“Come as you are.”

It’s been awhile since I have written on my blog and I apologize for that; but laying here early this morning I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. I had to write this down. 

Easter was yesterday and for many of us it means dressing really nicely, going to church with family and friends, hunting eggs, and yes posting those precious photos of our nicely dressed families on social media. And is that bad? No, I am not criticizing anyone for doing that. Those are your memories, but I couldn’t help but remember a story I heard once about a friend attending church only to be criticized for not dressing correctly… 

We as Christians and everyday church go’ers forget about how it was to attend church for the first time. Many of us cannot remember the first time we attended church because we have been brought up in church since the day we was in the womb. For some, it’s not that way. Jesus told the people, “Come as you are.”. Those four simple words we at times forget. Four simple words that mean so much, but yet get tossed aside. 

We forget that He was friends with the sinners, the lepers, the blind, the lame, those who were poor, and those who were considered all sorts of unclean. Do you think they had the best clothes, bathing habits, or even looked appealing? Probably not. And to be honest, if someone like that today walked into our church’s we would probably sit around our dinner tables at lunch talking about them. If we were honest. 

Jesus didn’t call us to be nicely dressed Christians who post bible verses in our Instagram posts to make us “more Christian like”. It sounds like I’m harping on Christians, but that’s not what I’m trying to do. I want us to realize how far we have came in our own walks with Christ. 

Do you remember when Jesus told the Pharisee’s about the cup? If not, it’s found in Matthew 23:23-24. To somethings up He said, “You can wash the outside of the cup and make it look nice- while the inside is still dirty with filt.”  And that exactly what we do at times. We clean ourselves up, put on our “church clothes”, our “church attitudes”, and become friendly happy families who pretend they didn’t just fight in the car all the way to the church building. 

“Come as you are.” 

Read that again. (Come as you are…) 

As you are right now. Dirty, sweaty, in the only pair of good pants you have with one tiny hole in the pocket, with the only dress you own- Come as you are. 

Remember when you came to Christ to be saved, if you have taken that step. You may have been in a t-shirt and jeans, nicely dressed, or on the side of the road. It didn’t matter at the point, because on the inside you were begging to be cleaned by the only one who could wash all that grim and sin away. You literally “Came as you were”. 

I want this to remind you next time someone steps foot into your church to shake there hand instead of judge there appearance. It’s the number one thing that scares new people from coming to church. Someone has told them something about how they should or shouldn’t dress, or they feel pressured to dress a certain way to step foot into a church. It’s time to remember that Jesus didn’t care what anyone looked like. He sees the inside of us, and you can dress the outside up while the inside us rotting away with sin- and no one would know. 

Let’s remember he arose and brought us victory over death and sin so we could “Come as we are” unto Him. Because if he didn’t do that none of us would be worthy, no matter how dressed up or prefect we try to be.

I hope this helped you or at least made you think. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and has a wonderful week. 

God Bless you and thanks for Reading. 
-Marli