12 APRIL

THE WITNESS (5)

“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes.” (James 2:1–4)

The story is told of a little old cleaning woman that went to the local church. When the invitation was given at the end of the service, she went forward to become a member. The pastor listened as she told him how she had accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized and become a member of the church. The pastor thought to himself, “Oh my, she is so unkempt, even smells a little, and her fingernails are not clean. She picks up garbage, cleans toilets–what would the members think of her?”

He told her that she needed to go home and pray about it and then decide. The following week, here she came again. She told the pastor that she had prayed about it and still wanted to be baptized. “I have passed this church for so long. It is so beautiful, and I truly want to become a member.” Again, the pastor told her to go home and pray some more.

A few weeks later while out eating at the restaurant, the pastor saw the little old lady. He did not want her to think that he was ignoring her, so he approached her and said, “I have not seen you for a while. Is everything all right?” “Oh, yes,” she said. “I talked with Jesus, and he told me not to worry about becoming a member of your church.” “He did?” said the pastor. “Oh, yes” she replied. “He said even He hasn’t been able to get into your church yet, and He’s been trying for years.”

Every human being is made in the image of God. Do we respond to people based on colour, nation, tribe, resources, education etc?

ACTION: Determine to make efforts to see others as God sees them.
PRAYER: Lord please help me to be a true witness of your love to all.