Lukewarm?

[CupOfMilk]

The title may be misleading, i am not lukewarm in my belief in God. I am lukewarm about my beliefs on right and wrong. There are many things some Christians believe to be wrong that others do not. The problem i seem to be having is, i stuck my self in the "i don't know if its wrong or right" and i do this with a lot of things. The problem with this is, if i can't do something by faith, then it is a sin (i think thats right, but i may be wrong). I seem to be in the middle on way to many things and it gets hard to handle. How did you "pick a side" on issues that aren't clear in the bible?

[-SEEKING-]

How did you "pick a side" on issues that aren't clear in the bible?

1. Pray about it.
2. What is your heart telling you.
3. Based on what you decide to do in the particular situation, will it be beneficial to you or not.
4. Will this enhance your growth as a Christian? Or will it hinder it?

I think that's a pretty good start.

[Dani H]

Does it follow the commandment to love God and other people?

Pick the side of love, and there you go.

[Hunter121]

What are you not sure about? So mabye someone here can help you, about the things your not sure about.

[Diggindeeper]

Sometimes people ask themselves, "What Would Jesus Do?"

[lovex]

I struggle with this too and actually I was praying about it this morning. For some reason, I often find myself staying away from things that Christians find to be "okay". When something inside of me tells me that this isn't right, why should I ignore that? I was praying that I do not become legalistic in my ways and that I am accepting towards everyone who has different views other than my own. I want my reasons to be align with the word of God so that I am not just going by my own mind and rules that I've created. I cannot forget that with Christ there is freedom. I see a lot of things differently from other people, and I find that with sticking to my convictions, I grow more closer to the Lord. Even though I may feel alone in this world. I was reading something about "gray areas" the other day. How come things that weren't acceptable to Christians before, are now considered acceptable? Has our own Christian culture found ways to pass by the meaning behind sin and just let it become the norm. That's what I'm afraid of...being influenced by this world and not allowing the Spirit to convict me from things that aren't align with the Lord. Sorry if this makes no sense or if I am saying things that do not sound true... I really hope this helps though. This has been on my heart for a while.

[PilgrimPastor]

Does it follow the commandment to love God and other people?

Pick the side of love, and there you go.

This may seem overly simplistic at first, but this is great advice, I would suggest. Love wins. Always. Even that isn't always simple though. Isn't it loving to hold someone accountable so that they will not destroy relationships in their life? God is love the Bible says, yet He is also perfectly just and righteous. Love always wins, but we need clarity about what love is and for that we need spiritual maturity and we will still get it wrong sometimes and for that we need grace.

[SteveL]

I'd like to hear specific examples of gray areas. Just so we're all on the same page and can approach the same "issues" together knowing what exactly they are.

For example, before I got saved 95% of my friends were non-Christian. And some live very worldly lives. One of my best lady friends from college recently celebrated her 27th birthday. She invited me to their birthday bash, which was a costume party of "superheroes vs. villains" (she's a big comic book fan) at a night club.

Personally, my clubbing days are over, and I just don't like the scene. I also don't feel any good could come out of it. But, operating in love I simply told her I couldn't make it BUT I'd love to take her out to dinner some time, either 1 on 1 or with another mutual friend from our college days, and catch up. Of course, dinner would be my birthday gift to her.

I recently had another secular friend invite me to a Buddhist temple. I personally had no interest. Is this an example of a gray zone?

How do we apply gray zones to what Paul taught, about how he conforms, at least outwardly, to non Christian people's different lifestyles in order that he may win them over?

[-SEEKING-]

I'd like to hear specific examples of gray areas.

Halloween.
Owning a gun.
Watching TV
Going to the movies
Voting (Either party)

There are many more but that's just some off the top of my head.

[SteveL]

Halloween.

Oooh, good one. Yes, I'm also curious what the opinion here is. We all know what Halloween symbolizes. It has to do with old pagan tradition and a night of appeasing the spirits that come back to roam the earth (as the story goes). It is certainly about ghosts, goblins, witches and such. Personally, Halloween was my favorite "holiday" growing up, and I had a very special coming-of-age Halloween in 1994... one of the best nights of my life (free haunted house, stood up to some bag snatching bullies). In my 2 years being Christian, Halloween has been replaced by "Hallelujah" parties

However, part of me still love the old memories of trick or treating and dressing up as a skeleton or werewolf. If I have kids in the future, I wonder how my wife and I would approach this topic.

Funny you bring this up because... one of my first questions as a new Christian 2 years ago was to my Christian friend of several years, "So, do I have to like... give up Halloween altogether?"

Watching TV
Going to the movies

Done in moderation and not watching explicit material is OK I feel. However, I admit old habits are hard to kill, and I find myself enjoying the occasional rated-R horror film here and there. I do these things on my own though. With Christian friends I don't take them to it or even suggest we go to R-rated movies because you never know how a certain image or scene in a rated-R film may cause anyone to stumble. The most we've watched is PG-13. Transformers 3 for instance. During the scenes where they showed ample body shots of the main female actress/model, you could hear many of the sisters groaning. The brothers were simply silent.