I haven’t written for a while... but that might be changing soon... more on that below.
I’m just letting you know about a new Naturist Retreat that is being built in Livingston, TX (near Houston). And it is specifically Christian!It’s being established by a pastor named Jim Moore.
How could a Pastor do such a thing, you ask?
Well, it's like this... when someone comes up to you as a pastor and asks you to help them talk their Christian friend out of being a “nudist,”
- and you agree to do so...
- and you’re responsible enough to come into such a meeting fully prepared with all of the biblical direction that speaks to the issue...
- and you’re honest enough to seek what the Bible really says...
- and you’re committed firmly to the authority of God’s Word rather than the traditions of men...
- and you discover that the bible doesn't actually say what you expected it to say...
- and you tell the person that asked you to meet their friend what you actually found in the bible..
- and so you suggest that they might want to JOIN their nudist friend instead...
Well, the honest follower of God’s Word is going to lay aside their old beliefs and embrace the truth of God’s Word instead!
The rest—as they say—is history!
That’s Pastor Jim's story in a nutshell.
It’s a story I'm personally familiar with! You open the bible fully expecting it to forbid social nudity... only to find out that God’s Word is actually quite friendly to the practice... IF... we are honest and diligent enough to remove our modern cultural blinders.
And like me, Jim and his wife decided that they couldn’t honestly continue to live as if a lie were true. They had to live as if the truth is true instead. That’s why I wrote my 3-part series, Naturist By Biblical Conviction (Part 2, Part 3). Wow... I just realized... I wrote those articles over 10 years ago!
Jim and his wife also set up a web site to publish articles detailing the biblical understanding of God’s Word that led them to their current beliefs and practices. I’m happy to share it with you!
And... if you would like to help Jim and his wife establish this new retreat... they have set up a GoFundMe page.
I hope that you’ll pray about helping them!
Meanwhile... I am hoping to begin publishing a little more on this blog. The problem is finding topics to write about. I’ve pretty much covered all the ground I needed to biblically, so I’m thinking about a series that I might call, The Logical Files... to deal with logical reasoning regarding naturism as it relates to what the Bible teaches.
And, as always, if there’s some Scripture passage that you have some questions about, please feel free to contact me or comment on the blog post to raise your questions. I just might write a new article to answer your question!
One last thought... I was talking to Jim on the phone and remembered the words attributed to Abraham Lincoln...
“When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.”
Jim, Thanks for being an honest Man of God!!
By HIS Grace,
============
Relevant Links:
Naturist By Biblical Conviction
NakedAndUnashamed.org
Eden Ranch - GoFundMe
2 comments:
Thanks for writing this blog, Matt! There is a shortage of great Christian commentary in The naturist real, it seems to me. We have lost the Fig Leaf Forum since John had to move on to other tasks, and suffered a huge loss again with the passing of Tom Pine and his Naked Truth Newsletter this year. I have always appreciated your careful handling of the scriptures, and have missed your writings!
Nice to see another post. I’d love to read Jim’s story; I’ll check out their web site.
As to this blog, if you’re looking for topics, I think it’d be interesting to read about nudity in the early church or before the modern anti-nudity bent really kicked in. And also info about the early modern naturist leaders who were pastors - are any of their writings around? How do they compare with modern Bible study? I know eugenics was huge back in the 1920s-30s.
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