Let me preface my story by saying "What a mighty God we serve!" and "be careful what you ask Him for cuz’ you just might get it!" Just kidding…I am SO thankful that God loved me enough to reveal His truth to me.
Ok, to begin my story you must know that I am as stubborn as a mule in a pulling contest with his owner and it takes a lot to change my mind about something that I hold dear to my heart.
Not only that, but I do NOT believe in cramming man’s personal convictions down someone’s throat and using the bible to hide behind. If a man or woman has a personal conviction from God, that’s great, but that’s what it is and that’s what it should be presented as. Do not present something as bible unless you have specific bible verses to back it up.
That’s where my struggle with make-up, hair dye, nail polish & tanning comes in. I was a meek looking child and was always made fun of because I wasn’t pretty; actually, I wasn’t even really cute. You can imagine my excitement when I grew up & became "pretty" and was asked to model! I was on top of the world at the time. I made a lot of money, I was pretty and everyone looked at me, men and women alike.
Now, don’t get me wrong…I was raised strict United Pentecostal and all that that implies. I was always taught that pants, shorts, etc were wrong for girls to wear. I was also taught we were not to cut our hair and I was taught that make-up was a big no-no. The problem was I was always taught, but no one ever showed me where the bible left NO question that these things were sins.
As I grew up, I was in and out of church, mainly because God convicted me on a continual basis. I received the precious gift of the Holy Ghost at the tender age of 14 and God never let me forget that…Thank God!!!
I had gone to God in the past about the dress issue telling Him that I didn’t want to hear man’s spiel about it, I wanted it straight from Him! Well, I’ll never forget what He gave me…Deut 22:5 (of course!), Hebrews 13:8 & Rev 21:8! So, then God said to me "If something was an abomination unto me then, it will be an abomination unto me today and it will be an abomination unto me forever". So, if I am commiting an abomination unto the Lord, it will ALWAYS be an abomination unto the Lord and since the abominable (those who commit abominations) are going to Hell...DUDE! This is the first time I remember God Himself revealing something to me & it was freaky, but I’m here to tell you, I’ll NEVER forget it & I’ll shout it from the rooftops…to anyone who’ll listen, of course! Even during my times of backsliding, people knew where I stood on this subject.
Oh yeah, back to the makeup…So, I met this wonderful man who was a great Christian for all the truth he knew. We went to both his church & my church out of respect for each other’s walk with God. One day, I realized that the reason I was always in and out of church was because every time I came back to church, I changed on the outside (had the apostolic look down to a "t"), but I was never willing to completely change on the inside. At that moment, I gave my entire life to God & asked Him to change me from the inside out…I knew I couldn’t do it as I had tried for way too many years. He had his work cut out for Him. =)
The big thing I always held onto was my makeup. I mean, I had been called ugly far too many times & that was never going to happen again. My husband very rarely saw me without my makeup and when he did, he wanted me to put it back on…he’s always been honest to a fault! Anyway, all the years I’d been in church I had heard about the spirit of Jezebel and how we are supposed to be modest, etc, so I did just that…I started wearing my makeup very lightly; you could barely tell I had any on, but even that little bit made such a difference in the way I looked. I would ask and ask, but no one could show me where the bible said makeup was actually a sin and until they did, I wasn’t budging.
I decided to go to God again. First, I knew He’d show me IF it was in the bible since He had showed me about the dress and second, I really didn’t think I had anything to worry about…I mean, all the men of God I had quizzed about it over the years all had good points, but when it came down to it, all of it sounded like man’s conviction and you know how I feel about that…if you don’t, read the 2nd paragraph of this testimony.
Ok…so, here I go with an earnest heart…"Hey, God. I’ve submitted myself to you completely and I want to live for you with all that I am. I’m coming to you about the makeup issue that’s been bugging me for a while. I think it ‘s been bugging me because so many people "say" it’s wrong, but none of them have been able to prove it to me. God, you made me the way I am (stubborn!), so if makeup is wrong, reveal it to me and if it’s not, give me a peace about it so I can move on". Harmless enough…so I decided I’d wait awhile to see what He did or didn’t say (my guess was the latter).
The wait didn’t take long. I think it was 2 days later that a wonderful friend of mine (who had tried to tell me why makeup was wrong) by the name of Carolyn Engle sent me a recording of a powerful message by Bro. Lee Stoneking called "Separation from Worldliness". She said I just had to hear this message, as it was powerful. I now need to tell you that Sis Carolyn had NO idea I had been praying about the makeup situation; in fact, no one knew about it but Him & me.
So, I start listening to Bro. Stoneking’s message and it was good, very good. Well, he really caught my attention when he started talking about makeup. He said he used to be a makeup artist and he said that Pentecostal women are the best makeup artists he has ever seen…now my curiosity was piqued! I almost shut it off (the devil was begging me to), but I KNEW I had made a deal with God and I knew I finally wanted to keep up my end of the deal. Ok, so Bro. Stoneking kept talking about the "modest" way apostolic women wear makeup (whew! I thought…this is gonna be ok & I’m going to make out like a bandit here).
All of a sudden, he blew me away…I mean I literally almost fell out of my chair cuz his sermon took a sudden turn for the "worse"…He had a specific verse in the bible that said makeup and ANYTHING that changes the color of our body was a sin!!! Holy Toledo, batman…I was shakin’ in my boots! This couldn’t be happening! Ok, let me calm down a minute and get back to the story.
He directed the congregation to Jude 8. As you may know, the book of Jude talks about those who will go to Hell, of which I knew (or thought!) I certainly was no longer a part of. I mean, all Jude 8 says is those who "defile the flesh" will be in the lake of fire. Well, I didn’t defile (pollute) the flesh…so, no problem.
Bro. Stoneking went on to say that in the Strong’s Concordance, the original Greek meaning for the word "defile" meant to "stain, tinge or apply color to"…HOLD THE PHONE!!! IF he was right & that was a big IF, I was in trouble!
I immediately turned to my pastor of 25 years and emailed him asking him to pray. I told him about what Bro. Stoneking had said and it wasn’t that I didn’t believe him, but I was going to check out the definition myself…he said he’d be praying. Having said that, I knew I had a couple more weeks of "safety" as I had loaned my concordance out to a brother-in-law of mine that I had been witnessing to. Right there at my desk, I told God that just as soon as I got my concordance back in a couple weeks, I’d look this up and IF Bro. Stoneking was right, I would stop wearing makeup…whew, I had just bought a couple more weeks for a very valid reason. God would want me to let my brother-in-law keep the concordance just as long as he needed it; after all, he was a new convert and he needed it far worse than I did, especially now!
God didn’t think I needed to wait that couple weeks; He has such a weird sense of humor sometimes. The next day, I received an email from a daily devotional that I was getting. The weird thing was on THAT day the devo had a link to the Strong’s Concordance on it…Wait a minute! I had never seen that on this devo before…where did that come from?! I can’t tell you how bad I was shaking as a voice whispered to me…"open it". I did & I looked up the word defile and lo and behold, Bro. Stoneking was EXACTLY right!!! Oh, my God, now what?!?!? Time to go back to my pastor.
I told my pastor what I had "discovered" (I could "hear" him chuckling again, just realizing he certainly chuckled after reading the first email). I told him I was concerned about how Bryan would accept the news…he told me to give it to God and all would be ok. I have to tell you that didn’t seem to help much at the time.
Bryan…remember my wonderful husband and remember he said I should put my makeup on anytime I didn’t have it on? He wasn’t being mean, he just thought I was more attractive with my makeup on…what about him?! He doesn’t have the truth, God…what is Bryan going to say? He’s my husband and I just have to know he will still find me attractive! I just closed the door to my office and I prayed and prayed and prayed. I asked God to go before me, to touch my husband and all the things I could think to say to help God know what to do…funny, I know.
I didn’t say anything to Bryan that evening, but the next morning I came into the kitchen without my makeup on and Bryan and our brother-in-law (Bryan’s boss), the one that was the new convert were sitting there. When Bryan saw my face, he said, "Are you sick, honey"? (I’m laughing as I am reflecting on the moment to put it in writing!) I said "no", then he said, "well, you forgot your makeup", to which I said, "no, I didn’t". They both got to hear the same story you just read. Neither one of them knew what to say, but I could see the fear, confusion and disappointment in my husband’s eyes. When he left, I cried so hard. I told God "I’m doing this because YOU revealed it to me, God. You made my husband and you know how much I love him and want our marriage to be good…please, oh please, God, help him to understand"…the prayer went on for quite a while.
I’ll end my testimony by saying my husband is not only more loving and attentive to me than he’s ever been in his life, God revealed His truth to Bryan and we now attend one church together…White River UPC!!!
Oh, thank you, God…I WILL tell my story to anyone that will listen!!!
