Yeh, it's still in Romans

I don't know what it is, but lately I've been deep in the book of Romans and can't get out! This is like for once in my life the Bible is making complete sense! Should I be scared or concerned.. IDK but It's wonderful!! There is no real place to begin because it is one really big circle. So I'll start with Romans and then get to my point! And I promise I will get to my point eventually.

Romans 14: 7-9
"7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living."

No matter what I do or where I go, by the choices I make, I have an influence on someone else. There is nothing that we can do that is totally isolated from the world. Too much is closely knit that we cannot make choices that do not affect our Brother or Sister in someway. If we make wrong life choices our family will suffer the consequences, if we make right life choices our family will sigh a big sigh of relief (at least my family would) and so on. Even if we make the wrong choices in our own private world, at work, or out of our home, those choices affect us and in the same way we affect our family and friends. The only time we are isolated from other people is when we stand before the judgment seat of God. If we hear "Well done my good and faithful servant" we can look in front of us because we will see Jesus Rep'n for us. Ok, I know I already talked about this the other day, but I needed to reiterate it to make my point.

Romans 14: 10-12 "10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’”£
12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."

Do I have the right to judge you? No, and the reason being is because I, just like everyone else, am a man/woman under judgment! It's like we go before God and are standing there and feel that we have the right to turn to our brother and say, "what the heck are you doing here?" or "Did you hear what """""""" did last night"? or "She won't come? But we are Christians and we feel it is ok to go, she's so self righteous!" You get my point. We cannot judge because we are the judged!

13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil."

Before I go on I must bring your attention to one word in those last verses. The word LOVE 1 Corinthians 13 tells it how it is and I'll quote to make my point more clear.

1Corinthians 13: 1-3 "1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

That pretty much tells us how important love is. And how many times to we take the oppurtunity to 'get back' at someone instead of loving them? We can't pass up to chance to get even so we skip the love part. But even when we do pass up the oppurtunity to get even and we choose to love instead of our natural instincts, Do we really remember at that time what love is? Love isn't just 'not getting back' at someone. Back to Corinthians...

1Corinthians 13: 4-7, "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
"

Patient? Doesn't envy? Doesn't boast? ... forget the rest.. if that is what love is.. what is it that I have had when I thought I had love?? Ok, I'm half joking. But all joking aside. That is some pretty powerful guidelines to fal into if we want to truly love one another. And just think of the recipients of your love, they will be some lucky people to live in our presence when we have that kind of love in our hearts and it is sincere! Patient, Kind, does not envy, forgets wrongs right away, which means it also forgives instantly. Dang! Verse 7 "Always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres". That right there that are the attributes of a mom's love. Don't mean to go off the subject, but, my mom? That's her in verse 7. Many of my friends moms. She's right there in verse 7. I'm gonna keep that verse posted on my fridge if I am blessed enough to be a dad someday! Ok, to get back before I make a wrong turn and get lost>>> We stopped at the word love in Romans 14 verse 15. We have to live a life out of love. If we don't have love for our brother we have nothing. It is important to respect a brother or sister who may be weaker in the faith than we are. If we are totally comfortable in doing something and it does not defile our conscience that is well and good. But if we have a brother or sister who is weaker in the faith OR with different convictions than we do, AND we persuade or convince them to take part in or do the things that we are doing, I think we are wrong.

Mark 9:42 “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

To state it plainly; If my conscience was clear while I was involved in an activity or at certain place, and my brother said "No way man, I can't do that and feel right about it". And I were to say "C'mon, man, there's nothing wrong with it, we all go there'. And so on and eventually convince him to go or take part, I would be better off with a millstone around my neck and in the ocean? Dude, I can swim but not under those cicumstances, that would suck! Oh, wait, I get it, if we cause our brother to fall, we are screwed pretty much!! But if we skip back to Romans 14, we understand that we are better off not doing those things in the first place if we know our friend/brother/sister is not comfortable with it. If we know that it is one of those things where it is neither right nor wrong in itself and we know our brother doesn't approve. We should completely abstain for the sake of our brother's conscience! I mean, heck, I would appreciate it if it were done in my regard. That'd be one cool friend. I think back to the many times that I was talked into doing things that I knew were wrong.. only thing was I didn't have much of a conscience then. Do I now? JK!
OK, now I get to the personal stuff. A few years ago (and I'm still getting to my point) I was at an aquaintances house and the fridge was stocked full of alcohol of some kind. We had a blast, spent 'several' hours there and when it was time to leave I fell down the steps and was willing to drive, but a friend stopped by and was a friend to me. To make my condition clear, I was 'wasted'. I am not proud of that, but need to say it to make a point. The next day at work, I could not concentrate on work for obvious reasons. I left early and when to the home of someone of whom I considered a friend. I told my story and in return I was belittled and made to feel like a fool and a failure. This person told me how alcohol has "never touched my lips in my life". And how they feel that "all my advice to you was wasted". etc. etc. By the time I left that house that day I felt like crap and a failure and worthless because I failed. I failed God and now I failed a friend who seemed to want nothing of me. Besides the issue of "Does alcohol have a place in a Christian's life?", I learned a lesson that day. No, the lesson wasn't 'don't ever drink again'. It was "DON'T EVER TREAT SOMEONE THE WAY YOU JUST GOT TREATED" !!!!!! That was my lesson. Now here is the conclusion. I was treated that way, not on purpose, but out of ignorance. That person whom I considered a friend had no idea of how to respond to the news they just heard. So they paniced and said what was on their mind without thinking. At the time I was double wounded. I had fallen the night before and in an attempt to get back up I called on a Christian Brother who, unintentionally, pushed me back down again. But I don't consider that experience all bad. Because of Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord.....". At the time did I love the Lord? I will always say yes, but my actions obviously speak otherwise. I learned that when someone comes to me with a problem, if I have experienced the same problem in my life, GREAT, I can now empathize with them and explain that I've been there and it sucks, let's work together and find the solution to this problem. And, if I've never been there, like this person was never in the place I was, do my best to explain that "I don't know what you are going through, but there IS forgiveness if you are willing to confess & forsake". Yeh, I know it's all words. But that is what I learned from that experience. To always try to 'protect' the faith of someone else. Protect it from discouragement, especially my own. And apply all those adjectives of love to that person if they choose to come to me with questions or problems. To be patient, kind, not to boast or get angry (or at least be slow at it).. The important thing is it's not about me, especially at that point, it's time to put my all into this person who respected me enough to come my way with something.
Now there is another point; I mentioned before the issue of "Does alcohol have a place in a Christian's life?" It will be controversial til the end of time. And i've heard all the arguements. I'm not looking for new excuses. If you drink with a clear conscience, great! If I drink with a clear conscience, great! But if I were to drink and the fact that a young Christian respected me and knew that I drank, caused them to think it is fine to do, but later became a drunkard and ended up with several DUI's. Would I then think it is still ok for me as a Christian to drink? We may think we are living in our own little world and only having influence on .... no one. But that is not true. There are many young people around most of us and they are heavily influenced by what we do and what we say. And if we take part in something they will automatically think it is cool, if not OK. This is just a warning to re-evaluate what is necessary in our life and what is just a potentially dangerous 'extra'. Did I answer the question of whether it has place in a Christian's life? No I did not, because at this point I don't know. I know for a fact that it would be better if we all stayed away from it, but we are all individuals. Just remember Romans 14. We ourselves and our actions are NEVER isolated to just ourselves. We have a responsibility to look out for our brother's conscience. We may have the Christian freedom to drink, but 'could' it hinder a brother or sister in their walk of faith or cause them to fall?? It may be ok for us, but is it ok for ALL Christians? If not, could be we a negative influence on them by participating? And we have an obligation to respect our weaker brother. We cannot do something as a Christian just because our coolest Christian friend does it and has no struggles with it. We cannot do something just to fit in with the rest of the group. We have an obligation to consider the well being and the conscience of our brother FIRST, and then our own! Man if only we could do that, what a great place we would live in !!!