Finding a balance

[SarahUmbreon]

So, what I find interesting, and kinda weird to be honest, is how Christians view their Christianity overall. For example, I do believe homosexual activities and lifestyles to be a sin, doesn't mean I hate the person, but I don't support sin. However, there are other Christians and pastors it seems that are okay and support homosexuality.

Another example is how I'm okay with drinking alcohol, like I only drink one and that's it, I'm not trying to ruin my life with getting sick and I don't even drink that often nowadays. But one of mom's friends has basically banned all alcohol in her life. I don't judge but understand, if she isn't comfortable with it, that's okay.

So that's the point of this thread, how do balance your lifestyle and with what the bible says? I have personally taken action in my life to remove things that I considered to be "not good for me as a christian", such as some anime DVDs I sold off and have decided to avoid certain shows. But I still do like my nerd hobbies, I wish I could remember the lesson better, but our pastor did a lesson on how Christians should balance their beliefs and life. It was a long time ago, so my memory is a bit foggy >.<

 

[YamiHere]

I personally think it all comes from the Holly Spirit’s discernment that comes from being in constant communication with God and reading the Bible, some things are well established as sinful in the Bible whereas others may not, and that’s where that discernment comes in place, I think. For example, if I feel sad/bad/guilty/dirty after doing something or watching something...it’s probable not right! Praying is everything!

 

[Fundamental]

So, what I find interesting, and kinda weird to be honest, is how Christians view their Christianity overall. For example, I do believe homosexual activities and lifestyles to be a sin, doesn't mean I hate the person, but I don't support sin. However, there are other Christians and pastors it seems that are okay and support homosexuality.

Another example is how I'm okay with drinking alcohol, like I only drink one and that's it, I'm not trying to ruin my life with getting sick and I don't even drink that often nowadays. But one of mom's friends has basically banned all alcohol in her life. I don't judge but understand, if she isn't comfortable with it, that's okay.

So that's the point of this thread, how do balance your lifestyle and with what the bible says? I have personally taken action in my life to remove things that I considered to be "not good for me as a christian", such as some anime DVDs I sold off and have decided to avoid certain shows. But I still do like my nerd hobbies, I wish I could remember the lesson better, but our pastor did a lesson on how Christians should balance their beliefs and life. It was a long time ago, so my memory is a bit foggy >.<

What are your nerd hobbies?

 

[SarahUmbreon]

What are your nerd hobbies?

I like videogames, Pokémon trading card game, kind of like anime/manga but I haven’t been really watching/reading anything lately, movies, and YouTube.

 

[Fundamental]

I like videogames, Pokémon trading card game, kind of like anime/manga but I haven’t been really watching/reading anything lately, movies, and YouTube.

I understand. Having become a fundamental believer myself I struggle with those worldy things too. I try to disconnect from the world but then these awesome games keep releasing. Assassins Creed Valahalla will probally mock christianity, so I’m not sure I’ll buy that game. I had enough of games insulting western culture and bending the knee for political correctness.
A lot of toys we collect and buy are polluting our earth. Most stuff we buy is made in China and creating a bad chain reaction for jobs in the west.

I don’t think there is a balance possible with these forces. Also wonder this; if Jesus would return, would people still be programming games? Would people still sell toys that are replaced within the year? Even many phones are replaced before they are worn out.

Balance in specific cases can be impossible to achieve. Best to throw them out entirely. But I am fundamental on those things, might not look for my advice alone lol.

 

[BlueTheComposer]

Paul has some good advice about this in 1 Corinthians 10:23 where he writes "“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive." and continues in verse 31 with "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

I too like video games, but I balance it by not being absorbed in them and also by taking them as ways to appreciate God and the world he's made. For example, observing the limited graphics games have compared to real life and how crazy complicated physics are that games try to emulate, either in graphics and lighting or in physical simulations. Even concepts in games fall short to the reality that he's made, such as how ecosystems work, social interactions, and even provoke questions of truth and morality. And the music of games are amazing and inspirational that always brings awe to how sound and music work and that we can appreciate it the way we do. They also inspire me to be creative myself as a form of worship.

Of course, discernment should be made to avoid things that hinder our behavior, as the things we feed to our mind will be the things we ultimately emulate and exemplify. A thing or two could also be said about conviction. Keep a good diet, digest the things that are beneficial, and reject or eject the things that aren't.

 

[SarahUmbreon]

I understand. Having become a fundamental believer myself I struggle with those worldy things too. I try to disconnect from the world but then these awesome games keep releasing. Assassins Creed Valahalla will probally mock christianity, so I’m not sure I’ll buy that game. I had enough of games insulting western culture and bending the knee for political correctness.
A lot of toys we collect and buy are polluting our earth. Most stuff we buy is made in China and creating a bad chain reaction for jobs in the west.

I don’t think there is a balance possible with these forces. Also wonder this; if Jesus would return, would people still be programming games? Would people still sell toys that are replaced within the year? Even many phones are replaced before they are worn out.

Balance in specific cases can be impossible to achieve. Best to throw them out entirely. But I am fundamental on those things, might not look for my advice alone lol.

Interesting opinion, like it. Yeah I have been doing some nerd stuff less, like anime for example. Because most of Japan is not Christian, most shows use Christianity as a “theme” like with shows having angels and demons as characters, not all anime, but a very great amount of them do. So I have just decided to be careful on what I watch, and to research a show before watching it, I actually cleaned up my “plan to watch list” of shows I considered to be “Not Christian”. But with videogames, I am considering what I play more now, but I’ve been playing videogames since I was 7...so right now it might be hard for me to give them up, lol , but I don’t let them rule my life. I’m even considering selling them away whenever I pass away, if no one in my family wants to take care of them.

 

[Fabriziojavaline]

It comes in handy to have certain discernment. For example in the alcohol realm you can argue that at some point it becomes dangerous and it can "ruin your life" but if you where to cut off all things that are not from GOD directly it is hard.
My best guess is you have to do all with love. For example, do not drink for just drinking and being drunk; drink to share a moment with a person you appreciate and care about. If you do things to please god you indeed need to do everything you could in that mindset in my opinion, the mindset of love towards other people.
Another example could be practically everything, even going to the gym...You go to the gym to being healthy, have a longer life and be more fit to do things with your family and friends. But it can be harmful if you are going to the gym taking PED'S or steroids and trying only to look cool and get ladies, in this way you are going only for despise of yourself and not liking how you look and narcissism...So therefore go with the mindset of love to everything you do, and knowing that god is behind you; or to be more precise is IN you.

 

[SarahUmbreon]

It comes in handy to have certain discernment. For example in the alcohol realm you can argue that at some point it becomes dangerous and it can "ruin your life" but if you where to cut off all things that are not from GOD directly it is hard.
My best guess is you have to do all with love. For example, do not drink for just drinking and being drunk; drink to share a moment with a person you appreciate and care about. If you do things to please god you indeed need to do everything you could in that mindset in my opinion, the mindset of love towards other people.
Another example could be practically everything, even going to the gym...You go to the gym to being healthy, have a longer life and be more fit to do things with your family and friends. But it can be harmful if you are going to the gym taking PED'S or steroids and trying only to look cool and get ladies, in this way you are going only for despise of yourself and not liking how you look and narcissism...So therefore go with the mindset of love to everything you do, and knowing that god is behind you; or to be more precise is IN you.

Yeah I agree, it does depend on the person. Like I can drink alcohol, but honestly haven’t bought any yet for awhile, I just tend to buy it when I know we will be having a party, cause it’s fun time and I’m okay drinking for a reason like that. I know my mom said a long time ago, my aunt (Which is my Mom’s sister) got rid of TV in their life because they were gonna be great Christians and go to church all the time, but my mom said they couldn’t keep that lifestyle and slipped back into getting a TV. So I think discernment overall isn’t a straight “black and white” issue, but “gray” as in each person is unique, and what may work for another Christian, May not work for a different Christian. Like my mom is okay “supernatural stuff” as she is currently watching Supernatural (My brother got her into watching it), Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things (I mentioned how I heard it was great online, there’s still a part of me that wants to finish the show, since I never finished season 1, I get lazy and distracted with other stuff in my life, lol ), but Dad wouldn’t even let my half-sister watch Coco (She was 6 when it came out I think, maybe 5, she’s 7 right now) and the only way see saw it was at a friend’s house. So discernment is a complex thing, cause God made each of us uniquely different.

 

[Fabriziojavaline]

In my experience i liked a lot Violent movies and video games and after i became a christian i lost all interest in them, i have a friend which lives very far away and i play violent games only to play with him. For example i did not like one bit the brutality that was in RDR2 or GOD OF WAR and it is because i just don't like violence.
I do not know, just the way i am...You could say i am a bad christian to play MODERN WARFARE or COD with my friend and i would tell you honestly to think what you want. I am doing it to have a good time with a good friend.
God "speaks" to us because he has written the law in our hearts like Hebrews 8 says and it also changes you to become a more loving person. I know for sure this happened to me in every aspect of life. Including in TV an entertainment.
Does that mean i can not watch some horror movie or play some violent game? well no, i am a christian no matter what. If you where to not watch every evil thing or hear every evil thing you would end up deaf, blind, limbless...And maybe senseless in every way. It is impossible to be perfect and so the most simple solution is to do things with the love we feel in our hearts towards god and towards our neighbor.

 

[BlueTheComposer]

A verse that has helped me in making discerning decisions regarding media is Romans 16:19, Paul writing, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." "Innocent" not meaning ignorant, but rather from the Greek "akeraios" meaning being free from guilt, or being "unmixed". And it helps knowing that whatever goes in my head won't ever come out, it's good to know when to recognize evil and stop letting it into my head. That being said, I don't feel violence is necessarily evil, but if media starts depicting details of and educating me on how or why to be violent towards people, that's where I draw the line. I think violence can actually be helpful in teaching us on how to deal with it, such as in medical emergencies or when others are violent towards us, but yeah, discernment is quite necessary when absorbing things and deciding what's okay for absorbment and what's not.

 

[SarahUmbreon]

A verse that has helped me in making discerning decisions regarding media is Romans 16:19, Paul writing, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." "Innocent" not meaning ignorant, but rather from the Greek "akeraios" meaning being free from guilt, or being "unmixed". And it helps knowing that whatever goes in my head won't ever come out, it's good to know when to recognize evil and stop letting it into my head. That being said, I don't feel violence is necessarily evil, but if media starts depicting details of and educating me on how or why to be violent towards people, that's where I draw the line. I think violence can actually be helpful in teaching us on how to deal with it, such as in medical emergencies or when others are violent towards us, but yeah, discernment is quite necessary when absorbing things and deciding what's okay for absorbment and what's not.

I definitely agree, great point. I find this stuff interesting in general, cause like I mentioned earlier in this thread, my mom and dad are both christian, but have very different opinions on "supernatural stuff". It is cool how God designed us all to be different...if we were all the same, that might get boring. Like I'm not trying I want sin, cause I don't, but I think it is with these differences that we can still come together as Christians, giving opinions and hopefully growing in spirit and faith to God.

 

[Nick343]

This is for you Sarah but mainly for all the other comments that disagreed my goal from this is to expose the absurdity of some Christian traditions and to shine a light on what the bible really says about fictional stories and how we should view that. I know this wasn't really the question you asked but the conversation was steered towards the question"Can Christians play Video games" so i was convicted to respond because i know a lot of weak Christians will bind themselves with spiritual yolks that are ultimately man made commands.

Hello so i think every geek seems to have this question when they become a Christian. What helped me and honestly i believe God gave me this private revelation when i was seeking the answer to this question about video games, anime, comic books and stuff like this. So first i would not tackle them individually but group all of them as a whole under the term fictional stories. Now i think its important that we dont go off of how we feel but what the bible says because we don't decide what is good or bad or what is sinful and what is not. So im going to address some verses to support my position and then explain them.
Romans 5:13
To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.
Romans 7:7
What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.
Romans 7:8-9
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

So Romans 5:13 tells us that sin cannot be credited to our account where there is no law in this case God has not given the law that forbids fictional story telling and yes this includes anime, video games, and comic books.

Romans 7:7 tells us that laws that are from God tell us what is right and wrong otherwise we would have never known what sin is and what it is not.

Romans 7:8-9 tells us that when a command is given by God it activates the sin as sin. Because prior to the command it wasn't sin because remember God decides what is right and wrong not us and now all of a sudden something that you casually did and thought was ok is now wrong. It also tells us that sin without a command attached to it is not sin at all in fact Paul says its dead and he even goes on to say he was ALIVE apart from the law but when God gave a commandment sin was activated or as he states sprang to life and he died (sinned).

So as you can see what the bible says about commands and how we are to treat them. Now for the private revelation God gave me or at least i think he gave because it makes so much sense.

First off i would like too say this, there are two types of violence righteous and unrighteous. A example of righteous violence would be when David killed Goliath and chopped his head off and made a spectacle of him or when a solider goes to war for a righteous cause to stop people who want to come over and enslave us and make us all submit to Islam. A unrighteous form of violence is when king Herod killed all those innocent children just because he was scared Jesus would become king and he would lose all his power or when a man breaks into a families house kills the children and raps the wife in front of the husband and then cuts the husbands head off and makes a spectacle of him.

Another thing to consider before i begin is that there are two modes in a game competitive and story.
Competitive is online multiplayer and solely for testing your skills against another person and having fun playing with other ppl
Story is just for following the story of the franchise kind of like reading a book but it takes skill.

What can i compare fictional stories too, to show the absurdity of some Christian positions.
Children playing army is similar instead of playing using 1's and 0's they are using plastic, are they committing murder or performing a form of unrighteous violence? Well no in fact i would argue that even if they made the plastic toy commit a unrighteous violent act it still wouldn't be a sin because how can he enact violence especially unrighteous violence against a inanimate object the answer is he cant because you cant kill what was never alive to begin with. 1's and 0's are not ppl they are just like the plastic toy they are lifeless.

People playing paintball and Air soft, this is a great comparison to video games in the competitive aspect so during these games when you get shot you die but you don't really die you simply raise your hand and go back to your spawn point sound familiar sounds like call of duty doesn't it no one dies they just re spawn and even if they did so what its not murder because as i stated 1's and 0's are inanimate objects.

Now about stories mocking God.
What is considered mocking God(Jesus Christ) well its when a story fictional or non fictional story or person make (God) seem laughably unreal or impossible.

Now we have to realize not everything is going to have Jesus in it and we shouldn't expect it too thats why fiction is called fiction. So when a writer writes a story where there is a made up God of a made up world we shouldn't be surprised thats the whole point now do we lack such discernment that we somehow think these made up Gods Mock the real God in some way or take away from his character and power well no the story literally advertises to us that they are made up according to the writers imagination and are not real. Also when the writer tries to incorporate some biblical themes like angels and demons we get mad and say its mocking and its wrong when in fact for most people when they see a angel or demon they think about the bible or Jesus because that is where these ideas come from.

This isn't even a fraction of the arguments for this topic but im not going to lay out each and every argument i would be here for a few hours lol. But i will leave you with what i decided to do when coming across topics that are not in the bible.

The first thing is i let my biblical inspired conscious speak and if it brings up any concerns i tell myself show me in Gods word because my feelings don't matter Gods word does i can say something is sinful until im blue in the face but that doesn't mean its true unless scripture says it is.

The second thing is a list of questions i ask myself.
1.Does this activity mock God(God of Christianity) or make fun of him?
2.Does this activity cause me to sin?
3.Does this activity change the way i think(negativly)?
4.Do i take the time that is supposed to be Gods and give it over to that activity?
5.Does me talking about or doing this activity cause divison or make someone stumble?

If it gets through these defenses its ok. Also if your wondering where i got this from its from the bible Romans 14:22-23 i would read all of Romans 14 though.

If you have any questions are want to talk privately we can do that as well i just don't want all the geeks God has raised up to be spoken of as evil because the Christian gaming community has a lot of good fruits especially in the area of Evangelism. This virus epidemic just proves how God is working and using video games and geeks to his glory because we are out there sharing the gospel with ppl while playing games online and or while streaming with twitch while the Christians who hate us stay home and cant do anything we are sharing the gospel with ppl who would otherwise never leave there house and when they do leave their homes they hear the gospel from a angry street preacher in front of comic con or E3 telling them they are going to hell for being a geek its no wonder they hate Christians. Here are some twitch streamers and you tubers that are Christian and play games to the glory of God for the purpose of fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of all nations.
Twitch:
1.God Squad
2.Souzy Live
3.Dr wittinesser
4.Pastor Skarr
5.Reborn Crusader
6.Retro rewind podcast
7.Solideogloria_ctc
8.Coin a geek
Youtube:
1.God Squad
2.Coin a geek
3.Dr. wittnesser
4.Geek devotions
5.The reformed gamers
6.Gamerfaith
7.Souzy
8.Gaming pastor
9.Gods Geeks

God Bless-Nick