Thing is, this balance thing isn’t just about how you look or what you wear (that’s just all I’ve gotten to so far). But I’m not looking for an excuse to look different or change anything, my biggest issue is how can you witness to people of this “lifestyle” when you can’t even make sense of it 
Now I don’t know if anyone else questions it or not, but it’s always been said when the changes in appearance start showing up that “God showed them.” Did He really? Or was it more that everyone else was doing it and so it must be the right thing to do. No, you don’t HAVE to say anything if the majority is doing it…nobody wants to be the odd duck. Especially when it comes to being part of a group that’s going to heaven.
But if they look like they’ve changed the outside, it’s all good and everybody’s happy (even if they don’t quite understand why they are doing certain things…just that God must be in it).
But then trouble comes if the individual doesn’t start showing outward changes in a certain amount of time. In that case, the general perception is that they didn’t get anything in the first place, the individual is treated differently (as if they don’t really want to be part of the group after all and just needs to get saved again, and the group moves on), and the individual eventually disappears (which in the group’s mind proves their original point and they may or may not go back and try to win back this poor backslidden soul).
Now in some cases, that might have been a true perception, maybe they really didn’t get anything in the first place. But maybe it was because it was the dress code or the list of do’s and don’ts that was preached and little or nothing about what should be working on the INSIDE.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m not. Maybe I’ll figure it all out one day.
So many good posts and thoughts. I grew up wearing skirts. But since I left a certain church group, I really began to question why I really believed what I believed. Now, I didn't change immediately. But over the past ten years I've done a lot of growing and my relationship with Christ has increased. (More than it ever was inside that church.) I did a lot of praying and a lot of Bible studying and found out that I was following more man-made rules than I was following God's rules. Now ppl of that church and fellowship look down on me and tell me I'm not saved, but I don't base my salvation on a list of rules made by man. I base my salvation on Jesus Christ and His Word. God had to take me out in order for me to grow closer to Him. I never have regret it...only that it didn't happen sooner. I resecently told a friend that I have been able to witness to more ppl in the past ten years of my life outside of that church, than all the rest of my life put together inside of that church.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I am finding more and more that salvation comes by following God's rules and that they are not necessarily what man says they are. I, too, grew up wearing skirts...and have actually been thinking about posting on that topic as well..
ReplyDeleteThank you for the encouraging comment, have a blessed day!