In his book, Grace Amazing,¹ Steve McVey shared a portion of a brochure that a woman in his audience gave him. She told McVey everyone who joins her church receives one. The brochure is entitled, “Truth About Standards: Biblical Standards for Christians.”
Here are a few of the “standards” “Christians” are to live by, according to their brochure.
The brochure identified Scriptural reasons not to . . .
- participate in worldly amusements such as attending ball games, rodeos, circuses, racetracks or bowling alleys
- go dancing or participate in mixed bathing
- cut your hair short if you are a man
- allow your hair to grow long and not cut it if you are a woman
- wear clothing that “pertaineth to” the opposite sex
Here’s “standards” you ladies will like . . .
- Women are to wear decent, modest clothes with modest styles; moderate prices and colors; all with decent dress lengths, sleeve length and neck lines.
- Women are to refrain from wearing jewelry or makeup
It sounds as if a church committee sat around a table one day with the pastor and thought up all the things they thought “good Christians” should not do, Then they combed God’s Word to find scriptures that justified their “standards”. To me these “standards” are pure legalism. I wonder what they do for fun in that church.
¹Grace Amazing; ©2001 by Steve McVey; Harvest Home Publishers, Eugene Oregon 97402; pg. 128
For His Glory 
By the way..thank you for recommending Grace Walks a few months back. It was refreshing to say the very least.
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I’m grateful you’ve been blessed.
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for fun? They gossip..they denigrate others that are different from themselves and they plan get togethers with other members of the church so they can praise each other for how good they are. That was a church I was forced to go to during my first marriage. oh, not physically, but the attitudes were the same.
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Hey Steven. Happy Tuesday. My wife grew up ion a home that had some similar preaching and teaching in the church. She would get so mad about it and proclaim to her mom God sees me in the shower, there is nothing I can wear that will show him more!
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Yup, pure toxic legalism. It would funny if it wasn’t so sad that Christians are actually in this religious bondage. I have found Steve McVey’s teaching pretty solid on grace, btw. Blessings.
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He’s one of my favorite Christian authors. Have you read Grace Walk or Grace Rules? Both of those really helped me anchor my identity in Christ. They were awesome. I did a weekend seminar on Grace Rules. Wow!
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I’ve read Grace Walk and have seen some of his stuff on YouTube. Both were very good.
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He is awesome. Well, time for bed. Let’s chat again. I’d like to talk more with you one on one. Do you Skype or do Facebook chat? Let me know. My email address is stevesaw@gmail.com. Love to chat sometime. I think we’re a lot on the same page spiritually. At least it sounds like it from the stuff you write. All very good. God bless.
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Steve,
I really identify with you as an authentic follower of Jesus. The world Christian can mean different things to different people, and some renderings are not very good. I believe you know what mean.
God has gifted me too, and made it possible to earn a good living on the earth, have children and grandchildren, and many other things. Thanks for sharing your post this morning.
John Lounsbury
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John, it is always a blessing to hear from you. Thank you for your encouragement today. God bless.
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