Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Ohio>“You must shave your beard off to please the brothers!”
I had a beard off and on for 40 years. No one ever said a thing. Others who came also had beards. No one said anything to them. A person just needs to ask the Lord about their groom, clothes, etc.
Drake
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If you are ushering in any of the meeting halls in the Austin area it is the "feeling" of the elders that you be clean shaven. They said it's not a "legality", but it is listed on a piece of paper as being one of the seven or so requirements for an usher.
This is specific to serving as an usher and is not something required of the wider meeting body. Whether or not it is something that is required for the "serving ones" I don't know (except that they all seem to be clean shaven).
We ushers were told though that this only applies to our locality, and that what other elders choose for their locality is up to them.
The reason given was Witness Lee's speaking on Leviticus 13:29 (although I feel that there is some current LSM influence also), where he talks of the scripture verse referring to... "a disease on the head and on the beard." . . . You can read more here...
https://www.ministrybooks.org/books....=K40KI1NX01DUI
Thing is... If you go on and read the scripture that follows the above referenced verse from Leviticus you will see that it says...
Leviticus 13:32-33... "And on the seventh day the priest shall look at the infection; and if the scale has not spread, and there is no yellowish hair in it, and the appearance of the scale is not deeper than the skin,... Then he shall be shaved, but the scale he shall not shave. And the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale seven days more."
In the above we can see that even... after... the priest had looked at the infection on the face of the bearded person who may have been sick... "...AND PRONOUNCED HIM UNCLEAN..." meaning, as in having "...leprosy of the head or of the beard..." (Lev. 13:30)... This man was not required to shave. It is only after a seven-day isolation and checking again by the priest, who has then found no further indication of sickness, that the shaving is carried out and the man is isolated for seven more days, after which, if again, no negative symptoms are displayed, he is declared clean and can go about his normal daily life.
This is a very specific matter that has nothing to do with normal beard or hair growth in and of itself... But instead has to do with "...scales..." out of which the hair growing may be thin and yellowish thereby indicating a sickness.
It is the "...scales..." that point to a potential sickness, and the hair changing is used to confirm it. In fact, nothing in this scripture verse even hints at a beard being the indication of a sickness. And this is further supported by the fact that even when the first thought of there being a potential sickness arose, the man's beard was not immediately shaved. The shaving only took place as a kind of precaution, allowing the whole faced to be thoroughly checked after seven days... And note, nothing is said regarding this person — or any person — not growing a beard.
After seeing this, I then researched the matter of the Chinese culture regarding beards and came to see that there are very strong cultural thoughts regarding beards... Both negative and positive... And then realized that this could of had some effect on Witness Lee's speaking on the matter.
So what to do?
For some two weeks I considered the matter before the Lord, and then while doing so one day last week, I felt the Lord remind me of my brother Larry who kind of leads in the organization of the users in the district I meet in. I won't go into details, but I'll simply say that I saw that it was not a matter of the elders "...feelings..." and my thoughts regarding the "...right or wrong..." of whether to keep the beard and stop serving as an usher... But was simply a matter of what the Lord wanted. And when He qucikened me to consider brother Larry, I immediately knew what His need for me was. And that was all that mattered.
How wonderfully simple it is to just follow Lord... No Witness Lee... No LSM... No elders... And no me... Just the Lord, and what He needs.
Just to make clear... I am not a "hipster" type person... I have had a beard on and off for most of my adult life (possibly because it was just a daily activity I didn't want to — or feel to — have to do), and for the past maybe seven years had decided to have a beard because one day I went to buy some blades for my razor and found them to be outrageously expensive, so I just said to myself that it would be cheaper for me to grow a beard and just keep it trim with the beard trimmer I already owned. Additionally, I have a large mole on my cheek that I often cut when shaving, and so I thought to myself that not shaving would take care of that problem as well. I can't say I really ever thought about my beard in a vain way.