Tattoo My Face, Pierce My Ear, My Nose, My Tongue, My . . .

Not long ago I went to a restaurant and had concerns when the wait staff assigned to my table had a tongue stud induced speech impediment, something gold protruding from the side of a nostril, and a gold loop through their left eyebrow. This event can left me wondering how sanitary can all that be? Especially a pierced tongue. If a waiter or waitress does not care appear to care about their own health, why should I think they care about mine?Maybe you have similar concerns . . . or not.

I admit that the preceding thoughts are just that . . .thoughts. They are my thoughts and that is all they are ultimately worth. Recently someone asked what the Bible says about tattoos and body piercing. After giving it some thought, I wanted to share my answer. Let me begin by saying that this article concerns multiple piercings and not an earring or two. It concerns what some call "body art" and not a personal tattoo.

What does the Bible say about piercing and tattoos?

There are two Old Covenant passages we should look at as we begin to find an answer. These two passages are part of the Laws God gave to Israel through Moses. They served a purpose for the people then and have a principle that applies to us.

• Exodus 21:5-6 – "But if the servant plainly says, `I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."(NKJV)

• Leviticus 19:28 – "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord." (NKJV)

Exodus 21:5-6 is a law concerning masters and slaves. If a slave chose to continue in his master's service after being offered freedom, his master would pierce his ear signifying perpetual servanthood. The slave volunteered to be a servant for life. This passage has no specific application to the body piercing that is part of our culture. This passage does however teach us the depth of dedication we should have for our Lord and Master. Compare Romans 6:16-18 where Paul tells us that we are slaves of the one we obey.

Leviticus 19:28 is in the context of warnings of idolatrous worship. God gave Israel laws that prohibited them from imitating the ceremonies of those worshipping idols. The mutilating of the body in this passage is how many cultures mourned for their dead. They would cut their skin to show sorrow to their gods and neighbors. The tattoos were symbols in memory of the dead. (Pulpit Commentary, Vol II, p. 289.)

Again there is no specific correlation to our present culture of piercing or tattoos. The message for us is that we are "called out," separate from the world. Compare Deuteronomy 26:18 and Titus 2:14. Like Israel whom God called out as His own Special people, so are we as Christians today. We cannot allow ourselves to be molded by the world. This thought does speak to tattoos and piercings. Who am I trying to be like? Who am I molding myself after? Am I imitating God or the world?

Now we need to turn to the New Covenant. Paul talks about jewelry in 1 Timothy 2:9-10. " . . . Women adorn (yourselves) in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works."

Paul is contrasting the worship of the true God with worship of idols. Worship of idols was a social event. Participants wore their best to impress each other and to impress the gods. Paul is telling Christian women that godliness and good works are more important to God, not how much gold they can wear. This passage teaches that we are to always be modest in our manner of dress. We (men, women, boys and girls) are not to dress to attract undue attention to ourselves. We live life to give glory to God and not to self. Peter says the same thing to wives in 1 Peter 3:3-4.

So what does the Bible teach about body piercing and tattoos? It says very little. What can we say then? Is it wrong to pierce my ear, nose, eyebrow, tongue, etc.? It is sinful to cover my body with tattoos? To answer in one word, "yes." Yes, if I am doing it to draw unnecessary attention to myself. It seems that the motivation behind today's cultural tattoos and piercings is to get attention. It is ostentatious, self-serving, and rebellious in nature, and that is what makes many tattoos and piercings wrong.

Widows Worthy of Honor

Lamuel's mother lists the Godly attributes of a worthy woman in Proverbs 31. Paul describes widows who are worthy in 1 Timothy 5:4ff. Yesterday evening my family and I had an often repeated treat. One of the widows from Parrish invited us into her home as she does regularly for my family and many others in the congregation. This time however we brought a couple of extras in tow (my parents). This kind sister knew they were in town and specifically invited all five of us to have dinner with her. What a spread! A true fellowship feast! We sat down to fresh field peas, coleslaw, fresh cream corn, corn bread, chicken fried steak, boiled potatoes, fried okra, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced onion, macaroni and cheese, and for desert a home-made chocolate pie. I know I am forgetting something! The meal was wonderful and the hospitality worthy of mention.

I wish every congregation had a lady like our Sister Lorene. I owe her a big thanks for opening her home to us so often and especially for including my parents in this invitation. If more Christians were like this great sister, then maybe we could have a better influence on the world because they would see our love!

Ivy Green

Yesterday was a day full of adventure. My parents are up from Florida visiting with us for Memorial Day Weekend and for our son's 6th grade promotion. We had a picnic in a field, drove through Wm. Bankhead National Forest, but the height of yesterday's long drive was a trip to Tuscumbia to visit the birthplace of Helen Keller. There is something inspiring about her story as well as that of her teacher Anne Sullivan. The grit and determination that these two had makes for a dramatic encounter and an "eye opening" adventure for both of them.

The fever that left Helen Keller deaf and blind as a toddler combined with her intellect created a desire for her to learn all that she could (once Ms. Sullivan and Miss Keller had a famous "break-through" at a water pump). Miss Keller graduated from college in a day when few women had degrees and when fewer blind or deaf people graduated much less one who was both deaf and blind.

Gone are all my excuses. No longer can you and I who have less disadvantages say, "I can't." We can and we will. Especially, when we are working for God.

Scott

Meet Bryant

Some of you already know Bryant Evans and may already read his blog. His recent blog about Internet pornography is a good read. You can find his blog HERE

My Turning Point part III

If you did not read Tuesday and Wednesday's blog, go back and catch up. This is the conclusion of My Turning Point.

I did not know then how I would serve him, I just knew I would. During my Junior High School years, I planned to play off-side guard for the Boston Celtics and help guide them to World Championships. I would use the fame and fortune of stardom to help people in the name of God. By the end of my Sophomore year of High School I became aware that colleges were not looking for average skill level players. Add to that fact that a driver's license and a 1967 Mercury Comet that needed fuel and a few repairs required income, so basketball became a PE and backyard sport and I stopped playing on a team after that season. Now that hoop dreams were just that – dreams, I began to find enjoyment in biological sciences.

I began thinking back to the care I received in the hospital. I realized I could serve God as a Pediatrician, I might even make a little money too! I soaked up the information we learned in Anatomy and Physiology. My lab partner, who would be class Valedictorian wanted to be a Brain Surgeon (he is by the way), I was going to be a Pediatrician, and we fed off each other all year. Yet, I had concerns. All the schooling and the long hours of a medical doctor might interfere with regularly assembling with a congregation and may keep me too busy to serve the God the way I wanted too.

Then my English and American Literature teachers began placing a heavy challenge on us. They started making us write – every week! We had to expound poetry, review novels, write research papers, compose reactions to the papers of other students, and write about current events. This may not seem pivotal, but when career day came our guidance counselors suggested that we look at what we wrote about and what we enjoy reading about to help us determine what we might want to do with our lives. Somehow, every other paper I wrote brought in a spiritual point, even a paper on Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. My English teacher gave me the highest marks she could on my research paper entitled, “The Existence of God.” There was a theme evident in my writing.

God kept showing through. Like Jeremiah who said, “If I say, 'I will not mention Him, or speak anymore in His name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot,” (Jer 20:9 – ESV), I could not help but mention the God who delivered me. I still cannot. Could I serve God as a Pediatrician? Yes! But not full time. Not the way I felt he deserves from me. I knew I could have a greater impact for God by using my gift of communication. I wanted to use my talents to point people to Him and his saving power (Rom 1:16). By my Senior year, I determined to preach. That is how I could serve God to the best of my ability, I was fulfilling a promise made a decade earlier. I am still trying to keep my promise.

What about you? Here is something for you to think about: How will you use the events and opportunities in your life for God? (cf. Eph 5:15-16; Col 4:5).

Have a great day! Thanks for letting me share!
Scott

My Turning Point part II

If you did not read part one click here:

A young college-age student was returning home from dropping her little sister off at school, when she could not avoid hitting a 7 year old pedestrian who darted out in front of her 1970's era Chevrolet Impala. Only when I became an adult did I really begin to understand the emotions that ran through this young lady that day. Doug tells how after seeing me bounce off the bumper of the car like a rag doll and then skip head first across the gravel, he ran all the way home to get Mom. Mom tells of her disbelief and panicked realization. Only as a parent raising a boy that is too similar to my father's middle son, do I realize the pain my parents experienced that summer. All the plans for the Summer had to change. All the hopes for a 7 year old boy were put on hold. Yet even with all the hurt and disappointment the events of the summer of 1974 brought; there remains evidence of a silver, if not golden, lining.

Let me interject here that I do not believe the Bible teaches that every event in life is predetermined. I do not think God causes every event or allows every event in order to work His purpose. I do however believe that His people can take the events of life, both good and bad, and at the least learn from them, or even to help them in their walk with God. The life of Saul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) exemplifies this point. Paul was not necessarily imprisoned because God wanted him there - Paul taught the gospel and man arrested him. While incarcerated Paul would use his talents for God and would convert many – a jailer in Philippi, a run away slave named Onesimus, and some in Caesar's household.

We did not get to make our excursion out West and we did not get a Color TV. I wondered how I was going to be the ring bearer in a wedding if I could not walk. I found out that my walking was the least of my parents worries. I have no memory of the first three days in ICU at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital. Later I would learn that there were moments in those early days when medical professionals questioned my survival, and my ability to learn to walk if I survived. The three weeks that followed are full of memories – nurses, doctors, family, and church folk visiting me. Then there were the cards. All four walls of my room had cards all over them. Cards from school friends, cards church friends, cards from family, and cards from people I did not know but Mom and Dad did. What an impact! I began then to realize that there were a lot of people that cared about me and wanted me to get better. Rick Bird and Mary-Lou Favorite still wanted me in their wedding, they would even let me use a wheel chair or crutches if I had too. I learned the power of encouragement. Those encouraging cards, visits, and messages led to the development of a personality trait:

Determination! I did not know that word then, but I developed the trait. I determined that I was going to get out of the hospital and would walk with out crutches in time for the wedding. After nine weeks (three in the hospital and six at home in a cast up to my waist), I received crutches. After a couple of weeks using the crutches, I put them aside and walked with that pillow and the rings up the aisle for the wedding.

Determination! I determined to do what I could to make people happy. I determined to help people have a reason to laugh, or at least to smile, especially children.

Determination! I promised God that I would be His person if He would help me through. He did! My favorite Bible story from as far back as I can remember was of Hannah promising Samuel to God in service to Eli the priest. In the hospital, while in bed at home, and when in that reclined wheel chair, I thought about the young boy Samuel who heard God's voice. I thought about what he must have felt like being away from his mother contrasted with the thrill of serving God. A few years later, when I was old enough to decide for myself I gave my life to God in Christ. I confessed my faith to the congregation and the preacher buried me in the blood of Christ lowering me into the waters of baptism. I came up from that event of faith as a newborn child of God, ready to serve the Lord of my life.

More tomorrow -- tune back in.
Scott

Turning Point

May 15, 1974 was a turning point in my life. That Wednesday literally changed not only the summer of my seventh year, but when combined with the day and weeks that followed played a major impact on making me who I am. The anniversary of that day came and went this past Friday, I spent a few moments reflecting on that day. I wanted to share my reflections with you.

That mid-week day started out like any other school day. My brother, Doug, and I finished our breakfast (either cereal or a pop-tart along with a glass of milk or juice) and headed out the door. Mom stayed at the house taking care of my baby brother, so we walked as we did everyday to wait for our ride to school. Coach Rick Bird was our ride to school. Rick was the preacher's son and was soon to marry one of my Bible Class teachers at church, they had asked me to be their ring bearer.

Two weeks of school remained before summer break. That summer had great promise. We were going to travel out West, we were going to see the Grand Canyon and maybe California. We had even talked about an excursion into the southern part of Canada. We were also getting a Color TV! Summer was beckoning, but we had to endure the last few days of school before all those magical moments of Summer could come true.

While we waited for Coach Bird, we played our usual games: floating leaves in the street gutters, bouncing loose road gravel down the road or splashing them in a puddle, or watching ants scurry to work to rebuild a foot-sized section of their anthill. Doug was looking for something to float or toss when he found a treasure – a steel ring – not a shower curtain ring mind you, this was one solid piece that rang when you dropped in on the concrete curb. After investigating it, he asked if I wanted it. The ring was cool, but if Doug who was 5 years older and a wise 13 year old wanted it, I was not going to fight him for it (at least not before school). I said, “No.”

What happened next set up a chain of events that neither Doug nor I will ever forget. He decided that the ring was of little value and checked out its aerodynamics by tossing it as far as he could across the road into the yard on the other side. I could not believe he did not want such I treasure! Now I wanted it. After a short altercation on the seemingly invalid point of my originally not wanting it, Doug said, “If you want it that bad, go get it!' I did. I looked both ways, crossed the road and went after my treasure. After looking and not seeing it, I looked at my brother for help. He said something about going to miss our ride, so I started back across the road. Here is where my memory gets a little fuzzy I recall this in slow motion. I looked to the left – no cars. I looked to the right – two cars, the last a little red hatchback. I took off, forgetting to look back to the left. That was my mistake. A mistake that would change my summer, my family's summer, and ultimately much of my life.

To be continued . . . tune in tomorrow.

Scott