dress code 101

so how does the way we dress on stage affect lives of other people around us, watching us or looking up to us?

We are worshippers, what we wear reflects our hearts towards what we love most. If we are wearing clothing that distracts away from God, then we are not on the stage to honor God, more to attract attention to ourselves.

Think about how society has changed and what is now accepted as normal in the last 50 years 

Your behavior sets the tone for how others see you and your faith. 

One issue many non-Christians have with believers is that they tend to be hypocritical. If you are preaching about purity and modesty to others while wearing revealing clothes you may be seen as a hypocrite. By being modest you allow people to see your inner faith rather than your outer appearance.

 1 Peter 3:3~4 A Christian should wear what is appropriate and stylish for any given occasion, with proper modesty; God will look on the heart of such a woman with approval.

Guidelines 

1) Show the difference in men to woman clothing

Duet. 22:5 A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God 

Apparel should indicate the sex of the person; men and women are to honor God in who He created us to be 

2) Consider the effect our clothing has on our influence 

Matt. 5:14~16 A Christian is to be salt and light in this world. 

The way that you dress is an important part of your testimony. The way that you and other people dress is an indication of your character and spiritual maturity. Your dress code should conform to the rules of the bible, modesty, non-conformed to the dress code rules of the world and show humility and simplicity. And this does not apply to how your friends or family will see you but how God will see you...our aim is to be modest towards God.

We should be setting examples in our churches, schools and work places with how we dress. Clothes should not be exposing body parts that normally attract people of the opposite sex. If you have certain rules to abide to like at the work place or school you should obey them e.g. being well shaved, hair tied up or well cut, we should not look sloppy and unseat like we climb out of the jungle every morning. In general your appearance should not bring down the name of the lord.

3) make sure your clothing doesn’t offend anyone.

The world is not interested in following the word so therefore a Christian should not be interested in following the world and its "word". The unbelievers and some Christians prefer to wear clothes that attract attention to themselves or their bodies.

Take this for example, a man is meant to guard his mind from lustful images and a woman is meant to help prevent these images from entering his mind or the lustful stare. lust is part of a mans life, it is expected but if a woman wears clothing that is lustful and attractive towards men then she is also guilty for lust.

Improper dress should not be a problem, but then again so shouldn’t allot of things be. But ill tell you this, a man that is reborn again should take delight in following the word of God.

Rom. 14:21 it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak 

Matt 5:28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

Rom. 14:23 says, “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin - teaches that if someone has doubts about something, even if it is lawful they sin if they do it because they go against their conscience.

4) Be sure our clothing is modest in God's sight

 When Adam and eve had sinned they were ashamed of their nakedness and had decided to cover themselves with their hands, but they were still ashamed and God was not happy with their "dress" so he sacrificed an animal and made clothes for them to wear.

Gen. 3:21 "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" 

Here we are reminded that the purpose of clothes is to cover up and not reveal ourselves.

Now I’ll leave you with this last question 

Are you buying the outfit to attract the opposite sex and draw attention to you?

One way to tell if an outfit is modest is to ask yourself why you are buying it 
Remember; it is not Christian like to tempt others through your dress.
It is not a sin to like nice clothes, but it is a sin when the desire for fashion becomes more important than your faith.

Excellence

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

What does it mean to pursue excellence in everything that we do? What does it mean to do things to the best of your ability to glorify God? Most of the time when we have an urge to pursue excellence at something we tend to do it to better ourselves, or maybe impress others or maybe see how good we can become at a task? So what does it mean to be excellent? What is God trying to say to us by telling us to be excellent?

What is excellence? We must first understand the word before we can apply it to our lives or speaking about the excellence we must have in our work.  We must have a working definition of excellence in a way that God defines it.

 In 2 Peter 1:3 we will read a catch phrase that says God has called us to His glory and His excellence. This kind of excellence is the excellence of God’s character or His moral perfection. We are called to be moral perfect.  There is no greater question than this.  How can we be excellent in God’s sight? God desires us to mirror His excellence. We must be imitators of God.

Eph 5:1-Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children

  Being like Him is our goal as Christian in our walk with Jesus.  So being excellent before Him would mean being perfect like Him?  It is a mirroring of His attributes and character.

Excellence inspires people.

When Solomon built God's temple with excellence, he wanted to attract people to his God.  He wanted their hearts to skip a beat.  He wanted them to do a cartwheel and go crazy .  He wanted them to taste something of God's greatness and excellence.

when it comes to the church, non-Christians have a whole different idea on how things are done in the church, they   have a completely different idea to what we know, some might think that we are lazy and have things handed to us on a silver platter e.g (salvation might give that idea) But when we value excellence, as Solomon did, it makes a statement about the kind of God we worship.  It makes a statement about the commitment we have to our excellent God. it shows that we care how things are ran and that we pursue excellence and that we are hardworking, that is one of our Gods attributes, so therefore it shows what we aspire to be which inspires.

The pursuit of excellence should be 27/8

Many people will do a job to the best of their ability but then when is come to us having to do another job on top of that job that you have worked so hard you just give up and work in a messy fashion or play your guitar in a lazy fashion. God demands our full attention no matter where we are or how busy we are, we are talking about the god who put the stars in the sky and the hairs on you legs, he deserves all the attention we can possible give.

God demands excellence in worship

God had demanded excellence in the Israelites worship

And so in Malachi, God responds in different ways.  First, in Malachi 1:6 (NIV), God quizzes them. "Am I not worthy of excellence?"  In this passage God says, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  If I am a father, where is the honor due me?  If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" 

Second, in Malachi 1:8 (NIV), God basically tells them straight out "No one wants your rubbish.  Try giving your rubbish to anyone and see what they say!"  The verse reads, "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?  When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?  Try offering them to your governor!  Would he be pleased with you?  Would he accept you?" 

Third, in Malachi 1:10 (NIV), God pleads with them.  "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar!  I am not pleased with you."  God is saying,  "You might as well have stayed at home rather than coming here to offer me anything short of your very best.  I'm not a donation box, I deserve more than your hand me downs!"

Lastly, in Malachi 1:14 (NIV), God says a curse.  "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord.  For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations."

Excellence honors God.  Our very best honors God.  "Good enough" is just not good enough when it comes to glorifying God.  Excellence honors God, but excellence does something else as well.

so ill leave you with this...do you choose to honor our king of all kings, father to all fathers or Simply our God with only "good enough" or do you choose to honor our God with excellence? To work to glorify his great name with EVERYTHING you have inside of you?