a weird question

[MoNiCa4316]

:wave:hi everyone! lol I have a bit of a strange question. But - I'm really wondering what the answer is and would really appreciate some help with this.

Let's say that you're an artist...and you have a painting hanging in your friend's house. Welll let's say your friend's family is really into new age/occult/witchcraft/spiritualist :confused: sort of stuff like..ouija boards, etc. Oki in my opinion all that stuff is really evil and is a way to open doors to all sorts of demons etc. I don't think about demons a lot, I try to focus on God, but..they're real! And I think it's best to stay away from anything related to them.

Oki well my question is...by having the painting there, is that ..bad? I mean bad for the artist, spiritually. OR, is that just superstition, and the only danger would be in the artist actually getting involved in the occult practices themselves.

Any help?

Btw, I don't have any of my paintings in any houses like that :) but just wondering.

Peace

monica

[Peaceful Dove]

In my opinion it would be superstitious.
There was a time I might have thought differently but I do not think an item like that would be a conduit.
I was an artist and have no clue where many of my paintings are and have never given it a second thought.

[MoNiCa4316]

oki thanks :)

You see a good friend of mine asked me for a painting...and I was planning to do it and didn't see anything wrong with that.. In her house there's appparently a lot of weird things going on and she told me that they use ouija boards, etc.. I find that really sad :( but I don't want to break off our friendship at all and indeed I see this as an opportunity to share God's love with her. We've been friends since grade 9.
Well one day I was thinking about the painting...and suddenly I just got this very strong impression that I shouldn't do it. I just felt so nervous all of a sudden. I don't know if that's God trying to tell me something... so I thought I'd ask people here.
I'll keep on praying about this...
on one hand it really makes sense that this is just a superstition...but I keep on wondering why I felt so nervous. I didn't see anything wrong with making that painting before, it didn't even enter my mind.

God bless

monica

[Peaceful Dove]

oki thanks :)

You see a good friend of mine asked me for a painting...and I was planning to do it and didn't see anything wrong with that.. In her house there's appparently a lot of weird things going on and she told me that they use ouija boards, etc.. I find that really sad :( but I don't want to break off our friendship at all and indeed I see this as an opportunity to share God's love with her. We've been friends since grade 9.
Well one day I was thinking about the painting...and suddenly I just got this very strong impression that I shouldn't do it. I just felt so nervous all of a sudden. I don't know if that's God trying to tell me something... so I thought I'd ask people here.
I'll keep on praying about this...
on one hand it really makes sense that this is just a superstition...but I keep on wondering why I felt so nervous. I didn't see anything wrong with making that painting before, it didn't even enter my mind.

God bless

monica

I now agree and stand on the Scripture, "Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world."

[MoNiCa4316]

Do you mean that you agree with the impression I got, Peaceful? or that you agree with my conclusion to keep on praying about this, or that it's a superstition? lol sorry I got a little confused:blush:

that's a good verse..Amen.. it speaks to me in a way but I can't really put into words what I want to say. lol.

God bless

monica

[Peaceful Dove]

If you feel moved to continue praying about this, by all means that is what you should do.
I personally think that there is no harm in you having the painting hanging there. You might ask to have it blessed and then pray over the painting that it will witness the Lord in some way.

Other than this, I think making a gift of your talents is a lovely thing to do.

[Father Rick]

Paul wrote about a similar situation in the early church.

In the marketplace, most of the meat sold had been offered as sacrifices to idols as part of pagan worship. Some of the Christians said that you shouldn't eat it-- to do so would be participating in their pagan worship. Others said it didn't matter, it was just a dead cow.

Long story short-- Paul said the issue is really one of the person's conscience. WHY are you doing what you are doing? If your intent is to help/participate in pagan worship then that would be wrong-- but there's nothing wrong with just eating barbecue.

Soooo... with the painting, what do you think is the intent? Is someone wanting you to paint something to help them with some form of involvement with the occult? If so, then your helping them sin would be wrong-- and you would actually be participating in that worship yourself. However, if it's just a matter of painting a pretty picture for someone who happens to be involved in the occult, then it's just painting a picture and nothing else.

With that said... what do you think the Holy Spirit is leading you to do (or not do)?

[Simon_Templar]

Paul wrote about a similar situation in the early church.

In the marketplace, most of the meat sold had been offered as sacrifices to idols as part of pagan worship. Some of the Christians said that you shouldn't eat it-- to do so would be participating in their pagan worship. Others said it didn't matter, it was just a dead cow.

Long story short-- Paul said the issue is really one of the person's conscience. WHY are you doing what you are doing? If your intent is to help/participate in pagan worship then that would be wrong-- but there's nothing wrong with just eating barbecue.

Soooo... with the painting, what do you think is the intent? Is someone wanting you to paint something to help them with some form of involvement with the occult? If so, then your helping them sin would be wrong-- and you would actually be participating in that worship yourself. However, if it's just a matter of painting a pretty picture for someone who happens to be involved in the occult, then it's just painting a picture and nothing else.

With that said... what do you think the Holy Spirit is leading you to do (or not do)?

What he said.

[MoNiCa4316]

thanks everyone :)

God bless

[SharonL]

If you had a picture of evil in your house it would bother you - sooooooo paint the picture - put a strong Word of God on the signature or on the back and make the spirits be uneasy. LOL

[krstlros]

Pray about it. And, if you still have this "strange" feeling about doing the painting, then I would give it some second thought and look really deep within as to what you should do, and let God guide you.

I don't know if this will make any sense, it's just that sometimes, by their nature and the intuative connection to things around them, artists in general have this sixth sense if you want to call it, whether it be painting, sculpting or even writing.

Let the Holy Spirit guide you. You might want to just do the painting and see what God is telling you through it.

[isabella1]

If you had a picture of evil in your house it would bother you - sooooooo paint the picture - put a strong Word of God on the signature or on the back and make the spirits be uneasy. LOL
Now there ya go. I like that idea. You never know who God wants to work through you Monica.