There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:1-9 ESV)
Have you ever had someone tell you you don’t belong somewhere because you look like you do not fit in?
I remember when I was new to the faith and was attending a worship service at a local congregation and decided on that morning that I wanted to make a public profession of my faith through my baptism. Now this was not a Lutheran congregation and I was not Lutheran at that time. But I was baptized. And the next Sunday when I showed up to worship in jeans and a shirt, rather than a nice suit and tie, some of them were telling me It did not take, and I needed to change in order to belong. When the funny thing was I did change on the inside, I had changed. Jesus was dwelling in me and I changed, but to that body of worshipers I did not fit the bill, I did not get rid of my earring, I did not cut my hair, and I did not dress the way a true believer would…
Funny, it says that Jesus will not judge us by what He sees or hears, He will judge us in righteousness. And if that is the case, none of us can stand. All of us are unrighteous, and can not stand for the judgment. Only by Jesus can we stand through this, and all of us are equal in Jesus whether we have long hair or no hair, earrings or gauges or nothing, tattoos or no skin markings, we all stand before Jesus as sinners. And He will judge us not by what He sees or hears from others about us, but by our hearts and righteousness! He will judge us based on Him.
So do not make someone fell like they do not belong because you don’t think their dress is appropriate, or their appearance is appropriate, do not judge them at all. Love them like Jesus loved you, He accepted you as you were. And He brought the change, just like me, I knew I had changed at my baptism, even though my appearance did not. Jesus does things we can not understand imagine or see. Just love the other like Jesus loved you!
aSacredRebel 