Been Doing Some Thinking
So it's almost been a week since I posted. Sometimes God speaks a lot, sometimes He doesn't. June was definitely one of the months that He spoke a lot! Being 21 I'm still learning, and forming opinions about things. I guess you never quit forming opinions or learning.
So lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about drinking alcohol, smoking, and getting a tattoo. All issues that some label sin, and that Christians shouldn't do it. So I'm just going to give my opinion and present some of the things I have read and heard. Feel free to comment and argue with me if you want to. I would love it. As long as you don't hate me forever because I hold these opinions, or say mean stuff to me, thats not cool.
As far as the tattoo I want, I have thought in my mind that it would be an awesome conversation starter. People are attracted to tattoos, they just kinda stick out there. I want to get mine on my wrist, same wrist I cut myself on with the date Jesus saved me, with the word Rescued, and the cross over my scars, possibly with the Alpha and Omega symbols because HE is my beginning and end. Isn't that awesome!? I think so. But, what does the Bible have to say about all this? Check out
Leviticus 19:28 "Never cut your bodies in mourning for the dead or mark your skin with tattoos, for I am the Lord." Well it pretty plain and simple says don't get a tattoo, however, when you look at the previous verse 27 it says "Do not trim the hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beards." So if your gonna be hard on me about a tattoo don't cut your hair or trim your beard. Tattoos were more of a cultural thing as well.
Drinking alcohol is something the Bible doesn't say specifically Don't drink. It says "don't get DRUNK with wine" drinking and being drunk are different things. I believe that if I have a few drinks socially it's okay. I would have someone hold me accountable. I think when you start to abuse alcohol and use it as a way to take care of pain or it becomes your "god" that it is sin. God is the one who all my hope and trust is in, He is the one who heals me, not alcohol. Look at what
1 Corinthians 10:23-33 says:
23-24 Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.
25-28 With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don't have to run an "idolatry test" on every item. "The earth," after all, "is God's, and everything in it." That "everything" certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn't, and you don't want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.
29-30 But, except for these special cases, I'm not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I'm going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!
31-33 So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you're eating to God's glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God's glory. At the same time, don't be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren't as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone's feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.
People make a huge deal about drinking being bad for you, but you see so many overweight preachers who are just as bad off as the people who drink. Either they are addicted to food or drinking, both are sin. Because if you use the "your body is a temple" verse overeating applies just as equally to anything else that is preached against such as drinking or smoking.
My opinion and preference is not an absolute truth. The questions I have learn to ask when faced with a decision is :
Is it best; does it bless?
Does it build?
Does it bind?
Just because I can, doesn't mean I should.
So lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about drinking alcohol, smoking, and getting a tattoo. All issues that some label sin, and that Christians shouldn't do it. So I'm just going to give my opinion and present some of the things I have read and heard. Feel free to comment and argue with me if you want to. I would love it. As long as you don't hate me forever because I hold these opinions, or say mean stuff to me, thats not cool.
As far as the tattoo I want, I have thought in my mind that it would be an awesome conversation starter. People are attracted to tattoos, they just kinda stick out there. I want to get mine on my wrist, same wrist I cut myself on with the date Jesus saved me, with the word Rescued, and the cross over my scars, possibly with the Alpha and Omega symbols because HE is my beginning and end. Isn't that awesome!? I think so. But, what does the Bible have to say about all this? Check out
Leviticus 19:28 "Never cut your bodies in mourning for the dead or mark your skin with tattoos, for I am the Lord." Well it pretty plain and simple says don't get a tattoo, however, when you look at the previous verse 27 it says "Do not trim the hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beards." So if your gonna be hard on me about a tattoo don't cut your hair or trim your beard. Tattoos were more of a cultural thing as well.
Drinking alcohol is something the Bible doesn't say specifically Don't drink. It says "don't get DRUNK with wine" drinking and being drunk are different things. I believe that if I have a few drinks socially it's okay. I would have someone hold me accountable. I think when you start to abuse alcohol and use it as a way to take care of pain or it becomes your "god" that it is sin. God is the one who all my hope and trust is in, He is the one who heals me, not alcohol. Look at what
1 Corinthians 10:23-33 says:
23-24 Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.
25-28 With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don't have to run an "idolatry test" on every item. "The earth," after all, "is God's, and everything in it." That "everything" certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn't, and you don't want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.
29-30 But, except for these special cases, I'm not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I'm going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!
31-33 So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you're eating to God's glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God's glory. At the same time, don't be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren't as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone's feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.
People make a huge deal about drinking being bad for you, but you see so many overweight preachers who are just as bad off as the people who drink. Either they are addicted to food or drinking, both are sin. Because if you use the "your body is a temple" verse overeating applies just as equally to anything else that is preached against such as drinking or smoking.
My opinion and preference is not an absolute truth. The questions I have learn to ask when faced with a decision is :
Is it best; does it bless?
Does it build?
Does it bind?
Just because I can, doesn't mean I should.
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