It's the big question or dilemma

come Sunday morning. If I go to church, what will I wear? I mean, these

kinds of questions are important. After all, everybody will be watching

me!

In fact, the

matter of clothes keeps many a one away from church for several reasons.

The first reason is that a lot of folks just don't think what they have

to wear is good enough for all the dressed-up folks at the church house.

What with all the designer labels that abound every Sunday morning.

It's tragic

that many people stay at home Sunday mornings for fear that their wardrobe

remains inadequate.

Second, many

folks don't want to get all gussied up to go to church. Men, for example,

who wear a coat and tie all week, want a couple of days without a knot

around their necks. And the men who work by the sweat of their brow don't

want to get into an ill-fitting Sunday suit. They feel strange wearing

such.

Many women,

liberated long ago to wear pants in public, don't own a Sunday-go-to-meeting

dress or are just down right uncomfortable in such. However, there are

some churches, even today, which frown on women wearing pants to church.

Only men should wear pants.

Bear with me

a digression: in the Chinese culture, it is considered bad taste if women

do not wear pants. Dresses are out! That tells me that Sunday dresses

belong to the realm of culture not Christianity.

So, what can

you wear to church? I suggest modest clothes. Blue jeans are okay in our

church. I even have seen in warm summer months, some of our men wearing

Bermuda shorts. What? Wear Bermuda shorts to high, holy worship, you say!

Yep. Isn't that pushing the envelope a little far? Personally, I would

not wear shorts to church, but my theology holds that it really doesn't

make a dime's worth of difference (as long as the shorts are not provocative).

When the Prophet

Samuel was commissioned by God to go to Bethlehem to anoint King Saul's

successor, God told him that outside appearances were inconsequential

for God "looks on the heart." A proud father, named Jesse, paraded

his handsome sons before Samuel and although they had been to the gym

six days a week, Samuel asked Jesse if he had another son. Reluctantly,

Jesse beckoned David from the pasture where he was tending the flock.

He probably smelled high to heaven and his clothes were ragged and soiled.

But as soon as Samuel put his eyes on him, he said, 'That's him"

and then and there anointed David as Israel's new king.

So, whether

all you have is a clean pair of worn jeans, get on down to a friendly

church. Even if you have a few extra pounds and are a little embarrassed

about your weight, get on down to a church that accepts people regardless

what they look like. And if you like to wear one of your many Armani suits,

you, too, put your fine threads on and find your way to a church house.

It's about

the condition of your heart not the condition of your closet.

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