with hair and makeup done nicely.  I don't think I've ever heard that term used in the church I currently attend.  At this church there are a few men who wear suits and ties and some in jeans & tshirts; many ladies come in dresses while others wear jeans.

 Some reading may relate better if they consider what you show up on a date looking like? Most first dates we go all out to look our best.  I'm married now so he sees me as I am daily, but still gets my best on date nights and at church ;)

My question is: If we were to show up dressed to represent what we look like spiritually, what would we look like?

Isaiah 64:5-7: he is speaking to God:
"You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

who remember your ways.

But when we continued to sin against them,

you were angry.

How then can we be saved?

6All of us have become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

7No one calls on your name

or strives to lay hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us

and made us waste away because of our sins."


Isaiah1:18-20
“Come now, let us reason together,”

says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Some dress in red, filthy rags while others dress in clean, white wool.  God offers to come in and clean our lives and when we ask to receive it, He does so.  I got saved just before turning 17, I talked about it in my first blog post, "17 Years Ago Today"... conscientiously and sometimes unconsciously sinning was all too different than it had been before, He changed my heart and I didn't enjoy sin like before anymore. I didn't do anything to earn it and its a gift He freely gives to everyone.  Having received it doesn't make me different from anyone else on this earth other than that He lives in me as He lives in all those who believe & ask.  He'll do the same for you. 

Afterward He started His good work in me to cultivate His fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  He is working in me all the time to cultivate these things, over the years I haven't always been co-operative and some might not have been completely obvious.  

The fruit of the Spirit is referenced in Galatians 5:16-25, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

  Paul says a lot in this passage, its wise to consider one's self when reading it instead of pointing fingers at who does not live up to it as to not provoke or envy. <3