Distorted Beauty

The following comments are from the Girl Talk blog written by the wife and daughters of C.J. Mahaney.

Consider with me our culture’s physical beauty yardstick--for women then and women now as explained by author David Powlison: A hundred years ago women might have compared themselves with the other ten girls in the village. Today, women compare themselves with pictures of the cream of the worldwide fashion industry. And what ideal image does the worldwide fashion industry put forth as the standard for beauty by which today’s woman is to measure herself? Well, take a look at what a group of professional hair stylists, make-up artists, and photographers in cahoots with computer graphics were able to create (click on the picture to watch the video):


To think that women are striving to look like someone who doesn’t even look like herself. It’s absurd!

The Dove Campaign got it partially right—the fashion industry has certainly contributed to a distorted perception of beauty. And yet, their solution—“every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is”—is well-meaning and yet fundamentally unbiblical.

You see, women believe that physical beauty will make them happy, successful, popular among the women, desirable to the men – so they pursue it with a fury!

Physical beauty, however, does not deliver as advertised. Proverbs 31:30 reveals the falsehood and the futility of this quest for beauty: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain.

Even if every girl did “feel beautiful just the way she is,” it wouldn’t bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems.

Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God.

God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not!

What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! In fact, we’re better off not even thinking about ourselves. Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.

So while this little video effectively exposes the false front of beauty presented by our culture, let’s not look to Dove’s advertising executives for the solution to the beauty crisis. Rather, let’s join the campaign to tell others of the true freedom that is found in Christ!

When is abortion ok?

Dr. Albert Mohler just recently posted an article addressing this issue. It is entitled, The View into the Womb is "Extraordinarily Dangerous?" With the capabilities of modern techonology now able to view the unborn fetus in the womb at very early ages, this is causing many to want to lower the number of weeks when an abortion is legal. It is a fascinating article and you all should read it. But, how many number of weeks is ok? Are there certain situations which would make abortion ok as opposed to others? Let me rephrase the question. When is it ok to KILL an unborn fetus? Let's call it what it is. It is murder. Murder is never right. We must also recognize that there is a difference between killing and murder. Whereas we might affirm that a person deserves the death penalty, there is no unborn fetus that deserves death. They have every right to life. In a world that is all about Pro-choice, what about the choice of the baby? It seems that no one is letting this fetus speak. Therefore, we must speak for them. Here is an article by John Piper that is great, Ten Reasons Why it is Wrong to Take the Life of Unborn Children.
I come from the presupposition that God is the creator and giver of life and therefore we have no right to take it. My freedom is limited at the same time by this fetus's freedom. If your freedom of choice hinders this fetus's freedom of choice, you surrender your freedom out of respect for your neighbor. Before I conclude, let me make it clear that abortion (murder) is not the unpardonable sin and that there is forgiveness at the cross. If you are reading this and feeling self-righteous because you have never committed an abortion, let me remind you that you have committed some other sin against God deserving his wrath. We are all in the same boat - we need his grace. So if you are one that has had an abortion, there is grace and mercy at the cross. But if you are one considering abortion, that fetus is a life created by God and he/she deserves life. For other articles and sermons related to abortion, click here.

The Absence of the Cross in Worship

On Bob Kaulfin's website he has recently responded to a question dealing with the absence of the cross in many contemporary worship song. He says that this is indeed not healthy and then he proceeds to list 10 reasons why anyone would want to shy away from the heart of our faith. Why would we shy away from proclaiming what is the heart of our faith? Here are ten reasons that come to mind:

1. We assume everyone understands and remembers what God accomplished through Christ’s death. While this would be wonderful, it’s untrue.
2. Our pride tempts us to think of worship as something we can do on our own, rather than something Christ has done for us. It’s not our efforts, our leaders, our instruments, our passion, or our sincerity that enables us to enter God’s presence and worship Him. It’s Jesus Christ, who bore God’s wrath against us and offered God a perfect sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 10:19-22).
3. We think the Christian life begins with Christ saving us from our sins and moves on to pleasing God through our good works and service. We don’t realize that the Gospel remains our only foundation, providing hope, joy, security, peace, faith, and assurance for our life with God. The New Testament writers were consistent in their focus on the significance of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for our lives (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Col. 3:1-4; 1 Pet. 1:22-2:5; Heb. 10:19-23; 1 John 4:7-10).
4. We don’t like to sing songs about God’s wrath. Keith Getty has told me that he’s received numerous requests to alter this line from In Christ Alone: "And on the cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied." If we remove the wrath of God from Scripture, it’s hard to explain God’s requirement for sacrifice throughout the Old Testament, God’s concern for holiness, and the existence of hell. Which is why when the wrath of God goes, the rest seem to follow.
5. We don’t understand the significance of Christ’s death ourselves.
6. We look for more creative, interesting, or “mature” themes to sing about.
7. We enjoy singing and writing songs about what we do and feel more than songs about what God has done for us in Christ.
8. Pastors haven’t taught their congregations why the cross must remain central not only to our songs but to our lives (Gal. 6:14; Phil. 3:7-11).
9. Songwriters haven’t studied their Bibles well.
10. We forget that the throngs of heaven will worship the Lamb who was slain forever (Rev. 5:8-14).

"I’m sure there are more reasons. All of this is to say that whether you’re a writer, a leader, or simply a member of the church, we must never lose sight of our glorious Redeemer and his substitutionary sacrifice, which satisfied the holy justice of God against us, and through faith enables us to become God’s adopted children. May our song always be:

My heart is filled with a thousand songs

Proclaiming the glories of Calvary

With every breath, Lord how I long

To sing of Jesus who died for me

Lord take me deeper into the glories of Calvary.

From The Glories of Calvary by Steve and Vikki Cook. Copyright 2003 Sovereign Grace Worship"

D.A. Carson on the Evangelistic Strategy of Acts 17

Justin Taylor has posted and linked to an article by D.A. Carson on an evangelistic strategy using Acts 17. This is a great strategy to use especially on college campuses.