Church - For Our Own Good

 Since we had the intrusion of a miniature "snowmageddon" yesterday we had to go virtual for the third week in a row. While none of us wanted this, it was definitely necessary because the roads got bad last night! I'm usually not too worried about driving in the snow because there was one winter when I was in college that I had to drive home in the middle of a blizzard. An experience like that hardens you, and while last night's snow didn't compare to that blizzard, I also recognize that there is always potential for accidents on the road. The real issue isn't even my driving skills (or those of your parents), but the other drivers on the road. I could be the very best driver in the world and still have to worry because there are other drivers out there who have no business having a driver's license. So anyway, we went virtual last night.

We tried out a new game (I say new, but really it's an oldy) - Scattergories. There is a website that lets you set up a game for free and invite friends, so we gave it a shot. I realized that I am not so good at coming up with words on the spot, but I think we had fun seeing what everyone did come up with. We had a surprising underdog win from one of our middle school students, who I will refer to as Hummingbird.

We had a special guest speaker, our church's very own Serminator, who brought a message on "Why We Go to Church". He opened with a story about his days as a youth pastor and his experience with a foreign car. Evidently, this car had a manual transmission (which meant he had to manually shift the gears, using the clutch). The hydraulic system in the car contained a little message - "Use Castrol Girling Green Only". Apparently, it was common practice for manufacturers to include little advertisements for products in the car, so he assumed this was the case. Well, every six months or so the hydraulic system would break down and he would have to go to a mechanic and get it fixed. And every time, the mechanic would look at it and need to replace the entire system (which was pricey). When the Serminator moved to Denver to attend Denver Theological Seminary, this happened again. But this time, he had very little money and couldn't afford to take it to a shop, so instead he decided to try and fix it himself. He went to a shop to scope out the parts he would need and described his problem to the clerk, who handed him a small plug in a plastic bag. "That's all you'll need," the guy said, and then pulled out a big canister of hydraulic fluid. "You can refill the reservoir with this, too." And guess what the canister said - "Castrol Girling Green". "If you use anything else, you'll have the same problem in about six months." Evidently, that label had been there for his own good, and he had ignored it, causing this recurring problem that he had to deal with every 6 months.

According to the Serminator, church is very much the same way. It is there for our own good. He had us look to a passage in the Old Testament of the Bible, Deuteronomy 10:12-13 - "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?" He broke it down for us in 5 parts:

1. Fear the Lord. This is not the same as being afraid of the dark or swimming in the ocean. Instead, it means to have a deep respect for God and to worship Him as the Lord.

2. Walk in obedience to Him. There is a sense of togetherness that comes from following God and aligning ourselves to His path. Just like going on a hike with others, walking in obedience to God builds us up as a community. It is where we can experience fellowship.

3. Love Him. Obedience to God, walking in His ways, is not a checklist for the Christian to check off. Christianity is not about rule-keeping. Instead, it is a relationship with God. There is give and take, and personal intimacy to be found with the Creator of the universe.

4. Serve the Lord. We have a responsibility (as well as the great opportunity) to work alongside God and help His people as well as others. There is stewardship involved in our faith. God has entrusted us with the responsibility to working to further His Kingdom and spread the message of His Gospel to others.

5. Observe His commands. This is discipleship. A disciple listens to and obeys the commands of the master/teacher. The disciple also carries the responsibility of discipling others - teaching them to obey the commands of God. There is a passing on of knowledge and faith.

All of these things in Deuteronomy are there for our own good. They will help us. Worship keeps our attention on God, fellowship allows us to have community and be encouraged, the relationship we have with God strengthens us in our faith and keeps us close to God, stewardship allows us to express our faith and love to others, and discipleship gives us opportunity to invest in others as we keep the commands of God.

We "go to church" for several reasons. For one thing, it meets the expectations of God. He expects us to gather together as believers regularly. As Christians, we base our lives on the Word of God, and church is one of the places where we study and learn about what God has to say in the Bible. Interestingly, the Bible tells us to meet together regularly, which would include going to church.

And finally, we go to church for our own good. The Serminator shared an illustration that many of us have recent memories of - a fire pit. For those of you who joined us when we met outside for the first part of the Fall, we had a fire pit almost every Wednesday. Well, he had us imagine that we took tongs and removed one of the logs from the fire and placed it on the ground. At first, it would continue to burn brightly. But, over time, the log would go out, becoming dark and cold. Now, imagine what would happen if you took that dark, cold log and put it back in the fire? Naturally, it would be rekindled, and begin to burn brightly again. The Christian life is very much like this. When we are regularly attending church and meeting together, our faith is strengthened and encouraged and we "burn brightly". However, when we stop meeting together and try to do it on our own, our fire begins to fade. Our faith wavers and we struggle to remain close to God. God never intended for us to "go it alone" in our faith. We are meant to meet regularly together and worship, have fellowship, build relationships, engage in our stewardship, and train in discipleship. The church offers all of this. It is the complete package, and not just another item on the Christian checklist.

Church is there for our own good. 

As Hebrews 10:25 advises all Christians, do not give "up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Prayer - What Does It Do, Exactly?

 So last night we were once again meeting virtually. Technically the wife and I were cleared from the 'rona, but I had asked the Prayer Warrior to share the message and she wasn't going to be able to meet with us in-person. So, we kept it virtual. Had a great time with a little scavenger hunt, and found out Changa has some fast hands. Honestly, I hadn't even finished saying what the item was before he had it on screen.

Well, as you can imagine from the title of this here post, the Prayer Warrior (I suppose her nickname gives it away, too) shared a message on prayer. She opened by sharing that she loves to pray (hence the nickname) and that she usually goes to bed praying through different requests from people which she writes on 3 x 5 cards. She flips through them, praying, until she falls asleep. She shared that she prays through Isaiah 41:10 every night - "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

One of the main points from this message is this: God answers prayer. If you do not believe this, write down your prayers - whether it be on your phone, on a notecard, or in a notebook. Make sure that it is somewhere you can go back to and look at. Then, as you continue to pray over those things, write down whenever God answers those prayers. You see, what usually happens is we will pray over a situation or a request and then forget about it. We never go back and thank God for answering, so we often don't feel like He does. But, He does. He answers prayer. And taking notes can help us to keep track of that and to see that.

What I just wrote above is the practical application from this message, so if nothing else, give it a try. Below are some biblical examples of God answering prayer, as well as an explanation for what prayer can do.

Luke 18:1-7

Here is a woman who demonstrated persistence in her request. She begged and begged and wouldn't stop until the unjust judge gave in to what she wanted. God is not like this unjust judge, He actually wants to work with us and help us (and He wants us to work with Him and help Him). But the point we can take away from this passage is that prayer is not a "one and done" thing. We don't just pray for something once and hope for the best. We should be like the woman and continue to pray, over and over, until God answers. What this does is it draws us to God often (since we are praying more) and then when He does answer, we are more aware of His presence and action in our lives.

2 Kings 20:1-11

In this passage it almost seems like God changes His mind because of prayer. This is not exactly what happens. Instead, what happens is that God tests the king's faith, and the king responds by crying out to God. As the Prayer Warrior put it last night, "The Lord graciously favors those who faithfully seek and serve Him". Prayer can attune us to God in a way that nothing else can, and God answers those who turn to Him. He may not always give us the answer we want, but that does not mean He does not answer at all.

Nehemiah 1:11-2:5

In this passage we see Nehemiah praying in the midst of a very stressful situation. He prays beforehand, and he prays again in the middle of the situation, and God answered. How many times do we cry out to God in the middle of a stressful situation? Probably a lot less often than we should. Instead, we try to handle it on our own, which doesn't always work out for us. We should follow Nehemiah's example to pray when get put in a tough spot. God is always listening, and He will hear you.

Hebrews 11:6 - "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

The Prayer Warrior pulled out a Russian Nesting Doll as an illustration. They are those dolls that have one big one, then another slightly smaller one inside, then another even smaller one inside of that one, and so on until you get to this really tiny doll in the middle. Well, the point of the illustration is that some people have really big faith, while other people have really small faith. The size of your faith DOESN'T MATTER, as long as you HAVE faith. We just need a little faith, and then as we pray and God answers, our faith begins to grow. The important thing is to pray believing that God will answer.

Mark 14:35-36

What is interesting here is that Jesus, who we know to be God, is praying to God to change His mind. He expresses in this passage a desire to not have to die on the cross. Well, we know that God said no to this part of His prayer, because Jesus did go and die on the cross. However, God did answer the last part, because Jesus said "not my will, but yours be done". Jesus recognized that the human part of him, the part that didn't want to go suffer and die on the cross, was going against what God wanted, and so His prayer was for God's will to be done, no matter what.

God is not a vending machine. We don't put in payer and get what we want in return. Prayer is a conversation, and God often uses it to help us understand (and come to terms with) His will for our lives. Prayer can help us to see what God wants us to do. He gives us direction through prayer.

Romans 8:28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

The Prayer Warrior shared a story she had heard from some college friends who had gone to Spain. There was a day where rain loomed on the horizon, but hadn't started to fall yet. One of the friends was out at the store and prayed to God that it wouldn't rain until she got home. The other friend was with her host family and was praying for rain. So we have two different people praying for opposite things - one for it not to rain and the other for it to rain - and God answered BOTH. He made it rain, but until after the first one had gotten home. We can trust God to work for our good, and we should always look to Him in prayer in all things.

A final note is that prayer doesn't change God. Prayer changes us. It engages us in conversation with the all-powerful God of the universe, and helps us to see things from His perspective. It also helps us to see how much He cares for us when we go back and remember how He has answered our prayers in the past. And, this builds our faith. Prayer is not important for the Christian, it is ESSENTIAL.

A Message to the Silent Sufferers Out There

 How many of you would describe yourself as "suffering"?

To be honest, everyone is suffering. We could be living in perfection with God, but because of sin we are stuck in this broken world for the time being where there is pain, loss, heartache, and suffering. Now sure, some people are suffering WAY MORE than other people, but at the end of the day we each have our own struggles in life. Some of you reading this are struggling with constant self-doubt or anxiety. Some of you are struggling with traumatic experiences, abuse, or difficult family members. Some of you struggle with feeling like you just don't belong. Some of you are struggling with a general sense of hopelessness, worthlessness, or depression. Some of you probably just feel empty inside most of the time, unloved, unwanted, or unappreciated. Each of these things is a form of suffering in our lives.

The apostle Paul, the guy we talk about a lot who followed Jesus and wrote a lot of the New Testament in the Bible, knew A LOT about suffering - physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. This guy was beaten, stoned (and not the drug kind), left for dead, flogged, imprisoned, shipwrecked, bitten by venomous snakes, falsely accused, slandered, rejected, hated, and he struggled daily with a broken heart for the lost people of the world who needed Jesus in their lives. He knew what it meant to truly suffer. Now listen to what he has to say to some fellow Christians:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God." -Romans 8:18-27

So Paul considers our present sufferings - everything we are going through right now and everything we will ever go through - as not even worth comparing with the glory that is to come for us. Basically, he is saying that what God is going to do in the future (and the life that we are going to have in Heaven) is going to be SO GOOD and awesome that there is just no comparison to be made with what we're going through right now. It would be like trying to compare a marble to the actual sun. It would be like comparing a 1st grader's drawing of the earth with the actual earth. It would be like comparing my arms to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's arms. There is no comparison.

And Paul is assuring you (yes, YOU) that no matter what you are going through right now, whether it be emptiness, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, trauma, or abuse, God is going to do something infinitely greater in your future. Paul is assuring you that there is hope of something better. And as we wait for that something better, he also reminds us that we can connect with God, and talk to Him, now. In the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our struggle, God is right there with us and we can connect with Him through prayer.

On this idea of intercession, I want you to picture in your mind that you are in an old western movie and you are stuck in a duel against the best sharpshooter in the west. The road is dusty, the doors to the saloon are swinging, one of those bush things blows across the road between you and this cowboy. Now, not only is this guy the best sharpshooter in the west, but you realize that the gun in your holster is just a water pistol. Even worse, its empty. You have an empty water pistol against his fully loaded Colt .45. Your knees are shaking, your hands are sweaty, and you have no idea what you are doing. The bell is about to ding, the duel about to start, and you are about to be dead. Then suddenly, someone jumps out between you and the cowboy, hands raised in that universal sign for "Stand down". This person talks to the cowboy and manages to get you out of the duel (and out of certain death). This person got between you and the cowboy and worked something out. THAT is what it means to intercede for someone. And that is what it means for the Holy Spirit to be interceding for us.

In our relationship with God, and in most of our prayer times, we are that lost, shaky, sweaty duelist with an empty water pistol - we have no clue what we should be praying about or saying to God. The Holy Spirit steps in-between us and God and shares with God what is really on our hearts, what our real needs are, and how we really feel. He is the go-between.

Do you want to know the real reason why we see so much suffering in the world and in our lives? It is because as humans, we are designed with a God-shaped hole in our hearts. And if you have ever seen that shape game that babies play with (you know, the one with the circle, the square, and the triangle), only God can fill that God-shaped hole. I have this hole in my heart, my wife has it in her heart, and each of you has it in your heart. And there are times in my life (probably more than I would like to admit) when I try to fill that hole with stuff other than God - videogames, sleep, food, music, stories, Netflix, memes, and even cleaning. This is like when that baby tries to put the triangle in the circle space. It just doesn't fit or fill the space. I only feel filled when I turn back to God and spend time with Him in prayer. He reminds me of who I am, and how much He loves me, and as Paul wrote, He reminds me of the glory that awaits me in the future. He fills me with hope. He fills the hole in my heart.

And for some of you, I know that praying can be awkward, and you don't always know what to say or what to pray about, but the reminder here is that we have the Holy Spirit as our go-between. When we don't know what to say, He says it for us. When we feel awkward, God fills the silence for us, and He fills that God-shaped hole in our lives.

So if you are out there right and you are suffering, turn to God. Cry out to Him and share your hurt, your suffering, with Him. Let Him remind you of who you are to Him (His child) and how much He loves you. Let Him fill you with hope as He points to the future and whispers in your ear "One day you won't feel like this anymore. One day I will wipe away all the tears and suffering." In the meantime, let us spend our time in prayer and eagerly await the glory He has in store for us.

Isn't the Bible Just a Dusty Old Book?

 We opened up this message time by "writing" a story together. One student started the story with a single sentence, and then each student after that continued the story by adding one more sentence. I do not remember all of the details, but our story centered on a man named Bob who went to the grocery store. He ran over his son, who survived the hit but then was finished off by Bob with a knife. At first, he was conflicted about killing his son, then we wasn't conflicted at all, then he fled the scene into the woods, evaded the police, and ended up being declared a hero and got a parade somehow at the end of it all. It was a bizarre story with lots of sudden twists and turns, changes in motivation, and abrupt transitions. In total, there were twenty authors of this story, and it was written over a period of about 5 minutes.

Well, tonight we are talking about the Bible (in case you couldn't tell from the title). The Bible is the foundation of our knowledge about God, Jesus, and us. Without it, we would knew very little specifics about who God is and what He wants with us. Christianity teaches that the Bible is our source of absolute truth, and that we should base every aspect of our lives on what it says. That's a pretty bold teaching.

The problem that many people have with this is that they don't trust that the Bible is true. Some people think it is outdated, some think it is full of lies and mistakes, and some just don't like what it has to say. Well, I want to share with you some reasons why we can trust the Bible, to help you understand why we put so much trust in it and why we always refer to it for truth.

Firstly, let's see what the Bible has to say about itself.

John 17:17 - "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."

Luke 21:33 - "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

2 Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."

Isaiah 40:8 - "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God will stand forever."

Psalm 119:105 - "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

It claims to be true, that it will last forever, that it is breathed out by God and has many uses, and guides people on the right path. You know, our little story about Bob had 20 different authors and was written in a very short amount of time, and it had a lot of issues and consistency problems. The Bible, on the other hand, was written by over 40 different authors over a period of about 1,500 years. That's as if someone had started writing back in 520 AD and we just finished it now. Despite this large amount of time and variety of authors, the Bible has a very consistent message all the way through. It shares the story of how God made the world and interacted within it to bring about salvation through Jesus Christ, and it even contains a message concerning what God is going to do in the future.

There are around 2,500 prophecies in the Bible, and about 2,000 of them have already come true. The odds of this happening is less than one in 10²⁰⁰⁰ (that's a one with 2,000 "0"s after it). The closest named number to this is Septingentillion. Another way to think about the size of this number would be write a "1" on a page, and then add "0"s until your hand was too tired to write anymore. It is an impossible number. This is one of the reasons why we trust the Bible so much as Christians, because it is literally impossible for this many prophecies about the future to have come true, UNLESS there was a God directing it all.

Another reason we trust it is simply its perseverance. Honestly, no other book has received so much hate and opposition. The Bible has proven to be indestructible. Over the last 2,000 years many attempts have been made to completely wipe out and destroy the Bible, and they all failed. There was one a Roman emperor who made a decree to the people that if they found a Bible, they had to burn it, and if they found someone in possession of a Bible, they had to kill them. By the end of his reign as emperor, he had killed so many Christians and burned so many Bible that he was convinced that he had rendered them extinct. And yet, only a few emperors later, Christianity was made the national religion. So much for destroying them all. Despite all of the persecution, God's Word lasted through it all, just like it claimed it would.

Science supports the Bible, archaeology supports the Bible, and even history supports the Bible! Every new discovery we have made in the scientific world has shown the Bible to be correct, not false. The Bible declared the earth was round long before Galileo. The Bible knew about ocean currents long before Matthew Maury discovered continental currents. The Bible even described the water cycle 1,500 years before modern science had figured it out.

These are all only a few of the many supporting factors which show us that the Bible is true and can be trusted. While many have tried to disprove the Bible, no one has succeeded in all these years.

This year we have already talked about the evidence for God and why we should believe in Him. Well, if God is real, then it is not hard to believe that He has been actively protecting and guiding the Bible all these years so that we could have a trustworthy source of truth. The Bible claims to be true, and all of the outside evidence supports that claim.

So, if the Bible is written by God and we can trust that what it says is true, then what does that mean for us now? The Bible has a lot to offer - it reveals who God is, it tells the story of our world and God's plan for the future, and it shows us how God wants us to live. The Bible should be our source of what is true, not our culture, not our friends, and not even modern science. When in doubt, we can turn to the Bible first and use it as our foundation for what is true. This way, when the world comes along and tries to tell us that it is okay to have sex with whomever we want outside of marriage, or that racism is okay, or that murder is good sometimes, or that money is all you need in life, we can look to the Bible and know that the world is wrong. Our culture is not always (or usually) right, the Bible is.

God has given us a trustworthy book that is full of knowledge about Him and what He wants for us. He has given us countless proofs that what it says is true, so that we will trust it no matter what. Most of you reading this right now probably haven't even read most of this book, and that needs to change. How can we claim to know and love God when we ignore the book He wrote for us?

Many of you probably also have a couple of ideas about how the world works and what is true that does not line up with what the Bible says. The challenge for you is to read the Bible, and change how you think to fit the truth. The Bible isn't just some dusty old book, it is a book full of life and truth, and through it we learn about Jesus and the salvation of our souls. It is the most important book we could ever read, and reading it is essential to being a Christian. So, read it. Know what God says in it. Hear what He has to say to you through it. Be transformed by His Words. One day, every one of us will die, but the Word of God will last forever.

Why Should God Care What I Wear?

 Hey gang, so for those of you who were at Summit this night, you may still be having some nightmares about the examples I used of what was inappropriate for us to be wearing at Summit. For those of you who weren't able to be there, let's just say I modelled for the examples, and a crop top was involved...

The main topic of the evening was "Modesty". Well, what is modesty? My definition is "everything in moderation", "not too much and not too little", "not too flashy and not too skimpy", in terms of what we wear, just the right amount of clothing.

Where did clothes come from, anyway? This may surprise you, but the Bible actually tells us EXACTLY where clothes originally came from! Check out Genesis 2:25, Genesis 3:7, as well as verse 21: "Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them."

For context, the first verse there described Adam and Eve before they sinned and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were naked and unashamed. It didn't bother them or God that they were naked, and they didn't need clothes at all. Take note of this - the human body was not meant to be clothed, originally. HOWEVER, before you go joining a nudist colony, it is important to note the other verses there. These are immediately after Adam and Eve sin. With sin involved, now they are ashamed of being naked, and it bothers them. That's right, sin ruined nakedness. The need for modesty is a direct result of sin - disobedience to God. So, they first tried to clothe themselves, but evidently didn't do a very good job because later God makes proper clothes for them. You heard that correctly, God invented clothes.

But what's the big deal? As long as we are wearing something we should be good, right? Wrong. Check out what Paul says to the church in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies."

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. Basically, each one of us is like a living, breathing, moving temple for God. You know how temples are usually considered to be very sacred, holy places? Well, that's our body, now. Our body is a very sacred, holy place, so we should be looking to honor God with how we dress our bodies.

Now, in those verses Paul was warning the church about sexual immorality, and the dangers of it. Jesus gives us a little more to think about: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:27-30) I remember as I was sharing this, one of you asked me if I would actually cut off my hand or gouge out my eye. I answered that if God came down and told me to, yes, I would. However, I should clarify that in this passage Jesus is making a point. He is saying that sin goes deeper than just what we do - it is also about what's in our thoughts and in our hearts. Just looking at someone in a lustful way is really bad and can get us into serious trouble. So, Jesus warns us to take every precaution, to do whatever we must to safeguard ourselves against sinful desires and actions.

Clearly, God takes purity very seriously. If just looking at someone can become a problem, then we have to be careful about where we look. Guys, that means not ogling (staring inappropriately) girls or turning them into objects of desire. Girls, that means not ogling guys (even the cute ones on TV) or treating them as objects of desire. And for both sides, it means doing our best to look presentable and to not wear clothes which reveal more than is necessary.

What this means is that as living temples of God, we have to be careful where we look AND we have to be careful about what we choose to wear.

Let me ask, why do we wear revealing clothing? Sure, in the summer there is the practical side of it being more comfortable in the heat. But if we're honest? We wear revealing clothes because we want people to look at us. We want compliments. We want attention, even it draws people's attention to inappropriate places. And that is not okay. People should be drawn to us by our good deeds, our good character, our love and care for others. They should not be drawn to us because of how much skin we show, or how big our muscles are. People should see our actions, not our skin.

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul calls us "living sacrifices" who should not "conform to the pattern of this world". Some students in the past have argued that our modesty policy just doesn't fit with the fashion trends now (just think about our swimsuit policy for summer camp). I am here to tell you that that's not even the point. We should not be conforming to the pattern of this world - just going with whatever the fashion trend is - but should instead be offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God and living the way He wants us to live. That includes how we dress.

Guys and gals, the need for dressing modestly is a result of sin. As long as sin still exists, we will need to be on guard about this stuff. Rather than trying to draw people's attention with how we look, we should be drawing people's attention with how we act and how we treat people (with love and respect). This is what honors God and is a demonstration of our commitment to Him as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Modesty means not looking where we shouldn't be looking, and it means not dressing in a way that draws people's attention to places where they shouldn't be looking. My prayer for all of you is that you will take on the biblical perspective and begin to treat your bodies with the honor and respect they deserve as temples of God.