Praise the Youth on this Board

I love the youth and I really want God's best for them but that doesn't mean that I am going to be silent when I see so many of them doing things that I believe to be wrong.

Bill C.

 

Hi I'd like to share what our church teaches on the dress code, it makes sense to me. When we have people new come to our church and they are dressed differently our preacher tells us to love and accept and welcome them because when their inside is cleaned up then their outside will get cleaned up also.I know this was true with me the first time I went to church,I wore pants and then after I got saved the Lord showed me that I ought to be dressing like a lady. God works on us from insideout .

 

so if I wear pants I'm not "dressing like a lady"???? hmmmmmmmmm well... I always wanted to be a boy LOL j/k

skirts just aren't me, and that doesn't hurt my walk or my witness...


but thank you for your comments!

Last I read it wasn't your standards that we had to uphold... it's GOD'S standards... if He sees no reason to convict someone then you have no business doing God's work. Instead of cleaning their hair, He may be cleaning something INWARD.

 

Does this mean that if you saw someone from your youth group doing drugs or smoking a joint you'd stand idly by and do nothing?

Bill C.

 

since when is wearing a tube top and doing something illegal the same thing?

and maybe I wouldn't have jumped on you so hard if you'd quit saying "It's something I don't condone so stop doing it"

 

The situation may be different but the principle is the same.

If it bothers you whenever I express an opinion on this board that you disagree with, maybe you should consider the possibility that you are the one with the problem. (There is an old saying that when you point a finger at someone, there are three other fingers pointing back at you.)

Also, for what it's worth, after church this morning, I had a brief conversation with the Youth Pastor at my church. He suggested that I cool it a little and I am considering what he told me.

Bill C.

 

Bill --

What you do not seem to understand is that you
are, indeed, being very judgmental, but you are
not using Scripture. You are stating your opinions
and expecting the youth to cowtow to them. You
are seriously saying, "It is my opinion, and it is
very true, and if you do not accept it, you are the
on who is wrong."

Seriously, blue hair is not a subject in the Bible;
the Bible is silent on it, but if blue hair is a salvific
problem, there are lots of little old ladies going
straight to Hell.

Your opinion on boys' long hair is similarly
problematic, for if long hair on males is always a
problem, there are a lot of little old men with
comb-overs who are also going straight to Hell.

Boys who do not always dress in suits, white
shirts, and ties while attending their places of
worship are a problem, because too often, the
poor, then, will go straight to Hell, as will those of
other cultures in which men and boys do no wear
suits and ties. The Scriptures say to cover up
one's nakedness.

I get the feeling, too, that you are either very young
or very inexperienced. There is Nothing Wrong
With That, but as such, you seriouusly do need to
"cool it." 8o)

You are no less loved, you are no less valuable;
you just need to, as Unashamed said, develop
a friendship rapport FIRST with those whom you
wish to advise so strongly, with such strong words,
with such demand. I seriously think you are a nice
person, but you do not realize how you come
across!!!

 

Abiyah,

You want scripture; here it is.

I consider body piercing, unnatural colored hair, and men wearing ear rings, worldly; plain and simple. A youth may not lose their salvation over it but that is the way I look at it. Also, I never said anyone who did such is going to hell. And I have not been judgmental. Expressing one's strong opinion about a subject is not being judgmental.

I am willing to consider the possibility that there will be people coming to Christ out of that environment. Having said that, I think it is a crying shame that an adult can't tell a youth that he/she is doing something inapropriate without being accused of being judgmental.

I hope this puts to rest the false accusation that my beliefs on this matter is not based on scripture.

Bill C.

 

You know, Bill, it has been an interesting little fray.
Anyone reading your notes here will know what
you intend.

My husband just came home from church, so I
asked him to read through both threads, to see if
I have been biligerant toward you or if he thinks
the youth here are indeed wrong.

MtnWalker said, "What our youth need is not to be
challenged on their appearance but to be
challenged by the spiritual examples left by the
older people to follow. What kind of examples are
we setting for them?"

For myself, I think this thread should go back to
its originator's intention: praise of our youth on
this board.

This is my first time, that I can recall, to come here
to read, because it is Their Area. I leave here
proud of each one of them -- those who agree
with you and those who do not.

 

Thanks BM and Abiyah!! Encouragement is always appreciated!

BM, speaking of using purple hair to witness...a good friend of mine is at Eastern as a youth major. One of his classmates plans on doing just that. She now has a mohawk, purple hair, multiple piercings, chains, the whole nine yards. After she graduates she's going to Chicago as a missionary to the punks. IMO, she's gonna blow some minds.

 

whoa.... that's taking it way too extreme! lol

we're to be in the World not of it


why I've been arguing this point is the simple fact that not all of the youth in Church ARE CHRISTIANS... most are "druggies"(ie mom and or dad DRUG them to church) others are "baby Christians" meaning they're NOT going to feel convicted just yet of that. God's too busy worried about the heart to worry about what color their hair is.

Jesus had long hair, so I don't see how long hair(if groomed) is a bad thing(even if it does look odd)


but enough on that... I'm just going to go back and say THANK YOU to the adults who DO see us with the same sort of love and "respect" that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, does.

 

Thankyou BM, some days encouragement is something I lack! So thanks!
~Abby

 

Congrats...
You have turned a page that was intended to bring everyone closer together into a warring ground. Sometimes we as "Baptist" get caught up in fighting each other over self-convictions that we loose sight of our true purpose for being here and that is bring lost souls to Jesus Christ. Follow what you feel the Lord is leading you to do and let other's be accountable to God for what they are doing.
I mean no harm and am only trying to let everyone see what has happened to this board...

Love to All In Christ,
BTM

 

CW, I dont see a problem with what you are saying. In fact, for Abiyah or Unashamed to say your judgmental would mean they are just as judgmental anyway. Because they are judging you as much as you may be judging them.
Unashamed, I would like to know when and where you saw our Saviour face to face. Because as far as I know you would be the first to see Him on earth in about 2000 years. I say this because I would like to know how you know Jesus Christ had long hair. I have never myself seen him physically
and as far as I know He left no pictures or scupltures of Himself behind when He went to heaven.
I do see a problem with some youth who get saved and still are as worldly as when they were lost because when we are saved there is a change. Not only inward but it moves outward.
I appreciate your words Tentmaker, but I dont know if I deserve any praise. Any good thing in me is from the Lord and He is the One who deserves the praise.

 

Amen, Amen, and Amen.

All I was really doing here is expressing a pet peeve that I have with respect to youth (See the other thread in the Youth Forum that I started.)and the whole thing just blew up. I don't know if your generation doesn't realize what you're projecting or not when I see youths come to church with the body piercings, colored and spiked hair, and boys wearing earrings. I want to understand you but I also want you to understand me too. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." I want to encourage all of those around me, youth and adult, to live like the new creatures that they have become and to reflect this in all that they do.

One more thing. Please call me "Bill."

Bill C.

 

Ah, CWG, so you have judged "some of the youth
who get saved and still are as worldly as when
they were lost", and you have judged Unashamed
and me to be judgmental? 8o) It can be a vicious
circle, can it not?

 

BM started this thread by complimenting the younger people on this board, and I would like to thank BM for that. Having raised a mess of teens myself, I know they need all the encouragement they can get. It's an age when peer pressure assumes heights of importance never to be equaled again in life and standing up to that takes incredible courage in many cases.

And when some of my kids went to church looking like something from a refugee zone, I comforted myself that they were still in church. And then I sat up and noticed something: they were bringing friends. They were talking about the sermons after. They were taking what they heard seriously.

In distinct contrast, the one son I had who was a clothes horse and always looked incredibly nice was also the one who ended up in trouble with the law, in juvenile detention, and then spent his last two years of high school at a special camp for delinquents. The pain of that was excruciating. He is in college now. He lives over an hour away and has called me once in a year and a half. I miss him very much, but he is basically gone from us -- at least for now.

So give me his occasionally sloppy younger sister who is a senior in high school, for whom a neat room is the equivalent of Purgatory, who prefers baggy pants and funny tops and the occasional baseball cap to dresses -- and who is fun and cheerful to be around, is headed to Bible college after graduation, takes friends to church, and cares deeply about the people in her life. Oh yeah, she was also voted, two years ago, sophomore princess for Homecoming, and was asked to do some photographic modeling work for the studio that took the senior portraits. She is also the girl who turned them down in favor of school.

I can live with the baggy pants...

 

wow :eek thank you Helen for a picture into teh future

I'm more into flares and boot cut jeans to baggy pants... but that's still cool!

 

HEY EVERYONE!!! I am going to have to agree with UNSHAMED youth. I wear pants and people at my church look down on me... i dont know why, I dont wear tight ones... I really dont think it stops me from being a witness. I think if God has not convicted you to wear dresses then it is not a sin. Thank you.
BBG