Chapter 6: "The Bottom Line"
Dannah begins this chapter with how this call-in teen show was talking about modesty. This girl called in named Jamie and she was trying to state her opinion and her opinion was that if "you're wearing pants too tight and a creepy guy comes up to you, just pray and that guy will go away.'' But the host Sarah had to correct her, you can't call on God when you're in trouble, you should call on Him before you even put those clothes on when you were in the mirror looking at yourself. You should ask is this what God would want me to wear? Sarah then realizes Jamie knows all about God but does not maintain a relationship with Him, and she gets saved on this call-in show!
Dannah compares Jamie's stubbornness to modesty to her own. Along with ours. She goes on to tell us that if we are aggravated by all this ''modesty'' talk, that its a love problem, not a modesty problem. Because when we love the Lord, we want to obey Him and obeying Him would mean his guidelines might be hard to follow, but you still follow them, because its about you loving Him. John 14:21 says "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." Everything in His plan for you life is for the purpose of blessing you, so obey Him!
Review of what God desires for you from each chapter:
1. Modesty is a delicate yet formidable power that God has given you.
2. God's intended purpose for you as a carefully crafted masterpiece is to ''intoxicate'' one man with the fullest extent of your beauty.
3. Since immodesty creates arousal in many men, it misses the mark of God's intended purpose for you. It's not just fashion, it's a sin.
4. The allure of immodesty is not in what is seen but what is not seen. Modesty issues a challenge for one man to romantically earn your virtue.
5. A girl's modesty is first noted by her external presentation, but if it's not followed by the confidence of internal modesty, she still forfeits the power of her virtue.
6. Modesty is possible if you truly love God. When you love Him, you will be able to obey Him in the way that you dress.
1 Timothy 2:9-10 "I also want women to dress modestly ... not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
Deuteronomy 6:20-21 " In the future, when your son asks you, 'What is the meaning of the ... laws the Lord our God has commanded you?' tell him ... 'The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper.'"
God loves us and desires to see us happy and He knows that the best path to a truly blessed marriage is the path of modesty. So do you love Him? If God wrote you a love letter, it would sound a little like this:
"My Precious Masterpiece,
Have the bad-hair days and hormones gotten the worst of you? Oh, if only you could see how brilliant a masterpiece you are.
I couldn't wait for you to arrive. You! Yes, you! I've anticipated your presence on My earth before it was even created.
Like a master embroiderer sits at his loom painstakingly interweaving each unique strand, I knit you together piece by piece with intention and precision. You are one of the unique expressions of My own glory. I chose the color of your hair from the earth and the color of your eyes from the brilliance of My skies. I even placed My thumb there on your nose, marking it with My fingerprint.
After you were made in secret, I revealed you to this world with still the most profound parts of your beauty waiting to be crafted. Still, I am creating you in secret, My masterpiece.
Though the full secrets of your beauty are unknown to the world, I see. And I am enthralled by your beauty.
Oh, how I love you.
There have been only two places on earth that I have been willing to fill with My own radiant glory - the old temple ... and you! That's how precious your body is to Me.
Will you honor Me with it?
Will you love Me back?
Your Master Craftsman, Jesus"
This letter was written using Ephesians 1:4-7; Psalm 139:13-16; Psalm 45:11-14; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
Now its your turn, write a love letter to God telling Him how you're going to honor Him through modesty. Use all of the six review statements to re-word and tell Him how you're going to obey Him. This should be a personal creed to enable you to access the power of modesty.
Everyone who reads this:
I would like for you to post anonymous love letters, you can choose to only write from one or all six of the reviews, but I encourage you to post them as a comment on my blog. Everyone that you write, I will pray over them continuously. I encourage you to do this for God. If you do not feel comfortable doing it on here then do it in a journal. If you're not afraid to post who you are and proclaim your boldness for God then post it with your name. But I do encourage you to write a love letter to your God.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Chapter 4 "The Allure" and Chapter 5 "The Inner Quality" Overview
Chapter 4 "The Allure":
Okay, so I'm going to not give the whole, big overview of every chapter. When I start the new books, I'll probably do it for the first book, but encourage you to purchase each. One of our books is available in the library too whenever we get to it. But even if you can't buy the book, we will speak enough about it and give you scripture to study and chew on during the week.
Anyway, chapter 4 has two lessons.
Lesson 1: Showing Less Controls More
Yes, she said showing less controls more. And it does, proven by the Gestalt theory. Here's a description of the Gestalt theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_theory. Basically, its a theory that says if a picture is put in front of you incomplete, your brain automatically wants to complete it. The same is with women, if they are barely wearing anything, a guy wants to complete the picture, which is "undressing you with his eyes." Also, she says that the ''allure'' is what makes it tempting. If a girl is naked in front of a guy, its not as alluring, because there is nothing left to the imagination. Showing your belly, your bra strap under a spaghetti strap, etc. can be just as bad as hanging a noose around the neck of a guy's spiritual life.
Sometimes, you want to be that girl that turns all the guy's heads. We've all felt this way, we all ache to be adored and noticed.But use Dannah's advice about advertising secrets to your advantage, not to your disadvantage.
Lesson 2: Perceived Value Increases Worth
In business, if the value is perceived as high, then the worth increases. The same principle is used when you dress. Modesty protects the true secrets of your body for one man, requiring him to invest in your life in order to one day enjoy your allure. Proverbs 13:19 says "a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul." So if he has to work to earn your heart then it makes it so much more precious because he becomes motivated by love. Also, guys on MTV and everywhere that is in the ''casual sex scene'' say that when it ultimately comes down to it, they want a pure, modest girl. HELLO! They can go out and sleep with 50 girls, but they don't want ''that kind'' of girl, they want the pure girl. Doesn't make sense? Well how about you wait it out and not be ''that kind'' of girl. Be the pure, modest girl.
Dannah's husband was thrilled by her modesty. And he says he desired to earn her. D0n't we want our husband to say the same? Modesty is the first defense for your purity!
Fashion Challenge:
1. Make 3 piles. Get a friend to do this with you. The 1st one called Cheap Thrills Pile which is clothes that you've been wearing that invite a guy to complete the picture in his mind.
2. The 2nd pile should be Power Pile which is the clothes that hide the secrets of your alluring body to put back in your closet and/or your drawers.
3. The 3rd pile called Fuzzy Friend Pile. The pile of clothes that you're fuzzy about, and tell your friend to make a decision for you. Do not compromise.
Point to look at: The allure of immodesty is not in what is seen but what is not seen. Modesty issues a challenge for one man to romantically earn your virtue.
Chapter 4 "The Inner Quality":
The beginning of this chapter compares Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop and Britney Spears in concert in 2001. Both are careless and thoughtless exposure which cause our brothers in Christ to falter. The greater sin is not what she's (you're) wearing but that she (you) desire spectators to lust after her. We must look past the trends, they change from culture to culture. But Rebekah, although she received the nose ring, she wore a veil when her husband came around, hiding the fashion. We also, should take this as an example. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
Queen Vashti, which was Esther's predecessor, is a hidden Bible hero. The king asked her to flaunt her body in front of him and his drunken friends, and she refused. She lost her crown, but not her honor or integrity. She oozed with inner confidence.
Inner confidence is what we should strive to have. There are many examples of this such as Joy Williams only giving guy ''side hugs''. You cannot limit the power of your modest to just what you wear. It's also controlled by where you are willing to go with guys, when you go there, and how you act. Being a flirt is invading a guy's personal space or flirts with him issues an unspoken challenge concerning her sexuality. This exhibitionism can be hidden insecurity. Like those girls who can't stop talking about themselves.
She refers back to the Greek Slave which was used as an example in Chapter 1, if you want to go look at the statue again. Click on the link in Chapter 1. Anyway, this statue shows how her inner confidence shines through. Modesty is a great paradox. Although an immodest woman creates insatiable curiosity in a guy, it is the modest girl whose heart is most desires. Modesty is first exhibited through external modesty. Then through, internal modesty. Internal modesty is a girl who doesn't hang all over guys but acknowledges them nonchalantly as she might see another girl and it is also seen in the girl whose morning dress routine helps her reflect God's beauty but does not find her obsessing in front of the mirror. It's seen in the girl who requires the guy to do the pursuing ... in the girl whose conversation revolves more around other people than herself ... in the girl who's obviously more in love with Jesus than the idea of a boyfriend.
So which girl are you?
Point to look at: A girl's modesty is first noted by her external presentation, but if it's not followed by the confidence of inner modesty, she still forfeits the power of her virtue.
Okay, so I'm going to not give the whole, big overview of every chapter. When I start the new books, I'll probably do it for the first book, but encourage you to purchase each. One of our books is available in the library too whenever we get to it. But even if you can't buy the book, we will speak enough about it and give you scripture to study and chew on during the week.
Anyway, chapter 4 has two lessons.
Lesson 1: Showing Less Controls More
Yes, she said showing less controls more. And it does, proven by the Gestalt theory. Here's a description of the Gestalt theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_theory. Basically, its a theory that says if a picture is put in front of you incomplete, your brain automatically wants to complete it. The same is with women, if they are barely wearing anything, a guy wants to complete the picture, which is "undressing you with his eyes." Also, she says that the ''allure'' is what makes it tempting. If a girl is naked in front of a guy, its not as alluring, because there is nothing left to the imagination. Showing your belly, your bra strap under a spaghetti strap, etc. can be just as bad as hanging a noose around the neck of a guy's spiritual life.
Sometimes, you want to be that girl that turns all the guy's heads. We've all felt this way, we all ache to be adored and noticed.But use Dannah's advice about advertising secrets to your advantage, not to your disadvantage.
Lesson 2: Perceived Value Increases Worth
In business, if the value is perceived as high, then the worth increases. The same principle is used when you dress. Modesty protects the true secrets of your body for one man, requiring him to invest in your life in order to one day enjoy your allure. Proverbs 13:19 says "a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul." So if he has to work to earn your heart then it makes it so much more precious because he becomes motivated by love. Also, guys on MTV and everywhere that is in the ''casual sex scene'' say that when it ultimately comes down to it, they want a pure, modest girl. HELLO! They can go out and sleep with 50 girls, but they don't want ''that kind'' of girl, they want the pure girl. Doesn't make sense? Well how about you wait it out and not be ''that kind'' of girl. Be the pure, modest girl.
Dannah's husband was thrilled by her modesty. And he says he desired to earn her. D0n't we want our husband to say the same? Modesty is the first defense for your purity!
Fashion Challenge:
1. Make 3 piles. Get a friend to do this with you. The 1st one called Cheap Thrills Pile which is clothes that you've been wearing that invite a guy to complete the picture in his mind.
2. The 2nd pile should be Power Pile which is the clothes that hide the secrets of your alluring body to put back in your closet and/or your drawers.
3. The 3rd pile called Fuzzy Friend Pile. The pile of clothes that you're fuzzy about, and tell your friend to make a decision for you. Do not compromise.
Point to look at: The allure of immodesty is not in what is seen but what is not seen. Modesty issues a challenge for one man to romantically earn your virtue.
Chapter 4 "The Inner Quality":
The beginning of this chapter compares Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop and Britney Spears in concert in 2001. Both are careless and thoughtless exposure which cause our brothers in Christ to falter. The greater sin is not what she's (you're) wearing but that she (you) desire spectators to lust after her. We must look past the trends, they change from culture to culture. But Rebekah, although she received the nose ring, she wore a veil when her husband came around, hiding the fashion. We also, should take this as an example. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
Queen Vashti, which was Esther's predecessor, is a hidden Bible hero. The king asked her to flaunt her body in front of him and his drunken friends, and she refused. She lost her crown, but not her honor or integrity. She oozed with inner confidence.
Inner confidence is what we should strive to have. There are many examples of this such as Joy Williams only giving guy ''side hugs''. You cannot limit the power of your modest to just what you wear. It's also controlled by where you are willing to go with guys, when you go there, and how you act. Being a flirt is invading a guy's personal space or flirts with him issues an unspoken challenge concerning her sexuality. This exhibitionism can be hidden insecurity. Like those girls who can't stop talking about themselves.
She refers back to the Greek Slave which was used as an example in Chapter 1, if you want to go look at the statue again. Click on the link in Chapter 1. Anyway, this statue shows how her inner confidence shines through. Modesty is a great paradox. Although an immodest woman creates insatiable curiosity in a guy, it is the modest girl whose heart is most desires. Modesty is first exhibited through external modesty. Then through, internal modesty. Internal modesty is a girl who doesn't hang all over guys but acknowledges them nonchalantly as she might see another girl and it is also seen in the girl whose morning dress routine helps her reflect God's beauty but does not find her obsessing in front of the mirror. It's seen in the girl who requires the guy to do the pursuing ... in the girl whose conversation revolves more around other people than herself ... in the girl who's obviously more in love with Jesus than the idea of a boyfriend.
So which girl are you?
Point to look at: A girl's modesty is first noted by her external presentation, but if it's not followed by the confidence of inner modesty, she still forfeits the power of her virtue.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Chapter 2 "The Secret" and Chapter 3 "The Mark" Overview
Chapter 2 - "The Secret":
This chapter begins with a quote from Wendy Shalit, who is 20 year old author. She describes how people used to give her advice on dating when she was younger, especially if she was alone and not ''hooking up'' with people on a regular basis.
The question pops up: Is that what God really intended? Was it His plan to have us ''try'' this guy and then that one like you might a new cosmetic line that advertises, "Try us for 30 days free!"? Is it possible that God has something else in mind?
God originally created the woman to complete ... fulfill ... finish a man. Need proof? Genesis 2, God said "it is not good for man to be alone." God was walking and talking with Adam! God could have fulfilled that void that was missing in Adam, but he didn't. Instead, he crafted this masterpiece called WOMAN!
Bill Perkins, an author, said he's asked men on many occasions what the most beautiful sight on earth is and they respond with a"a gorgeous woman." We've been given all the power of the most beautiful masterpiece on Earth, just think about that for a minute! Advertising even attached little sensors to reader's eyeballs to see what makes someone spend time reading an ad, some things had like 1%, 2%, but if a woman was in the ad, it increased the length of time they spent looking at an add from 14 to 30%. That's way more than anything else. Not even good looking men get looked at as much, because even the women look at the women on the page. Why? Because we're beautiful, a beautiful masterpiece.
Author Henry Rogers shows us how powerful our power of beauty is on men by describing a situation. He says that "if it is the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series ... (huge moment for guys) ... and the home team is down by three runs and has two outs with the bases loaded ... (the stakes are getting higher) ... and the home-run king is at the plate ... (now this is a major life moment for guys) ... and suddenly a beautiful woman pulls off her top ... the guys would forget the game! Now, thats some pretty powerful stuff.
Our bodies create quite a stir in guys and can drive a guy crazy. Proverbs 5:18-19 says "rejoice in the wife of your youth ... May you ever be captivated by her love." The word captivated means intoxicated. Just imagine your husband on your wedding night filled with a holy drunken stupor because of you. But there's a catch. The passage says "the wife" which means one woman. The Bible reconfirms countless times that this intoxication should only be shared by one guy ... after you're married. Yes, you could ''have many men'' but God says ''just one.''
Many girls today are not the best ''secret keepers'' with their hip huggers complemented by belly rings, miniskits, matched to high heels, tight shirts to go with tighter pants. Dannah's not telling us we have to cover our bodies from head to toe, she's telling us that fashion is OK. And although, God implores us to be more concerned with our inner beauty than our external beauty, He does provide a consistent theme for appreciating external beauty. There are many examples in the Bible of this. Even the woman of Bible times weren't without the use of fashion of the day. Esther was pampered for twelve months. Fashion, though, was as strange then as it was now. The difference? The culture then knew the power of modesty.
Beauty and fashion aren't condemned by the Christian faith, beauty actually seems synonymous with God's glory. Read Revelation 4:3. Beauty is one of God's greatest expressions, I think that we should strive to express ourselves through beauty, in His image!
Most girls do struggle with feeling ''not beautiful'', like they're too tall or too fat. And most girls that look at fashion magazines end up feeling depressed about their own bodies. But what does God say about us? God looks down on you and is "enthralled by your beauty" (Psalm 45:11). Think about it, God of the Heaven and Earth is enthralled by our beauty, not Miss America's, not Hilary Duff, ours!! Express your unique beautifulness, just be sure to keep the most powerful part of your beauty as a secret for just one mean. God's purpose for us is to express His beauty, and part of it is to ''intoxicate'' one man with that beauty. Dannah tells us at the end to buckle up and be ready to dig deeper.
Point to look at: "God's intended purpose for you as a carefully crafted masterpiece is to ''intoxicate'' one man with the fullest extent of your beauty."
Also, there are Truth and Bare Fashion Tests in which I will be going over with you on Thursday. But if you'd like to get a sneak peek to them, the website is:
http://purefreedom.org/downloads/SKLockerPoster.pdf
It is a download so it might conflict with some of ya'll's computers.
Chapter 3 - "The Mark":
This chapter starts off talking about Miss California Lisa Ryan and when they picked a dress for her that was rather sexy for her crowning. She said she felt a little uncomfortable with it, but then she was intrigued by the power it gave her. She realized, though, that she had crossed the line and that it wasn't what she wanted to be remembered for.
Then, Dannah asks you: How would you define sin? Well Chatta is the Greek and Hebrew name for sin. The Greek meaning for the word is "to miss the mark." If you're an archer, what do you want to hit? The bulls-eye. Well spiritually, the bulls-eye is God's intended purpose for you. This is a basic conception, but think about it, meditate on it. God's not condemning you for your sin, He is saying "do you have any idea the fantastic blessing you just missed? I can't reward you with the prize now, but try again." She then asks you to place the sin that misses the target all together. She's not saying that the sin has to be ''big'' to be a sin. The meaning of chatta doesn't mean "missed the target." It means "missed the mark." You can actually hit the target without hitting the bulls-eye. Gossip is an example of a sin that hits the target but not the bulls-eye, its when we do not willfully sin against God, but instead, we're mirroring the world around us.
She says God doesn't have ''levels'' of sin, but asks us to put sins that hit the target but not the bulls-eye. She, then, asks if we put immodesty. Of course, she's going to fall back on immodesty, after all, its what the book is about! The bulls-eye represents God's intended purpose for your life.
She goes on to talk about the automatic nervous system and how the ANS affects guys, visually. Its usually caused by the environment, its hard for us girls to understand how powerful this sexual attraction is since we are not guys. A guy can just walk past a larger-than-life Victoria's Secret poster and get aroused. The environment controls it. Its very hard for a guy to make a righteous choice when the ANS is activated, and he is completely responsible for his sexual advances. This temptation is even in the strongest Christian guys.
They talked to Max for Superchic about him and his band getting tempted while being on stage performing and girls in skimpy clothing down below him. His solution? To devour in his Bible as soon as he got off stage. These are Christian guys ministering at a Christian event. Most of these girls are causing their Christian brothers to stumble and they have no clue they're doing it.
Corinthians 10:32 says "Do not cause anyone to stumble." And Ephesians 5:3 says "But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." Not a hint of sexual sin. We definitely have a hint of sexual sin when we wear tight T-shirts, short skirts, or low-cut blouses. Missing the mark is dressing immodest, because you can create arousal in many men. Is it just fashion? No, immodesty is sin.
Truth is, the path is narrow, but the gifts are rewarding. Its been even proven that women who wait for sex until marriage have better sex lives. Even USA Today did an article about it called "Revenge of the Church Ladies." Imagine if you save it all for your husband one day. She gives us a bit about taking us farther into the guy's mind in the next chapter.
Point to look at: "Since immodesty creates arousal in many men, it misses the mark of God's intended purpose for you. It's not just fashion. It's sin."
This chapter begins with a quote from Wendy Shalit, who is 20 year old author. She describes how people used to give her advice on dating when she was younger, especially if she was alone and not ''hooking up'' with people on a regular basis.
The question pops up: Is that what God really intended? Was it His plan to have us ''try'' this guy and then that one like you might a new cosmetic line that advertises, "Try us for 30 days free!"? Is it possible that God has something else in mind?
God originally created the woman to complete ... fulfill ... finish a man. Need proof? Genesis 2, God said "it is not good for man to be alone." God was walking and talking with Adam! God could have fulfilled that void that was missing in Adam, but he didn't. Instead, he crafted this masterpiece called WOMAN!
Bill Perkins, an author, said he's asked men on many occasions what the most beautiful sight on earth is and they respond with a"a gorgeous woman." We've been given all the power of the most beautiful masterpiece on Earth, just think about that for a minute! Advertising even attached little sensors to reader's eyeballs to see what makes someone spend time reading an ad, some things had like 1%, 2%, but if a woman was in the ad, it increased the length of time they spent looking at an add from 14 to 30%. That's way more than anything else. Not even good looking men get looked at as much, because even the women look at the women on the page. Why? Because we're beautiful, a beautiful masterpiece.
Author Henry Rogers shows us how powerful our power of beauty is on men by describing a situation. He says that "if it is the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series ... (huge moment for guys) ... and the home team is down by three runs and has two outs with the bases loaded ... (the stakes are getting higher) ... and the home-run king is at the plate ... (now this is a major life moment for guys) ... and suddenly a beautiful woman pulls off her top ... the guys would forget the game! Now, thats some pretty powerful stuff.
Our bodies create quite a stir in guys and can drive a guy crazy. Proverbs 5:18-19 says "rejoice in the wife of your youth ... May you ever be captivated by her love." The word captivated means intoxicated. Just imagine your husband on your wedding night filled with a holy drunken stupor because of you. But there's a catch. The passage says "the wife" which means one woman. The Bible reconfirms countless times that this intoxication should only be shared by one guy ... after you're married. Yes, you could ''have many men'' but God says ''just one.''
Many girls today are not the best ''secret keepers'' with their hip huggers complemented by belly rings, miniskits, matched to high heels, tight shirts to go with tighter pants. Dannah's not telling us we have to cover our bodies from head to toe, she's telling us that fashion is OK. And although, God implores us to be more concerned with our inner beauty than our external beauty, He does provide a consistent theme for appreciating external beauty. There are many examples in the Bible of this. Even the woman of Bible times weren't without the use of fashion of the day. Esther was pampered for twelve months. Fashion, though, was as strange then as it was now. The difference? The culture then knew the power of modesty.
Beauty and fashion aren't condemned by the Christian faith, beauty actually seems synonymous with God's glory. Read Revelation 4:3. Beauty is one of God's greatest expressions, I think that we should strive to express ourselves through beauty, in His image!
Most girls do struggle with feeling ''not beautiful'', like they're too tall or too fat. And most girls that look at fashion magazines end up feeling depressed about their own bodies. But what does God say about us? God looks down on you and is "enthralled by your beauty" (Psalm 45:11). Think about it, God of the Heaven and Earth is enthralled by our beauty, not Miss America's, not Hilary Duff, ours!! Express your unique beautifulness, just be sure to keep the most powerful part of your beauty as a secret for just one mean. God's purpose for us is to express His beauty, and part of it is to ''intoxicate'' one man with that beauty. Dannah tells us at the end to buckle up and be ready to dig deeper.
Point to look at: "God's intended purpose for you as a carefully crafted masterpiece is to ''intoxicate'' one man with the fullest extent of your beauty."
Also, there are Truth and Bare Fashion Tests in which I will be going over with you on Thursday. But if you'd like to get a sneak peek to them, the website is:
http://purefreedom.org/downloads/SKLockerPoster.pdf
It is a download so it might conflict with some of ya'll's computers.
Chapter 3 - "The Mark":
This chapter starts off talking about Miss California Lisa Ryan and when they picked a dress for her that was rather sexy for her crowning. She said she felt a little uncomfortable with it, but then she was intrigued by the power it gave her. She realized, though, that she had crossed the line and that it wasn't what she wanted to be remembered for.
Then, Dannah asks you: How would you define sin? Well Chatta is the Greek and Hebrew name for sin. The Greek meaning for the word is "to miss the mark." If you're an archer, what do you want to hit? The bulls-eye. Well spiritually, the bulls-eye is God's intended purpose for you. This is a basic conception, but think about it, meditate on it. God's not condemning you for your sin, He is saying "do you have any idea the fantastic blessing you just missed? I can't reward you with the prize now, but try again." She then asks you to place the sin that misses the target all together. She's not saying that the sin has to be ''big'' to be a sin. The meaning of chatta doesn't mean "missed the target." It means "missed the mark." You can actually hit the target without hitting the bulls-eye. Gossip is an example of a sin that hits the target but not the bulls-eye, its when we do not willfully sin against God, but instead, we're mirroring the world around us.
She says God doesn't have ''levels'' of sin, but asks us to put sins that hit the target but not the bulls-eye. She, then, asks if we put immodesty. Of course, she's going to fall back on immodesty, after all, its what the book is about! The bulls-eye represents God's intended purpose for your life.
She goes on to talk about the automatic nervous system and how the ANS affects guys, visually. Its usually caused by the environment, its hard for us girls to understand how powerful this sexual attraction is since we are not guys. A guy can just walk past a larger-than-life Victoria's Secret poster and get aroused. The environment controls it. Its very hard for a guy to make a righteous choice when the ANS is activated, and he is completely responsible for his sexual advances. This temptation is even in the strongest Christian guys.
They talked to Max for Superchic about him and his band getting tempted while being on stage performing and girls in skimpy clothing down below him. His solution? To devour in his Bible as soon as he got off stage. These are Christian guys ministering at a Christian event. Most of these girls are causing their Christian brothers to stumble and they have no clue they're doing it.
Corinthians 10:32 says "Do not cause anyone to stumble." And Ephesians 5:3 says "But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." Not a hint of sexual sin. We definitely have a hint of sexual sin when we wear tight T-shirts, short skirts, or low-cut blouses. Missing the mark is dressing immodest, because you can create arousal in many men. Is it just fashion? No, immodesty is sin.
Truth is, the path is narrow, but the gifts are rewarding. Its been even proven that women who wait for sex until marriage have better sex lives. Even USA Today did an article about it called "Revenge of the Church Ladies." Imagine if you save it all for your husband one day. She gives us a bit about taking us farther into the guy's mind in the next chapter.
Point to look at: "Since immodesty creates arousal in many men, it misses the mark of God's intended purpose for you. It's not just fashion. It's sin."
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Secret Keepers: The Delicate Power of Modesty Chapter 1
Chapter Overview:
At the beginning of this chapter, Dannah Gresh talks to this girl who had recently struggled with being overweight and she lost a lot of weight. She talked about how after she had lost weight, she feels a "power" in dressing sexy and attracting guys. This "power" that she is talking about is somewhat sexuality, but its even more unique in girls and/or young ladies. If we tried to describe this power, it would be limited, because this ''power'' is multidimensional.
The "power" is allure. Its a power both men and women are attracted to, but more so men. So in this chapter, she begins to explain the power of allure. The source of this power? Where does it come from? Modesty. Modesty is described as a "delicate yet formidable" power. Its delicate because it can be innocently given away without you even knowing it, and its formidable (hard to deal with) because once you have mastered the power of modesty, no man will be given access to the full secrets until YOU desire.
They give you an example of a girl named Jen Knapp who dresses modestly at her concerts. Check her out at this website: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=35543655
Tim Allen (yes, from Tool Time) describes the first time he noticed a woman's body and he said "I realized for the first time that, dumb as it sounds, all women are naked under their clothes .. they have this power and I didn't even know it." Dannah Gresh points out how this power is intriguing and untapped. She says that she's going to give us insight to how to obtain this power and not that she is going to answer all our questions, but she is putting the knowledge on the table and the way we use the knowledge is between us and God.
She begins to put our feelings on the table by asking us "are you reluctant to read this?" She said that she was not excited to write about modesty as I was not excited to teach on this matter. Modesty is not something that you learn about everyday and when Mr. Mickens told me that this was laid on his heart, I began somewhat frustrated as Dannah Gresh had when she was asked to write about it. She mainly confessed she did not want "her wardrobe rocked."
She began asking questions like:
"If so many parents of today are troubled by belly rings and tongue rings, how do they explain that Isaac's gift to Rebekah was a nose ring and that during Bible times a pierced nose was a sign of royalty?"
"It seems to me that a lot of Christians aren't just dissing the immodest fashions, but fashion in general. So why does the Bible actually seem to encourage us to dress well? Scripture has many verses encouraging us to present ourselves beautifully."
"If modesty is such a big deal, why doesn't the Bible talk about it more? It's only directly referenced four times."
Her biggest question was:
"If immodesty is such a problem, why aren't any of the great Christian leaders of today tackling it with more good ideas and information?"
She was ready to throw the towel in and say "I'll wear what I want!" And she started to hear some feedback from teen girls with questions such as:
"Why can't I wear what everyone else is wearing?"
"Aren't you just hung up on your old sense of fashion? Things change!"
"Why are my parents so hung up on this thing? They just don't get it!"
"Isn't it really the guy's problem? To me, its just fashion!"
These are all questions that Dannah is presented with a lot and she does not promise to answer all of our difficult questions, but she said just by writing this she has changed her perception of modesty. She believes that modesty is no longer envisioned as "some crabby old lady buttoned up to her chin in lace pointing her finger at you." Her example of modesty was a statue carved in 1846 called the Greek Slave by Hiram Powers. She hopes that we discover the beauty of modesty and the power of it.
Picture of the statue: http://encarta.msn.com/media_461523401/Greek_Slave.html
Point to look at: Modesty is a delicate yet formidable power that God has given you!
At the beginning of this chapter, Dannah Gresh talks to this girl who had recently struggled with being overweight and she lost a lot of weight. She talked about how after she had lost weight, she feels a "power" in dressing sexy and attracting guys. This "power" that she is talking about is somewhat sexuality, but its even more unique in girls and/or young ladies. If we tried to describe this power, it would be limited, because this ''power'' is multidimensional.
The "power" is allure. Its a power both men and women are attracted to, but more so men. So in this chapter, she begins to explain the power of allure. The source of this power? Where does it come from? Modesty. Modesty is described as a "delicate yet formidable" power. Its delicate because it can be innocently given away without you even knowing it, and its formidable (hard to deal with) because once you have mastered the power of modesty, no man will be given access to the full secrets until YOU desire.
They give you an example of a girl named Jen Knapp who dresses modestly at her concerts. Check her out at this website: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=35543655
Tim Allen (yes, from Tool Time) describes the first time he noticed a woman's body and he said "I realized for the first time that, dumb as it sounds, all women are naked under their clothes .. they have this power and I didn't even know it." Dannah Gresh points out how this power is intriguing and untapped. She says that she's going to give us insight to how to obtain this power and not that she is going to answer all our questions, but she is putting the knowledge on the table and the way we use the knowledge is between us and God.
She begins to put our feelings on the table by asking us "are you reluctant to read this?" She said that she was not excited to write about modesty as I was not excited to teach on this matter. Modesty is not something that you learn about everyday and when Mr. Mickens told me that this was laid on his heart, I began somewhat frustrated as Dannah Gresh had when she was asked to write about it. She mainly confessed she did not want "her wardrobe rocked."
She began asking questions like:
"If so many parents of today are troubled by belly rings and tongue rings, how do they explain that Isaac's gift to Rebekah was a nose ring and that during Bible times a pierced nose was a sign of royalty?"
"It seems to me that a lot of Christians aren't just dissing the immodest fashions, but fashion in general. So why does the Bible actually seem to encourage us to dress well? Scripture has many verses encouraging us to present ourselves beautifully."
"If modesty is such a big deal, why doesn't the Bible talk about it more? It's only directly referenced four times."
Her biggest question was:
"If immodesty is such a problem, why aren't any of the great Christian leaders of today tackling it with more good ideas and information?"
She was ready to throw the towel in and say "I'll wear what I want!" And she started to hear some feedback from teen girls with questions such as:
"Why can't I wear what everyone else is wearing?"
"Aren't you just hung up on your old sense of fashion? Things change!"
"Why are my parents so hung up on this thing? They just don't get it!"
"Isn't it really the guy's problem? To me, its just fashion!"
These are all questions that Dannah is presented with a lot and she does not promise to answer all of our difficult questions, but she said just by writing this she has changed her perception of modesty. She believes that modesty is no longer envisioned as "some crabby old lady buttoned up to her chin in lace pointing her finger at you." Her example of modesty was a statue carved in 1846 called the Greek Slave by Hiram Powers. She hopes that we discover the beauty of modesty and the power of it.
Picture of the statue: http://encarta.msn.com/media_461523401/Greek_Slave.html
Point to look at: Modesty is a delicate yet formidable power that God has given you!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Starting Out
Mr. Mickens and I (Nicole) started this blog out a few days ago. I've been praying about this Girl's Bible Study and hopefully as soon as the Secret Keeper book gets in, we will get started. Heather Buckner is also helping me with this site and with the Bible Study. So, if you have any questions, comment on here and we will get back to you. I'm so fired up for God and I hope all you girls out there are too. God's getting ready to change this school, and I'm so excited to be a part of a revolution!! So let's get ready to get into His word and to learn how He wants us to live our lives!! (:
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