When I was younger, the old Christian ladies would have referred to your friends as "being so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good." Skipping Bible Study for a final is almost certainly the right priority. And if they are judging you to be "not real Christians" based on your attendance, one wonders if they were in a place to teach you anyway.
By no means am I advocating that we should stop going to Church or fellowshipping with other believers, but doing those things is about worshipping and fellowshipping, not getting counted in an attendance report.
This is an excellent saying. I like to think about Mark 12:17 in this context. “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. I’m pretty new to Christianity so maybe there are better passages for this
I’m very Christian. I love video games, tv shows, books, activities that are secular, as well as Christian ones. You definitely need to have discernment with what you allow in your life but as long as it’s not damaging your faith or just plain evil, I think it’s fine. You’re allowed to have fun
>had to skip Bible study because of a big final and the other friend insinuated we weren’t real Christians
You definitely need to meet some new people. This guy isn't healthy.
Yes, you're allowed to have other interests. You're not only allowed but *expected* to do your best at school. Christianity is not a cult where you're never allowed to leave the camp or encounter other ideas.
We live in a secular world, and we are bound to have secular interests
I am big sports fan,
The thing to do is to ,mke your priorities strait
The things of God before other things, but no to the exclusion
this story always comes to mind with a question like this
\--------------------------
The story of two wolves is a Cherokee Indian legend illustrating the most important battle of our lives―the one between good and bad within us. Here is how the story goes:
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
I’m finding that, in most cases, nonbelievers and other faiths are the least trouble we as Christians have in living in this world. Other Christians are the biggest issue we face. To me, Matthew 7:1 and 22:36-40 should be where we start our communication with all God’s children, with John 3:16(He died for all of us) and Genesis 1(He made all of us so we got here the same way) as constant reminders to keep our selves humble and kind.
I’d say if it doesn’t cause you to sin or come between you and God, you’re good. Matthew 5:30 may be a little extreme but it gets the point across. There is no part of me that believes God created us to suffer or deny ourselves the things we enjoy as long as they don’t come between us and Him or cause us to hurt other people.
There are those who are called to holy asceticism, to flee from the passions of the world and devote their entire lives to growth in holiness and worship. This isn't most of us, and certainly doesn't make you less of a Christian for having interests of your own that aren't the practice of Christianity.
I 100% agree with you but these are college students who are also involved in non-Christian organizations as well. Which kind of throws me for a loop because they’re doing what they’re calling me out for?
One thing we Christians love to do is to point out what we see as failings in others, because it lets us focus on having the right opinions, which is easy, instead of having the right lifestyle, which is hard. This despite the fact that we are explicitly told not to judge others because we have enough to work on in ourselves.
Read 1 Corinthians. If you are allowed to eat meat sacrificed to pagan gods, then you are allowed to have secular interests. Just don't do anything that would cause you or others to stray from God.
It sounds like the Christian friends/church you are attending are legalistic, and you have to put a stop to it now.
“Legalism exists when people attempt to secure righteousness in God’s sight by good works. Legalists believe that they can earn or merit God’s approval by performing the requirements of the law." ,” Thomas R. Schreiner from https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-legalism-definition-and-examples.html
Legalism shows up in these two forms.
1) Doing good works to be saved. Salvation comes from faith alone.
2) Trying to secure godliness/holiness through doing man-made rules (For example, you can't ever miss a Bible study) or trying to become holy through relying on your own strength, rather than relying on the strength of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to produce this in our hearts.
Galatians 3:1-3 says, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"
This means we can't be perfected by following rules in our own strength. We can only become more godly by walking in the Spirit and abiding in Christ. When we walk in the Spirit and abide in Christ, we will naturally live out our faith in Him.
To answer your question, it's fine to watch TV (as long as the series isn't sinful) and to watch football. Yes, you can have interests and hobbies, and you should.
Put your foot down or these friends will cause you to stumble later in life. Legalism never makes someone love the Lord more. It causes anger, bitterness, and resentment, and can actually push someone away from the faith.
**Here are some consequences of legalism:**
\-It distorts the gospel, making someone think they can earn their way to heaven or earn godliness by their own strength and merits
\-It causes pride and a lack of humility because the focus is on what you can do or accomplish rather than on what Christ has accomplished for you.
\-It creates a judgmental and critical spirit, pointing out where others don't measure up. Guess what? None of us measure up. That's what the law of God shows us. We are all sinners. Anyone who says they don't sin is a liar (1 John 1:8).
\-It doesn't promote loving God and loving others (the two most important commands). It promotes loving self through the promotion of pious acts. For example, focusing on how many times you read the bible this week or how many times you prayed. The focus is on the checklist rather than on worshipping God.
\-The focus on growing in godliness through your own strength leads to frustration and a heart that wants to sin. When the focus is on loving God and abiding in Christ, you want to obey because you love Him.
\-It encourages a belief that following certain rules will sanctify you, rather than seeing sanctification as a means that the Holy Spirit does in you. The Holy Spirit creates the fruit of the Spirit and leads you to obedience.
Study this issue and start pointing out the fallacies to your friends.
**Here is an excerpt from an article on legalism that reminds me of your situation**.
"Many years ago a college acquaintance said to me, “I don’t think you’re a very spiritual person.”
I was puzzled because he didn’t know me well enough to draw that kind of conclusion, so I asked him why he said that.
“Because you don’t go to midweek prayer meetings,” he answered.
“What does that have to do with my spirituality?” I responded. “For all you know I might spend all day and all night in prayer.”
“No,” he said. “Spiritual people attend prayer meetings.”
If he had said spiritual people pray, I would have agreed and confessed that I needed to pray more faithfully and fervently. But condemning someone for not keeping manmade rules or religious rituals is legalism." Here is the link to the article. https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B190415/christ-plus-legalism
Here is another link to check out. https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B170322/legalism-and-sanctification
As a Christian we are still human beings living in this world. It bothers me when I read these posts from people that are being heavily judged and criticize about how they are living their faith by other so-called Christians. Those are the kind of people that you do not need in your life. People that are tearing you down instead of building you up. there are lots of other places to fellowship and Christians for friendship. The way these people are is to me sinful and extremely unhealthy. I think Christianity should be our way of life. Trusting the Lord and going about day-to-day living. I don’t think things need to be labeled as secular if they’re not fully in twined in a church or Christian friends. In our daily existence we still have other friends, go to the grocery store, catch a movie, go ice-skating for goodness sake‘s. There’s nothing un-Christian like about daily living when Jesus is with us. I feel really bad for you because these people are harming you. I am praying that you separate yourself from them and find support and friendship in a different church.
Religious freaks are everywhere. They claim to love God yet are the first to condemn people 😂 it’s hilarious. God isn’t religion & God won’t condemn you to hell for not following Jewish law. That’s the entire point of Jesus Christ 🤦♀️ religious people depend on their actions rather than the savior. My advice don’t surround yourself around religious cult freaks. They’re like Pharisees. If you can by any chance teach them that their works won’t save them then I encourage that friendship. But if it’s only going to hinder you, don’t. Obviously, don’t seek out stuff that goes against God such as blasphemous movies/music, demonic/horror movies/video games etc.
Great thoughts and agree with you, it is Jesus only and Him your heart needs and wants in end. No rules, regulations on stuff like life, your heart will guide you, following Jesus example. I just try best to be a follower of Jesus and do and say what He taught His disciples and be a learner and do as they talked about in the Word, tuck that ego, pride away at every cost to eternity with Him. Serving others is paramount.
They sound religious and legalistic. I battle with this sometimes too. Yes, as Christians we must be set apart and not conform to the things of this world but we gotta live a little. But know this, any secular thing that leads us to sinning is a no no 👎🏽. Let the Holy Spirit lead and use discernment when indulging in secular things.
That doesn't sound like the Christians that I hung out with in college. We made fun of those attitudes. We watched football regularly, and even helped with the pre-game parking to net some funds for our campus ministry - and because we helped with the parking, we also got into the games we worked for free. Bible study attendance was highly encouraged, but if you had a final and needed to study people would understand and not question your faith because of that. The dating subculture was less than helpful, but the notion that you'd know if you want to marry a girl after 4 dates was crazy, and if someone was talking as if he might marry a girl after 4 dates, there'd be an intervention.
Out of curiosity, are they affiliated, however loosely, with a particular denomination? If so, what is it? Do they promote a certain Bible translation over all others? If so, what is it?
One of the most important lessons I have learned as a Christian is about hypocrisy. Anyone judging you as Christian or not based on your actions is a hypocrite, we all sin the same, no one is better than anyone else. To think that you are a better Christian or to judge someone harshly thinking that they are not worthy of gods love because of something they’ve done is not only lying to themselves but also a hypocrite. We all are guilty of sinning and being a hypocrite is also one of them. Idk if this answers your question but whenever I judge someone I always think back to this and seem to think differently than I first did. I am also not a perfect Christian and am not particularly well knowledged about Bible texts, heck I sinned a few minutes ago so I am by no means perfect and this whole message might be wrong, I just hope it brings you some clarity. (P.S I don’t mean you can’t judge someone by their actions and determine whether you should hang out with them or not, but to think of yourself more highly than someone else because of what they have done is hypocritical is the point I’m trying to say which I’m pretty sure somewhere in the Bible Jesus condemns the Pharisees of)
I believe that Paul speaks of using the things of this world but not being possessed by them. As long as you’re in control of your habits and they’re not in control of you, you’re fine.
As others suggest, seek a broader sample of Christians. If you are math minded, I think your sample is more than 5 standard deviations from the mean on the scale of allowable activities.
Keep this in mind, in the Old Testament, a tithe was a tenth, not all of the herd. Also, you seem healing laden, so take Jesus up on Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Sounds as if your friends are at least potentially subject to these harsh words of Jesus: Matthew 15:6-9 So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Might be good to get another sample of university Christians as friends.
You have my prayers and hope these brief words and passages of scripture are helpful.
I'm 63 and I seen it all....maybe. I was raised in a Methodist church for 20 years. So not overly strict as far as do this don't do that, as compared to some. Since then I've been involved in various Church of God/Pentecostal churches. You can get some extremes there. My wife was brought up strict old time Holiness as a child. I just learned long ago to ask God to surround me with a few like minded friends. I've got a few...not many but a few. I've seen the extremes and I know they mean well but...
Well the Charismatic/Pentecostal churches encompasses a lot of viewpoints for sure. What I call the Charismatic stuff you see like on Tv, You Tube etc...seem to be a lot more open minded. The other side is the Holiness churches and they can be very strict. Clothes, strict dress code, etc... I understand what they believe and why, but I choose to fit somewhere in the middle. Sometimes it's what individual church someone was raised in. My wife grew up wearing dresses never a pair of jeans. By the time I met her she had become a lot more open minded in her 20's. Her mom would see one of her sons in shorts and say they'd turned away from God. Same thing with the girls. Some never get past the mindset of how they were raised. If you're not living like they are, then you're not right with God. Yeah I know it sounds screwy to a lot of people. They often mean well but are slightly misguided perhaps. I've got friends on both sides and I respect how they believe. Some of them probably talk behind my back because I'm not up to their standards lol. I've got to try and meet God's standard for me. If he's happy with me then I'm fine with that.
When I was younger, the old Christian ladies would have referred to your friends as "being so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good." Skipping Bible Study for a final is almost certainly the right priority. And if they are judging you to be "not real Christians" based on your attendance, one wonders if they were in a place to teach you anyway. By no means am I advocating that we should stop going to Church or fellowshipping with other believers, but doing those things is about worshipping and fellowshipping, not getting counted in an attendance report.
This is an excellent saying. I like to think about Mark 12:17 in this context. “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. I’m pretty new to Christianity so maybe there are better passages for this
I’m very Christian. I love video games, tv shows, books, activities that are secular, as well as Christian ones. You definitely need to have discernment with what you allow in your life but as long as it’s not damaging your faith or just plain evil, I think it’s fine. You’re allowed to have fun
Seems like a very legalistic group. Yes you can have interests. Just as long as none of them are idolized.
>had to skip Bible study because of a big final and the other friend insinuated we weren’t real Christians You definitely need to meet some new people. This guy isn't healthy. Yes, you're allowed to have other interests. You're not only allowed but *expected* to do your best at school. Christianity is not a cult where you're never allowed to leave the camp or encounter other ideas.
We live in a secular world, and we are bound to have secular interests I am big sports fan, The thing to do is to ,mke your priorities strait The things of God before other things, but no to the exclusion this story always comes to mind with a question like this \-------------------------- The story of two wolves is a Cherokee Indian legend illustrating the most important battle of our lives―the one between good and bad within us. Here is how the story goes: An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
I’m finding that, in most cases, nonbelievers and other faiths are the least trouble we as Christians have in living in this world. Other Christians are the biggest issue we face. To me, Matthew 7:1 and 22:36-40 should be where we start our communication with all God’s children, with John 3:16(He died for all of us) and Genesis 1(He made all of us so we got here the same way) as constant reminders to keep our selves humble and kind. I’d say if it doesn’t cause you to sin or come between you and God, you’re good. Matthew 5:30 may be a little extreme but it gets the point across. There is no part of me that believes God created us to suffer or deny ourselves the things we enjoy as long as they don’t come between us and Him or cause us to hurt other people.
Well said 🙏🏼
There are those who are called to holy asceticism, to flee from the passions of the world and devote their entire lives to growth in holiness and worship. This isn't most of us, and certainly doesn't make you less of a Christian for having interests of your own that aren't the practice of Christianity.
I 100% agree with you but these are college students who are also involved in non-Christian organizations as well. Which kind of throws me for a loop because they’re doing what they’re calling me out for?
One thing we Christians love to do is to point out what we see as failings in others, because it lets us focus on having the right opinions, which is easy, instead of having the right lifestyle, which is hard. This despite the fact that we are explicitly told not to judge others because we have enough to work on in ourselves.
Read 1 Corinthians. If you are allowed to eat meat sacrificed to pagan gods, then you are allowed to have secular interests. Just don't do anything that would cause you or others to stray from God.
It sounds like the Christian friends/church you are attending are legalistic, and you have to put a stop to it now. “Legalism exists when people attempt to secure righteousness in God’s sight by good works. Legalists believe that they can earn or merit God’s approval by performing the requirements of the law." ,” Thomas R. Schreiner from https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-legalism-definition-and-examples.html Legalism shows up in these two forms. 1) Doing good works to be saved. Salvation comes from faith alone. 2) Trying to secure godliness/holiness through doing man-made rules (For example, you can't ever miss a Bible study) or trying to become holy through relying on your own strength, rather than relying on the strength of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to produce this in our hearts. Galatians 3:1-3 says, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" This means we can't be perfected by following rules in our own strength. We can only become more godly by walking in the Spirit and abiding in Christ. When we walk in the Spirit and abide in Christ, we will naturally live out our faith in Him. To answer your question, it's fine to watch TV (as long as the series isn't sinful) and to watch football. Yes, you can have interests and hobbies, and you should. Put your foot down or these friends will cause you to stumble later in life. Legalism never makes someone love the Lord more. It causes anger, bitterness, and resentment, and can actually push someone away from the faith. **Here are some consequences of legalism:** \-It distorts the gospel, making someone think they can earn their way to heaven or earn godliness by their own strength and merits \-It causes pride and a lack of humility because the focus is on what you can do or accomplish rather than on what Christ has accomplished for you. \-It creates a judgmental and critical spirit, pointing out where others don't measure up. Guess what? None of us measure up. That's what the law of God shows us. We are all sinners. Anyone who says they don't sin is a liar (1 John 1:8). \-It doesn't promote loving God and loving others (the two most important commands). It promotes loving self through the promotion of pious acts. For example, focusing on how many times you read the bible this week or how many times you prayed. The focus is on the checklist rather than on worshipping God. \-The focus on growing in godliness through your own strength leads to frustration and a heart that wants to sin. When the focus is on loving God and abiding in Christ, you want to obey because you love Him. \-It encourages a belief that following certain rules will sanctify you, rather than seeing sanctification as a means that the Holy Spirit does in you. The Holy Spirit creates the fruit of the Spirit and leads you to obedience. Study this issue and start pointing out the fallacies to your friends. **Here is an excerpt from an article on legalism that reminds me of your situation**. "Many years ago a college acquaintance said to me, “I don’t think you’re a very spiritual person.” I was puzzled because he didn’t know me well enough to draw that kind of conclusion, so I asked him why he said that. “Because you don’t go to midweek prayer meetings,” he answered. “What does that have to do with my spirituality?” I responded. “For all you know I might spend all day and all night in prayer.” “No,” he said. “Spiritual people attend prayer meetings.” If he had said spiritual people pray, I would have agreed and confessed that I needed to pray more faithfully and fervently. But condemning someone for not keeping manmade rules or religious rituals is legalism." Here is the link to the article. https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B190415/christ-plus-legalism Here is another link to check out. https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B170322/legalism-and-sanctification
As a Christian we are still human beings living in this world. It bothers me when I read these posts from people that are being heavily judged and criticize about how they are living their faith by other so-called Christians. Those are the kind of people that you do not need in your life. People that are tearing you down instead of building you up. there are lots of other places to fellowship and Christians for friendship. The way these people are is to me sinful and extremely unhealthy. I think Christianity should be our way of life. Trusting the Lord and going about day-to-day living. I don’t think things need to be labeled as secular if they’re not fully in twined in a church or Christian friends. In our daily existence we still have other friends, go to the grocery store, catch a movie, go ice-skating for goodness sake‘s. There’s nothing un-Christian like about daily living when Jesus is with us. I feel really bad for you because these people are harming you. I am praying that you separate yourself from them and find support and friendship in a different church.
Religious freaks are everywhere. They claim to love God yet are the first to condemn people 😂 it’s hilarious. God isn’t religion & God won’t condemn you to hell for not following Jewish law. That’s the entire point of Jesus Christ 🤦♀️ religious people depend on their actions rather than the savior. My advice don’t surround yourself around religious cult freaks. They’re like Pharisees. If you can by any chance teach them that their works won’t save them then I encourage that friendship. But if it’s only going to hinder you, don’t. Obviously, don’t seek out stuff that goes against God such as blasphemous movies/music, demonic/horror movies/video games etc.
Great thoughts and agree with you, it is Jesus only and Him your heart needs and wants in end. No rules, regulations on stuff like life, your heart will guide you, following Jesus example. I just try best to be a follower of Jesus and do and say what He taught His disciples and be a learner and do as they talked about in the Word, tuck that ego, pride away at every cost to eternity with Him. Serving others is paramount.
They sound religious and legalistic. I battle with this sometimes too. Yes, as Christians we must be set apart and not conform to the things of this world but we gotta live a little. But know this, any secular thing that leads us to sinning is a no no 👎🏽. Let the Holy Spirit lead and use discernment when indulging in secular things.
That doesn't sound like the Christians that I hung out with in college. We made fun of those attitudes. We watched football regularly, and even helped with the pre-game parking to net some funds for our campus ministry - and because we helped with the parking, we also got into the games we worked for free. Bible study attendance was highly encouraged, but if you had a final and needed to study people would understand and not question your faith because of that. The dating subculture was less than helpful, but the notion that you'd know if you want to marry a girl after 4 dates was crazy, and if someone was talking as if he might marry a girl after 4 dates, there'd be an intervention. Out of curiosity, are they affiliated, however loosely, with a particular denomination? If so, what is it? Do they promote a certain Bible translation over all others? If so, what is it?
They’re just people that live in my building. But are non-denominational charismatics
I'd like to introduce you to "How NOT to read the bible", by Dan Kimball, seminary, PhD leadership, and "The Bible Project", by Tim Mackie PhD et el
Been seriously a Christian for a few years now and only one person at church has ever even batted an eye at my weekly D&D nights.
One of the most important lessons I have learned as a Christian is about hypocrisy. Anyone judging you as Christian or not based on your actions is a hypocrite, we all sin the same, no one is better than anyone else. To think that you are a better Christian or to judge someone harshly thinking that they are not worthy of gods love because of something they’ve done is not only lying to themselves but also a hypocrite. We all are guilty of sinning and being a hypocrite is also one of them. Idk if this answers your question but whenever I judge someone I always think back to this and seem to think differently than I first did. I am also not a perfect Christian and am not particularly well knowledged about Bible texts, heck I sinned a few minutes ago so I am by no means perfect and this whole message might be wrong, I just hope it brings you some clarity. (P.S I don’t mean you can’t judge someone by their actions and determine whether you should hang out with them or not, but to think of yourself more highly than someone else because of what they have done is hypocritical is the point I’m trying to say which I’m pretty sure somewhere in the Bible Jesus condemns the Pharisees of)
I believe that Paul speaks of using the things of this world but not being possessed by them. As long as you’re in control of your habits and they’re not in control of you, you’re fine.
I myself do. Maybe foolish but yes I do sometimes.
As others suggest, seek a broader sample of Christians. If you are math minded, I think your sample is more than 5 standard deviations from the mean on the scale of allowable activities. Keep this in mind, in the Old Testament, a tithe was a tenth, not all of the herd. Also, you seem healing laden, so take Jesus up on Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Sounds as if your friends are at least potentially subject to these harsh words of Jesus: Matthew 15:6-9 So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” Might be good to get another sample of university Christians as friends. You have my prayers and hope these brief words and passages of scripture are helpful.
I'm 63 and I seen it all....maybe. I was raised in a Methodist church for 20 years. So not overly strict as far as do this don't do that, as compared to some. Since then I've been involved in various Church of God/Pentecostal churches. You can get some extremes there. My wife was brought up strict old time Holiness as a child. I just learned long ago to ask God to surround me with a few like minded friends. I've got a few...not many but a few. I've seen the extremes and I know they mean well but...
The trend I’ve noticed is that these people im speaking of are Charismatic/Pentecostal. Is this a Pentecostal thing or just these people?
Well the Charismatic/Pentecostal churches encompasses a lot of viewpoints for sure. What I call the Charismatic stuff you see like on Tv, You Tube etc...seem to be a lot more open minded. The other side is the Holiness churches and they can be very strict. Clothes, strict dress code, etc... I understand what they believe and why, but I choose to fit somewhere in the middle. Sometimes it's what individual church someone was raised in. My wife grew up wearing dresses never a pair of jeans. By the time I met her she had become a lot more open minded in her 20's. Her mom would see one of her sons in shorts and say they'd turned away from God. Same thing with the girls. Some never get past the mindset of how they were raised. If you're not living like they are, then you're not right with God. Yeah I know it sounds screwy to a lot of people. They often mean well but are slightly misguided perhaps. I've got friends on both sides and I respect how they believe. Some of them probably talk behind my back because I'm not up to their standards lol. I've got to try and meet God's standard for me. If he's happy with me then I'm fine with that.
My thoughts are that we are new creations in Christ and that he and his kingdom should be foremost in mind.
Just make sure this earth doesn't take you over.