Christian Stuff

Today at 03:39 PM waterwizard said this in Post #19

Remember, it's personal.  Between you and God.  Someone else's sincerity or lack thereof should not affect your walk with Him one bit.  Be sincere in your worship, witness, actions, etc., and let God deal with the insincere ones.  Don't look to man, look to God. 

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Nicely put.  This is what I was trying to say.  Oftentimes we criticize (I'm not talking about Yekcidmij) others for the wrong reasons and in doing so we end up dealing with things in an ungodly way.  If we bring our response to others actions under control and focus on our own ungodliness we will find that how others act isn't really the purpose we were put here to deal with.

God bless

When I first started going to church, one of the first things I heard from the pastor was "Why are we doing what we're doing?"  That has stuck with me ever since.

 

I still think my complaint about bad bookstores is valid.

I am not into all the silly stuff but I would like to add that my Jesus t-shirts have given me opportunities to talk with people.
Of course they have also caused me to be treated badly by people as well.

I think there are some items that are done in bad taste that seem to belittle the gospel.
I have seen some really nice bumper stickers.
The One I designed for myself just plainly said "Praise the Lord".
I dont think thats offensive or belittling.

Now I have gone rounds with some brothers and sisters who were offended by my t-shirts, so I stopped wearing them around those individuals so I would not cause them to stumble.

I think as long as it done in good taste and is used to glorify God its okay.

When I saw the title to this thread, "Christian Stuff", I thought it would be a discussion about our beliefs.  Considering that it's about material things, I have to admit, I never really thought about it much.

I don't get into the "trinket" side of it too much.  I do have a sweatshirt, though, that says, "Life is fragile, handle with prayer", and sometimes I will put a Christian sticker on an envelope when I'm sending mail to a friend.  Other than that, I'm simply not into it.  I think bumper stickers are tacky, in general, so I don't use them.  To those of you who do, please don't be offended.  If you like them, that's fine with me! 

I have to confess, though - there have been times that I was glad that I didn't have a bumper sticker or a fish on my car.  And this has nothing to do with the "finger", either (a gesture that I DETEST!).  I work in town, and there are evenings when I'm coming home from work, and someone is trying to get out into traffic, and I don't let them through.  It sounds silly, even as I type it, but sometimes, after I pass them, I think, "I should have let them out."  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

So much for trinkets.  

To Follower of Christ - I think you have a great outlook on these things.  Certainly, the items themselves are not as much the issue as our attitudes and heart towards our Lord.  And God alone knows that for each individual.  That being said, I do have a few thoughts on this subject.  It seems sad that Christians have gotten to a point where we feel that we always need some sort of twist on our faith; something that will catch the eye of others.  Every year, there is some new, exciting thing that will catch the world by storm.  'WWJD' was like that.  It was like some big movement.  Everyone, everywhere had one of those bracelets.  The biggest problem was that we began to associate the bracelet with Christianity; to the point where we wouldn't attempt to share the gospel with someone who wore it because if someone had on a 'WWJD' bracelet they MUST be a Christian.  Of course, not all of you saw it this way, but I would guess that the majority of Christians did.  When these types of things become the symbol of our faith, we have a serious problem.

What about T-Shirts?  I am not against them and there are some that are quite good.  But why are so many of them designed after something worldly?  Why do we think that the best way to share the gospel is by catching their eye with worldliness?  I struggle with this.  Here is a good example.  I saw a T-Shirt that had a design on it that had the same symbol as one of those professional wrestling programs.  The letters were 'NWO' which I found out later means 'New World Order' in professional wrestling.  The symbol was identical to the wrestling one in large, bold print.  I don't remember exactly what the message was underneath, but it was in such small print that you would have to be almost on top of the person to read it.  At a distance it would look like any other 'NWO' T-Shirt.  The message was fine, but how would anyone know you are a Christian by this.  Someone earlier in this thread said that these shirts can be used to help evangelize, to start a conversation.  How does that happen unless they are very close to you and are reading your shirt?  Some shirts have messages so long that they could be mistaken for small books.  Are we giving people the wrong message when we advertise something that looks no different then what they see everyday on other people?  Are we wearing these things in the hope that someone will come and ask us about it?  Are we waiting for that to happen?  Aren't we commanded to "GO" not to wait for them to come?  There certainly is a time when some will come to us, but it will not be because of the shirt we are wearing. 

"But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." (1 Peter 3:15)  They will ask of the hope that is IN us.  They will see our hope, not what we are wearing.  Let us never forget that the power of God for salvation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Always has been and always will be.  Nothing else will ever do.  (Romans 1:16) 

Another thing that seems to sweep the nation at times are certain books that put a new twist on Christianity, or some new prayer that will change everyone's life.  Please don't get me wrong; I read a lot of books.  I love different study material.  I'm not saying books are wrong.  But I do have a problem with books that attempt to give people hope in something other than Christ.  Books that seem to have some magical answer for everyone's problems.  I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I think that "The Prayer of Jabez" was like this.  This book was on everyone's bestseller lists.  One small passage of scripture was taken to mean something for EVERY single person; that if you just pray THAT prayer, your entire life will change.  What is that?!?!  We need to get back to basic Christianity.  Let's devote ourselves to the same things that the early church did: the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. (Acts 2:42)  Let's stop looking for something different; some new fangled thing that will tickle our fancy but will never bring true spiritual growth.

All of this is just my opinion.  I'll get off of my soapbox now.

 

When I was creating a Baptism announcement for my sister's baby, I searched the web for some free graphics to liven up the announcement and do you know what I found?  There was very little free Christian clip art.  There was TON of FREE everything else, but most of the Christian clip art I found asked me to buy a cd full of the stuff.  It seems sometimes that people are just out to make a buck and not really practicing what they preach.

21st March 2003 at 01:29 AM BuyFrenchStuff said this in Post #31

When I was creating a Baptism announcement for my sister's baby, I searched the web for some free graphics to liven up the announcement and do you know what I found?  There was very little free Christian clip art.  There was TON of FREE everything else, but most of the Christian clip art I found asked me to buy a cd full of the stuff.  It seems sometimes that people are just out to make a buck and not really practicing what they preach.

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I have noticed that with many chrisitian items.
Books, CD's and others.
It seems like they are always top dollar and never on sale.

I wonder how those lacking the funds can afford to buy much christian material at all.
Look at the prices of a decent bible.

10th March 2003 at 02:59 AM Yekcidmij said this in Post #1

Comments?

Something else that gets on my nerves (yes, something else).  I get tired of Christian bumper stickers, T-shirts (well, at least some), WWJD bracelets and things, and the little metal fish that sticks on the back of cars. 

It seems to me that this is making Jesus into some kind of overused of material object that is thrown into the face of others.  It seems to me that this is somehow taking away from what Jesus really is and is all about.  Does that make sense?  It's great that people want to share Christ and whatnot, but I think the way to do it is by your actions, words, and lifestyle, and etc; not by saying "look at the back of my car, I am a Christian", or "read my shirt and you will see I am a Christian". 

Sorry if you have one of those little fish on your car, not trying to be mean or anything.   It seems that all of this is a kind of pop culture/Christian culture thing to do.  Does anyone agree or disagree with any of this?

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It all goes back to motivatioin.
But my experience is that being a Christian is not considered a cool or in thing. If you wear or display these things, you will be put down for it and suffer persecution because of it.
In my own life, I have been brought under conviction, not for displaying these things, but for hesitating to display them. The Spirit has said to me "are you ashamed of my name?"

So I display them and let Him handle how people take it.

It takes alot of courage to put a fish on your car and to wear a Jesus T-shirts, its like looking for trouble.

I have two Jewish stars on my car which is the next step up on the road to persecution.

I think Americans have become too, secluded and that no one is willing to wear their colors and cause a conversation.

I have one T-shirt that has convicted more people than I can count, it says is your name in the book ?, people have asked, what book ? when I said the book of life ,they said whose book ? and so on....