Ok, I’m getting all fancy with this blog and adding a visual aide diagram. Ooh, touch me! Yeah, y’all are confused as you guys get fancy all the time with your picture and visual aide adding. “What’s the big deal?”, you say. Just me, finally getting on the fancy blogging train. “Great”, everyone says unamused, “now she’s like a kid in a candy store.” I’ll try to keep things reined in and not go too crazy with the visual additions. But, as the saying goes, “I don’t know karate, but I do know krazy.”
Anyway, let’s get into today’s lesson kids. When we are doing investigative research and study on scriptural practices and activities, we often come across people who have thrown the baby out with the bath water. Many people claiming to be atheists have left Christianity, according to their own statements, because of misuse of scripture and Biblical principles. So, what do they do? They throw out the Bible even though they admit to wanting peace and joy. Someone misquoted scripture or used it for selfish reasons or just plain got crazy with it, so they say, forget it, I don’t want anything to do with the Bible. I came up with this diagram that I want to use to discuss this concept.
Let’s take the Bible and put it in the center section. You can use it to do bad things or you can use it to do good things. So throwing out the baby is like getting rid of whatever is in the middle because it can be pushed to the bad side. So, instead of getting rid of what’s in the middle section, because it can be pushed to the bad side, let push it to the good side instead. Now the question is, can we push something that’s in the middle in the direction we want, while someone else is pushing it in the opposite direction. Let me explain.
Take a type of music and put it in the middle section. It can be pushed either direction, at the same time right? So, do we just throw out that type of music? Or just keep pushing it towards the good side? Many preachers and Christians throw out all sorts of things and practices that can be put in the middle section. People in general throw out things that are put in that middle section. Am I doing that? Are you doing that? To keep or not to keep, to push leftwards or to push rightwards, that is the question?
We all have our triggers and as I am often saying now, there is a lovely comment section below to share your questions, comments and complaints. You have freedom of speech here on my site, and unless I explicitly have instructions to not allow your comment to stay or be approved from Jesus Christ Himself(Obviously you have to trust me on that, as Him and I will be the only ones at the meeting.), your comments will be allowed to stay or put through once I see they need approval. You can contest any unposted reply at anytime, and I will discuss it with you, along with anyone else who happens to see the conversation and wants to join. The haters may show up, and that’s ok. Let’s do our best to be kind, loving and calm, cool & collected. No one has been in the spot they are in, before. So we all are doing the trial and error thing and learning as we go. The enemy is sly and hard at work, let’s work harder and slyer.
That said, I will be bold here at the risk of triggering someone. Things I think can go in the middle section along with The Bible and music genres:
- Painting a picture
- Dancing in church, or while being a Christian
- Speaking in tongues
- Not eating meat
- Some of Bethel Music
- Making/watching movies
- Using a gun/weapons
- Wearing dresses
- Using cannabis
- Using prescription drugs
- Using over the counter drugs
- Wearing a costume
- Slapping someone
- Corporal punishment
- Being arrested
- Being an actor
- Being an athlete
- Wearing makeup
- Playing poker
- Playing with playing cards
- Celebrating holidays/birthdays
- Making speeches
- Protesting rallies
- Parades
- Freedom of speech
- Being a talk show host
- Making jewelry
- Using a shirt to place words or pictures on
This is not an exhaustive list by any means and could be much, much longer. I’m sure there are items you could think of that you would put on this list. And there might be items on this list that you would remove. Share your thoughts below.
ladysheepdog 
I LOVE this. Jesus spoke to me through you. Thank you for speaking.
Glad that I can be of service. My hope and prayer is apply the book of James in the good way.
This is an interesting concept, kind of like we can take “neutral” things & they can be used for good/the Kingdom of God or bad/evil. Many things in this world I agree are inherently neutral & it’s the person’s heart or intentions that might push them one direction or another. As always, we need to “spoil the Egyptians” of their treasures & leave their idolatrous & enslaved ways behind us as we follow God’s Presence to the Promised Land!
Some of what is on your list reminds me of “holiness” issues that tend into arenas of legalism. I touched on some of that in a blog post elsewhere (I think I also shared it with you in another comment somewhere). In using the Brave search engine to try to find my other blog post quickly this search turned up some stuff on the topic that looks good 🙂
https://search.brave.com/search?q=legalism%2C+lies%2C+liberty&source=web
One item on your list that I disagree with would be cannabis. From my way of thinking using cannabis is akin to drunkenness for I believe that any usage is getting someone high. I could be wrong about that for I haven’t delved deeply into the topic. Granted many substances can be misused like alcohol, caffeine, sugar, pain killers etc. The guiding principal is from scripture, “be not drunk with wine wherein is excess” & “do not use your liberty as a stumbling block for others” (both loose quotes without looking up the specific verses. Clearly scripture doesn’t forbid the usage of “wine” but forbids drunkenness, which, to me, means the over usage of alcohol to the place of being altered & out of control. I don’t believe that cannabis can be used w/out the drunkenness/high happening.
Now “whom the Son sets free is free indeed” & praise the Lord for that liberty! Many Christians have a problem with Any usage of alcohol & they should not partake if their own conscience forbids it or they’ve absorbed teachings that are legalistic on such topics & can’t step out from under error without violating their own conscience. In that sense even though I do not believe Scripture forbids Any use of alcohol I would not partake around people who believe it’s wrong, or someone who wrestles with alcoholism, or even around children if that might “cause them to stumble”. This is not to act as a hypocrite for I would not be proclaiming teetotaler status but rather being sensitive to an arena that that can be problematic for many people in certain settings. I’ve seen my parents go through a transformation in this arena from being OK w/ alcohol back when attending traditional denominational churches, to becoming extreme teetotalers (Dad would pour alcoholic gifts from suppliers at work down the drain rather than cooking with them or even giving them to someone who didn’t think drinking was wrong) under the restrictive lifestyle teachings of their independent Spirit-filled church, to now being OK w/ occasionally having a drink of alcohol, including medicinally, since that same church has loosened it’s control of its members lifestyle & changed its teachings in this domain (from my view from afar)…
I look at cannabis as a gateway drug to the harder stuff & the getting high aspect of it, regardless of legality in a given location, as something that the spirit of scripture forbids, if not actually spelling out that prohibition. I remember hearing Michael Savage on his radio show years ago discussing how the dangers of marijuana were largely hidden or lied about in the rush to legalize its usage in many places. I don’t think that MJ really has any safe level of usage that would be sub-“drunkenness” like alcohol has. That’s really the bottom line why I disagree with its inclusion on your list.
All that being said I also believe it’s important to walk in grace toward one another & not to sit in judgement (much) about how other people choose to live their lives. A scriptural foundation is mandatory for “authentic” Christian living, to be sure, but we are always in an iron-sharpens-iron, refiner’s fire, potter’s wheel condition while we live on the planet. Discussing such things amongst believers can help us refine how we understand what God desires of us & how we should live to please Him.
One pastor we had talked about Convictions, Opinions, & Absolutes. Absolutes were based on scripture & should theoretically be universal across the Body of Christ. Convictions could also be scripture based but were formed out of those arenas where the scriptural teachings aren’t completely clear-cut. They also could be the result of denominational perspectives or even long traditions that aren’t necessarily scripture based but still underpin one’s life to the level that diving deep into whether or not they are necessary or appropriate, per the Word, is not where one wants to work on the “working out their salvation with fear & trembling”. Opinions are really just our own personal views that may or may not have a real basis in biblical truth. Only Absolutes arise to the level of scriptural authority in this paradigm. This 3 part division of personal beliefs concept has helped my husband & I over the years as we wrestle with walking the Christian narrow road to the best of our ability & understanding so it’s a useful tool, at least for us! (I don’t claim that my articulation of this concept is entirely accurate nor that the original preacher of that long ago sermon would agree with how I’ve come to understand or express this framework here, so, as always, grain of salt) 🙂
Blessings Lady/Susan & thank you for presenting the topic for discussion! ❤
I think I will do a blog on cannabis as I think most Christians are ignorant about it. My voicings on the “I’m Irritable…” post was based on a comment I made on another site addressing the cannabis issue. I spent an hour composing that comment with prayer and research to make sure I had my facts straight. I never saw the comment posted. I would have like to at least been told flat out that my comment wasn’t going to be approved. Fine, I can handle that on the most part. Not knowing what happened to my comment is what’s sticking in my craw. I’m still giving the benefit of the doubt as I have not noticed comments for weeks and one time for four months, that needed my approval, so maybe its still siting in the in box, not being noticed. I wish I had copied the comment, then it wouldn’t even be an issue.