My wife and I have found a closeness to God when we are naked and at a rustic chapel at our resort more than we ever have at a mainstream church. We go up there, sit for a while and talk, then hold hands and she prays for us (she's got the talent for it). Its like a ten minute service, but it means more than any service created by a bureaucracy. I know we have preachers who drop in here and sometimes post and I don't want to offend their calling, but so many pastors have lost sight of what they went into minstry for, so organized church has lost its meaning for us. I hope the article doesn't draw too much critisizm from the public so we can see more of that kind.
I a very thankful for our pastor, though not a nudist himself, has no problem with my naturist beliefs and even throws in comments through out his sermons that the body is good and that Jesus was crucified naked. He speaks the truth because it's important to him. He has seen too many lies and false prophecy that he is very careful to speak about God and what God wants rather than just spout off what he thinks the bible says. He realizes that the bible is God's word, but it does not replace the holy spirit nor does it have all the answers cut a dried. God is spirit, and the spirit moves, is not stagnant and God works with people where they are, not based on ancient philosophies and lifestyles.
Jesus lived in the day as a Jew, he thought Jewish, and he did Jewish things. If he were an American (what nationality is that?) he would have to stand so far out because we are such a hodge-podge of ideas and philosophies. We don't have a culture anymore except for materialism.
I will need to reinvite my pastor to come on the forum and post something once in a while or at least read what we got here. I would like to exchange some ideas and see what he has to offer here. Even though he is not a nudist, his thoughts on the subject would prove interesting, especially for the readers here. It would bring new ideas to the forum from a non-naturist point of view.
Thanks for telling us a little bit about your pastor. Would you mind sharing with us how you first brought up the topic of your naturist lifestyle with your pastor?
I am hopefull that my pastor will be as understanding but I have not yet brought the subject up even though I have hinted and beat around the bush in a couple of conversations.
I was actually planning on chatting with my pastor over lunch yesterday and bringing up the subject but it seems that God had other plans.
Let me lead up to that story by give a little background. I have a friend who happens to be a Christian Naturist (no coincidence I'm sure) -- I connected with my friend online after he posted on Cheef's a request for another Christian couple to share their first socially nude experience with. The short of it is that after a couple of IM conversations (including assuring each other that we weren't swingers, etc.) we arranged to have both couples meet for dinner at a neutral location. The rest, as they say, is history; over the past year we have become the best of friends.
Now to the specifics..my friend has epilepsy and while on a weekend business trip he forgot his meds for a couple of days..I guess after 10 years without a siezure he got over-confident. On the way home he had a siezure and really wrenched his back. After a couple of days flat on his back we decided that he should go to the emergency room where I stayed with him until about 4am and got home myself about 4:30. Before heading to bed I fired off a couple of e-mails to my boss saying I wouldn't be in that day and to my pastor saying I'd have to reschedule lunch.
My pastor e-mailed me back and said "...no problem..I'd much rather have you being Jesus in someone's life than hanging out with me". Now I'm almost looking forward to sharing my naturist beliefs with my pastor and seeing his face when I tell him that I would never have met the friend without the naturist connection!
By the way my friend wound up with 2 compression fractures on a couple of bones (presumably vertabrae though I didn't hear that term) in the lumbar area but will not require surgery (the doctor said he didn't need an extra boat payment so he wouldn't have to operate;-). He'll need a back brace and will have quite a bit of pain but should be okay.
I'm sorry to hear about your friend, but I'm sure he is happy to have you around to help out! We meet great folks this way and hope to live our life glorifying God with our whole bodies, not just our brains and faces. Is he seeing a chiropractor? Sometimes they can help in a special way. We see one all the time. My wife has a rod in her lower back, which cannot be adjusted, but the rest of her can be adjusted, and he helps tremendously.
How I approached our pastor was a simple affair, I emailed him and wrote, "We need to talk".
When I do that, it usually means I have something I really need to talk to him about and he comes over to our house expecting a crises or a heavy topic.
Well, I had all my papers in order, my wife and I were prepared for a long night. After a few minutes of polite chat and usual greetings, he asked me to bring up what it was he was there for. I told him in so many words that we were naturists, that is "nudists" and gave a quick explaination. I think it took three minutes.
He said, "OK, I have no problem with that" or something like that. He took the stuffing out of our long winded plans with paper work and material down to five minutes. We started to eventually talk long about other things at church we needed to discuss with the pastor anyway.
And on a once in a while occasion, I bring up a topic or tell him how things are going here on the board. Haven't talked to him in a while about it, but he is available if I do need to. In fact, he made a joke about naturism one time when I wasn't expecting it! Took me off guard! I don't remember what it was, just a quick funny.
You never know what you will find. I just have to step out in faith and hope they will respond in faithkl and love, not anger or fear.
God never said it will be smooth sailing, Jesus made sure of that point on the boat. Though he did settle the waters, it was rough for a while, even when he was in it. Jesus is in our lives while the boat rocks.
Jesus said we will go to the other side, not drown half way. So the boat can rock all it wants to, we will be going to the other side.
Pray about it, get your stuff together, do your homework, be prepared and let God do the rest.
I have read this in the FLF Daily Digest and what I find interesting is that it is written this year. It says that Allen Parker is planning his next CNC for this summer.
He is??
Well, we'll see what happens. But it's good to see that Christian Naturism is being seen out there for a change and that we are not portrayed as the "randy middle-aged swinger".
We need to be more vocal, more "out there" with our beliefs.
Boyd, I was interviewed on Oct. 27th of 2005, so it was a resent interview. I'm not sure when the others were interviewed. I know that I was one of the last to be interviewed, and that after my interview he was taking off to Florida, to visit a few resorts.
Hooray, the press is recognizing the fact that we are out of there and that we have studied the issue and reconciled our faith and our lifestyle. But it is not an essential issue to our faith.
Good article, but as usual the mainstream press only got it partly right. The statement, "living and worshiping naked is at the core of their faith", is off.
While I believe that there is no Scriptural prohibition against nudity there is also no requirement for it. Admittedly, when I am nude there seems to be a greater openess between God and I. But, if I had to be clothed head to toe it would not change what Christ has done for me or what the Holy Spirit enables me to do.
I was one of the people that Phil interviewed for that article (Rob L. from Ohio), that was a first for me! I haven't seen it picked up by any of our local papers...yet.
