About 65% of the Bible is directed to both sexes. It is, for the most part, "Gender Neutral." There are verses that specify sex regarding marriage, widows, child rearing and other gender specific verses like - Prohibition against a woman wearing men’s clothing or a man wearing women’s garments (described as an abomination). Deuteronomy 22:5 

As well as instructions on modest apparel and avoidance of certain external adornment directed particularly to women. That's the subject I ran across today in Isaiah 3. 

In Isaiah 3:16 the Lord begins his warning because some of the women of Israel were haughty, proud and had some serious attitude, and "dressed to the nines." The Lord strongly chastised them for their ostentatious dress and attitude. He mentions things like -  Proud attitude, woman walking with mincing steps, head held high and very seductive eyes,

And tinkling bangles on her feet, beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments, dangling earrings, nose rings, bracelets, headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, elaborate finger rings, nose rings, festal robes, outer tunics, bright and flashy clothing colors. 

Now this seems gender specific, but the principle applies to both sexes, although, no doubt, women have a far wider assortment of beautifying products than men. 

I asked A.I. to create an imaged based on the passage. 

In the jail service, as we made our way to verse 6,

“Don't cast your pearls before swine.”

The Holy Spirit startled and struck a 27-year-old woman with a barbed arrow that pierced her to the core.

She has spent ten years in a marriage where she poured herself into her husband but he took all she had to give, but never gave an inch.

Now he is in addiction, her 4 children have been placed in a family members care, and she has a restraining order against her.

Of course, these stories are huge and we just get a peek into them,

but this verse hit her hard.

She began to try and explain but was absolutely overcome with anguish and sobbed and cried as she helplessly asked,

"How can they tear your own children from your arms? How can they do that?"

And her inner pain was violently expressing itself in her body as she writhed under the grief.

I felt her pain to my core and the six women there did as well.

You know, I guess I always think the women tell their stories to one another, but not so, no one there knew her story but the sympathy poured out from every heart and mouth there.

I was in CHURCH!

Every person there had experienced, to some degree, this anguish and loss.

To watch this group of women that came in distant strangers, turn into the caring and consoling arm of the church left me in awe.

Each woman took a turn to do their best to encourage her, while all the time Stardust, with uplifted hands, was repeating

“HOLY SPIRIT, HOLY SPIRIT” as she prayed continually.

The tears flowed so much, by so many, a few of them had to leave just to compose themselves, and then they'd return again.

We emptied a box of Kleenex!

As I left, I was in that kind of melancholy surreal state where my soul feasted on what God had done all the way home.

 

I read these interesting thoughts on whether we should go to church or withdraw and worship privately.

Apparently, this was a discussion during the seventeen hundreds

as it is for some today.

"Human nature makes us seek the approval or sympathy of others in every significant act or event.

Religion is personal—

like marriage,

the birth of a child,

or the death of someone we love—

yet we still mark these publicly.

We neither laugh nor weep alone;

why then should we pray alone?

Religious feelings are among the most contagious we have.

If devotion really exists in the heart of each individual,

it is morally impossible it should exist there apart and single.

If genuine devotion exists in individual hearts,

it almost inevitably spreads and merges into a shared flame.

Public and private worship each have clear strengths,

so both are valuable.

Public worship is livelier and more energetic;

private worship feels more intimate and tailored to our personal circumstances.

Most criticisms of one apply equally to the other:

superstition, wandering thoughts, dullness, and selfish requests

can appear in either setting.

Public worship has distinct advantages.

It teaches people how to pray

who would otherwise struggle,

and it trains us to pray as members of a community

rather than for purely private gain.

Public worship has another advantage over private worship:

it helps guard against both spiritual coldness

and unhealthy enthusiasm.

Without the encouragement of shared worship,

many people struggle to maintain devotion

in silence and solitude.

Yet if a person's sense of spiritual realities is especially strong,

prolonged isolation can also lead the imagination

into mystical extremes

and the overheated mysticism

that can arise from unchecked solitary brooding. (I found that interesting.)

Public worship helps preserve a healthy balance,

avoiding both indifference and excess.

For worldly minds, solitary devotion is too weak;

for weak minds, it is unhelpful;

for passionate minds, it is unsafe." Anna Lititia Barbauld.

 

I love Jeremy Taylors sermons! Bold, shocking and colorful illustrations of sin and its deception and allurements.

Taylor is considered the "Shakespeare of the divines," this is one example.

I put the original at the bottom.

"Learn to despise the world;

or, better yet, learn to truly understand it.

It is a deception all the way through.

Its head is a rainbow,

its face is flattery;

its words are charms, and all its stories are false.

Its body is a shadow,

and its hands knit spiders' webs.

It is an image and a noise,

with a hyena's lip and a serpent's tail with a scorpion’s sting.

It was given to serve the needs of our nature,

but instead it craves strange appetites

and nourishes thirsts and fevers.

It brings care and worry,

corrupts our nature,

and rewards all our labors with shame and death.

Our nature is a disease,

and the world nourishes it;

but if you refuse to feed on such unwholesome fare,

your nature returns to its original purity

and becomes receptive to the grace of God."

Here is the original unabridged --

"Learn to despise the world; or, which is better compendium in the duty, learn but truly to understand it; for it is a cousenage all the way;

the head of it is a rainbow, and the face of it is flattery;

it words are charms, and all its stories are false;

its body is a shadow, and its hands do knit spiders webs;

it is an image and a noise,

with a Hyena’s lip and a Serpents tail with the sting of a scorpion;

it was given to serve the needs of our nature, and instead of doing it,

it craves strange appetites, and nourishes thirsts and fevers;

it brings care and debauches our nature,

and brings shame and death as the reward for all our cares.

Our nature is a disease, and the world does nourish it;

but if you decline to feed upon such unwholesome diet,

your nature reverts to its first purities,

and to the entertainment of the grace of God."

“The Christian walk requires more than 

skill, 

use, 

experience, 

and reason—

though these help, they are not enough. 

It must be wrought by a new principle: 

the Spirit of grace. 

Human nature and reason alone cannot do it; the proper cure comes by 

inviting, 

cherishing, 

getting, 

and yielding to God’s Spirit. 

When we have pursued these means, we may count ourselves sufficiently instructed for repairing our breaches and reforming our evil nature.” Jeremy Taylor, 1600s

 

The response I get most often from non-Christians is how they've picked and pieced together from all the different religions what they like and consider to be truth. I applaud all who seek, I always have faith they will find. This quote by Alexander McLaren addressed that --

There are people like the merchant in the parable

who went all over the world seeking goodly pearls,

who, with eager longing to possess light, truth, goodness, or rest,

search up and down and find it nowhere

because they are looking for it in a hundred different places.

They expect to find a little here and a little there,

and to piece it all together to make one all-sufficing restfulness.

Then, when they are most eager in their search—or when, perhaps,

it has all died down into despair and apathy—

the veil seems to be withdrawn, and they see Christ,

whom they have been seeking all the time,

and knew not that He was there beside them.

All, and more than all, what they sought in the many pearls

is stored for them in the one "Pearl of great price."

The ancient covenant stands firm today as ever:

“Seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

When speaking of the supernatural workings of God, they are often better experienced than explained.

For most people, the work of the Holy Spirit comes unexpectedly—not something we can manufacture, predict, or even seek on our own timetable.

God gives His gifts to edify, encourage, and comfort others, both inside and outside the church. If we are neglecting or avoiding opportunities to serve those around us, it is unlikely we will experience much of the Spirit's moving power.

The wind of the Spirit often blows in the direction of love put into action.

Consider this example.

A woman struggles with her prayer life.

It feels dry and difficult,

and she wonders why she seems so distant from God.

One day she meets a poor, young single mother who is overwhelmed by the relentless, twenty-four-hour demands of caring for a baby.

With little experience in raising a child, the young mother feels alone, inadequate, exhausted, and discouraged.

The older woman quietly steps in.

She helps with household chores, shares practical wisdom she has learned over the years about calming a crying baby, prepares a few meals,

and even volunteers to watch the baby one evening each week so the young mother can simply rest, breathe, or enjoy a few hours of freedom.

Something begins to change.

When the older woman enters her prayer closet,

her heart is suddenly alive.

Words begin to pour out as she prays for this young mother.

The Lord meets her there, giving her insight she had never considered before, and filling her with a deep, overflowing love for someone who had recently been a complete stranger.

The wind of the Spirit has begun to blow.

Her compassion deepens,

her imagination fills with new ways to help,

and her affection extends even to the baby.

Her thoughts become occupied with love and with finding practical ways to express it.

She is now living under the gentle power and influence of the Holy Spirit in a way she has never known before.

She did not expect it.

She did not pursue it for its own sake.

She simply found herself resting in the joy of God's love flowing through her into another person's life.

All the prayer, Bible study, and worship in the world can become mere exercises if they never overflow into loving service.

Yet one simple act of self-forgetting love can open the heart to experience the living work of the Holy Spirit in ways that years of private devotion alone may never accomplish.

For me, more than through any other avenue, this is how the Holy Spirit revealed His gifts in my own life.