Can I get someone's opinion on this?

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Makarios

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Before I start, let me provide the back-story to this. Lately, I’ve been in a rut with Christianity. I haven’t been practicing my faith at all. In fact, my faith has been low recently. My behavior lately shows it, as I’m constantly sinning, doing things like using dirty language, smoking pot (not this week, but the last two weeks because I was in New Jersey with my cousin, who is obviously not such a great influence on me), smoking cigarettes, drinking, and other things. I only plead that Christ forgive me for trying to fill the void I have in my heart with things of this world rather than with His grace.

Now, I was just wondering about something. I just started reading my Bible again and I plan on attending Catholic Mass again, as well as a Lutheran service (still trying to figure out where God wants me; took a break for a couple months recently, though). I want to dedicate myself to Jesus Christ like I never did before, now. I want to get rid of my personal idols, and that’s where this thread comes in. I was reading Acts, and after reading chapter two, I have a strong urge to sell some of my own possessions as the early Christians did, which Jesus once even commanded a young rich man to do (Matthew 19; Mark 10). This feeling comes from the following passage:
Acts 2:36-47 MKJV
Context: Peter is speaking to a group of people on the day of Pentecost who are accusing the Christians, who have just begun speaking in tongues as it has been given to them as a gift by the Holy Spirit, of being drunk with “new wine”.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
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Note: Emphasis mine.

The verse I put in bold is the primary verse to support what I’m thinking. The main thing I am considering giving up is video games (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360). The only thing I will keep video-game wise would be the PS2 I literally just bought, before reading this passage, and my GameCube, and would try best not to play them too much but only recreationally and after my priorities are in order.

What do other people think of this? Am I being too strict with myself? Is my thinking completely out-of-wack and over-thought? Or is there any sense to what I’m considering? What else do you think would be good to sell? Should I sell some of the music CD’s I own (Metallica, Eminem, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Aerosmith, Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, etc.)? What about selling my electric guitars? I feel like my metal playing days are over, as the material I’m producing is stale and it’s just not working. I’d love to buy an acoustic or two at the local music show and play more folk style guitar, such as Don Francisco.

If I go through with this, I would try to save some of the money as I’m getting a car and a license soon, and I would love to buy some books to educate myself on various topics concerning the faith, as well as other things such as politics, history, etc. I would also like to finally be able to give some money to the two missions I’ve subscribed to, which are Gospel For Asia and Voice Of The Martyrs.

Thank you for your time.

PS: I put this thread in this forum as I want opinions from various Christians of different denominations.
 
Well, my friend, I think you need some help on the basics of the faith.

What does ‘practicing my faith’ mean to you? From what I read, it’s all about what you do or don’t do. Behavior based Christianity is always doomed to fail. Paul wrote in Romans ‘O wretched man that I am. For I do the things that I don’t want to do’. We Lutherans hold the believe that a Christian is 100% Sinner and 100% Saint until we die. The two natures always war against each other. But Christianity is about two things:
  1. Our relationship with God
  2. Our actions toward our fellow man.
As for our relationship with God, all Christians should be part of a community of believers. They should be hearing the Word and partaking of the Sacraments. There should be individual study and prayer. Start making time for these things. Don’t overdo it and try to pray and study for a solid hour. Find a verse that hits home for the day, and think about that verse as you go through your day.

Our actions, towards our fellow man is where I would put the issue you raise of what to do with your stuff. I’d say you are being way to hard on yourself and to just hang onto that stuff for a while. Until you get the basics of Christianity settled; until you have settled into a faith community; until you are well practiced in listening for the ‘still small voice’ as you search the Scriptures and study with older Christians, getting rid of so many possessions is going to only lead to more disappointments. There may well come a time when God makes clear that it’s time to let some of these things go, but I doubt that the time is now.

I would make an effort to get books to study along with the Bible. Start first with the Bible and a pad to write on. Ask yourself ‘what do I now believe regarding’…picking one subject after another and searching the Bible as you go. If at all possible, find a more experienced Christian to study with. Sometimes that comes through the author of a book. More often it is found within a faith community.

Good luck, and get your fanny into church today!
 
Thank you for your answer. 🙂

I believe you are mostly right. Though, I feel as if these things aren’t helping me progress as a Christian and are, in fact, keeping me from progressing. They serve the purpose of person idols it seems.
 
It seems your heart is leaning the right way. You want to do good and I would strongly encourage you to try your hardest. As far as your behavior, the drugs should stop now. If metal music is causing you to sin, then cut it off. But, I see no problem with Bon Jovi. Lol. The other bands I think are bad influences. After saying all of that, your friends would probably need to change. That would be more influences cut off. This all would be hard to do,that’s why Jesus said the following, because it is hard:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. Mark 9:43
 
Makarios said:
Thank you for your time.

PS: I put this thread in this forum as I want opinions from various Christians of different denominations.
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It’s easier for me to give advice than to follow my own.

We should get rid of anything that keeps us from growing in Christ. Even the good can keep us from the best. Why do we so often settle for the lesser?

Don’t sell anything that is ungodly. Throw them away.
 
Hi Makarios,

If the things you divest yourself of are things that inhibit your life in Christ then it certainly can’t hurt, and can in fact be a source of grace and blessing. If you are like most of us, you need all the grace you can get. 🙂

With respect to musical instruments, have you considered finding a way to use your skills in His service? Learning to play sacred music would be a way to spend time with Him in much the same way as prayer.

I would so recommend more time spent in reading the New Testament. The better you know it the more clear God’s will will become to you. Read and study carefully, especially passages that (I know from experience) are often glossed over or discounted by non-Catholic preachers and teachers. These articles from my blog will give you some examples.
I applaud your willingness to commit yourself fully to Our Lord. I will also pray that Our Lord guide you into our most holy Catholic faith.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
Dokimas said:
Don’t sell anything that is ungodly. Throw them away.
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Keep in mind that none of the possessions that you have mentioned in your post are what can be classed as “ungodly” in and of themselves, so the above may not be very good advice. 🤷

Remember that Our Lord Himself also said, " And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." (See Luke 16:1-15 for context.)
 
Praise God the Spirit is calling you! Investing in the kingdom of God is a good thing (missions) and will pay dividens well into eternity.

Your electric guitars can now be used to glorify God and praise His name. Look for Christian music that will work with your instruments or adapt christian songs you like to work on them.

I used to like heavy metal and rock but now it is exclusively christian music because music is a powerful medium. I actually destroyed my record collection 40-50 albums.Now I only sing songs (to myself) that glorify God. We are called to have melody in our hearts and praise His name. I have never looked back.

It is hard to live right when you have bad influences around you. Do you have any christian friendsto help you?

Let God live in you and His Spirit will lead you the way you should go. I know this is a cleche but “Let go and let God”
 
WOW! You sure have developed some great insight!!! Not many people “figure it out” at your age. I am assuming you are a teenager??? You are right in that you need to limit your time with distractors, i.e… video games, inappropriate music, “friends”. Have you thought about going to confession? This would lift a great weight off you and give you the grace to start fresh. Just know not to be hard on yourself when you sin again. God will always forgive you, and he will FILL the void, if you let him. I love the picture of Jesus knocking on a door with no handles…we have to let him in. He won’t just come in.Check out some books by Tim Staples and read about the lives of the saints. St. Therese of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Augustine are all wonderful role models for us. Of course there are thousands more. Even you might be a saint someday!

God Bless you…and I will pray for you!!!
 
The book of Acts also has christians buring their magic books, so depending on the nature of the “idols” some may need to be burned.
 
Hey, Makarios, when I hear your story, you remind of me.

About a year ago I had like that same feeling you had, the same, as you are feeling right now.

I see you are reading your Bible, you are worshiping God and you are congregating. Keep it that way. After being stable spiritually you can then preach God’s Gospel, and start working for our Lord Jesus Christ.

As for your possessions, I had like exactly the same problems you had with video games and music.

Music: Secular music may be fine or bad, for example let’s take Metallica, they have songs which don’t portray a bad message, however they have songs that do have a bad message, Eminem is all mundane if I am not mistaking though. So the answer is simple get rid of all things which have a bad message. As for metal music or any kind of music, you are blessed to live on these days, where Christian music is everywhere including metal, rap, everywhere. You only have to search, however be careful some “Christian” bands are not really Christian.

Video games: the same goes for video games get rid of bad video games, most of all the video games got some bad elements (because they need to have bad guys, or things in order to make sense), but there are video games which portray evil as good and are plagued with pagan and demonic influences. Now if you do keep video games they are good for getting distracted, I sometimes use video games to distract myself when being tempted (being mad, angry, etc), to make my mind forget about stuff. However if they detract you from your faith, abstain from them,donate them, sell them or throw them to the garbage.

God bless you in your journey!
 
Makarios said:
,
PS: I put this thread in this forum as I want opinions from various Christians of different denominations.
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Regarding the question of this thread…the answer is, of course, you bet you can. in fact, you can depend upon getting a great many opinions from a great many someones.

Including me.

MY opinion is this: keep reading, keep praying, and do what your heart (well, the Holy Spirit) tells you.
 
Thanks everyone.

I feel like this could be a good thing to do, but I honestly feel a little reluctant in some ways and I feel I might be doing it for the wrong reasons. I need to pray hard on this.

Though, one reason I’m a little reluctant is because I have an online friend who actually plays video games online and evangelizes as he plays. I think that’s pretty cool and something I might want to do. Sure, the outdoor personal version of evangelizing is awesome and preferred. But I think it could be cool to reach these gamers. Do you think it could be profitable?

I went to my family’s Lutheran church. To be honest, I’m fed up with the gospel message being watered down, as well as the service being watered down. It wasn’t worship. It was “this is Sunday morning and you need to act like Jesus for an hour”. I even hated the communion. It really just stunk. I love the Catholic Mass, but I’m afraid my Catholic church is watered down too. The liturgy is terrible, as well as the priest. 😦

That’s it for churches around here. I had a feeling this morning. I’m the guy who’s gonna reform this mess. Just watch. I hate Satan so much. I want to worship God, not be sold some watered down mass.

Sorry for the random rant lol. Just needed to vent it all out.
 
FaithJoy said:
It seems your heart is leaning the right way. You want to do good and I would strongly encourage you to try your hardest. As far as your behavior, the drugs should stop now. If metal music is causing you to sin, then cut it off. But, I see no problem with Bon Jovi. Lol. The other bands I think are bad influences. After saying all of that, your friends would probably need to change. That would be more influences cut off. This all would be hard to do,that’s why Jesus said the following, because it is hard:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. Mark 9:43
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Please understand many naive people could be reading this post and although cutting off hands is done in some Eastern countries you better not try it in Canada U.S or Europe .I think it comes under the Commandment "Thou shall not Kill"which I was taught covers deliberate maiming .physically .or physiologically of another person so you would likely end up in jail.Most democratic governments halt religious rights when they use such abuses including female mutilation ,poking eyes out and other horrors under the guise of getting nerer to Heaven
 
jamanne said:
Please understand many naive people could be reading this post and although cutting off hands is done in some Eastern countries you better not try it in Canada U.S or Europe .I think it comes under the Commandment "Thou shall not Kill"which I was taught covers deliberate maiming .physically .or physiologically of another person so you would likely end up in jail.Most democratic governments halt religious rights when they use such abuses including female mutilation ,poking eyes out and other horrors under the guise of getting nerer to Heaven
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It’s a metaphor…Jesus literally said it…

I think you should check the dictionary, look up naive, and then reread your post. 😛

I’m kidding. But seriously!
 
Makarios said:
PS: I put this thread in this forum as I want opinions from various Christians of different denominations.
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It sounds like you are ready for a spiritual revival, Makarios. The fact that you would consider parting with some of your prized posessions shows that you are ready to make some drastic changes in your lifestyle in order to walk with God.

Before you sell all that you have, though, you might want to seek some spiritual direction. God is much more concerned about what you are holding onto inside yourself, than out.

Can you go make a retreat, where you do not have any posessions with you? Sometimes getting a break away from our lives brings clarity. It is good you are reading Scripture, and fellowshipping with other Christains. There are two things in your post I want to address.

One is that it is my opinion (not Catholic teaching) that our minds are Garbage in, Garbage out. If you fill your mind with music that does not honor God, then you will not train your mind toward that end. I recommend an exploration of music in styles you enjoy that reverences Christ as Lord. How do you know He does not want you to use your musical abilities for His Kingdom?

Second, I read in your post a fervent desire to do good works. But holiness is not something that we can achieve merely by “trying hard”. It is God at work in us to will and to do His good pleasure that brings this about. For that reason, it is generally much more useful to replace negativity with postivity. Instead of trying to “avoid” playing video games or other activities that are not pleasing to God, substitute activities that are. Find an opportunity for bible study (with others) and works of service. You may find that it is much more beneficial to your spiritual growth to engage in these things than just abstaining from things that stunt your growth.

Above all, you need to grow in your relationship with God. As this happens, the answers to all your questions will become clear.
 
Makarios said:
Thank you for your answer. 🙂

I believe you are mostly right. Though, I feel as if these things aren’t helping me progress as a Christian and are, in fact, keeping me from progressing. They serve the purpose of person idols it seems.
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I’ll be honest: I was a tad bit worried, reading your OP, that you were seeking to give something up as a kind of “work” to appeal to one passage of scripture. Here, however, it seems you’ve put some decent thought into it. 🙂

If something keeps us from progressing as a Christian, it is noble to give it up. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:2; ESV).
 
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