Another SPLIT from the UPCI???

[Sept5SavedTeen]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

Well I haven't formally committed this to God yet, honestly.

I'm only thinking about it right now-- and it has been a while since I have wore shorts in public anyway.


I don't want to be caught up in some vain practice of piety that has no value in the sight of God. I don't want to do something solely for the purpose of fitting in or whatever.

I do want to please God. I do want to get closer to God.

I remember when I was much closer to God, when I was stationed in Jacksonville, NC, I followed these standards (except when in military uniform) but I followed these standards out of obedience and compulsion-- not because I believed in them.

In fact, I hated them and thought it to be useless and phariseetical.

But I did them anyway and was a lot closer to God.


I want that walk with God back!

I want to supercede that place!!

I want to know the best way to get there from here.


I've fallen so low from that place to where I was and now I'm getting closer to Him and I just want to continue getting closer to Him.


God would sometimes (often) answer my prayers immediately when I was in Jacksonville, NC. (Often as in more often then than now for sure!)

Even though I did not lik much of the stuff that happened to me and others and the stuff I saw in general while at the church there, I learned how to pray there, I learned how to touch God there. I learned how to openly worship there.

In the flesh, I didn't like that church or Camp Lejeune or even Onclow County, NC!

But I love what God did in my life while I was there!
Those memories are priceless!
I want my walk with God to be better than that, today, and not just something I look back on and remember.

Maybe standards are the way to go for that to happen, but that doesn't make sense.

So I bring it here for discussion.
Maybe someone has been where I am right now and they can give Biblical advice.

I lived by really conservative standards about a year ago, and when I first began to get rid of them it was sort of exciting and new, like I was starting to get to the heart of the matter on things, and not just being overly preoccupied with my elbows... Then there were a few bumps in the road where I second-guessed myself, and that did me no good, and it hindered my walk, and now I am trying to remember my walk when I first got saved, before all the standards. I don't know if getting saved for you was also the same time you got into "standards", so I don't know if you ever remember a time being saved without standards. The way I sort of saw it was that before, when I was all into standards, it was a way for me to cop out of dealing with some serious problems/weights/sins on the inside, because all that was important was the outside. Then I started going to an assembly (which does keep to modest dress but not "standards") that taught perfection, maturity, inward holiness, ect... My problems came to the surface, and I have dealt/am still dealing, with them, and I can't run behind standards or make more and more standards to cover myself, as Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves...

-Bro. Alex

[tv1a]

You preached a sermon right there! The emphaisis on a subjective dress code encourages lying. How many times have you heard if you're heart is right, your dress code will be right? A lot of people skipped the heart part and headed directly toward the dress code. It was a lot easier to follow a man made dress code than to put on the robe of rightesousness. People tend to leave you alone if you dress the part. They figure you must be okay. In reality most of those people are in worse shape than the sinner off the street.

I wish you well on your journey.

Originally Posted by Sept5SavedTeen

I lived by really conservative standards about a year ago, and when I first began to get rid of them it was sort of exciting and new, like I was starting to get to the heart of the matter on things, and not just being overly preoccupied with my elbows... Then there were a few bumps in the road where I second-guessed myself, and that did me no good, and it hindered my walk, and now I am trying to remember my walk when I first got saved, before all the standards. I don't know if getting saved for you was also the same time you got into "standards", so I don't know if you ever remember a time being saved without standards. The way I sort of saw it was that before, when I was all into standards, it was a way for me to cop out of dealing with some serious problems/weights/sins on the inside, because all that was important was the outside. Then I started going to an assembly (which does keep to modest dress but not "standards") that taught perfection, maturity, inward holiness, ect... My problems came to the surface, and I have dealt/am still dealing, with them, and I can't run behind standards or make more and more standards to cover myself, as Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves...

-Bro. Alex