So Sexy Isn't Offensive?

[Bro. Robbins]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

Then your defining 'sexiness" largely by how much skin is being shown. I don't do that. For me attractiveness, sexiness, and to a somewhat lesser degree, modesty, can be nearly interchangeable in their use. I would even throw personality into the mix.

Again, you use sexy and attractive both as positive terms and interchangebly.... or it appears.

I do not.... attractive is a positive word.... sexy absolutely is not. To me, no lady ever wants to be considered Sexy except in private with her husband. She wants to be attractive always, but sexy is negative...

And no, not just how much skin is showing... Also sexy may be clothed, but form fitting...which is also a negative.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by rgcraig

She's thirsty for Christ and doesn't know it -- that's our jobs as Christians.

Who do you witness to? Only those dressed to your standards? Didn't Jesus reach out to the woman at the well? Did she know she was thirsty? No. Not until she met Christ.

We do see an extreme version of this attitude when we hear of a church with published dress standards that even visitors have to follow before attending. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be that many but they are out there. Certainly there are many who feel that THEIR church should institute such a policy.

[Amanah]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

Maybe, but again to me once "sexy" crosses a line toward being "offensive" it is no longer sexy. So I would never use those two words to describe the same person at the same time.

And God DID grant some people assets above and beyond what He granted others. There are a few women here who would have to wear a snowmobile suit to not be distracting.... does that mean they are obligated too?

Oh how I miss Rhoni in some of these discussions. LOL

well, since the woman in question was exposing her vagina, shall we at least agree that sexual organs should be covered?

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Amanah

well, since the woman in question was exposing her vagina, shall we at least agree that sexual organs should be covered?

I highly doubt she was doing that..... To say she was is like the hyper sensitive person who see's a woman with two inches of midriff exposed and then saying "....and she was wearing a bikini!!!".

IF she was truly exposing that much then it stops becoming a HR issue and starts becoming a law enforcement one.

[Bro. Robbins]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

I highly doubt she was doing that..... To say she was is like the hyper sensitive person who see's a woman with two inches of midriff exposed and then saying "....and she was wearing a bikini!!!".

IF she was truly exposing that much then it stops becoming a HR issue and starts becoming a law enforcement one.

When she sat down on a stool in our breakroom,, one of my female staff was able to see not only her undies, but name the color, and the fact that they were bikini panties and that the young lady didn't believe in performing the Brazilian wax.......

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Bro. Robbins

She was thirsty yes... I didn't disagree with that part... but not for Christ... and the woman at the well wasn't either... she was searching absolutely for something to fill the God shaped hole in her life... but there is nothing in that Scripture to indicate that she every realized that Christ would fill the thirst. She was thirsty, but nothing indicated thirsty for Christ.

Furthermore, you say she evangelized.... there is nothing in the Scriptures that says she ever accepted Christ, repented of her sins, or came to faith in Christ..... as far as we know, she died in her sins...... too many have made too many assumptions about this girl.

In regards to the gal in my office...she's thirsty, but not for Christ. She would have to realize her need for Christ first, to become thirsty for Christ.... right now, she's only thirsty.

Just like me... I was longing for something in my life... however, I had to realize my longing was for Christ, before my longing could be a longing for Christ.

Bro... Jesus is the answer to... everything. Every human being has a God shaped hole in their lives... and they try to fill it with alcohol, sex, drugs, hobbies, religion, and entertainment.

I don't know this woman's heart. I am also of the conviction that you might not either. I'm only saying... be Jesus to her. It's the only way to find out. If a woman like this isn't on your prayer list... she should be. If you're not trying to be a friend to a woman like this... you should be.

As for the woman at the well... the Scriptures say...

John 4:1-42 (ESV)

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Praise God...

I believe you do error knowing not the Scriptures, nor the power of God. Jesus asked her for water and she saw a problem because of their social differences. Jesus then told her that if she knew who he was, she'd ask him for water. Jesus saw the thirst...she just didn't know who he was. Jesus described living water... and she asked for it. But first... Jesus had to address her circumstance to humble her before God... Jesus asked for her to bring her husband. She said she had no husband, hoping to end that subject. Jesus then revealed to her that he knew her circumstance; she'd been married five times and was currently living with a man she wasn't married to. She perceived in that instant that Jesus was a prophet. She then resorted to an old tired defense tactic... a religious debate. She brought up the differences between the Jews and the Samaritans concerning the place to worship. This expressed her knowledge and interest in a spiritual matter that had obviously troubled her spiritually. Jesus explains that the day is coming when the Father will desire his own to worship him in spirit and in truth. She then reflects at how great that would be and it draws her mind to the prophecies concerning the Messiah and how he will teach both Jew and Samaritan all things. Then Jesus reveals his identity to her, "I who speak to you am he."

Christ's disciples return and the woman leaves and returns to down and tells all that she knows about Jesus. Then many from the town started coming to him. Jesus tells the disciples how the fields are white for harvest (they are spiritually ripe). Many believe in Jesus because of this woman's testimony. They asked Jesus to stay with them and he stayed two more days. During that time many more believed because of Christ's own words and professed that they then knew that Jesus was indeed the Saviour of the world.

I present to you that your claim that she wasn't hungry for God, the claim that she didn't believe in him, the claim that she didn't spread the word regarding who he was to the salvation of others... are unfounded and dismissed by the Scriptures themselves.

The term "repent" is "metanoeo" (Grk.). It is a compound word composed of the words "meta" meaning "afterward" and "noeo" meaning "understanding". Essentially it is an "after-understanding", a "change of mind". Did her mind not change after that conversation? I contend that it did... therefore she was "repentant".

Now... what troubles me is how so many want to "beat up" these precious believers in Scriptures because they don't "fit the mold" of what we'd call good "moral people". This Phariseeical perspective is disturbing because not only do we discount the significance of those who don't fit our mold in Scripture... but we carry that over into our daily lives, thereby often discounting the value and significance of those whom we pass judgment upon because they too don't fit the mold.

Bro... the woman at the well was a shack up honey who had been through five failed marriages. She was looking for love. And when she met Jesus and it was revealed to her who he was... she didn't waste any time... she went and told an entire town about him and many believed and came to Christ. After Christ stayed two whole days with them... many more believed because of Christ's own words. That shack up honey wasn't trash to be discarded and questioned... she was a key to revival in that town. The disciples didn't go and tell them about Jesus... they were too busy questioning the entire conversation... but a shack up honey did . lol

I love how God always proves that what we call trash is His treasure.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Bro. Robbins

When she sat down on a stool in our breakroom,, one of my female staff was able to see not only her undies, but name the color, and the fact that they were bikini panties and that the young lady didn't believe in performing the Brazilian wax.......

At least it was another woman who noticed that -and come to think of it my wife notices all those details as well. I just tend to look away and roll my eyes. lol

[Bro. Robbins]

To Acquilla - The only evidence of anything is that others believed because of her testimony... but no, the Scriptures don't say one way or the other that she believed or did not believe herself. You make assumptions..... but it's not in there one way or the other.

And for you to say that I'm not being Jesus to the gal on my floor is another assumption you make. You infer that to be Jesus would not to complain about her attire... and that would be me being slack in my responsibilities as management on this floor.... and I can't see that being very Jesus.

I didn't go to the gal, and wasn't disrespectful. But I did stand up.... and there's nothing anti Jesus about standing up for the rules that we all agree to abide by at this employer.

[acerrak]

Originally Posted by Bro. Robbins

Guys there in shorts...at a graduation.... and tank tops.

yea how much leg did the men show when they girded up their tunics??

I dont have a issue with decent length shorts or tank tops. why is that considered immodest? There is a difference now if the shorts are so short that when they sit down there privates hang out.. yea immodest.

[Aquila]

Now, I'll plow a little deep here, and this may not apply to everyone. But I feel I have to say it.

We have the Holy Ghost and have partaken in the divine nature of God's own Spirit in our spirits. Therefore, we have the very righteousness of God in our inner man. But we are still in this human flesh that is subject to it's sinful nature... and we still have unregenerated minds that cater to the flesh by default. So sometimes our minds and our actions dont' always line up with the reality of the inner man's righteousness. This causes conviction, guilt, shame, a sense of condemnation.

I think that we have such high standards and expectations with regards to our behavior and performance that when put in a situation with a "worldling" that provokes our carnal minds and perhaps even our carnal flesh... it troubles us. It angers us. Because instantly because of what a woman is wearing or because of the words a man uses, we're confronted with our fallen nature as the old man lunges up out of the grave and tries to live again. We're confronted with the fact that... while our spirits are righteous, holy, justified, and sanctified by the indweling Holy Spirit... our flesh isn't and therefore we must still contend with sins reality in our lives. We fail to realize a simple truth that Paul taught us... it's not us (our inner man) that is sinning or desiring to sin... but rather it's sin (the principle of our sinful fallen nature) that still exists in our flesh. Because we've not really focused on grace teachings and the deeper doctrines concerning our salvation we fear when we experience this... and we lash out in harsh judgment against that which awakens that sinful nature. Because as long as we can ignore it... cover it up... or pretend it's not there... we can walk around like the Pharisees assuming that our behavior has made us righteous. It challenges our spirituality on a very deep and spiritual level.

Beloved... don't react in judgment. But rather... react as one who is crucified to the world and is yet alive. Not living your life as yourself... but living it as Jesus... because it is Christ who now really lives in you.

Be Jesus.