I just witnessed, on another thread a picture of a prominent Christian motivational speaker, his wife and he at the beach. The wife was late in her pregnancy wearing a very tiny almost non-existent bathing suit with her very pregnant belly completely exposed.
My question is: "how could any godly Christian man display his wife in this way in front of millions of people? I question the integrity and level of spirituality in a man who would not care whether or not his wife was seen in dignity.
The reaction of those commenting was, how lovely this couple was and what a good example of a marriage they had.
I was the only one commenting on the clothing......or lack of it, on the wife. I felt like I was the little girl in the story of "The Emperors New Clothes."
In case someone doesn't know the story, the towns people were told by officials of the King that the King would be coming down the street in his new clothes. What the people were not told was that the king would be coming down naked. As the king approached each group of people, there could be heard voices proclaiming how lovely the new clothes were, except for one little girl who shouted out boldly, "but he doesn't have on any clothes." The people were appalled that the little girl would say this and she was summarily chastised for saying such a thing, as though they really did see clothes.
We are living in such a culture as described in "The Emperors New Clothes." The king is not chastised for not wearing any clothes, however, anyone telling the truth about it are called trouble makers and scolded harshly for telling what they really saw.
Are we that blind, or are we so deeply frightened over the loss of crowd approval that we pretend to ignore what we see blatantly? Or, perhaps our culture is so immoral now we will see many Christians on the beach clad in clothing the prostitutes didn't even wear 150 years ago.
When the bikini first came out regular models wouldn't model in it, the designers had to get prostitutes to do that.
It seems that our culture is willing to overlook any and all sins as long as the person we are looking at is famous, or highly favored as a speaker or teacher. It is my humble opinion that no matter who the celebrity is, we ought to always tell the truth, perhaps particularly if they are influential, public and Christian.
Proverbs 12:19 "Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment."
To ignore or deny what we really see is lying! Do we get this, it is lying!
2 Timothy 2:15 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
That is the first admonition in this post, to seek the truth. The second admonition is to tell the truth no matter how many people don't like to hear it.
Ephesians 4:25 "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."
Our job as believers is to help one another grow in holiness, that is not possible when we ignore blatant sin. Do we understand that nakedness.....even partial nakedness on the beach is a sin before God?
There are two reasons for wearing scanty clothing in public, the first is to exhibit ourselves for men to see and the other is to keep up with the fashion. Neither of these things is good. If the culture is violating God's principles then we must not follow it.
Believers are fish swimming up stream against the current. Our greatest desire is to be acceptable to God not our culture. The culture has a father, that father is the devil, nearly everything it does is contrary to Christ.
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
How do we swim up stream......its simply......ask God to change our hearts so that we do not desire the things of the world. When the desire is removed by God, then there is no struggle to be different, being different will come naturally without effort.
An elderly lady once was asked by a non-believer what she gave up to be a Christian. Her answer was "I never gave up anything.....that I wanted." When we have been born again we are not controlled by the culture, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. When we fail temporarily, we are hounded by Christ Who lives in us and we return to obedience again, the sadness we feel in the sin drives us back to the Savior. We are not comfortable with sin or worldliness, we are only at peace when we are in sweet obedience to Christ.
The moral of the story, don't follow the culture it will only destroy you, follow Christ and you will see much peace and joy!!!!
1 Peter 3:1
"3 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;"
The word "conversation" here does not mean "speech", but rather, it means "life."
In short, God meant that the husbands could be won over by the "life of the wives."
This is why it is important to understand the meaning, one might believe that the wives should speak to their husbands, and it is partly true, except in the original language it means her life as a whole will witness to her husband.
After all, words are easy, it is by the life that support the words that make the difference.
A description of the pre-trib rapture, the protection of the saints because God takes car of His children who are not appointed to wrath.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 "9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,"
We are living in the time of man's wrath right now, but after the rapture of the church it will be the time of God's wrath, much more horrible than anything man could do.
Isaiah 26:19-21
"19 Thy dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."
Just as God shut the door on the ark for the safety of those who belong to Him, He will do the same before His wrath that will be poured out on the earth against all evil. God will hide His people in safety during the tribulation period on the earth.
Does anyone believe they can think any way they please as long as they hide their thoughts from others?
If you believe you can hide yourself, just remember the longer you continue in sin in your thoughts the greater the chances of them working themselves out into actions.
God judges the heart, he doesn't have to judge the actions, because before the action can occur, there has to be wickedness in the mind first.
Matthew 15:19 ""For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders."
Jeremiah 17:10 ""I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds."
Far too many people judge others as wonderful because they see people who are doing good deeds or restraining themselves from outward evil actions. Hiding what is in our heart doesn't make us a good person, it just makes us stealthful.
Notice in Jeremiah 17:10 God doesn't mention actions to be judged, He judges the heart and the "results" of the deeds. We are accountable for the things we cause in the lives of others.
Did you know that a person can go all their live without committing adultery, and still have adultery in their heart that will be judged by God?
Matthew 16:4 ""An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away."
God calls us adulterous when we merely lack faith and need Him to prove Himself in some physical or miraculous way.
Most people say "don't judge" when it comes to sin but we never hear them say "don't judge" when it comes to good deeds.
It seems to be acceptable to judge someone as good because of their deeds, but not acceptable to judge someone as bad because of their sin. I say that our deeds flow out of our heart but sometimes they are pretense for the purpose of earning kudos from those around us.
Many people will think they have lived a good life in their own righteousness who will be expecting to enter heaven only to be rejected by Christ. These people did good deeds, loved themselves and were proud, never having trusted Christ.
Those who are not changed by Christ but attempted to be good without Him, will be told in those fateful days, "I never knew you, depart from Me." Mathew 7:21-23. I can't think of anything more frightening and devastating than to believe you are going to heaven, only to be turned away at the gates of heaven and be thrown into hell.
It is always a good idea to ask the Lord to expose our own hearts to us that we might confess that which does not honor Christ. This is what cleansing is all about, confessing our sin to be cleansed, first in our heart and then our actions and attitudes will follow. Any attempt to cleanse ourselves is fleshly, will not last and doesn't honor Christ.
1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Often we are not cleansed because we don't ask or we ask to show off to others.
James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."
If we want to be cleansed, walking with a pure mind we must ask God to do it in us, knowing we have no ability within ourselves to change our own heart. In short, only one who has humbled himself admitting his own inability to save himself or cleanse himself, will God work in their lives.
2 Corinthians 11:4 "For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully."
There are many teachers and preachers who are false teachers bringing a different Jesus, we must learn to be very discerning, we do that by knowing God's Word, while walking closely with Christ.
No one will know truth if they refuse to ask Christ Who lives in them.
John 16:13 ""But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."
Many people choose to believe what they were taught rather than seek God for themselves. They repeat the thing they were taught solidifying in their own minds a false gospel.
James 4:1-10 "4 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?
6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."
We must ask God adn we must do it in faith, deciding to believe Him when He speaks, even if what He tells us goes against what we have been taught and that will never contradict His Word the Bible.
All three of the Godhead are involved in salvation! Read all the passages carefully and prayerfully to understand the Godhead in three persons!
Romans 14:17-18; 15:16;1 Corinthians 2:2-5; 6:11; 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 2:18-22; 3:14-19; Ephesians 4:4-6; Colossians 1:6-8; 1Thessalonians 1:3-5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; Titus 3:4-6.
Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Peter 1:1-2,
Here is a silly example of why knowledge of the source language and customs are important when interpreting writings from the past.
In English we use the term "put down" to mean at least three different things depending on the context.
1. "Put the baby down", meaning to lay the baby in his bed for a nap.
2. "Put the dog down", meaning to inject the dog with a drug to make him die.
3. "Put a person down", meaning to verbally demean someone.
If we didn't know the context of these phrases we might interpret "put the baby down", thinking it meant to kill the baby.
Or, we might think to "put the dog down" meant to lay the dog in a bed for a nap or speak in a demeaning way to the dog.
Or, we might think "put the person down" means to kill the person or put the person down for a nap.
Context is everything! And, we can have words that are exactly the same sound but different meanings such as the word "road."
We may tell someone which "road" to take to get to our house, or we may tell someone they are going down the wrong road, meaning that they are doing things that will cause them trouble in their life.
When we are reading a text from another culture in another time, there must be continual evaluation of the words used to stay closely to the original meaning of the text of origin. When we have favorite words that we cannot let go of, but the culture has changed the meanings of those words over time, even opposite of what was originally meant, then we have a serious problem.
It is more important to convey the original message than it would be to keep certain familiar words that no longer mean what they used to mean.
Hanging on to old words that are comfortable and seemingly more eloquent might be satisfying but if they don't convey the true message and meanings then they are nothing more than personal dead preferences. I say go ahead and enjoy those words however, it makes more sense to become up to date in language to be able to impart wisdom to a world that doesn't know those lovely words and expressions.
I found a web site that shows how important it is to know the context and culture of origin when reading any written work.
At the end of the article is an interesting video.
