Stripper's Bible Study Part 3

After I quit dancing, I went back to a topless bars to do hair and makeup in the dressing room. Part of this was an attempt to share my life and Christ with the girls who might be interested and show them some light and love. But I also made good money at it and it was an easy job! I remember one of the girls coming up to me and telling me that she had seen me reading my Bible. She said it like an accusation, like I was doing something I shouldn't have been. I thought she was going to persecute me, but then she looked at me with fear in her eyes (or maybe is was crystal meth) and said "I think I have the 7 deadly sins". She thought she had them like they were a disease or had been imbedded in her by aliens.

The seven 'deadly sins', as defined by the old Catholic church, are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Somehow I doubt this hollow girl knew what all seven were, but she was certain that she had them all and she was probably right about that. I remember wishing I had a quick and easy to answer for her to get rid of them......like lice or ants or something. But it warmed my heart to know that she had merely recognized her distance from God due to her sin and that she was reaching out and telling me "I believe in God and I don't want to go to Hell, but I don't know how to fix myself". We did not have a big 'come to Jesus' talk or anything. As a matter of fact, she stopped working there soon after and I can't even remember what I said to her. But I will never forget the sense of shame that seemed to ooze off of her. It was as if she felt she wasn't allowed to be a Christian because she was working in a place like that and she had to secretly let me know that she believed in God and knew she was a sinner.

Hear me now, ladies!! You can believe in God and be a stripper. Yes, people will call you a hypocrite. Yes, you should move closer to God and away from sin patterns in your life if you trust God's plan for you. BUT......you do NOT have to clean up before presenting yourself to God. He will take you as is. Warts and all! You can call on Him while wearing your t-back, platform shoes and nursing a hangover and he will still accept you if what you are doing is recognizing your sin and asking Him to show you the way. And if you return to the strip club the next day......He will still love you. He will guide you. He might allow you to suffer the consequences of your sin, but that is what a good parent does. There are no more excuses. You can surrender your heart before finding a way out of the bar!

Sock away that truth nugget deep in your heart and now let's get nitty-gritty and define sin. What is sin? Sin is anything that falls short of God's perfect standard. It's not just the 10 commandments or the 7 deadlies. As a matter of fact, all sin is deadly because the Bible says

"The wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23

A sin can be a thought, an action or even just an attitude. It can be what you don't do as easily as what you do. God's perfect standard is pretty tough and only one dude could hack it, Jesus. Adam and Eve didn't last very long at all. But what was their sin? It wasn't murder, stealing, lying or anything like that. It was simply a failure to obey. Like running a stop sign.

We don't get to choose what we think sin should be or which sins are really bad and which ones are not so bad. Since God created the whole universe and all....He sorta gets to make up the rules about what's what. But lots of people in this world don't even believe they are sinners.....at all! They edit God's word and have decided for themselves that sin is only breaking the law...and maybe lying too. Few people consider that God grieves when we sin by having negative thoughts about others or when we do not read our Bibles daily as we are told to do. YIKES...that one gets me all the time. So you can see how prevalent sin is in everyone's life if you believe God's definition of sin over man's! And all sin separates us from God. My not-reading-my-Bible-sin and your fornicating-with-a-married-man-sin all have the same penalty......death. Separation from God. No ticket to Heaven.

Don't let anyone tell you that the sins involved with being a stripper are greater than anyone elses. They aren't more deadly, they are just equally deadly. However, the 'lifestyle' sins are much harder to repent from. Repent means to do a u-turn. To recognize something as sin and then turn in the other direction and not move toward the sin. When your lifestyle is sinful by nature it's much harder to do that u-turn. I can, for instance, pretty easily recognize my sin of gossiping and decide not to do it for a day. It's much harder for you to to recognize the sin of sexual immorality and not go to work one day and therefore not get your bills paid, etc. So some sins have a very tight hold on us. Addictions and lifestyles are hard to quit, and the consequences are steep when you do. Therefore, I won't just tell you to repent and stop dancing without walking you through how or why you might want to. So let's stick with the baby steps for now and just start to explore what your sins are. What sin patterns have a tight hold on you? What sins have you not really called sin before now? Make a list. Or just start to label them in your head as they occur. And don't let shame creep in as you realize how long the list is! Mine is just as long!

"There is no condemnation in Christ." Romans 8:1

The simple act of recognizing your sin will draw you closer to God. And He longs for you to take even just one step toward Him!