Is it a Sin to Gamble?

+ Conrad - April 17

Dear Conrad -- Is it a sin to gamble? - Anonymous Dear Anonymous, Gambling gets to a larger issue of stewardship of the resources God has given us. God has given us gifts, talents and resources, which are to be used for the furtherance of his kingdom. Obviously there is good stuff to use time and money on. But when it becomes a problem is when we are being poor stewards of these resources. MT 25:22 "The man with the two talents also came. `Master,' he said, `you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' MT 25:23 "His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' MT 25:24 "Then the man who had received the one talent came. `Master,' he said, `I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. [25] So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' MT 25:26 "His master replied, `You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? [27] Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. We have been given charge of Gods resources and we are called to be wise with it. Gambling with 1000-1 odds isnt a very wise thing to do with Gods money. Indeed it would be foolish for us to try to make money that way. This issue also is about motivation. Are you gambling trying to make money? Thus making money your idol? Or are you merely spending a dollar in some charity bingo or an office basketball pool? This really deals with being a good steward. Gambling away $1000, buying $1000 of something completely useless, or using $1000 to buy something bad would all be sinful uses of Gods resources. So we would have to get past both - is it a good use of our resources AND what is my motivation if we are to use our money the way God intended.

Christians and Tattoos?

+ Conrad - October 15

Dear Conrad - "I was wondering if it is a sin to be a Christian and get tattoos?" -xshelinex This question has a few facets to it. It cannot be answered with a mere, "Yes" or "No". It can also be answered in the same manner as issues with food, money and music. Its not necessarily a sin to get a tattoo. (Side Explanation: Advocates of Leviticus 19:28 as a support against tattoos fail to realize that Leviticus was OT Israeli civil law - much like the speed limit is 55MPH. Theres nothing really wrong with driving at 60MPH, its just a law for this country. Advocates of Leviticus 19:28 will also conveniently skip the verse right before it where it says, LEV 19:27 " `Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. Obviously Levitical Law was written specifically for the OT Israeli people, where as other law such as the Moral Law found in Exodus is meant for all people and nations.) But there is much else to consider. If your parents are against it, then it would be a sin to get it (EX 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother). It would also be a sin to spend $300 on a Thug 4 life tattoo when you cant pay bills or your children have no food or spend it before accounting for your tithe monies. It would be silly for a pastor to get a tattoo on his forehead saying, Have a nice day. Just because something might be okay, doesnt mean we should all do it as much as possible in any situation. Much like how money, food, or music can be used for good or evil.

Be a Christian and Homosexual?

+ Conrad - June 25

Dear Conrad -- I'm sure you've gotten a question like this somewhere along the line, but I'm new to Decapolis and haven't seen anything on the subject so far. How can one be a Christian and be a 'practicing homosexual'? How do gay-friendly churches all over North America explain their stance? For argument's sake, let's say I'm a searching, lesbian Christian asking you this. -- Sincerely, kristinka Dear Kristinka, Great question. First off we all sin. Christians sin everyday. Some deal with pride, others lust, envy, greed, strife, etc. Some deal with sexual sin that are listed in the Bible such as adultery, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, etc. All these according to the Bible are sins. Homosexual sin is a sin as is heterosexual sin. To God sin is sin. I will focus on one main passage of Scripture to answer your question. But let me not single out homosexuality, were talking all kinds of sins here. So Ill adjust your question to be How can one be a Christian and while living in a certain sin? And you can put in whatever sin that the Bible lists as that particular sin. First we have to make a distinction between merely sinning and living in sin. We all sin everyday - Christians and non-Christians. So the issue isnt if we sin or not. The issue is - how do we see our sin? The Biblical way of looking at our sin is - we realize it is wrong and seek repentance for it. It is still sin but we know its wrong and seek to change. Living in Sin goes beyond that. It takes the sin - does not think its wrong and makes no repentance or effort to change. This is when a Christian really gets in deep. Again, it is okay to struggle with temptation but it is not okay to give up and just live in that sin with no remorse. Our fellowship with God is greatly damaged as we now live our lives for ourselves and not for God. Now lets take a look at this passage in Romans RO 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. (note: this sentence is talking heterosexual sin) [25] They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. RO 1:26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. [27] In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. RO 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. [29] (Note: Look at all the sins listed) They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, [30] slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; [31] they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [32] Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. But how do we treat Christian sinners? We should treat them the same way we treat ourselves because we are sinners also. We treat each other with love. This is why an overwhelming majority of Christians do not, and should not, support gay bashing, bombing clinics, etc. - because these acts obviously do not show love. The same passage we were talking about supports this RO 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. [2] Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. [3] So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? [4] Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? But the question now lies with, Now what? The Christian living in sin needs to attempt to stop that sin. They first must realize that is it a sin, submit themselves to Gods authority, repent and seek to live in obedience to God not because hes we see him as some unchangeable judge but as a loving father who wants the best for his children. God as a father has told us as children stuff like - Dont touch the stove, dont eat food off the ground, brush your teeth. All these things as kids we dont see how they make a difference. We just think that God is being mean and not letting us have fun. But as a parent knows more than a 2 year old, God knows more than we do on what is best for us. So, is it possible to be a Christian and sin? Of course. But a life of disobedience is not how God would like us to live, will not bring us any joy and is destructive to the people we sin against and with. We become that kid who plays with matches or runs with scissors. Eventually well end up hurting ourselves, others as well as saddening our father. For the second part of your question - humans will always try to find excuses for their sin. That is why you have churches supporting all kinds of unbiblical things. In your question being a gay-friendly church depending on its usage could be okay - if its used as a church trying to reach the gay community. But if the church is being used to excuse any particular sin (such as polygamy, adultery, promiscuity), then it merely is serving its own purpose or allowing people to feel good about their sin by not calling it one. As in the passage we are talking about Rom 1[32] Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. The life of a Christian is very hard because they live with their sinful nature and the spiritual nature. Listen to how later in Romans Paul relates his personal struggle with sin. RO 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. [22] For in my inner being I delight in God's law; [23] but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. [24] What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Now Paul give the answer to his rhetorical question. [25] Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! and finishes off with hope RO 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [2] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Sin is a problem we all face. But because of Christ we can find forgiveness, life and love.

The ever burning question in many Christians' hearts is, "Can I listen to secular music?" There is something already wrong with this question. The problem that is inherent in a statement like this is separating music into Sacred and Secular, Spiritual and Non-Spiritual.

I'll start from the beginning literally. Only God existed. He made stuff like heaven, angels, the world and cows. He also created music. God created everything to glorify himself (See the Faith section for more). There is not one thing that was created that did not glorify God. Can God make something that does not glorify himself? No. God did not make a sacred and a secular, everything to God was God's. In God's universe there is no such separation, all is unified as glorifying to God.

So if I wrote a song about cows and sausages, there would be nothing wrong with that. As a Christian I can write songs about algebra and the circulatory system and meeting girls. God created all those things. Why would it be wrong to sing about such things? I am singing about God's wonderful creation, and at the same time using a God created medium music.

So why do so many Christians get so upset about a band of Christians not preaching in their lyrics or from stage? Why do Christians say, "They're just singing about bikes and food, they're not ministering, therefore its not glorifying to God?" When one thinks like this its shows that they don't understand that God created one universe - one universe glorifying to God. In this universe both spiritual and physical things all glorify God. But this other view creates a false dichotomy, a false separation. In this separation comes the view of - God is in the spiritual and not in the non-spiritual (the secular). If its not spiritual then it is non-spiritual, that is secular, and secular is evil. And the only things that are spiritual are things like Jesus, the Bible, evangelism, and discipleship. In the secular there are things like bikes, food, physics and cows. Therefore, in this thinking, you cannot sing about the secular and still glorify God.

But if that were the case then that would mean that if other God created things are "non-spiritual" then they are not glorifying to God, and therefore evil. That would mean a "secular" job like accounting is not glorifying to God and therefore useless or evil. That would mean Adam's God-given task of farming was useless, and Christ's carpentry was useless. Christ has now been reduced to doing things not glorifying to himself.

You see the evil in splitting God's world into a sacred and secular? Believing that non-spiritual is useless leads us into thinking that God does useless things. It leads us to think our jobs are useless to God, and that we must trudge through our jobs just so we can get to Sundays, the only spiritual day and therefore the only useful day. Very destructive thinking.

You do not have to justify music and art and cows and food. God made it, its good, its justified.

But that is not to say that music cannot be used for evil.

Protestant & Catholic Bibles Different?

+ Conrad - May 18

Why do catholic bibles have extra books in them? How come regular [Protestant] Bibles don't. I just noticed this in my friends bible and should a [Protestant] Christian go by these extra scriptures? spunkyjr Dear Spunkyjr, The difference between the Protestant and Catholic Bibles are what are called the Apocrypha meaning hidden writings. These books come in between the Old and New Testament. To make a long story very short Protestants believe the Apocrypha are historical documents but are not God inspired - and therefore do not read these as from God. Catholics believe these writings were God inspired just like the rest of the OT and NT. There are 14 books in the Apocrypha which generally emerge around 300 B.C. to 100 A.D. The books in the Apocrypha are as follows: First Esdras (Greek for Ezra), Second Esdras, The Book of Tobit, The Book of Judith, The Additions to the Book of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, The Book or Baruch, The Story of Susanna, The Song of Three Children, The Story of Bel and the Dragon (a story of Daniel and false prophets), The Prayer of Manasses, 1st and 2nd Maccabees.

Restoring Faith?

+ Conrad - December 14

Dear Conrad - I did a lot of bad things and also lost much of the faith I had. How can I go about restoring the really strong faith that I had in God before all of this happened? I really am sorry that I put him through this, and just want to make things right. Anonymous Dear Anonymous, The first thing to do is repentance. I think you've gotten to that point. From then on its your basic growth that we all face. We will never be as good as we could be, but we can be better than yesterday. Don't worry about what you were like 3 months ago. Worry about today and growing some since yesterday. The reason for this is this gets rid of feelings of inadequacy that might freeze you up. Just worry about the growth. Forget about the past. God has. God truly forgives and forgets. But now you have to grow in your faith. How do you do that? It first starts with understanding what faith is. Faith is 3 things... Knowing God's Word Believing God's Word Doing God's Word... After you understand what Faith really is, now you can actually go about growing it. It starts with the knowing. Knowing starts with the Bible. This is done with personal daily study. Not just reading some chapter a night - but really reading it and asking yourself 1. Why did God put this passage in the Bible 2. How does it relate to me? 3. What am I learning about God in this passage? 4. How should my worship of him grow because of these attributes of God I am learning? 5. How should I change my behavior because of what I've learned? Growth is a long and slow process. But it is totally worth it. So in conclusion here are the steps you need to take... 1. Repent and ask for forgiveness. God wipes the slate clean. You can now be happy and start a new. 2. Understand what faith really is before you attempt to grow it. 3. Grow your faith by a devoted time to studying God, his Word, his promises, his attributes, his plan, and his commands. And have those things change you.

No Emotion in Worship and Prayer?

+ Conrad - January 15

Dear Conrad -- My girlfriend has a lot of trouble with showing her emotions. For example, she has told me that when she is in a time of prayer and worship, she has an extremely hard time putting any emotion into it. She knows she has this problem, and she hates it, but for some reason, she is unable to put emotion into her worship and prayer. Do you have any advice to give about this? Anonymous Dear Anonymous, The word emotion is a problematic term because it could mean many things. Showing emotion isnt necessarily always a good thing. There are many emotions that are bad. What I think you mean to ask is that maybe shes just going through the motions in prayer and doesnt feel a connection with God during prayer or worship even though she would like to. Worship is based in love the return of our love to the one who first loved us. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19) The more mature our understanding of God gets the more mature our love and worship of him becomes. Love isnt merely an emotion it is understanding, belief as well as action. Lets take a child as an example. A four year old does not understand the extent of his or her parents love. The parents must sacrifice countless amounts of time, money and emotion. The child does not understand what a job is, what sacrifice is, where toys come from, what the parents had to give up to afford toys, food, clothing and shelter for the child. Therefore the childs love of the parents is immature. Its the same with our love of God. During our worship of him we appreciate what he has done for us. We must consider the sacrifice he made, the suffering he went through, his faithfulness to us even though we sin, his plan for our lives, his desire to have a relationship with us, etc. The more we know and believe about God, the more we are able to feel love for him. Love isnt merely an emotion it is understanding, belief and action. Knowing that - to have a more loving worship and prayer life we must seek to understand God more. This involves personal study, devotion, church, etc. Thats the whole point of all those things to know God more and in a deeper, more

Speeding and Parking Tickets?

+ Conrad - January 9

Dear Conrad -- Is something like speeding or parking in front of a fire hydrant a sin? Should I repent for speeding and try to not speed? Or is it some kind of you accept your punishment if you get a caught kind of thing? Marko Thats a really good, practical question since most of us drive everyday. Heres the relevant passage, (RO 13:1) Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities. If the government is not asking you to do anything sinful, then you are able to submit to the law, the governing authority and God all at the same time. Driving within the speed limit, parking and traffic laws are all laws that we as Christians can and should abide by. Ultimately when we submit to authority, we submit to Gods authority as well - for he is the one who told us to submit to these authorities. To answer the second part of your question - we should always repent and accept our punishment when we do wrong.

Feelings and God's Will?

+ Conrad - May 14

Dear Conrad - How much do you think God dictates feelings? because a lot of times it seems to me that the devil deals more with feelings in messing with people, and I don't really know of anything from the bible that talks about feelings. - chet Dear Chet, Ah, "Feelings." That's the death card to me. I try to stay away from feelings as much as possible. You're right that Satan manipulates our feelings. And so does our own flesh. So how can we know if our feelings are from God, Satan or the flesh? The only way is if you line it up with the Bible. But then you aren't talking about feelings, you're talking about what is Biblical. So correct feelings are really based in "Knowledge." You can only know if your feelings are from God if you "KNOW" how God does things. Which of course is in the Bible. There's quite a number of verses in the Bible about certain emotions. Get into the practice of looking up your feeling in the Bible with a good concordance or something. And at all costs, Never say "I feel like this is what God wants me to do." If you can't say "I KNOW this is what God wants me to do," then you're in danger of inadvertently disobeying God - which is what most Christians do.

God and Miracles?

+ Conrad - May 24

Dear Conrad - Last night I was watching the Atlantis documentary on history channel. They were talking about this one volcano that effected a city called Thebe and that the results from it caused the earth to act screwy. They said that some believe that this caused the plagues as accounted in exodus. While I am skeptical on this instance...it made me start to think whether when God does something miraculous is it just POOF there it is or does he put effect the earth in a scientific way to make something happen. Example. When Jesus told Peter to cast his nets in a different place was it just POOF - fish, or did he a school of fish (perhaps migrating to warmer waters or whatever) come by when Peter casted his nets? So my question basically is does God do miracles within the realms of the scientific laws or does he momentarily break them? I know this is probably one of those questions we wont ever know...and realize to some might be pointless...but I was just wondering and wanted to get some other insight into it...I am open to any view on this. DavyD Dear DavyD, God does both. A miracle is a wondrous work of God that is above and beyond what we would expect. Just taking the plagues for example. The water into blood thing is God just going POOF blood. Also, Christ did something similar with water into wine. That goes against physical laws as we know it. But the locust plague can be easily explained with natural phenomena. God can use both. He is the author of physical and scientific realms and can use them however he sees fit. What some TV shows, like the one you watched, do is they try to explain miracles away - as if God didnt do them that they just happened by chance. But just because God used something we can explain, doesnt mean he didnt cause it to happen.

Dealing with Bitterness?

+ Conrad - May 14

Dear Conrad - How do we deal with stuff like bitterness? It's really hard, at least for me, not to be bitter about a couple things in my life right now. And I don't like it at all. - andrea Dear Andrea, The best passage I can think of is this one... MT 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. [24] As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. [25] Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. MT 18:26 "The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.' [27] The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. `Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. [31] When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. "Then the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,' he said, `I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. [33] Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' [34] In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Notice we are the person that the Master forgave the debt. Both you and me Andrea have amassed $4 Trillion of debt to God. He forgives us of this debt. And if he can forgive us of $4T of debt, he wants us to forgive each other of 50 Cents. And not get bitter over something so small verses a lifetime of sin we do to him. While the pain we feel because of someone else is great - God's grace is bigger. Everything points to God. Bitterness comes in when we look at ourselves. When someone does us wrong, that should show us the times when we do God wrong. That should point us to his grace and forginess of us, which should point us to forgiveness of them. Like you said, it's really hard, especially when you're dealing with emotional pain. It does take time. Sometimes years. But it's a matter of growth. A little more than yesterday.