Table Manners

copyright 6/15/2009

When I was young my mother spent a good
deal of time trying to teach me proper manners.
Table manners and attitude were important.
At that time people spent dinnertime together
at the table, discussing the days events
and enjoying one another. When we went
outside the home and had dinner with someone
else my mother wanted to be assured I could
know what was proper manners so that I could
present myself well wherever I went.

There is a distinct difference however in having
good table manners and being gracious. Sometimes
when people think they have it all right they tend
to look down on those who they think do not come
up to their standards.

The reason I am writing this is because I think there
is something Christians need to be reminded of.
You and I are not perfect!

Let me further explain:

My brethren, pay no servile regard to people
(show no prejudice, or partiality). Do not (attempt to)
hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
of glory together with snobbery!

For if a person comes into your congregation whose hands
are adorned with gold rings and who is wearing splendid
apparel, and also a poor man in shabby clothes comes in.
And you pay special attention to the one who wears the
splendid clothes and say to him, Sit here in this
preferable seat! While you tell the poor man,
Stand there or sit there at the floor at my feet.

Are you not discriminating among your own and becoming
critics and judges with WRONG motives?
James 2:1-4

My dear friends, a church is a hospital, a place for wounded,
hurt, lost people who come as they are to God to worship
and gather before him to be healed and to learn of Christ
and grow in Him. If one comes and they do not dress
correctly, who are you to look at them with judgment?

So often I have seen people enter church and be
treated poorly. They would go up to someone and
be judged by their appearance, or by the way they
talk, or perhaps they didn't come up to the standards
of the people they talked to. And as soon as they
left the conversation people gossiped about them.
This should not be so!

What if someone has not attended church in a while
or been hurt, and they come in church and are
greeted with coldness, aloofness and judgment?
Will that draw them to God? Will they see the love
of Christ in you, or aloof snobbish people?

Who among us is perfect? What are you going to church for?
To feel better than others? To tell others how much better you are?
To put on a show? Are you not a sinner saved by grace?
Are we not to be a community of believers working together
for Christ, in his name for his glory? How can we work
together as team if we fault find with those around us?
It is impossible!

How can snobbery please God? It cannot!!

Let us go further. If indeed you fulfill the royal law in
accordance with the scripture, you shall love your
neighbor as yourself, you do well.
James 2:8

Can you love the poor person who comes in your church,
and maybe dresses poorly or speaks in slang or even
upsets you? Can you love them and pray for them,
or do you feel a need to set them straight every time you
see them? I am wondering who should take the liberty
of setting you straight then? If all of us had this attitude
of being better, the church would no longer be a place
to minister to people but a place of judgment and rebuke.

Jesus never taught this my friends. He never taught
us to be distant and judgmental and unkind. Certainly
we are to discern who is of him and who is not, but not
for the sake of looking down on them, but the sake of prayer.

The church is a hospital, not a courtroom. No one appointed
you or me judge or jury of other people's lives.

We are to minister to the needs of others, pray for them
when we see flaws, and then pray for our own flaws, that
God will forgive us and help us to be right before Him.

I am reminded of what Jesus said about the woman who
had been committing adultery and was about to be stoned.
Let He who is without sin cast the first stone.

Go out in this world and be a light for Christ.
Pray for the needs of those who are hurting, and lost
and unable to afford good clothes or food.

There for the grace of God... go you and I.

Be thankful for what you have and abundantly give
to those who do not have. In humility, love and kindness.

Never again spend time looking down on anyone.
It is not of God.

love always
millie


10 Little Christians

10 Little Christians standing in line
1 disliked the preacher, then there were 9

9 little Christians stayed up very late
1 overslept Sunday, then there were 8

8 little Christians on their way to Heaven
1 took the low road and then there were 7

7 little Christians chirping like chicks
1 disliked music, then there were 6

6 little Christians seemed very much alive
but one lost his interest then there was 5

5 little Christians pulling for Heaven's Shore
but one stopped to rest, then there were 4

4 little Christians each busy as a bee
1 got his feelings hurt, then there were 3

3 little Christians knew not what to do
1 joined the sporty crowd, then there were 2

2 little Christians, our rhyme is nearly done
differed with each other, then there was 1

1 little Christian can't do much 'tis true
brought his friend to Bible study -- then there were 2

2 earnest Christians, each won one more
that doubled the number, then there were 4

4 sincere Christians worked early and late
Each won another then there were 8

8 splendid Christians if they doubled as before
In just so many Sundays, we'd have 1,024

In this little jingle, there is a lesson true,
You belong either to the
building or to the wrecking crew!
- Author Unknown