Conviction

What is sin to one person may not be to another. I have realized this over and over again as I have saturated myself in a Christian environment that I normally don't get when I'm at home with my family, I tend to gravitate toward the people in my college ministry group and spend a ridiculous amount of time with them. What I choose to abstain from, what they choose to abstain from...what isn't clearly stated in scripture (ie adultery, stealing, lying) is based on conviction. Sure, sometimes we mess up but that's where forgiveness comes in...but where do we draw the line in what is sin and what isn't? The answer is the Holy Spirit but other than that, I honestly don't know for sure but I have a general idea. I do realize everyone's different. For me personally, I think that if you're not sure about something, don't do it. Sometimes I like to question things though. Many others do too and if you're one of those people and still don't know, consider these questions:
1. Why are you doing it?
2. How does it benefit you?
3. How is it affecting you spiritually?
4. Can it be considered a stumbling block for people around you?
5. Is it something you did pre-salvation? If it is, how did it affect you then?
6. Would I still do this if God was sitting across from me and I could physically see Him?

What do you guys think? Do you have anything to add? Any thoughts?

Our unplanned lesson in LIFE groups last night was definitely something worth blogging about. So we were supposed to learn about curses or something, but someone kept asking questions.

Pastor Ryan basically was like Jesus could be a Lunatic, a Liar, or the Lord...because all of those are very possible. Basically, we can't prove scripture with other scripture because he could write a book and it could say "Ryan Russel is always right and everything he's written is true." but that doesn't necessarily make it a true book...then he goes on to tell us that we can prove that Jesus died on the cross, and besides Judas, 10 out of the 11 remaining died for what they believed in. John didn't die because they couldn't kill him, so they shipped him off to a prison island. If Jesus wasn't the Lord, then they would probably back out of following Him, dying for what they believed in. I just thought that was an interesting perspective.

and then Shane passed out and hit his head and didn't remember anything for 10 mins before that, thanks to Seth.

So I was sitting in church this morning, during worship and I noticed in the aisle, a special needs girl who I later found out was the same age as me, worshiping God with everything that she had. She wasn't paying attention to whether other people were watching her or not. She was just focused on God and nothing else. Then I looked around the rest of the church, most of them perfectly healthy people, some with their hands raised, some clapping in worship, some clapping because everyone else was doing it. But nobody seemed to have the passion that this one girl had....and even though she's worse off than most of us....she was praising God because she was alive and nothing else...we have so much to praise God for, but we tend to just sit there and worry about what other people think. Why can't we just praise God with everything we have just like that girl was? We're so concerned about drawing attention to ourselves...they're not gonna be there on judgment day....