Thought Provoking!

 My family and I went to see the movie *Jesus Revolution* over the weekend. It is a really good movie. If you don't know the story, it is about how the Jesus movement got started in the '70's with the hippies in Southern California. How one California church opened it's doors to the hippies much to the chagrin of it's existing members. They had long hair. Were a little smelly, wore clothes with holes in them. The "proper" church members told the pastor that these people didn't belong in their congregation. The pastor disagreed and opened the doors and welcomed them in. Thus beginning a Jesus movement that spread throughout the whole world.

Well if you know me, you know what happened. The movie got me to thinking.

Do I treat and welcome people who are different than me? That look, dress & smell different? How they are dressed? I mean do I really? I would like to think that I do, but after the movie, I'm not so sure.

I wear shirts or hats that have a Christian message on it. Or Scripture passages. Something about Jesus. I call it witness wear. The meaning behind it is to start a conversation about my faith and of course Jesus. Trust me, I have had plenty of conversations because of this type of clothing. When I wear something like that, people approach me. Some are not like me, at all. If I am honest with you, when I see them coming towards me and I know that they are coming for me, sometimes in my head I'm like "please keep moving." "Don't stop, don't stop." Then when I think that, I say to myself, "that's not like Jesus at all." How am I showing Jesus to them if I wish that they would keep moving. Nine out of ten times they stop.

1 Peter 2:17 The Message

17 Treat everyone you meet with dignity. 

Even if people I meet do not look, dress or act like me, I still try and treat them with dignity. They are still human after all. I engage in conversation. Listen to what they have to say. Most of the time they just want someone to listen to them. I guess I look like that guy to them. After talking with them, I always kick myself for wanting them not to stop. Jesus loved everyone, so why can't I even talk to everyone that comes my way? 

1 John 3:11 Amplified Bible

11 For this is the message which you [believers] have heard from the beginning [of your relationship with Christ], that we should [unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another;

So I will and try to do better at welcoming in people who are from a different situation than I am. If I meet them in church I have a different reaction than if I meet them out in public. And that is a shame.

God bless.

Rev. Kev.