Gray, is it closer to white? Or Black?

Gray….it is one of the strangest colors out there! And I have yet to meet a person whose favorite color is gray! Is gray closer to white or black? Well, it depends on who you ask, right? Just like a glass with water in it. Is it half full? Is it half empty? Again it would depend upon which person you ask.

Convictions. This is a strong word with many strong feelings and controversy!!
Friendships have been forged and also abandoned in its wake. Fights have been had, but also resolutions have been made, all under the umbrella of this one thing: convictions.

It has the potential to draw a family
Together or tear them apart. And here I speak of families both physical and spiritual. Both families that are made by blood and that have been made "families" through the blood of Christ!!

My sister called me today. There was nothing out of the ordinary for the phone call at first. We swapped mama horrors, dramas, and funnies from our littles recent ventures in their lives. Somehow we got on the subject of snapchat. God has lead me to and given me the conviction that I should not have snapchat. Josh also does not have snapchat and we will not allow our children to have it either. There are many things that God showed us to bring us to this conviction. I shared a few of these with my sister after she pressed me to get it and shared why she thinks it is ok. We got to arguing about it and finally I was like "let's quit trying to convince eachother to go another way, obviously the Spirit has worked differently within our lives, I don't know why at this point that He has, but He has. I am not judging you for having snapchat, please don't judge me for not." And we moved on to better brighter things to talk about!! 

I actually was not going to write this blog post. I had a strong ickling to write this one and kinda put it on the back burner. But this morning I could not put it there anymore! Nope it came front and center! But as I got to thinking of all the possible people that might end up reading this, I began to think through some possible responses from some, and I got a bit scared. This is afterall a very VERY controversial and an "in your face" issue! But then I had the conversation with my sister and I knew it was time! So thankyou Krista for being God's little nudge to me!

I am writing this because I am so tired of people (often times well meaning and good people) trying to make their conviction, THE conviction.
Yes we are to stand upon our convictions, but when (note I didn't say "if" because it is guaranteed that someone has a different conviction than you).  But when our convictions are different than the one next to us in the pew, what do we often do???

We try and convince them that our conviction is THE conviction. Now some do not do this, for which I am thankful, but more often than not Ive seen time and again people try and make their conviction, THE conviction.

Now let me premise this whole deal that there are THE CONVICTIONS! Such as the virgin birth, that God created the world and all creation. That there is One God, that there is One Son and One Spirit and all three are One!! And I could go on. There are explicit convictions within Gods Word that are to be THE convictions.

However, what I am speaking to today is the gray areas. Now I am not here to argue the point that there are gray areas in scripture (I will let you wrestle with that alone). It is pretty clear to me that there are gray areas within scripture.

Now there are definite black areas: sex before marriage, lying in any form, adultery, murder, gossip, stealing in any form (all of these being the fruit sin of the deeper roots of pride and unbelief). And I could go on but that's just to name a few!

And there are definite white areas of scripture: abstinence before marriage, showing kindness to your friends and enemies, giving to God and others, paying taxes,
Serving within the local church, sharing Jesus Christ with the lost world (and so much more)!!!

And there are also gray areas. These areas are not explicitly talked about within scripture. It never says "thou shalt not go to movies" or "thou shalt not listen to music with drums"
Or "thou shalt not have snap chat" or "thou shalt not have a part in any social media" or "thou shalt boycott target" or "thou shalt homeschool your kids" .....and I could go on but I'll spare you once again.

However, there are verses and principles that the HOLY SPIRIT (note I said Holy Spirit there not your peers or people within your church or even your Pastor or parents).
That the Holy Spirit uses to convict you of how He wants you to stand on these gray areas that are foggy and hard to tell where exactly
You should land on these issues. Note I didn't say He will lead you to where you want to land or where your parents want you to land or where your Pastor or Teachers want you to land, but where He wants you to land on these subjects.

And often the convictions that the Holy Spirit has given you ( note I didn't say "your convictions" there, because they aren't yours and they are not ever about YOU anyways!! But I'll get to that in a minute)...anyways where was I?? Oh yes, often the convictions that the Holy Spirit has given you will be different for those you meet along the path of the Christian walk.
And what do we do then?? And another question that comes to mind and bears asking is "why do
We have so many different convictions anyways?? Won't that just cause more troubles??? Why would the Holy Spirit cause problems among us by giving us all different convictions??"

I'll answer the second question and hopefully that will help guide us to answer the first one!

I believe we have different convictions because God has a different plan for each of His children. He equips us with the exact gifts for the areas He wants us to serve in, and I believe He equips us with the exact convictions for the people He wants us to reach and the areas of service He calls us to as well.

So even our convictions are never about us! They are about God and others! And have you ever noticed how over time sometimes your
Convictions change?? And not always for the looser side, sometimes for the stricter! Why?? Because often our areas of service change and the gamut of people we serve changes!

I think this was partly what the Apostle Paul was getting at when he said "I have become all things to all people"  so that what??? "He could win the more"

You see our convictions are not even about us!!
Let me show you an example from my own life.

I grew up with two sisters. One really close in age (two years older) and one much younger (ten years younger).
My sisters all growing up and to this day like and enjoy wearing clothes that reveal a bit more than what I like to wear. Now the Bible tells us to dress modestly, but it never explicitly lays out what that means: like you must have your skirts a specific number of inches above your knee or you must have your shirts come only so far down from your collar bone.

No explicit rules. So what do we do?? We read Gods Word about such issues and listen to godly people around us and allow the Spirit to use those things to guide us to where He wants us to land.

Now my sisters by no means dress immodestly they just dress a little
More looser than I am comfortable with. Is this bad? Am I in the wrong? Or are they? Answer: neither!

I was really contemplating this the other day and asking myself "why would the Spirit lead me in such a way but not them?" I mean we had the same parents and pastors growing up....you would think we would land in the same boat on this.

Then I got to thinking where God lead us. He lead my sister to be married and be a stay at home mom.
He lead me to be a Pastor's wife.
And that's when it hit me...convictions are not about US!!!!
They are about how God is going to use us to glorify Himself and WHO God is seeking to win through us!

And He is God therefore He is not constrained to work in only ONE way.
By this I mean that sometimes He uses people that are stricter in these areas to win people  to Christ or to encourage a fellow brother or sister in Christ, and sometimes He uses the more loose people in these areas to win people to Christ and to encourage a fellow brother or sister in Christ.

If we all listened to the old hymns how could we win and help the younger generation?? Yet if we listened
To only newer music how could we win and help those who are of the older generation???
God uses people in both camps of convictions! Both loose and strict! Our convictions are not about us! Nothing is or was ever to be about us, but all about God and others!!!

If we all homeschooled our kids who would there be to BE the LIGHT in the darkness??? "Whom shall I send, and Who will go for ME??" God needs both parents who homeschool and those who send to public school!!

If we all boycotted target who would show the workers there that we are not hating them?? And that we love others and again be lights in the darkness?? Yet if none of us boycott then what do we do with passages that talk about us standing in the gap? And pulling together to stop wrong??? God needs both those who boycott and those who do not! He uses both!!!

I could go on and on, but yet again I will spare you. I realize many would like to argue with me about these areas being "gray" but I'm not going to waste my time with that. Because if you want to argue that these areas are either black or white than clearly you are already trying to make your conviction THE conviction. And when we do this, we are being proud. We think that somehow our way is THE way and we are making it all about us!!!
Again these are not YOUR convictions, these are gifts to you from the Holy Spirit so that HE can accomplish HIS purpose in your life and the lives of those around you for HIS glory!

So quit calling them "your beliefs" "your convictions" call them gifts! Call them convictions that God gave you! That God lead you to!

Yes share your convictions with others, use principles within scripture and verses to back them up and reasons why or why not to do or not do something.
But then leave it in the other persons court. Yes perhaps God is going to use you to lead that person to the same conviction as you. And if He does, does that mean your conviction is THE only conviction in that area?? No!! It just means that God wanted that person to align with your conviction because He has a special purpose for glorifying Himself in that persons life in such a way that involves them having the same conviction as you!! It is never about us!!!

And perhaps it is not in Gods plan that this person align with the same conviction as you. What then?? Peaceably come to an agreement to disagree. Don't be proud (either of you) thinking that the other person is being stubborn or pig headed or stuck in the clouds. For really you are bashing Gods work in their life!!!

When you look down on someone for not having the same conviction as you, you are bashing God and the Holy Spirit's work in their life! So don't! Don't make it about you! Only God can change a heart. You just handle sharing convictions how you are to handle sharing the gospel. You share and let God do the rest.

Stepping off soap box now.