I remember many years ago when my family started to church, that my mother was told things she could and could not do if she wanted to be part of the church. You had to look a certain way, act a certain way, and do certain things the church approved of to be a part of it. Even today, most denominations have things they want their members to do or not do. The first thing a new convert is told when they give their heart to God is things they need to change about their appearance and actions to fit into a particular group of believers. It could be their hair, the way they dress, remove odd placed earrings, cover up tattoos, or other things about them. Even though there are things that I don’t particularly like many times, the one thing that is important for a new believer to understand is the importance of building relationship with God. God will take care of everything a new convert needs to change on the outside as he builds relationship with Him. We need to let God do the cleaning up. (Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.) God leads us to make changes in our lives as we grow in faith, but he accepts us just as we are when we come to Him. God is never surprised by our outward appearance, He always starts at the heart and works outward. God is the one who gives us new desires for our lives. God is the one who causes us to see changes that need to be made in our lives. Jesus died so that we could develop a deep, passionate, personal relationship with God. He didn’t save us just to give us a set of rules to keep, he gave us something much better. He gave us access to God so that we could be in close personal relationship with Him. Don’t judge people by their appearance or body marks, look at their heart. They are God’s children also. Pastor Don [image: image.png]