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Print By Martha Jaynes
I am an Apostolic woman.
I dress distinctively. I am
easily identifiable in public settings. I
have been called old fashioned, legalistic, bound, Amish, and plain old weird.
People who don’t understand me think of me as strange.
The most common question I am asked is—why?
Get me in public with a group of other Apostolic women and we will almost
always be asked if we are sisters. If I were to be honest with you, I would tell you that at
times I love being this way and at times I hate it. I would say sometimes I am confident of who I am and
sometimes I am reluctant. But still
I am Apostolic and this I know right well. 21st Century Apostolic Feminist? In the times that we live, many things have come into
question in the Apostolic ranks, our standards often being at the forefront of
controversy. Over the years many of
my friends have, for one reason or another, chosen to change their stance on
what they do outwardly. I, too,
have changed from what I would call a hard liner to a softer stance.
I am not as legalistic as I am ashamed to admit I once was.
Legalism has done more to kill the spiritually weak within our ranks than
good old-fashioned temptations and tribulations.
Yet even if I have softened on some issues, I am at the same time
convinced the standards I observe are a necessary part of who I am as a disciple
of Christ. There is within each of us a struggle between the internal
and external; the external being the physical and the internal being that still,
small voice of the Spirit. It is
much easier to listen to our external or physical self.
It is much easier to accumulate material wealth than to obtain spiritual
growth. The former simply requires
hard work and money. For those born into wealth, hard work is taken out of the
equation. Yet we can only ignore the pull of our spirit for so long.
To ignore the still, small voice within is to ignore one’s raison
d'etre—the reason for your existence on earth.
The Heart is Real World Modesty God has given us guidelines for our modesty.
In His infinite wisdom He foresaw the time in this world when what you
looked like physically meant more than who you were inwardly.
Too often we have placed our value in the tangible.
Yet the values of Hollywood have no place within the church—to place
your worth as a human being solely in your physical presence is to deny your
inward beauty. As Apostolic women
we need to strive to be attractive, not attracting. If our goal in the way we dress is to be attracting and
enticing to others, then we are stating that the whole of our worth is in our
outward appearance. And as
Christian women, our worth needs to be in how well we reflect His glory. The Apostle Peter wrote, “Whose adorning let it not be
that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of
putting on of apparel; But
let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price” (I Peter 3:3-4). Whether you wear a
skirt or pants, whether you cut your hair or not, or even the presence or
absence of makeup is not the real issue. The
true issue is—do I possess the type of spirit that will cause others to want
to invite Christ into their life? Modesty is a necessary part of being a true woman
of God. My modest dress insures
that people will see me as a distinct individual. It is the vehicle through which I can publicly display my
inward desire to please God. It is
also the only display that our government, as it is, would have a hard time
passing a law against. They can take away our right to pray in school,
they can remove the Ten Commandments from government buildings, and they can
tear down every manger scene in the country, but they cannot force me to wear
revealing and offensive apparel. I
can walk the streets as a modest Apostolic woman with my meek and gentle spirit,
and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. It is my strongest means of witness, but only if my character
backs up my outward appearance. Take
away my kind and gentle spirit and you take away my effectiveness as a
Christian. With a nasty and mean
spirit, it doesn’t matter what I wear. Looking Past the Mirror Our spirit is our true self.
Our outward appearance should reflect that self.
When you gaze at the tabloids on the newsstand, you see a mere reflection
of the human self. The barely
clothed models seem to scream, “Look at me, this is the totality of who I am.
My body and outward appearance are the only things that give me value as
a person.” And yet the call of
Christ toward His church is, “Look within, for it is My Spirit within you that
lifts you higher. It is My Spirit
that gives you worth beyond this temporal world.”
How shallow are we if we find our worth only in
what is passing away? Shouldn’t
we find our worth in the things that will last?
King David wrote, “The dignity of the daughter of a king is her
inwardness” (Psalms 45:13). Our
beauty and dignity must come from within. Everything
that is physical dies and passes away. To leave my mark on this world as a woman
of outer beauty is a mark that will fade with time.
Yet to leave His Spiritual mark on this world is an attribute that will
last forever. Ambassadors From Above We need to be careful within the Apostolic Church
that we do not place so much value in our outward appearance that we forget
about the hidden man of the heart. Yes,
our modesty is essential, but it is essential only in the respect that it should
help us reveal our inner character. If our outward modesty does not direct us toward inner
reflection, then we have missed the mark. We close our eyes when we pray to shut out the
external world around us and focus our attention within.
The same should be true for our choice of clothing.
There should be parts of our body that we do not reveal so that the focus
of those around us can be on the eternal and the spiritual, not the trendy and
the trivial. If my goal as a
Christian is to introduce others to Christ and it is Christ that dwells within
me, then I will be much more effective if my outward appearance is not
distracting and enticing. Yet by
the same token if my modest apparel fails to remind me that I should have a kind
and loving spirit, then my modesty is as filthy rags.
My covering, whether it is a covering of hair or
clothing, serves a purpose. It
serves to remind me I am more than a temporal physical presence.
I am a child of the Eternal King. My
value comes from the treasure He has placed within me.
It is His robe that identifies me as His child.
It is His breath that gives my soul life.
It is His name that I carry with me.
And it is His work that I am doing here on earth. I am an Apostolic woman.
I dress distinctively. I am
easily identifiable in public settings. But,
most of all, I hold within this earthen vessel His eternal Spirit.
I find my value in representing His Kingdom, in word and deed, in
appearance, and all manner of conversation. ninetyandnine.com Ó 2006, Martha Jaynes --------- Martha Jaynes is a restaurant manager in the
Kansas City area. She has left
behind the shelter of “normal” Pentecost to introduce the Good Doctor to a
lost and dying world. A questioner of all that is as it always was, it is her
heart’s desire to see the Truth taken out of the church and into the hearts of
unbelievers. |
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