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Much truth in your post.

Balance indeed.

I agree that at least a certain kind of casualness toward God is at least a risk, a hazard.

He is High and Lifted Up, and His Train fills The Temple.

On The Other Hand, we are to cry Abba, Father--DADDY! And to covet crawling up on His lap and laying our heads against His heart.

And, we are His Temple.

Yes, teachable is beyond admirable--essential.

Some of us have asserted more or less that there's a poison represented in some of the words in some of this discussion. We assert that this poison is anthetical to all that The Gospel represents and that Jesus died for.

I at least assert that this poison earned some of Christ's harshest words and strongest disconfirmation . . . that the seductions involved are insideous, perhaps subtle and even slippery but potent and destructive.

There were assertions that a type of casualness of dress indicated disrespect of God and giving God less than our best.

Certainly there could conceivably be occasions of such in this or that individual instance and case.

But some of us assert that a more common and more serious affront to God is the condition of individual's hearts in any context AND PARTICULARLY IN WORSHIP.

One wise poster noted that a healthy church will demonstrate both evidence of reverence for God in fitting pomp and circumstance [I'm reminded of Solomon celebrating the opening of the new Temple etc. David dancing before The Ark could, interestingly be a mixture of both pomp and circumstance and extreme casualness]--and in the casual intimacy marked say by all manner of dress at Christ's feet--indeed by John persistently leaning on Christ's breast, I might add.

There will be a MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB. And the spotless garments will be supplied by our God bought by The Blood of The Lamb based on our heart-level, heart-felt acceptance of that Salvation.

Prior to that, there will be a time when we are not to return to our house for our cloak etc. and not to look back lest we be like Lot's wife and unworthy.

What has either of those to do with anything in this discussion? Perhaps there is a hint in those two facts that the issues of the heart in our devotion to our God are supreme in matters of dress.

There are times when we lead a child by the hand in training them to prepare for a particular ceremony. If they lack suitable garments, we get them for them. If the neighbor kid is involved in the ceremony and can't afford a garment, we get one for them quietly and privately, too. We train them for their roles in the pomp and circumstance and God is glorified and people are brought closer to God. Those times are relatively rare.

Week in and week out we cry "Abba Daddy." We cultivate a habit of relatively briefly laying aside our busy-ness and having at least a dance of the heart with Daddy, with our Lord Jesus, in His Spirit, Love and Truth. Daddy is delighted that we come as we are to the comfort and intimacy of our home and the familiarity of His Infinite Love and Lap--clothed in The Righteousness of His Son.

It has been shown that the entire 'Sunday Best' mentality had it's origins in a haughtiness, a 'better than thou' mentality which Christ most harshly railed against.

Human critters are addicted to the tangible. It is, in a sense, all we KNOW--at least all we can 'wrap our hands and arms around.'

We are told in Scripture and some of us have experienced in life in the fullness of The Spirit [which the poster oriented more toward dressing up for God somewhat haughtily decries and castigates]--some of us have experienced in life in the fullness of The Spirit spiritual dimensions impacting us from outside the realm of the tangible.

But on the whole, the human critter is somewhat hopelessly, in this life, addicted to the tangible.

But it is a terminally seductive hazard to begin to again construe the tangible as the critical deciding factor in our worship of The Intangible Almighty God Who is beyond atomic structure, who holds atoms together by His Word.

The tangible is essentially and overwhelmingly not the issue with God. It is our 'hearts'--the intangible seat of our consciousness, our wills with which God is most and most persitently, most typically concerned.

THE FATHER daily gazed longingly for the appearing of the prodigal son on the horizon. On his arrival, THE FATHER hugged him energetically, eagerly, with no concern for the pig shit still lingering on what shreds of clothes the prodigal might have had left. The Father did not wait until servants had cleaned the former reprobate up.

I suspect THE FATHER'S WRATH would have been quickly administered to any servant delaying THE FATHER's hug in the interest of a whirlpool soak, suit and tie, first.

Of course, the elder brother had another focus. It was not THE FATHER'S favorite focus at all.

It is admirable to seek to Glorify God. It is Life Giving and essential to Glorify God.

Attempting to do so after the manner and focus of the pharisees is exceedingly beyond counter productive. It is spiritually suicidal.

But we are conditioned by culture, by our carnal natures, by media, by a million seductive inputs that such is 'righteousness' in one form or degree or another.

It's not.

It's a used Kotex--Scripturally, literally.

. . . . a broken and contrite heart . . . humility before God . . .

And those need no clothing at all--indeed, there are many convincing leaders in the faith that insist that

UNLESS WE ARE CLOTHED IN HUMILITY,

we may well risk not seeing God at all.

Being clothed in humility and in a pharisees' pontifical robes are mutually exclusive events/conditions/foci.

It is persistently a convenient rationalization that our strutting about in our Sunday Best IS ONLY TO GLORIFY GOD. Hogwash. It is to earn our own salvation--an affront to The Blood of Jesus, The Christ.

Ah, but *****I***** don't strut around. It is merely my RELIGIOUS DUTY to put on my best etc.

And never at any time from the moment you put your Sunday Best on, until you take it off are you the least micro-scopic shred tempted and fall to the very human thought and feeling--ahh, now I'm adequate to face God; now I'm fit to appear in Church; now I'm meritoriously attired for the Sunday Parade of the Righteous???

God help us!

. . . a broken and contrite heart . . . eager glee to show up at HIS HOUSE, DADDY'S HOUSE as soon as possible almost any way possible to dance with HIM.

That sparks the twinkle in HIS eyes.

To see HIS SNOTTY NOSED BRAT RUNNING, RUNNING SO FAST THE LITTLE [SPIRITUALLY] TYKE STUMBLES OVER HIS OWN FEET, PICKS HIMSELF UP AND RUNS EAGERLY ON TO RUSH ONTO DADDY'S LAP, JUMP DOWN, TAKE HIS HAND AND SKIP AND DANCE AND RUN AND JUMP WITH DADDY . . .

THAT'S the priority . . . a heart eager for THE DADDY DANCE.

Daddy can't see the clothes for gazing rapturously at the heart attitude.

But for some, THE CLOTHES MAR AND BLOCK THE VIEW--from both directions.