Protect our Carpet or Promote our Christ?

In the 2023 movie, The Jesus Revolution, which is set in the Seventies, hippies have started coming to a church, coming 'just as they are', barefoot and all.  There is a scene where one of the current church members tells the pastor that the hippies should be allowed in the church because their dirty feet will get the carpet dirty. The pastor basically says: 

"That's what you're worried about...the carpet?" 

The scene implies that some in the church would rather reject someone's entrance to the building...and potentially reject their entrance into the Kingdom...than let them get the carpet dirty in the sanctuary.

The pastor's response was fabulous! The next Sunday he sat at the door and washed the feet of the barefoot hippies before they entered. He didn't want someone's desire to protect the carpet to keep him from being able to promote Christ to anyone who would come and hear.

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For many years, I attended a satellite campus of a large church. At our campus, you were welcome to bring your coffee or tea or whatever into the Worship Center and enjoy it before or during the service. No one said anything to you if you walked in with a drink in your hand. They weren't overly concerned about the carpet.

Eventually, I visited the Main Campus of this church for a weekend service. Upon arriving, I visited the coffee bar, got my drink, and headed to the Worship Center...only to be told that I couldn't take my coffee in with me. They didn't want spills on the carpet. What? Same church, different campus, different rules. So I stayed in the foyer, finished my drink, and then eventually joined the worship service...already in progress. And I was personally glad this wasn't my first exposure to this church.

A few months later, I visited that same Main Campus again. This time on a weekday for a worldwide leadership event. People from all over the region came to this event...not just members of this church. And guess what? Everyone was allowed to bring in whatever drink they wanted to bring in. No one stopped you from bringing in your Big Gulp or the drink you bought at the coffee bar. Wasn't this the same carpet, in the same Worship Center?

Imagine if one of those visiting leaders decided to come back on the weekend to see what the church was all about? What message would they have received? "When you come here for church we care more about the carpet than we care about having you here?" Maybe?

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Recently, I was walking into a different church. One where I know they have the same 'no drinks, except water, in the Worship Center' rule. I was carrying a 32 oz colored water bottle. You know, the kind you take with you on a walk or to the gym. A person greeting people as they came through the door says, "Oooo, that looks good. What ya got in there?" I replied "Water" and explained that it was flavored with my drink supplements. She said, "Well it looks good."

Now mind you, you can not see anything inside this water bottle. You might be able to see the volume of fluid in it but that's about it. 

It took me a minute to realize that I had just passed a test. I indeed only had water in my bottle. Had I had iced tea or a soft drink in the bottle, I'm quite sure I would have been reminded that those drinks are not allowed in the Worship Center. Protect the carpet? 

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All of the above makes me wonder...here in 2023...what is more important in most churches...Protecting our carpet or promoting our Christ? Thankfully, these individual church policies don't bother me as long as I know what to expect. They don't bother me, however, what message do they send to that seeker, that visitor, that outsider who comes hungry to find out what draws us together every week?

LITTLE LESSON LOVING LORD

Are we welcoming people as they are and allowing our Loving Lord to speak to them? Are we doing things in our homes, in our lives, in our churches that are focused on protecting the carpet, or are our actions focused on promoting our Loving Lord? If your priorities are out of alignment, what can you do to change them and help ensure people are glad to enter His house each week?

PSALMS 122:1 TPT

 I was overjoyed when they said, “Let’s go up to the house of the Lord.”

A Place Designed for You

Over the years, I have had several opportunities to fix up an existing home or build a new home while thinking of someone other than myself as the details of the home improvement or new build were planned. Sometimes specific people. Sometimes just guests in general.

I always sincerely wanted to make my home welcoming and comfortable...especially for those specific people if they came to visit me.

When building my former townhouse and later my current home, all future guests, including those specific people, were prayed for and words of encouragement were literally written on the studs, drywall, and floor with these future guests in mind.

For example, when the hubby and I built our current home, we created a 'cat-free' privacy zone where our guest rooms are. A couple of extra doors and, boom, no cats allowed and extra privacy! We were thinking of a variety of potential guests when we made this decision. We wrote verses, names, and blessings on the drywall and prayed. We wrote the same on the floor (before the ceramic went down) and prayed. Prayed for all our future guests...specific ones and guests in general.

One person we thought of was my Mom. We knew the modifications we made to our floor plan would allow her to have her own private space when she came to stay with us and would also allow her easy access to the main part of our home to enjoy meals with us and just hang out. You could say it was a place 'prepared for her'. We are thankful she has enjoyed visiting this home.

However, over the years, in the different residences, few, if any, of the other individuals that we had in mind came to enjoy the details that were selected to make them comfortable in the home. Yes, it was designed for our enjoyment as well, however, the main purpose was for the "special guests" to feel at home.

But most of those guests never got to enjoy those details or experience our hospitality. Those guests chose not to come. They always had an excuse. The invitation to "Come" was rejected.

There is a Home Designer who knows how I feel. This Home Designer has prepared many beautiful rooms that the intended occupants will never live in. This Home Designer has opened the door, issued the invitation, said Come, paid all the expenses for the intended occupants, and this Home Designer has been rejected over and over and over again.

Our Loving Lord said, "I go to prepare a place for YOU!" He has a room that's been designed with you, and only you, in mind. And He very much wants you to come and stay with him. However, many of you have rejected His invitation, and your place, your room, your mansion is empty and will never be used as He designed it to be used.

LITTLE LESSON LIFE EXPRESSION

Have you accepted the invitation to go to the place our Loving Lord has prepared just for you or have you rejected His invitation to "Come"? Do you know how special YOU are that He would go and prepare a place just for you to spend eternity enjoying? Are you going to continue ignoring Him, continue telling Him "No, thank you" and continue rejecting Him? Or are you going to realize the price He paid to prepare that special place just for you?


John 14:2-4 (RSV) In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.

When You Put Flesh On The Shelf

I was playing a word game recently where you try to guess the five-letter word of the day in six tires or less. When you guess a word if the letters are indeed in the word of the day they will be highlighted. One color if they are in the right position. A different color if they are not. 

On this particular day, I played the word FLESH. Only the E was in the correct position. Shuffled the letters in my mind and tried the word SHELF. Bingo!

And it struck me.

It struck me how profound this image was as it pertains to our lives.

When we focus on our FLESH, on our own selfish desires, our lives can be out of order. While one part may seem to be okay, the rest can be chaotic, scattered, out of place. 

However! When we put our FLESH on the SHELF and allow Holy Spirit to reign in our lives, order returns, and, in the end, we win the game...of life.

LITTLE LESSON LIFE EXPRESSION

Is your FLESH controlling your life? Or have you put your selfishness, greed, anger, animosity, stubbornness, etcetera on the SHELF and allowed our Loving Lord to lead your life? How would your life be different if you took this action today?

In fact, the mind-set focused on the flesh fights God’s plan and refuses to submit to his direction,  because it cannot! For no matter how hard they try, God finds no pleasure with those who are controlled by the flesh. But when the Spirit of Christ empowers your life,  you are not dominated by the flesh but by the Spirit. And if you are not joined to the Spirit of the Anointed One, you are not of him. Romans 8:7-9 TPT

So then, beloved ones, the flesh has no claims on us at all, and we have no further obligation to live in obedience to it. For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life. Romans 8:12-13 TPT