Doing everthing for Him

[Auh_Rin_Yaang]

Well, I've been thinking about this ,"Doing everthing for Him, God" And read...

"23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."
-Romans 14:23

What does this mean? Does it mean, what I think it means?

What I think it means is that..
- if you don't do everything in faith, it is sin.
- (in other words) if you don't do everything for God, it is sin.
and everthing, meaning including everything from eatting, sleeping, walking, talking, drawing, normal activities ect..., to loving someone, being clean, dresssing modestly, and watching/reading anime/manga, being on CAA and ect....

But what if I can't do that? What if I can't ...or feel like I'm not doing anything for him. Does that make everything that I did, do, and do not for God, sin? and if I see that I can't do it for God, should I stop?

I know that I should definately pray about this, but I also wanted to see how you, (people on CAA) thought about it. And as a young christian who truly wants to lead a life the way God wants me to, I feel like I need to have some my questions/doubts answered/cleared; I hope the more older brothers and sisters in Christ can help me answer/clear them. (BTW, I have more questions, if not questions prayer requests.)

I'd really appericate if you gave me your thoughts on this topic, and if you think that my "interpretations" of the passage were correct or weither you think I was reading into it what I thougt. Also if you could "support" your thoughts with some Bible vereses, that would be nice.

(I hope its in the right, thread catergory)

[LadyRushia]

Well, things like eating and sleeping can't really be considered sin since you need to do those things to stay alive. You may be reading too much into this passage.

Now, look at this verse in context. This part of chapter 14 is telling us not to cause our brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble and at the end it tells us not to do something if we have doubts about it. For example, if there's a certain genre of music that you like but suddenly you aren't sure if it's okay to listen to this kind of music, then you shouldn't listen to that music until the Holy Spirit tells you one way or the other. If at that time it's still okay to listen to the music, then that's fine. But if it isn't okay then you'll most likely loose the desire to keep listening to it and that's fine too.

Well, that's my interpretation. Pray about things that you aren't sure about and the Holy Spirit will tell you what is right for you and what isn't. And keep in mind that the Holy Spirit convicts each of us differently for reasons that have to do with God's plan, so things that are okay with you may not be okay with another believer and visa versa.

Another thing you can do is honor God in all you do. There are many different ways to honor God in many different places. When I watch anime, I honor God by:

-Not watching hentai
-Not watching series that promote and teach real witchcraft(I don't think there are many of these)
-Not watching series that bash Christianity(don't think there are many of these either)
-Not watching yaoi/yuri/shounen-ai/shoujo-ai
-Not watching series that distort Christian theology(I ran across one where the theology was *way* off, but some people might actually believe some of that)

Here on CAA, I honor God by:

-lifting up my brothers and sisters who need prayer
-showing kindness and support for those who are struggling

Basically, shine as much as possible for the Lord when you do things. It's that light from the Holy Spirit inside of us that attracts non-believers. "Walk the walk," so to speak. Let the way you live you life be an example to others around you.

(As for how the passage talks about eating, that's specifically regarding the food laws of the Old Testament. Some choose to keep them and others choose not to; the Holy Spirit convicts them differently. My mother is someone who keeps the food laws. A few years ago, she just completely lost her taste for pork and she doesn't eat shellfish.)

That's my take on the whole matter; I hope I helped ^_^

[Auh_Rin_Yaang]

Thanks LadyRushia!~ =]

[Auh_Rin_Yaang]

Ummmm.. does anyone else have anything to add?

[AsianBlossom]

Sure.

She's right; if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about following the passage to a T. Pleasing God is great, but we shouldn't get to the point where we start worrying about everything, wondering whether or not we just committed a sin, especially if it's something that's not sinful. Granted, we should still obey the 10 Commandments as best as we can, but sometimes scrupulosity creeps in and tries to rob us of our joy by making us feel as though we can't even breathe without committing some sort of sin. (This is from someone who has struggled with scrupulosity in the past, and is even dealing with it now)

So in short, we should try to please God, but if trying to robs us of our joy, we should stop for a second, examine our reasons for feeling that way, and ask ourselves, "am I being scrupulous?" After all, God wants us to be happy.

Hope that helps.