Equipping Eve: Healing Photos

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Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

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Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

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But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

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Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

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No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

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My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

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Well, hello ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. I am your host, Erin Benzinger, and as always, we're here to look at the

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Word of God to see what the truth actually says. The tagline here at Equipping Eve is equipping women with fruits of truth from God's Word so that we can stand strong and firm on that Word in an age of deception.

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And you know, ladies, I think sometimes when we hear words like deception or even discernment, we think of, you know, we get this certain picture in our minds.

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Discernment ministries, discernment blog, deception, false teachers, false teaching, and all of that is true, but that's not all it is.

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You know, discernment isn't just, hey, who's the latest false teacher? And, you know, let's be honest, by now we get it,

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Joel Osteen is a false teacher. That doesn't mean that from time to time I won't pick up his book that I have here so that we can mock it and see what the

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Word of God actually says, but what it means is that we need to get a grasp of the whole picture of protecting ourselves against deception and the whole picture of what discernment actually is.

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It's not just running around chasing an ambulance of false teaching so that you can point the finger at, you know, someone who's twisting scripture.

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Discernment also means, you know, how do I take the truth that I know from the

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Bible and then use that in the real world? How do I use that in a world that is hostile to God and to His people?

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What does that look like? What does it look like to be a Christian woman in the world today based on the truth that I know from God's Word?

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And so when we say that we're equipping you, equipping ourselves with fruits of truth from God's Word, this is not just so that you can stand up in your next small group meeting when someone says they like Joyce Meyer and say, oh, she's a heretic.

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No, no, no, no. That's not what this is about, ladies. Equipping you with the truth of God's Word is about helping you, helping us,

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I include myself in this, ladies, to use that whole counsel of God to rightly apply it so that we can live lives in pursuit of Christ's righteousness so that we can strive for the holiness that God requires, not requires for salvation, but the obedience and holiness that He requires of His children.

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You know, if we have been saved by God, we don't just want to obey

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Him because, oh, now I have to obey God. Bummer. No. When He saves you,

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He changes your heart. He changes your desires. He changes your mind, and you desire to obey

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Him. And so discernment, protecting against deception, ladies, is so much more than what we typically see out there, especially on the internet.

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And so I want to warn you ladies against that, and that's not the primary topic today, but it's been on my mind quite a bit lately that this idea of discernment has really gone a little overboard.

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And, you know, we just see the same old thing being rehashed again and again and again.

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And we need to have discernment when it comes to discernment ministries.

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And we need to be mindful of how some of these prominent discernment people actually, quote unquote, do discernment.

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What does it look like? Are they going back to God's word? And mark this, ladies, this is important.

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Are they pointing you, the reader, you, the listener, back to the Lord Jesus Christ?

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Or are they constantly pointing you to the false and saying, well, this is wrong because this is in the

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Bible. But there's no mention of Christ. There's no mention, there's no elaboration on the truth.

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I've said it before here on the show, ladies. I can talk about the false all day long and it doesn't matter.

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It's not ultimately going to help you. If I don't, in the end, point you to Jesus Christ, I have failed.

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And that goes for every single one of us in our daily life. You don't have to have a blog or a podcast or any sort of public ministry for that.

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No. Your duty, your role as a Christian is to point people to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, is to call sinners to repent of their sin and believe upon the

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Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. That is what we are to do. Okay, so there's my little spiel.

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There's my soapbox for the day. Sorry about that. It's just one of those things, you know, you start to see things and it's just exhausting.

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I think don't some of these people get tired of saying the same thing over and over and over again?

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They have the same false teachers. You know, guess what? I don't want to say once a false teacher, always a false teacher, because there is repentance.

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But look, we get it, okay? Write an article when that person repents.

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That will be news. So just be discerning of the discernment information that you are taking in, ladies.

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Test everything against scripture and uphold it to that picture of what

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Christlikeness looks like and what the life of a Christian should look like. That is my admonition to you today.

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Okay, so ladies, what I really want to talk about today is actually an article that recently appeared in Christianity Today on the hermeneutics website.

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So if you're familiar with that, what shall we call it a column in Christianity Today, you know that it's written by women and they say things they probably shouldn't say, at least not in the name of Christianity.

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But anyway, this article was written by Maureen Garcia was published on February 11 2016.

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And it's titled finding healing in front of the camera. So we'll link to this as always at the equipping

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Eve blog. So you can see the article that we are referring to. It's, it's an interesting one.

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And if I'm not mistaken, I believe Landon Chapman sent this to me, Landon runs the in treating favor website and fire away podcast.

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So I commend those resources to you as well, but he sent this to me on Twitter, still haven't decided whether or not

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I should thank him. I don't know if you've seen this article, I think it kind of made some of the rounds.

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But interestingly, I didn't see it making as much noise as I thought it would.

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And as I thought it should, in the evangelical community, it just kind of slid under the radar, at least as far as I am aware.

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So that's concerning. And I think you'll see why in a minute. So I'm, it's a fairly lengthy article,

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I don't want to read the whole thing, I might end up doing that. But here, here goes healing, finding healing in front of the camera by Maureen Garcia.

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She writes, Sarah, a professional photographer based in Atlanta photographs women posing in unbuttoned

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Oxford shirts, lacy bras, strappy tank tops, and tied up corsets. Her subjects are not models or professional pinups.

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They are moms, brides, students and business owners. Her studio specializes in boudoir, a style of intimate portraits with subjects in undergarments, lingerie and various states of undress.

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Over the past several years, boudoir shoots have taken off with the rise of specialty photography and the body positive movement.

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I don't even know what the body positive movement actually is. But it sounds like something Christians probably don't need to be involved in.

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Quote, it's helping women be able to embrace themselves be able to feel beautiful and to acknowledge that they are stunning creatures and quote,

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Sarah told me when I met with her last year. I was fascinated by her work in philosophy. Her shoots are for all types and sizes of women, not just married women who hope to give the photos as gifts to their husbands, or traditionally beautiful women who are comfortable in front of the camera.

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But the idea of stripping down to take sexy photos poses real questions for me as a Christian.

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Do you think? Garcia goes on, I wonder, am I allowed to feel sexy for the sake of it?

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Do the Bible's teachings on modesty prevent us from actually desiring to feel beautiful, stunning, confident?

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Let me stop here. Why are you desiring to feel these things? Is it so that you can, in your mind, be attractive to men?

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And if so, is that appropriate if you're not married or if you are married and you are wanting to look this way for other men?

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And what is your motivation if you are thinking that you want to desire to feel beautiful and stunning and confident?

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Why are you seeking to be confident and stunning in your looks? Why is that where you get your confidence from?

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Moving on, Garcia goes on, she says, given our current cultural context in which many women feel pressure to attain an impossible beauty ideal,

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I love the idea of women pursuing boudoir shoots to embrace their bodies and overcome hang -ups with their own sexuality.

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But does the trend end up playing into our societal idolization of sex appeal and beauty? Is this a way for a woman to objectify herself?

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Answer, yes, yes it is. There you go. Asked and answered. Continuing, finally, what about the images themselves?

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While most boudoir photography is done in a tasteful style without the full nudity or sex acts found in erotica and pornography, the style is undeniably sexy and often revealing.

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How do we distinguish between these kinds of photos and porn? And should we be concerned about privacy and the possibility of these

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NSFW photos somehow becoming public? I don't know what that stands for,

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NSFW, okay, I don't, I don't know, so I'm just going to ignore it because I probably don't want to know.

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As Christians called to honor God with heart, mind, and body, what we do with our bodies has spiritual significance.

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In a marriage, there's also the responsibility of considering bodies in service to one another. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 4, as two become one flesh,

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Mark 10, verse 8. Despite these reservations, writes Garcia, I find myself delighted at the potential that some

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Christian women could benefit from the experience of boudoir photography, excuse me, right, what?

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Some, some Christian women could potentially benefit from this and she's delighted. As someone who has experienced sexual violation, she says,

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I believe these sessions could help heal and empower women who have been mistreated or abused. I'll just give you a minute while you contemplate that.

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She goes on, sexual abuse and assault leave victims exposed and vulnerable. It's a kind of hurt that can linger long after the abuser has gone, and often it weighs heavily on one's sexual identity.

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I don't even know what a sexual identity is supposed to be. Anyway, an abusive past causes women to associate sex with shame or pain.

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It shakes women's relationships with their own bodies and their sense of self, again, what does that mean?

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What is a sense of self? By aiming to create a positive and controlled setting for women to showcase their sexuality, a boudoir session can leave someone feeling seen, not exposed, and active, not powerless.

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This is such twisted logic. Photography is uniquely equipped to do this kind of work.

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It has both a physical and emotional dimension to it. It can lead us to experience our embodiment as something lovely, something that images

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God's beauty and strength. So you're telling me these photographs are somehow a reflection of God's beauty and strength?

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Excuse me? Could we not do that, please? Okay, she goes on and talks about some reasons why some of the clients do these pictures.

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Maybe they are doing it for their husband. Others use it as a way to heal from trauma of various kinds.

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It's become a popular commemoration for women with cancer and other conditions. Okay, she goes on,

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I'll admit when I first learned about boudoir, I was cautious, knowing firsthand how the bare bodies of pornography have devastated many families.

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As I have written for Hermeneutics, my former husband struggled with voyeurism and porn, and I was worried that these photos could evoke painful memories, but they have not triggered me.

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Still, I recognize that others recovering from sexual betrayals or violations may feel differently. Okay. While shooting boudoir,

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Sarah recognizes that some unfamiliar with boudoir could confuse her work for pornography. Okay, if it can be confused with pornography, maybe we shouldn't do it.

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It's not uncommon for bare stomachs, bottoms, etc. to appear in her photos. She says it's really only about celebrating and depicting the female body, about embracing womanhood and how it was created.

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It says, look at this woman. Listen, listen, listen, ladies. It says, look at this woman, look at how she exists.

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She embodies grace and beauty. Okay. Now the point is to capture real women and real beauty, etc, etc.

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Pornography objectifies people, reducing their bodies to something merely intended to sexually arouse the viewer.

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Boudoir begins with a woman's experience as the subject of the photos, shifting the perspective and agency to her.

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She chooses to do the shoot as well as what to wear, what to cover, what to reveal. It doesn't matter.

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I don't understand how we're trying to justify this.

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From the start, the subjects are viewed as special and beautiful, treated to makeup and hair styling, then encouraged and affirmed through the poses.

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So are you telling me you do all this and then you just shred the photos? I don't think so. I think you want someone else to see them or else you wouldn't do it, right?

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Her photos aren't meant to encourage male fantasy, but evoke wonder in the presence of feminine beauty.

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Hmm. All right. Maureen Garcia says, I could see the benefits of Boudoir photography for a few of my

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Christian friends. One struggles with shame and rejection because of her husband's sexual issues, and this might help her recognize her beauty rather than continuing to see herself through her husband's warped perceptions.

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Too often we see body image and self -worth as optional, but feeling beautiful is not just a fun perk for us.

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I believe we are missing out on the fullness of who God created us to be if we fail to see ourselves as beautiful and desirable.

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Zephaniah 317 tells us that the Lord overall takes great delight in us. We were made to be delighted in, and we should be able to celebrate the good that God sees, the beauty dwelling graciously within us by his divine design.

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There you go. That is the article. So, where do

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I begin? Let's start with the obvious. This type of photography does objectify women.

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I don't care if you say you're doing it for yourself. First of all, that's a really stupid reason. I'm just going to say it, and it's selfish, and it's very narcissistic, and I would ask you to question your motivation as to why you think it's necessary to have this type of photo taken of yourself.

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Flat out. It is objectifying women. I don't care if it's not as revealing as pornography.

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It is no different. It is no better. There is no good way to justify this.

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You cannot tell me for one second that a true Christian woman who has experienced some sort of sexual violation is actually going to find healing by posing in these types of photos.

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I don't buy it for one second. There's no way you can justify this from the word of God.

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There's no way you can justify it before a holy, pure creator

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God. No way. This whole article drips with, it's about me.

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It's all about me. And so this type of photography is perpetuating the same narcissistic attitude that we see in the world and that we sadly see in the church as well.

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So you have this just very obvious, you know, for all the cries we have of feminism and don't objectify us, and we're more than just our bodies, blah, blah, blah.

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Then you have garbage like this, pick one. You can't have it all ways.

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And now you have quote unquote Christian women jumping on this bandwagon.

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So spiritually, this type of photography also perpetuates our narcissism and it puts the focus on ourselves.

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Like I said, it is just dripping, this article dripping with, I want, this is for me.

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This is so that I can feel amazing. This points back to me. It's not about the person looking at it.

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It's about me. Okay. Let's even set aside the fact that you have some random photographer in the room who is very likely not your spouse and taking these pictures and you're inviting that person into an incredibly intimate part of you.

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That doesn't make sense. No Christian should desire to do that and no

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Christian should think that's okay, period. And no

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Christian should desire to be doing something like this so that the focus is put back on herself. No, our focus needs to be on Christ.

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On Christ. Now, ladies, as I was reading this article to you just now,

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I actually had not realized that Maureen Garcia had used this verse at the end of her article

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Zephaniah 317. And so I have notes to kind of take this conversation in a different direction and I may set them aside and we might come back to it another day.

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What I would like to do instead is look at this Zephaniah 317. Let me read this paragraph to you again.

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As she closes her article, she says, too often we see body image and self -worth as optional, but feeling beautiful is not just a fun perk for us.

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I believe we are missing out on the fullness of who God created us to be if we fail to see ourselves as beautiful and desirable.

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Zephaniah 317 tells us that the Lord overall takes great delight in us. We were made to be delighted in and we should be able to celebrate the good that God sees, the beauty dwelling graciously within us by his divine design.

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Now, there's a lot wrong in that article. The Lord does delight in his people.

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However, our primary reason for existence is to bring glory to God.

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I think of Titus 2 where Paul writes and says in 2 .11,

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For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

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So we have been instructed to deny ungodliness and worldly desires like wanting to have your self -esteem boosted, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great

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God and Savior Christ Jesus, verse 14, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

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We worship God by obeying him. See, she, as she does in this entire article, points it back to you.

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God delights in you, so this is all about you. No, it's all about God. It's all about Christ.

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And that is where our focus should be. And I'm not trying to diminish, you know, to play down this point that she's making of women who were abused or anything.

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So please don't think that I'm trying to do that. I'm just saying your comfort in that situation comes from the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And I think we need to talk about that another day. But as we're talking about this article, she points it back to you.

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She twists the scripture to point it back to you and says Zephaniah 317 tells us that the Lord over all takes great delight in us.

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We were made to be delighted in and should be able to celebrate the good that God sees, the beauty dwelling graciously within us by his divine design.

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So let's start with Zephaniah 317. Let's read that in context, because in Zephaniah 3, this last portion of the book, it's describing the remnant of Israel, and it's describing the millennial reign, the millennial kingdom and the restoration.

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And so we'll start with verse 14. Zephaniah 3, 14, shout for joy,

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O daughter of Zion, shout in triumph, O Israel. Rejoice and exalt with all your heart,

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O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away his judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies.

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The king of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem.

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Do not be afraid, O Zion. Do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst.

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We're in verse 17 now. A victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy.

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He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast.

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They came from you, O Zion. The reproach of exile is a burden on them. Behold, I am going to deal at that time with all your oppressors.

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I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will turn their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.

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At that time, I will bring you in. Even at the time when I gather you together. Indeed, I will give you renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth when

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I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. Let's go back to verse 17.

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I obviously have a different translation than Maureen Garcia is using, but the NASB says the Lord your

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God is in your midst. A victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love.

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He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. Now, verse 16, the immediate context said, in that day, it will be said to Jerusalem.

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He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. Huh. So Maureen Garcia apparently does not understand how to read scripture because these verses are speaking to Israel and are a prophecy for Israel in the time of the millennium.

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The study notes in the John MacArthur Study Bible for verse 17 say, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, see

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Isaiah 62, 4, the Lord will exalt over his people with gladness and song, resting in quiet ecstasy over his people in whom is all his delight.

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Earlier in the notes describing this broader passage, MacArthur writes the basis for rejoicing in verse 14 is that Israel's day of judgment is past and her king is residing in her midst, king being

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Christ. His departure just prior to Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of the temple is graphically depicted in Ezekiel 8 through 11, but he will return as Lord and Messiah, a fact so glorious that it is repeated in verse 17.

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But Christianity today would have you think this verse is about you and so this is why if you want to get these photos, you should get them because God would want you to have them because he delights in you too and so you should also delight in yourself.

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God thinks you're awesome. You should think you're awesome. No. This is not how you use scripture.

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This is not what the scripture says. This is not the way a

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Christian woman should read scripture. This is not the way a Christian man should view this topic and then

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Garcia ends this article saying we were made to be delighted in so puts it back on you. You know, it's all about you.

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You know what? If you weren't around, it wouldn't matter. I hate to break it to you.

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I don't mean to destroy your self -esteem, but if you didn't exist, if the Lord had never created you, he'd be doing just fine.

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He doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. He just doesn't.

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And the sooner that we understand that and understand the the loftiness and the sovereignty of God and how low we are as sinful fallen women, the better off we're going to be.

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And yet, in this is love that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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Christ died for sinners who hated Him, who were hostile to Him, whose sin was what was being punished, was what

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He was enduring punishment for. And if you can't take that truth that Jesus Christ, the sinless

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Son of God, bore the wrath of God that you deserve so that you could be reconciled to the

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Father, if you can't take that truth, that glorious, amazing truth, that demonstration of love from Christ toward His people, if that is not enough for you to take comfort in and to find your identity in, if you need to use those terms, then

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I beg you to go back to the scriptures and to pray that the Lord would change your heart. This is not about you being celebrated.

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It's really not about you being celebrated through these inappropriate photos.

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And then she says that, you know, we need to celebrate the good that God sees, the beauty dwelling graciously within us by His divine design.

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Well, there's no one good, no, not even one. There's no one righteous. No, not even one.

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Even our good works are as filthy rags before the Lord. So what good is

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God seeing? If we've been saved, He's seen the good of Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life and died the atoning, sacrificial death.

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That's the good. That is what saves us, not anything good in us, because it's not there.

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So this article demonstrates a gross, gross misunderstanding of the position of man and the position of God.

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And that is terrifying. And so it goes far beyond, should women pose for these photos or not?

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If you are asking that question, I'm concerned for you. There is no gray area here.

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That's not, that's not even a thought. It shouldn't be. And so we should be concerned that professing

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Christians would think that this is okay. And we should be concerned as to the bad theology that has led them to this thinking.

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And so this goes back to what we were talking about at the very beginning of the show, ladies. This is an element of discernment.

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No, you don't have Joyce Meyer up here telling you that you don't, you know, she doesn't sin anymore and your words have power to do this or just speak it, whatever.

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No. But you have subtle twisting of scripture. It's playing on your desire to have this high self -esteem, this thing that's been pervasive in our culture for decades.

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It's playing on these fleshly, worldly thoughts and desires that bombard us every single day.

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And it's putting a Christian spin on it or trying to, failing miserably, if you ask me. But I believe that things like this are deceiving, professing

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Christians. And I am very carefully selecting my words here. So ladies,

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I hope that you will take this under consideration.

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I don't anticipate that there are any of you out there who would agree with what this article says, but it's apparently a thing, you know, so we need to be mindful of this and we need to be prepared with answers.

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And we need to go to the scriptures for that. That is our source of truth. That is our source of infallible, authoritative truth.

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It is the word of God. It points us to Christ. That is what we need to be doing in every situation, pointing to Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life.

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All right, ladies, with that, we will catch up next time on the next episode.

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So until then, get in your Bibles, get on your knees and get equipped.

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Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a No Compromise radio production. If you'd like to get ahold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com,

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or you can check out one of our two websites, do notbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org.