Women and Modesty

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In Muslim nations and communities, women dress in burkas or long-sleeved abaya in order to be considered appropriate in their culture. Yet in Indian culture, an exposed belly is not considered revealing—whether it is 20 years old or 80, and whether its size is 2 or 32. Meanwhile, in the United States, Amish women dress only in dresses comprised of a simple scoop-neck bodice attached to a loosely gathered straight skirt, and perhaps only pinned together, because pleats and buttons are considered too ostentatious.

Depending on where you live, culture does play into how one should dress. However, with a few exceptions here and there, most Western nations have a lot of leeway in what is considered appropriate or inappropriate for women to wear. But do we have that much latitude in God’s view?

Biblically, women should not be ashamed of their bodies. When God created Eve, He made her beautiful, and women are designed to want to be that way. Peter acknowledges that women want to be beautiful, and he extends that to beauty that is more than skin deep (1 Peter 3:3). Our character needs to be beautiful, and every godly woman wants to be beautiful on both the outside and the inside.

So, if God meant for women to be beautiful, why must Christian women be concerned with what they wear in public? Does God care if we wear yoga pants and a cropped sweatshirt to the mall? Does God care if we wear a low-cut blouse with a keyhole opening? Does God mind if, when we sit down and cross our legs, anyone in front of us can see halfway up our thighs? Although it is godly for women to desire to be beautiful, is that the same as being sexy—by definition, “sexually suggestive or stimulating”—in public?

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Mr. Weston’s LCN Articles

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In last week’s podcast, we mentioned two Mr. Gerald Weston articles, and we just realized we forgot to post links! So, here they are, the first of which might already be in your home!

We hope you’ll consider clicking through. Both make for excellent pre-Spring Holy Days reading.

Cats and Cows in Space

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In Podcast 43—“A.I.—Friend or Foe?”—we talk about the ability artificial intelligence now gives people to images with just a simple textual prompt. So, we wanted to give you an example of that. We’ll have more realistic images in the April-May 2023 Tomorrow’s World magazine, but these are excellent examples of how someone with no artistic ability is able to generate completely original images using these AI tools.

Well, Mr. Ben Graham, our Graphics Designer does have artistic ability, and he’s the one who generated these—but the point is that he didn’t use those skills. He simply typed in a text prompt describing what he was looking for, and the AI did the rest. In this case, the AI was Midjourmey. I’d include his prompts, but I forgot to get them. However, they were not complicated! We’ll add them later if we can get them from him next week.

In the meantime, take a close look at each image. They look amazing, but each has one or more “tells” that help indicate it is not human-made. That is, while it looks like something an artist would make, it has elements in it that clearly no human being would add. See if you can find them!

Then, if you haven’t listened to the podcast, click here and have a listen.

(Non-)Podcast: Our Apologies!

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We apologize! We have no new podcast to post this week, for the reasons mentioned in the hastily created video below. However, we hope you will consider this old podcast below—one of our earliest podcasts that some of you have missed. Have a good Sabbath!

Seven Keys to Knowing Your Bible

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I was working on organizing a new LCN article series about the four basic disciplines (Bible study, prayer, fasting, and meditation), and in doing so, I came across this sermon by Mr. Richard Ames on knowing your Bible. Toward the end, he discusses seven keys to knowing your Bible, and I thought that they sounded very helpful and worth passing on.

The embedded sermon video below is already cued up to begin at the very moment he begins discussing those seven basic keys. Jump in and have a listen!

TW Article: “Should We Kiss Dating Hello?”

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Here is the July-August 2020 Tomorrow’s World article by Mr. Jonathan McNair that was referenced on this week’s podcast: “Should We Kiss Dating Hello?” Though it was written to parents, it is really instructive for anyone wanting to understand what we should be focusing on in different stages of our development, versus the priorities pressed on us by a world that sees us as “walking wallets” instead of growing human beings with an eternal future who are seeking to live a good life.

Just click here to go straight to it!

Past TW Article on Profanity

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The podcast this week (posted below—click here if you haven’t heard it, yet!) focused on how God doesn’t want us to cuss and curse and use bad language. After we finished, we remembered a related, short article from back in mid-2019 by Mr. Dexter Wakefield, titled “Profanity!” Check it out at the link below if you haven’t read it. It’s a quick read!

And, by the way, be sure to come back and look for additional posts in addition to the weekly podcasts. We’re working harder to add helpful content, and if you scroll just a bit, you’ll see recent posts about not just the podcast, but also a related sermon Mr. Weston gave, but also a link to the Living Education–Charlotte blog, as well. Be sure to poke around, and we’ll continue working to add more content in the future! In the meantime, here’s the article:

* Note, it’s not “profanity by Mr. Wakefield,” but “Profanity!” which is the title of an article by Mr. Wakefield. Very important difference!