Here is a question about wearing hippie threads to church from a fellow Hippie Christian and my answer as it appeared many years ago on my old website. This is deeper than just personal style choices, It touches on the bigger question of who's image are we to conform to - man's concept of who we are or who we are in Christ.
Q : I show up at
Church in my Hippie threads and I know that I am beautiful to Jesus no matter
what I wear to church. Do we have to lose our unique identity to follow Jesus
in order to become good Christians? I feel that God allows and even desires for
us to be unique and helps us to feel free within His will and to express
ourselves.
I have read the words where it says something like..." If you truly want to follow Jesus you have to deny yourself first before you pick up your cross" or something close to that. I don't know it word for word. So, maybe we have to die to our old serves first in order to allow God to help us to grow and develop into our new unique Christian selves??? Hmmmmm!!!! It's sounds funny, huh? you have to lose yourself first in God to actually find your true creative self. So - can we still have a passionate desire to give our lives to Jesus but still remain free individuals within His Will and presence and serve Him with the uniqueness and special gifts that God has blessed us all with?
A: This is a key question that every Brother & Sister in Christ needs to understand and it sounds like you already have it figured out! You are so right about Jesus taking us just as we are. He made us the way we are for a reason, so that He can use us to reach out to others who can identify with us - after all He became a human being to reach out to us.
We are always free to choose and when we choose the Father's will it is always for our good or for the good of another. The things that God wants us to give up are the things that offend Him and would hurt us or someone else. As we draw closer to Him we become more aware of His will (Romans 12) and begin to conform to His image - not the image of what others think you should be - but the image of Christ.
I don't believe that God wants robots or clones. He wants children who seek Him and serve Him as unique individuals, yet all filled with the same Spirit. God saved us from our sins, not from who He created us to be. Take a look at the things we are to get rid of and the things we are to clothe ourselves with:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians. 3:5-12
Take a close look at the 12th chapter of Romans too. I think it will help explain how we are unique parts of the whole and yet how we all help each other as one.
Peace, Love &Light!
I have read the words where it says something like..." If you truly want to follow Jesus you have to deny yourself first before you pick up your cross" or something close to that. I don't know it word for word. So, maybe we have to die to our old serves first in order to allow God to help us to grow and develop into our new unique Christian selves??? Hmmmmm!!!! It's sounds funny, huh? you have to lose yourself first in God to actually find your true creative self. So - can we still have a passionate desire to give our lives to Jesus but still remain free individuals within His Will and presence and serve Him with the uniqueness and special gifts that God has blessed us all with?
A: This is a key question that every Brother & Sister in Christ needs to understand and it sounds like you already have it figured out! You are so right about Jesus taking us just as we are. He made us the way we are for a reason, so that He can use us to reach out to others who can identify with us - after all He became a human being to reach out to us.
We are always free to choose and when we choose the Father's will it is always for our good or for the good of another. The things that God wants us to give up are the things that offend Him and would hurt us or someone else. As we draw closer to Him we become more aware of His will (Romans 12) and begin to conform to His image - not the image of what others think you should be - but the image of Christ.
I don't believe that God wants robots or clones. He wants children who seek Him and serve Him as unique individuals, yet all filled with the same Spirit. God saved us from our sins, not from who He created us to be. Take a look at the things we are to get rid of and the things we are to clothe ourselves with:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians. 3:5-12
Take a close look at the 12th chapter of Romans too. I think it will help explain how we are unique parts of the whole and yet how we all help each other as one.
Peace, Love &Light!
Kevin (Cloud)
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