A little discussion on piercings and tattoos

Hey Becky. I have a most serious question for you. And also ask for your advice. What are your religious views on tattoos and piercings? I have been getting confronted a lot with people asking me how I am living a Godly life but defiling my body. I need some insight on this and you were the first person that came to mind! Thank you!

Hi Well, I can give you my answer, but the answer needs to come out of your relationship with Jesus What I mean to say is that the answer that best shuts up the "creepy religious people" is the one that comes from deep within you that you believe like crazy!
But here's what's true:

The whole defiling your body thing is a load of b.s. The only verse in the Bible that references tattoos is Leviticus 19:28 "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD." This was referring to the pagan customs of the day. Egyptians were notorious for marking themselves all over, in remembrance of dead people (perhaps superstitiously hoping to bring them back? the whole preservation of mummies things shows they really believed in a next life). However, these markings again were PAGAN, for PAGAN customs. they were related to worship of other gods, etc. It is no wonder God did not want his people participating. They had just left Egypt and he is telling them not to participate in the heathen customs of Egypt. This is a new order now!

Do ya think that our tattoos are the same as Egyptian tattoos? Let's think about it. When you go get a little kitty cat, are you worshiping the kitty or trying to bring a kitty to life?

Any way... totally different. We are more into self-expression than religious superstition.

Piercings. I've done the research on this. A large majority of the time when the bible speaks of earrings it is speaking of nose rings. Isaac's Rebecca was given a nose ring in Genesis 24:22 "And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten [shekels] weight of gold;" that is the meaning of that word, and why it is singular in the King James Version.

The Old Testament Jews are often referenced as the Bride of Jehovah... They are told in Hosea that when they ran from God, they adorned themselves with jewelry (including earrings, which are defined as nose rings) before they went to their idol lovers. Now before that becomes an indictment against piercings,
Ezekiel 16:12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
That jewel on the forehead is the same word used for nose ring earrings. God himself says he will adorn his bride with a nose ring.
The word in the Hebrew is nexem by the way, if you want to look it up yourself
And I only stayed in the King James. If you look in other versions, they translate every time nexem is used to the word nose ring.
the word for actual earlobe earrings is agiyl

There is no mention of other body piercings specifically like that (that I know of). But this one is cool

Oh, I know I'm rambling, but I love this stuff. HAHA.. the earrings were heavy (shekel weight in Genesis!) They were called earrings because they pulled the nose cartilage down to look like an earlobe. The translation earring is correct. Our tiny gems today are nothing in comparison to the gaudiness of those nose pieces!! ROFL! My namesake was MEGA adorned in GOLD!

Fast forward... Revelation 14:1 "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty [and] four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. "
Revelation 22:4 "And they shall see his face; and his name [shall be] in their foreheads."
All believers, not just the 144,000 will have His name on their foreheads. God's into inking of his own. Claiming us for his own. It's awesome. We are pierced and adorned with a ring and other assorted jewelry because we are the bride, and we are inked with his name.

Now, as to can we do it now. Like, practical, every day, OMG, are we defiling our bodies in the here and now?
Here are Paul's words:
Romans 7:6 "But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter. "
Romans 8:2 "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. "
We are not under the law anymore. So EVEN if the whole Leviticus thing applied to modern day tattoos, it doesn't apply to us. We do not have to avoid markings for the dead, etc. We are FREE from the law. We serve the Spirit of Christ. That old law does not apply to us.
Those who try and stick us under that law are putting us in bondage. Paul says to stand in our liberty! We are FREE! (Gal 5:1)

I Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
This is the only "guideline" that Paul gives, and honestly it is an easy one. Everything is lawful. But sometimes things just are not worthy, profitable things (expedient). Somethings are not worthwhile because they tear others or myself down, "they do not edify."
Yet, even this is not a firm and fast rule. This is simply something to ask ourselves. Certainly if going into a situation we realize it is completely an unworthy, unprofitable, and unedifying thing it does give us cause to ask WHY we were doing it in the first place!!
However, I have found that my tattoos have been edification for myself and others. Talking points! They all have deep personal and/or spiritual meanings and as such spark conversations I would not have had otherwise. My nose ring is similarly a conversation piece for those who like to go deep (I got it because Rebekah of the Bible is a symbol of the Bride of Christ! I am named for her, and I am the Bride of Christ!)
Some things we do are frivolous and need no explanation. And why should we have to explain to others? Are we not all responsible to God on our own?
People also need to learn to mind their own business. ;-)

Purpose Statement Revised Again... :)

“My purpose is to use my effervescence and people skills through writing, music, and personal relationships to guide, to inspire, and to lead others to realize their identity in Christ, to find their purpose, and to enter into the freedom of worshiping God in utter abandon.”

Always a work in progress!

All the promises!!

I would be super happy with just Him and his love... but I can't help but get freaking excited when I think about the fact that EVERY SINGLE PROMISE of God is now a YES for me!! WOW! I mean, think about that! It's not selfishness, it's freeing! It is enabling! It is motivating! It is awe-inspiring! And it turns my gaze of wonder and amazement toward the Father who would allow his blessings to fall upon me. Realizations such as this are the ones that send us racing back to his feet in worship and thanksgiving!
Imagine, living a defeated life, never realizing all the gifts that our Father has given us in Christ? How sad that would be for a Father who desires to give us the richest abundant life possible, and all for HIS GLORY! What glory he gets knowing he has taken the lowliest of low humanity and elevated it to the heights of being actually RELATED to God himself! He did that. WHOOOO! Christ's blood flows through my veins, I am royalty, I am heir, I am so much more than I ever dreamed possible all because I accepted a simple gift I thought contained only eternal life, a Saviour, and love.
It makes me think of the TARDIS: Tiny little box, but when you look inside you marvel at all the glorious gifts and promises that have been crammed in there... How is it even possible?
Self-centered? NO! How could anyone even get a glimpse of all that was given to us at the moment of salvation and be selfish? I'm thinking that after crying my eyes out and hugging and kissing all over the giver I'd be out trying to give that gift to as many people as possible.

---a post I wrote on facebook. :)

thoughts on Darin's podcast free believers network 4/29/2010

Had this saved as a draft, just never published it:

Being conformed to the image of Christ is simply Christ freeing you to be fully yourself without the bondage of the world! The bondage falls away, and the true self that Christ created is free to shine! :) -me

we are created in His image! As the world is stripped away, as religion is stripped away, what is left is the perfect creation that reflects Christ himself!!

I thank Jesus all the time for revealing this to me... I was always afraid that as I gave myself to him he would force me to be something terrible, something that I had no desire to be! But I was SOO wrong!

Purpose Statement

By the way, this is my purpose in a nutshell... I may tweak it a bit... it's almost midnight, and this is the first time I've put it in writing. LOL I've had it in my head for months now.

My purpose is to use my effervescence and people skills through writing, music, and personal relationships to counsel those who are in bondage and to lead them into the freedom of worshiping God in utter abandon.

Missionary...

A missionary is not a 'church-planter,' or a 'soul-winner,' a missionary is being Jesus to the world. It is ME being MYSELF to the world, but the key here is that the ME is Christ 'as me,' 'in me', and 'through me.' Being a missionary is allowing Jesus to do whatever it is that Christ has created you to do to your fullest potential in the world.

This was my most recent facebook status... There are many things going through my head tonight after our missions conference weekend, so I thought I'd type them up now.

When I was a child I had a "calling" to missions. Looking back on it, I realize that it was very much peer pressure, and not the Spirit of God. It was the 'accepted' thing to do, and it was something I knew I would get positive feedback for. I lived for acceptance! What I really wanted to do was go to med school, and so I added the whole 'missionary' thing on to it and decided to be a medical missionary. I wasn't saved at the time, and since I was continually looking to please my religious group and especially my pastor and parents, I felt guilty for pursuing something I wanted to do, and so dropped the medical part and decided to be a missionary's wife. Of course, Christopher was the love of my life from the time I was 14 years old, and I already knew he had a heart for missions... So I set my heart and mind to marry him and planned to be on the mission field in Ireland.

After marriage I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't saved, and that I didn't have any desire for missions at all!!! What I really wanted was to go to college, get a degree and be rich! (the whole palomino ranch, sprawling 'Mediterranean style' mansion, and a yacht thing) I didn't want to disappoint my husband, or parents, or church by this (you gotta realize, we were very active in the church! At the time I was under the most conviction about salvation we were leading the youth at Bethel in Barberton), so I kept it to myself. In fact, I pushed Chris to go to Ireland, almost to the point of nagging! We were gonna make everybody, including Jesus, proud! I was going to be mamma's and preacher's pet forever!

During this time of struggle (read my testimony! I really had a hard time admitting that I needed Christ! After all, I had led people to the Lord, never done anything wrong... etc. It was kinda like I'd always been saved! On top of that I had the story my mom told me about praying when I was 4, and I kept going back to that as an excuse), We were at the Bread of Life Camp Meeting and heard about Sri Lanka for the first time. All the missionary needed was someone to come help pass out tracts. I was SOO there! Adventure! I'd never been out of the country before (just over the border in Canada doesn't REALLY count, does it??), and this was the perfect way to get brownie points!! Not only was it a foreign country, but it is considered a part 10 40 window. It was a largely unreached country! It was even kinda scary!

I got saved about two weeks before we left for our trip! WOW! It was very awesome to have my first major experience as a true Christ-follower be on the foreign field like that. It was very life changing. I came back all fired up and insisting that we should go there full time. In fact, I really pushed at Chris to go there! (LOL more nagging!) Of course, he had a huge burden to go back, because he breathes missions! We are talking about Mr. Christopher Dennison, the guy who would pray over individual countries and ask God if that's the one he was supposed to go to!

So we set out on deputation. :)

This was a very difficult time for me. I was really going for so many wrong reasons: emotional high after salvation, adventure, acceptance, and on and on! I HATED deputation. I truly did. I hated pretending to be somebody I wasn't at all the churches we went to. It was soo fake! But we had to jump through the hoops if we wanted support. Inside, all I wanted to do was quit and live a 'normal' life. I had fears that we would get to the mission field, someone would come check up on us and find out the real me and we would get kicked off the field. I was terrified every waking moment that I would crack the wrong eggshell in front of the wrong person. And I didn't really want to live in Sri Lanka forever... Sure, I loved it there, loved the people...

Then I was hospitalized with a terrible pregnancy... I knew it was God wanting me to surrender my life to him, but I refused. I knew that at any moment if I gave it all to Jesus including the deputation and SriLanka that I would be healed... but a HUGE part of me was happy that I couldn't go to churches with Chris anymore. I welcomed the distraction of being stuck in a hospital bed. (Sad, huh?)

Anyway, if any of you follow Chris' blog ( www.myjourneyswithjesus.blogspot.com ) you probably know the story of how we ended up leaving the deputation trail. The eggshell I soo feared was cracked! Chris and I spent months of Bible study and came to believe a different eschatological view than our mission board/sending church/supporting churches. We had signed a statement of faith and knew it was only right to tell them the truth about where we now stood. We were instantly dropped from all our support. So, I got my wish, but it was still devastating. We were well on our way to getting to Sri Lanka before this occur ed.

Since then people have questioned us, "Weren't you called there?" "When are you going back?" etc, and even leveled accusations such as, "You are out of the will of God for you life," and "You should be in Sri Lanka right now, so it doesn't matter how God is using you where you are at." HA! It's very amusing to me. I look back and I know that God knew we were not ready for that! I was not ready for that. I had a long way to grow, and much to learn before I could be involved in that kind of full time ministry. I had a lot of preconceived ideas that needed to be eliminated, and a lot of conforming to the image of Christ to do! I am thankful that we did not end up on the field then! I have learned so many things that I would never have learned had we stayed in Baptist circles and had I gone to that country under the bondage of all that fear! At the same time, I know that every moment of the way we were walking with Jesus! Deputation and all, it was God's plan for our lives! 100%, no regrets, those were experiences that God used to shape me into who I am.

Fast Forward!!

We are now at Heritage Christian Church, and Sri Lanka has come up over and over again! And it's an extremely missions minded church. I have felt a tug in that direction, and have had no resistance to it. I'm excited to see what the Lord will do! We may very well end up there after all...

Ok, all that was to say this... If people ask me "Are you called to Sri Lanka" I would say "NO." You are shocked! I know! I heard the gasp! Let me bare my heart to you as plain as I can!

One of the greatest things that the Holy Spirit has taught me is that our desires are God-Given. When I surrendered my life to Christ three years ago, I surrendered my desires with it, and guess what??? I found that God gave them right back to me! In delighting in him, he gave me the desires of my heart! Only now, it's not me struggling to achieve my dreams, it's Christ achieving my dreams through me! AWESOME! So, right now, I have a huge desire to sell everything and move overseas... just MOVE! I don't even care where... Sri Lanka is as good a place as any to start, because I do have a genuine love for that island, those people. I have a huge desire to live the same life I live here over there somewhere in a land where people do not have the salt and light of Christianity. I want to make friends with people from different cultures and have them over for dinner. I want to laugh with them, cry with them, and just be Me! And I want to see people who have never heard the name of Jesus light up with joy when they are introduced to him for the first time. I want to bring freedom to people who are enslaved to religion and open their eyes to the greatness of the Creator God who loves them and is worthy of all their worship!! I picture myself sitting in a small group, sipping tea, playing the keys and singing, swapping stories, and building relationships.

Wait, I didn't mention church planting, did I? No, I didn't. Jesus will build his church, I am just salt and light! If we end up somewhere with enough people to form a church, well awesome, but if that ever comes, I pray that someone among our new friends will arise to lead it. I didn't mention mass evangelizing, because that's not my heart. Does that make me any less of a missionary?

So many people are terrified of missions because they think that the only people who can go are pastors, teachers, church planters and music people. Ok, so my husband can preach and teach and I do music, and most likely if the Lord allows us to go to the foreign field we will do both of those things, but that is not what defines a missionary!

"If you see the Church as just individuals, then a missionary is simply one person telling other people about Jesus. No problem. Anybody can do it. BUT, if you see the Church as a business-style organization, then only those with proper training and degrees can be missionaries. Hmmmm, no wonder so few people are going these days!!!" -Chris Dennison

Hope I haven't confused you all too terribly! I'm exhausted and my mind is whirling! :) This was a rapid download session!

Trapped or Free

Today I have a job interview. I am excited. I can almost taste what it is like to be back in the work place again! After 4 1/2 years of being home with children, I am headed back out into the world of 40 hours a week and Friday is payday. (I'm not dead set on 40 hours though... I'll probably start at 30 and see how it goes? We'll see) This is not really what I had planned at this stage in my life, as I was going to wait until both of my children were in school, but our financial situation demands it. Strange. I should feel forced into working, or angry... I should feel trapped. Why am I not feeling this emotion? For years I was trapped by being home all the time, when what I really wanted to do was work... yet for the love of my children, I stayed home. At the same time, I never wanted to work because I had too, and anytime it was brought up I felt forced into the situation... again trapped. I think for the first time in my life, I am realizing that I can choose how I feel. And when it comes down to it, I want to work. So why should I let my issues of being cornered into it affect my joy in this?
Chris preached on the word 'Trapped' in Sunday School yesterday, and the quote on the top of the page was "Freedom is Frightening." Yeah, it's kinda like that. I'm so used to the feelings and emotions of being trapped in my life... stuck in my circumstances... that old Mr. Fear comes along and says that I can never be free. I can never have joy. I can never let go of my depression. Mr. Fear says that there is no door to exit; the only solution to my problems is death. But what Mr. Fear doesn't know is that I am opening my eyes to something HUGE! I have the key to get out of that feeling. I have the key to change how I perceive a situation. I have the key to give thanks in all things - to see that silver lining on the cloud!
The first key is that God is sovereign in my situation! He foreordained it to happen. He knows what's going on. He sees it all. He saw me all of those years as I cared for my children while I felt lonely, unfulfilled, and without purpose. He sees our financial situation that would force me into finding a job sooner than I had planned. He knows. He sees. He brought it upon me! That is the second key. He brings things upon me to prepare me for the ministry that he has for me! Here I am excited about today, but also dreading it. Dreading escaping the box of my house, and fearing that I am just entering one more box at work. Is there really any freedom? What would I do with it if I were truly free? This is the wrong attitude. Jesus is bringing each circumstance into my life to shape me for that perfect plan He has in mind. He created me to do a specific something, and designed special circumstances to shape me into exactly what he had in mind. Everybody has an opinion on what they think about me going back to work... positive, negative and neutral... but the bottom line is that this is an experience God wants me to have right now for his glory in my life. The third key is that even if I feel alone, Jesus goes through everything I go through right along with me. The coolest thing that Chris said about feeling trapped was that 'When God is conspicuously absent it is when he is most omnisciently present." When I don't feel him, don't see him, and feel like I'm just going to have to figure things out on my own, He is still there. In fact, he is probably orchestrating circumstances so that I will look to him and tell him that I'm in over my head. He is just waiting for me to ask him to do things for me. He brings everything upon me to bring me to my face on his altar of surrender. He is ever there patiently waiting for the day that I stop playing tug-o-war and give each situation to him.
So here I am right now on the morning of my interview, and I want to do something I have never done before. Something that I am completely unable to do, but that I believe that Jesus wants me to do. I want to thank him for my life circumstances. I want to thank him for the years that I've stayed home with my children; there are so many memories that I will always cherish. I want to thank him for our financial situation. I have learned much about God's provision and faith. I want to thank him for allowing me to go back to work even though it is not in optimum circumstances in my life, he has a plan. And I want to surrender to him my future. I don't want to feel trapped any more by anything. It's such a silly emotion. I'm saved! I have Christ in me! In Christ is perfect liberty and freedom. I want to be able to give thanks in everything, and feel joy and freedom in everything. Chris said it was a choice - choose to complain and stay trapped, or choose to surrender and find freedom. I choose surrender.