All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Strip Club
Rachelle Starrn was raised in a Christian home & had never been inside a strip club in her life. But she felt this calling from God to reach out to women in the sex industry. She knew that God had given her a passion for those women to know how much He loves them & how precious they were in His eyes. Whatever doubts, she knew God was calling her to take action. He didn't want her to just to feel compassion for them but to do something about it.
In 2008, she started Scarlet Hope, a ministry that reaches out to women involved in the sex industry. They take big, southern-comfort-style dinners to strip clubs. Their prayer is that they're not just feeding their stomachs but they're feeding a deeper spiritual hunger. In some clubs, they fix hair & make-up so they can get some one-on-one time with the girls. It gives them the opportunity to pray with women in the middle of the strip club.
She states that many hearts have been changed & lives touched & many turned to Christ for forgiveness & new beginnings. She says she has seen Jesus show up many times in the back of a strip club dressing room. Many dancers opened up to them, sharing their struggles, asking for prayers, & some have even accepted their invitations to church.
What are your thoughts on this testimony? When I read it I must admit doubts flooded me. I know Jesus goes to the sinners but He didn't put their make-up on before prostituting themselves. Am I wrong with my feelings? No one knows the mind of God but do you really believe God would have them take such drastic steps to reach others?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Because #4 would believe that the Bible we have now is not complete and thus if it is incomplete it cannot be a complete revelation and thus we bring its reliability into question. I believe God has preserved and given us His completed revelation as designed and desired by Him.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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Scripture says that all scripture is profitable and God breathed, but I didn't know that it said it was a complete revelation. Taking in that now we know in part but then we'll know fully, to me it seems plausible that we don't have the entire scriptures, and perhaps those things that are simply deemed as unimportant in the big picture.
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You are free to doubt that we have the full revelation that God designed for us in this life, but then you can start wondering as to what part was left out or has been lost. If anything is missing it leaves us with an incomplete revelation that would leave us in doubt.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on
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I think I've rubbed off on LT a little as far as reading something long.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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We know that Jesus taught and preached in the temple. Luke 20:1 says, "One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him." We know that people were sinning in the temple because twice it mentions that Jesus cleansed the temple and even said they had made it a den of thieves. Does that count as entering an establishment that is engaged in sin? The temple wasn't just a den of theives the two times Jesus cleared it but Jesus preached there quite often while the same sin was being committed.
http://www.gotquestions.org/temple-cleanse.html
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No. that is not remotely close to the same kind of establishment. Keep in mind that "the temple" and a synagogue were not the same thing. The synagogue was designed to be a house of worship. The people, guided or misguided, went there knowing that it was a place of worship and in this case a place to worship the true God and where people would hear Scripture read. There may have been sinful activity beyond misguided (false) teaching taking place, but many of the people were gathered in an attempt to worship God.
You will also note that on many occasions that after going to the synagogue in a particular location, Paul after preaching primarily to the lost sheep of Israel there, he ceased to go to that synagogue. You may also note that in the two instances you refer to regarding Jesus (which is probably only one, the same account) He did not "love on the people" but rather overturned tables and threw them out using what some would call pretty harsh language. That is in stark contrast to what is being discussed here in this forum about reaching the lost in a strip club.
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I know there is a difference between the temple and synagogue and was using this as simply an example of preaching to people in a place where they are sinning. We often judge sexual immorality as worse than stealing, lying, etc ,,, Sin is sin. I agree that the two instances are probably one. Jesus went to the temple other times while they were sinning this way and if this is just the same account, it means He didn't love on people only that one time. Other times He healed people and preached while this was going on. He kept the whole law including the feasts. There's no doubt Jesus went into the temple. People go as missionaries into tribes and live among them. Sin is everywhere. At highschool proms, when they clean up afterwards, they find used condoms out on the dance floors. The world is in horrible shape. We are to go into all the world and preach to every creature. I'm not sure what all that means but I understand that we must not condone, justify, or enable sin. I pray God will convict hearts of sin and righteousness and at this point I will say Scarlet Hope is a bad ministry and Satan can appear as an angel of light and even give false hope.
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It is a misconception to believe all sin is simply sin or the same. All sin separates us from God, but there are defined differences in Scripture and sexual sin is identified as sin against the body (1 Cor. 6:18) and in the O.T. we find that there are different punishments for various sins and not just one punishment meted out for all sin. We also know that John differentiates between sin and sin that leads to death in 1 John 5:16. Again, we can say all sin separates us from God, but not all sin is equal in the eyes of God.
Again, to view the temple of God that God ordained as in some way in equal value as a strip club would be a grave error. We cannot see the two as simply two places. One was established by God and misused by man and the other has no connection to God or godliness. We also know that God destroyed or allowed the destruction of the temple and this before Jesus returns at the Second Coming.
The question that remains before us is whether it is acceptable before God to reach out to people in the manner in which this group is reaching out. As Scripture is our standard we must diligently seek to find out what Scripture teaches regarding this. As David commented we cannot simply accept that the ends must justify the means, nor can we simply operate out of emotion.
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I'm not viewing the temple and strip clubs as having equal value. I'm saying people were sinning in the temple while Jesus was there preaching the good news. Wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor 6:9. When I say sin is sin, I mean the judgment of an eternal hell is for any unrepented sin. Jesus preached repentance according to Matthew 4:17 and He preached to people who were sinning. My mind has changed about Scarlet Hope. What they are doing by going to the clubs is unacceptable and sinful in and of itself and that destroys the whole foundation of their ministry and it will crumble in time as many ministries have. Satan has duped them into believing they are called of God. They should take the name of Jesus out of what they are doing and simply become a secular social services agency. IMO now.
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