Modesty

If that's so, there's a lot of adulterous women around here... We better get Gregory some blinders... :laugh: :laugh:

 

For some men it doesn't matter what a woman is wearing. If being covered in long flowing robes with hair covered was modest and kept men from lusting the reproduction muslims would have is converts. Apparently it ain't working for them either (covering up). Means to me, men have some repsonsability and don't want to accept it, but would rather place the blame.

 

I agree Donna, that's why Jesus said if your eye offends you, pluck it out...

 

Blind people do not notice such things. We notice what we choose to focus on.

 

Sadly many men must have gotten "turned on" (pardon the phrase) by looking at the ankles of women in the Victorian Age. That was the standard of modesty then. If you ankles showed you were immodest and should have blushed for being so.

 

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I share in this struggle also, and it's almost as if I had written your note. It has lessened greatly, but comes back easily. The only focus I place on it is to pray about it when I remember, or become weak. I thank god he has chosen to lessen the struggle.
I allow myself grace, and accept it as a struggle everyone has. My life is altered because of it. I avoid most swimming situations, have a tv with no antenna (for pre-screned movies) shop at only certain stores which do not carry racy magazines at the checkouts, and sometimes must take a break from the internet because I have a desire to see what is not right. I am considering moving my office to a location where a few christian men work. I can't watch other men watch my wife for longer than a few seconds (as one poster suggested I do) because I could enjoy it. I can loose footing easily, like most men.

Those women who dress immodestly at church maybe are struggling too, and you can't blame them as we know how they feel right? Maybe send an anonymous letter to them telling them of your struggle and request they dress moderately. If it's worded in love, I bet you could see a change in their attire.
Don't let Satan make you feel guilty when these normal desires take over, though they are wrong, you didn't ask for them even if you entertain them at times.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by DHK
Sadly many men must have gotten "turned on" (pardon the phrase) by looking at the ankles of women in the Victorian Age. That was the standard of modesty then. If you ankles showed you were immodest and should have blushed for being so.
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Interesting that someone should raise the Victorian era, where women wore dresses to their ankles, and exposed their bosoms much like the women of to-day..oh Victorian sleeves also went down to the wrists, and they had a "bottom" poppers, the type of corset that expanded their backsides...such was the Victorian era.

Cheers,

Jim

 

If I have a heart that tends toward lust, and if the ladies at church start covering everything like they ought to, then - well, I still have a heart that tends toward lust. Isn't that the real issue here? What should I do about that?

 

I wouldn't be too tough on them, they let you go to a Halloween party. We celebrate "All Saints Day" on that occasion.

You are totally changed in your relationship with God. He has completely accepted you as you are because of your faith in his son. The perfection you have at this time, is not your perfection per se. It is the perfection of Christ that is not in you. You are now a babe and as such must drink milk and begin learning the "ways of righteousness". You will still struggle with the carnal man. Some fights you will win and some you will loose. Don't worry about it, as time goes on, if you continue earnestly in the faith, you will notice you begin to win more than you loose.

I think we preachers cause problems when we say things like, "I looked at my hands and my hands looked new." That is not an overnight night change and it doesn't stop or complete till death.

Because you are willing to acknowledge and confess your sin, you are well on the road to prosperity. Not worldy prosperity, spiritual prosperity which contains things that have no rust and will not corrupt, you are laying up treasures in Heaven. Stay in the faith my Brother, you'll hear him say "Well Done".

 

Pluck out your eye... :laugh: :laugh: :wavey:

Matthew 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Not literally but there are spiritual ways to pluck out ones eyes. You are on the road for the first step is confession. Take a page from David's book regarding lust in the heart.

Psalms 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 

gerald, first, you haven't shown me to be wrong.
second, I haven't attacked anyone.

Is this what you called an attack?

I asked a question based on your previous statement,
I said this because you said this

Then you turn around and give completely different testimony

So which statement is true, were you complete as the moment of salvation, or did it happen over time? Both can not be true. Your whole post supports my statement.
As far as I see, there are men who refuse to take responsibility for their own heart condition, God in us makes changes in us, this He can deal with if we are honest, and seek His help. Blaming others is not seeking His help. You remember Adam blamed the woman God gave him, where as God said Adam was responsible for his own sin. The bible says everyman will give an account for himself.

 

"Wa-yall, now thet 'che meenshun it!", speakin' of "modesty", and kinda' thinking it might be a good idea to go back to the source, I looked this (modesty) up in my trustworthy 'falling apart at the seams' Strong's, Thayer's, and Wigram's, and guess what I found. The word "modesty" never once occurs in the KJV, the RV or the ASV. Not twenty times; not ten times; not five times; not two times; not even one time.

So I looked a bit further. I tried "modest". I did manage to find this word once in I Tim. 2:9, for a grand total of one time, as an adjective, and modifying 'apparel'. I also found this same Greek word ("κοσμιος" - transliterated 'kosmios') rendered another way ("of good behaviour" - also an adjectival phrase) in II Tim. 3:2. The word itself basically carries the force of "decorous, from decorum" according to Thayer and Wigram.

"Eb'deuh, 'eb'deuh, That's all, folks!" as Porky Pig would say. That is the grand total of the usages of the root word "modest" in Scripture. Two times; one book! Paul's first 'Pastoral Epistle' to Timothy.

I emboldened the above words, to show that one of the uses is, in effect, a command, and one is a desire, as these do fairly well convey the force of the Greek in these renderings. It is "trying to make the text say something that it does not say", IMO, to imply that this is commanded throughout the Scriptures, for one thing, and it is also adding force that the Scripture writers did not seem to present, at least in these words, for another. The one that is the 'command' applies to the 'Preacher Man', as I see it.

I also find it interesting that of well over 150 posts on this thread, I have not seen one that 'advocates' "immodesty", much less immorality. But I have seen, and joined those who have decried the attempt to become the self-appointed "Clothing Cop" and Morality and Modesty Judge of the Fashion Police.

I admit being somewhat curious as to why this is so prominent in your posts, and perhap could wonder if it is reflecting something of yourself. It certainly seems that the issues of what are or are not proper clothing are getting a great deal of your attention.
To paraphrase the late William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, "The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks!"

Ed

 

Well you know Ed, sometimes the easiest way to deal with one's own sin is to blame it on someone else! Adam was only the first to go that route.

 

Well said.

"It 'uz that 'durned' woman there, LORD! It's all her fault!"

Ed

 

Removed by me...

 

I guess us guys stick together then... :thumbs: :wavey: :thumbs:

1 Tim 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.