Making sacrifices

[NavyChristian]

Here recently I've asked myself, "God has given you so many opportunities and so many blessings and answered your prayers, what part of your life is sinful?"

I don't feel there are shades of gray in God's instruction for us down here on Earth. It's written in black and white.

In a nutshell, I love music and movies. But the way I have been getting it is obviously not what God would view as Christian. I downloaded tons of music and full movies from torrent sites illegally. I also justified it by saying things like "those artists won't use the money they'd make for anything good" or "they make way more than me, they don't need the money". In the Bible, it's stated in plain English, "Thou shalt not steal."

Thinking about this simple line, it became obvious to me that there aren't any "if this, then it's ok" inherent in this commandment. My sacrifice was my music and movies. I vowed to stop downloading a few months back and I haven't done so illegally since. I have also since deleted all of my music and movies that I obtained illegally, bringing my music list from roughly 500 songs to about 20. It was really hard to do so, but I couldn't call myself a true Christian if I simply looked the other way when I was sinning.

The last Baptist church I attended was full of hypocritical people. They would pray and participate in church service on Sunday and be true children of God but were completely different outside of church. It just disgusted me that I was doing some of the same stuff. I couldn't believe that all those years of being sickened by those people I was becoming the very thing I despised, so I changed. I made a sacrifice for the good of my soul and for the good Lord above.

What sacrifices have you all made for God to become better Christians?

[trentlogain]

Well like yourself, I deleted all the corrupt music that I was listening to and stopped downloading from torrents. The music I have on my computer now is from places like godtube and youtube that I've copied from streams which I plan on buying the albums too anyway. On the other side of that I've started doing a lot of things for the name of The Lord instead stuff that have been contrary to the true calling of a Christian.

[cool29801]

As Ironic as this sounds, i've only used torrents to download the Christian songs I couldn't find at the store...

Advice?

[ladyt28]

There were several CD's and DVD's I got rid of, shows I won't watch anymore, my bad habits have slimmed down (still working on a few others), started attending church again, started tithing - those are the things that come to mind immediately. But I am Definitely a work-in-progress!

[TwistTim]

As Ironic as this sounds, i've only used torrents to download the Christian songs I couldn't find at the store...

Advice?
sure:

iTunes, Amazon, Walmart.com or try lifeway.com or ChristianMusic.com odds are your muscians are on one of those sites..... and most of those sites (Save Walmart and ChristianMusic) You can buy just individual tracks.....

and there are some other sites out there..... I just can't think of them.....

[trentlogain]

sure:

iTunes, Amazon, Walmart.com or try lifeway.com or ChristianMusic.com odds are your muscians are on one of those sites..... and most of those sites (Save Walmart and ChristianMusic) You can buy just individual tracks.....

and there are some other sites out there..... I just can't think of them.....
I guess recording songs from the radio isn't illegal either. I don't know.

[NavyChristian]

I guess recording songs from the radio isn't illegal either. I don't know.

I don't think so. They couldn't make a law prohibiting that anyway since the recording medium and accessories are provided for legal purchase.

[TwistTim]

I guess recording songs from the radio isn't illegal either. I don't know.


Provisionally, No it's not.

Now to Qualify that.... It's not if you are recording it for your own benefit, but if you are recording it to pass around to others... then it is an issue.... there are many tricky aspects with the law... but recording for personal usage a media that's being presented is fair game.... unless your in someone's house (say a church that has in house broadcasting) and they say not to, or if your at a sporting event... then they can tell you no, and even kick you out.... why? because they set up rules specifically for that and you broke those rules.... in the case of sports, there are laws on the books prohibiting it.... silly because you can tape it at home for personal use.... but still, it's the law..... and when the law does not violate Scripture we must stick to the law of the land......

[mlqurgw]

Lets see, what have I given up? Hmm, I have given up all my natural religious thoughts of God because they are always the opposite of the truth. I have given up all that I thought reccommended me to God, self-righteous works. I have given up trying to please God by something I do. I have given up trying to earn blessings from God by my devotion. I have given up taking pleasure in my religious works and now find it in Christ alone. And I have given up feeling spiritual by sacrificing worldly things because there is nothing spiritual about it. Col. 2:23

[WayneinMaine]

I turned down a job in the US military industry at a time when I was unemployed and despartately in need of a job. I could not see such employment as being consistent with loving my enemies, as Jesus commanded.

Some years later I sold my posessions, gave to the poor, and followed Jesus, choosing to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth.

[cool29801]

I dont really understand this though. When it comes to downloading a song you want, why is it considered stealing when you can go stream it online for free...? Would that still tie back into sin?