Fervency and Modesty

Modesty is a topic that many of us are drawn toward.  We see the need to change our own wardrobes and actions, and we also desire to spread the truth in the church and in the culture.  It is exciting to see many Christians doing this!

But often we can be what John Piper calls “Adrenaline Christians.”  We become convicted, excited, and inspired about something and want to run tell the world.  Speaking the truth is good!  However, when done in our own strength, we will not last when the zeal fades.  There are days when we don’t feel like being modest.  That’s when fervency is overtaken by weariness and the flesh.  This is what happens when we return from a conference, very excited, and then two weeks later we find that we have forgotten to consistently apply what we have learned.  We were processing with adrenaline.

We need to be what Piper calls, “Coronary Christians,” like the beating of a heart.  While we need passion, we also need steadiness in the midst of our passion.  This comes through relying on God’s grace and not ourselves. We must be passionate about Jesus Christ- not just modesty.  We will be rightly passionate about what He loves when He is our focus.

So let us speak up about modesty- but not overtaken by it or another truth alone.  Let us be overtaken by the cross of Christ and allow Him to create a steady passion within our hearts.

Hint, Hint…

Here are some quotes I have been pondering on lately.

“Anything that “hints” at sex outside of marriage is wrong.  Ephesians 5:3 (NIV) defines God’s standard for purity: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.”  This certainly includes actually having sex.  But the sexual sin forbidden here is broader than that.  There should not be even a hint of sex outside of the marriage bed.  You don’t have to have physical contact with a guy to “hint” at sexual sin.  Jesus extended the definition of sexual sin to include looking at someone and lusting after them (Matthew 5:28).  You “hint” at sex when you wear a low-cut tank top showing off your cleavage.  You “hint” at sex when you text message something flirtatious to a guy-friend.  You “hint” at sex when you hang around the Abercrombie poster in the mall, glancing a few too many times…”

Lies Young Women Believe, Nancy Leigh Demoss and Dannah Gresh, 91.

Ouch!  What do we want to be hinting?

“An emphasis on outward adornment focuses on a woman, as well as others, on herself rather than on the rightful Object of worship.  There is no virtue in being unfashionable.  This is not a call to plainness.  It is a call to a purity of heart that is reflected in our outward appearance.”

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church, J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, 71-72

Bringing Beauty Back

I was wearing a tankini and shorts at the beach. I already felt like I unusually stuck out for such a climate, but a young man then added with slight disappointment about me and my friend,

“Your swimsuits are so…modest.” Only, I was not sure if that was really a compliment. His tone didn’t really make it seem that way. I felt torn between saying, “Thank you, I want to be modest,” or, “Thank you, I now feel really unattractive…” I opted for the first because it seemed like the right thing to say, but inside I was feeling…unlovely.

We all want to look beautiful. It is rare to a meet a woman who does not. The only problem is that beauty and sexy have become synonyms in our culture. We are being told that in order to be seen as culturally beautiful, we need to be showing some major skin.

We have to admit that the church is also embracing this idea. It has before, and here we are again. We pollute our desire to make things beautiful by focusing on attracting attention to ourselves instead of our Creator (who made beauty!) And we fall into the trap. This is really evident in the amount of skin being shown off among Christian young women. Men are struggling and stumbling because we just had to have that cute top that shows some cleavage. We allow ourselves to destroy beauty instead of creating it. We forget that the most wonderful form of beauty is self-sacrifice for others. We also forget that externally beautifying ourselves or our environment isn’t merely sensual.

Sexiness is biblical—between a husband and wife (read Song of Songs!) If you are unmarried, store it up for that guy some day! If you are married, give it to your man alone! Don’t give it up for a few seconds of feeling desirable or culturally accepted. We were saved by grace for so much more! We were saved to worship God and bring Him glory. We bring God glory when we have a beautiful, biblical view of sexuality—and make it valuable, between one man and one woman who are only for each other.

Whether at the beach or at church, we have to ask ourselves if God’s view is greater than our opinions. He is the Creator of sexuality- His view of everything is always more beautiful. If we have sinned in lusting after attention and hurting others in our selfishness, we can repent and be forgiven because of Christ’s beautiful blood shed for us. We can trust His goodness with sexuality. When we do, it will redeem true beauty in our lives.

Photo from Art Deco Blog.

Open Hands and Grace

“Open hands should characterize the soul’s attitude toward God–open to receive what He wants to give, open to give back what He wants to take. Acceptance of the will of God means relinquishment of our own. If our hands are full of our own plans, there isn’t room to receive His.”

“How often am I troubled about something that looms ahead, wondering how I am to cope when the time comes. Why do I not bring it at once to the Lord, who stands ready with the next grace for the next thing? Why is it so easy to forget His simple word, “If you need wisdom, I’ll give it to you. If you need strength, it will be there in exact proportion to the difficulties of the day. If you need guidance, I’m your Shepherd. If you need comfort, My name is Comforter.”

Elisabeth Elliot, A Path Through Suffering

Image from www.twu.ca/life/lead/

Interested in Biblical Counseling?

Has a friend ever come to you with a problem, but you felt unsure how to counsel her biblically? There are so many different self-help books available today, but somehow they fall short of what we really need: spiritual growth in the midst of our problems- not just escape from those problems!

A few years ago I discovered a biblical counseling series that is absolutely phenomenal. The Institute of Biblical Education (Bob Jone’s University) offers a long distance certificate in Biblical Counseling. Each ‘student’ takes 6 courses, each course being 12 hours in length. The cost is $55 per course. The classes offered are in the areas of biblical counseling, crisis counseling, premarital counseling, and family counseling. These are all approached from a biblical basis, using the Word of God to guide Christians through real life problems. These DVD lectures given by Dr. Jim Berg are actual classes that are offered for credit at BJU, but have been converted into an easy format for the layperson who would like the biblical teaching without the tests and papers. So, same information, less stress. I do not always agree with some minor views from BJU, but I have found the counseling series to be right on target.  It is helpful not only when counseling others, but also in biblically tackling my own problem areas that need spiritual growth.

Check out the website!  

Biblical Counseling Series

A Worthy Woman

We as women have a lot in common with Ruth in the Bible. Most of us are not in great positions like Esther, or asked to do great things like Mary. Most of us just live day to day life. Each day, we have the choice to be faithful in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

Those circumstances are not always what we would have painted them to be. Ruth was a woman who had a husband, but lost him. She had been married to him for ten years, but never had a child within that time. She would have been a great candidate for bitterness. In fact, she could have followed her mother-in-law’s cue and hopped on the sorrow wagon.

Yet we find the opposite from Ruth. Ruth left her homeland and all that was familiar to her. She not only lost her life with her husband, but she chose to leave the place of her childhood. Ruth decided to take care of her mother-in-law, even though it meant a low position in society in Bethlehem. Widowed women did not have high status in Israelite culture, especially in a time when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25, Ruth 1:1).  Ruth and Naomi were returning to a culture that might not be favorable toward them. Everyone else was looking out for themselves. I do not know what conditions were like in Moab, but Naomi urged her to stay there because she assumed it would be better for Ruth to go home to her family (1:8-14). So perhaps Ruth also left a more comfortable life (and the hope of remarriage).

Despite all those conditions, Ruth chose to follow Naomi’s God, the God of Israel, and take care of her mother-in-law. And God honored Ruth. Most of us know the story. We all love when Boaz comes on the scene.  What we love about Boaz’s admiration for Ruth is not her beauty. In fact, Ruth’s appearance is never mentioned, unlike other women in the bible.  Boaz honored and favored Ruth because he knew she was, “a worthy woman” (Ruth 3:11).

So she was a good girl? It’s really more than that.  The ESV Study Bible points out that this phrase “worthy woman” is the same term, ‘eshet khayil, used for the Proverbs 31 woman (“excellent wife” in Prov. 31:10). If you have read Proverbs 31, you will get a vivid portrait of what this kind of woman is like. Most of all, this worthy woman was a woman who feared the Lord (Proverbs 31:30). Ruth was that kind of girl.

Many of us may find ourselves in circumstances that appear bleak, difficult, endless, or hopeless like Ruth’s circumstances. However, take heart! You serve the same loving and sovereign God whom Ruth followed. He has not changed! We get to choose if we will allow our circumstances to overtake us, or if we will be worthy women by God’s grace, and hope in His goodness. He never disappoints or abandons the faithful.  Ruth is a reminder of just that!

Source:

ESV Study Bible. 2008. Wheaton: Crossway, pg. 481.

Note: We see a specific example of a worthy woman in Ruth, and possibly a general example in Prov. 31. Ruth gives an individual example of being a worth woman, making Prov. 31 less intimidating for those of us who…are bad at real estate or sewing…!

Giveaway: Bun Tutus

Bun Tutus

We are giving five blog readers a chance to win a darling Bun Tutu for the little girl in their life!  Leave a comment below with a  valid e-mail address for your chance to win.  Giveaway will close on January 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST and the winners will be announced on Jnauary 24th, 2009.

To Do No Other

My students in church history class have been learning about the events that led up to the Protestant Reformation. As I have been preparing the lessons for class, I have been in awe of what God has been doing throughout time. I also have been amazed once again at the men and women who were unwilling to accept the error that was in the church during the dark ages and into the renaissance. They longed for truth from the Bible alone. And many of them died for that truth.

I think of the Waldenses, who stirred up the movement to bring Christians back to the Word of God.  There was John Huss, unwilling to accept corruption in the church. The church burned him at the stake. And then there was the Brethren of the Common life, a group that used education to spread truth. From the Brethren came John Wessel, Thomas a Kempis, and even Martin Luther. Many people were persecuted, and even martyred if they would not recant their beliefs.  Those who were faithful were able to stand fast because they believed that the Gospel was of more value than this present life.  And they believed that the truth, in it’s undiluted form, must be passed on.

Yet we are all frail, fallen creatures.  Perhaps the saddest line in my students’ textbook is about John Wessel. It reads, “Of course, the…Church did not approve of John Wessel. He was tried for heresy before the Archbishop of Mainz. After having attempted to defend himself, he recanted” (Kuiper, 151).

I was reminded how tempting it is to “recant” certain beliefs today. As Jenny posted earlier on the blog, fear keeps us from moving forward. We are often afraid.  We may be afraid to speak up about the passages in Scripture that talk about marriage (one man and one woman alone) or the passages on the equal in value, yet different roles of men and women in the home and church. After all, we don’t want to be labeled bigots.  We might be afraid of what many Christians will think of us if we hold to a literal creation by God instead of Theistic Evolution.  It would simply be easier to agree with popular scientific ‘ideas’ and the existence of God at the same time.  We might be afraid that people will not listen to us at all if we believe the Bible is inerrant (without error in the original) and God-breathed (inspiration). It’s hard for people to believe that men could really be involved in the writing of anything without error…and that God actually wrote through these men.

We’re afraid at times, yet all of these truths above are biblical. While the Reformers fought against doctrines added to Scripture, it seems that the struggle our generation finds itself in is the desire to take away certain truths from Scripture.

The question we must all consider is this: are we unwilling to recant the truth we hold to, even if it means there will be times of standing alone?  Because of Christ’s work on the cross, there is always grace through Jesus waiting for us. We may not have the grace for a situation right now (because the situation hasn’t been given to us), but God never leaves us to stand fast on our own. The strength of the reformers lay not within themselves, but in their unchanging God.

“I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”

~Martin Luther

Source: Kuiper, B.K. The Church in History. Grand Rapids: CSI Publications, 1964.

Adventures in Teaching

Episode 2: The Mystery of Pam

I really enjoy when new students come to class.  New students add a certain excitement and freshness to routine. Many new students started signing up around November. Most, however, would not attend class for the first time until after the Christmas break.

From what I can remember a month ago, I was told there would be three new students in my high school worldview class (the same class in which I had to explain the skirt situation). One new student, by the way, was unusually named Pam. Since I knew her name, I began telling my students that she would be coming after Christmas. I prepared them for three weeks about the fact that Pam would be joining us in our close quarters. It became humorous among the class because this “Pam” person was a complete mystery, but her name was very memorable because it is unusual for a high school student. It became as though Pam was already known by the class since we frequently talked about her coming.

Well, Christmas break came and went, and so did the first week of school. Last Monday, I was beginning to worry about Pam. Did she drop my class? She wasn’t showing up, although the other two new students were accounted for. And why was I unaware of her last name? I had never been informed of that information.

Concerned, I had one of my students ask the office about this class-ditcher named Pam. He came back to class with interesting news—

There is no such person as Pam…!

Apparently I had somehow misheard a new student’s name, or someone had repeated it wrongly to me (I think it’s the first option)! So for about a month we spoke about Pam, who in reality does not exist. My students claimed disappointment. They also told me I will never live that one down! I’ve been hearing about “Pam” sightings all week…

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