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Choose the Topic you would like Al to Address: Choose a Topic Below... Love Sex Pregnancy Loneliness Priorities Too Busy Insecurity Material things Rejection Anger Forgiveness Suicide a Sin Witness God's Will Ministry Satanism Security Death Salvation? I feel suicidal Bad Language Drugs/Alcohol Addiction Gossiping and/or Lying Guilt Trust Smoking or Dipping? Abortion Occult Suffering My parents hate me Rebelling Obedience Sharing Jesus with Parents Divorce Question 26. Is drinking alcohol wrong? How about smoking or dipping? What about bad or crude language? There has never been a time in history when the world needs to see Jesus any clearer than it does today. And there has never been a time in history when it has been more difficult to recognize Christ in Christians than it is today. If you have asked Jesus into your heart, what is it that sets you apart from the rest of the world? How does your life show Jesus to others? How do people tell the difference between your life and the lives of teens who don't know him? What is different about the way you talk, the places you go, and the things you do? What is it that motivates you to do or not do certain things? How do you decide between right or wrong? • Is your conscience your guide? If so--that's a BAD CHOICE! Proverbs 14:12 says "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is destruction." Sometimes you cannot trust your judgment. You can become so desensitized to doing something that's wrong that is begins to seem OK, even "right". • According to what society says? Do you make decisions based on the character and behavior of the society around you--what you see on TV, in the movies, in magazines--what you hear in today's music--what your friends do? • According to the Christian culture around you? Are other Christians your measuring stick for holiness? For example, if you see some Christians approving of homosexuality or abortion, does that make those things right, even though God's word says they're wrong? • According to your parents? It's dangerous to determine right or wrong solely on your parent's attitudes and actions unless they line up with the Word of God. Parents are not perfect. Some parents don't know Christ, and do things that are not Godly. You need to be careful here. God has not called you to be like the world around you, other Christians, or your parents. He has called you to be like HIMSELF. The only accurate measuring stick of right and wrong is God's Word. What about the areas of conduct where the Bible does not give a specific yes or no? Sometimes you must decide issues by general Biblical principles. Look at scriptures related to the topic. Examples: 1 Corinthians 6:12 Romans 14:21 1 Corinthians 8:12-13 1 Corinthians 10:23 1 Corinthians 10:31 Romans 12:1-2 Isaiah 43:7 Romans 14:12 1 Peter 2:9 1 Thessalonians 5:22 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 1 Corinthians 7:23 Ephesians 4:29 Ephesians 5:1-4 Examples of a specific topic -- Drinking alcohol: Proverbs 20:1 Proverbs 23:20-21 Proverbs 23:29-32 Romans 14:21s Here are five ways to help decide if something is right or wrong for you: • Be willing to honestly look at the evidence against the topic. For example, alcohol kills brain cells, causes cancer, destroys internal organs, is a major cause of accidents, violence, and destroys marriages and homes. It is the #1 killer among students in America. • Make sure you are right with God so you can hear him speak to you through the Holy Spirit. (John 16:13) • Ask yourself, is this thing, or this activity, more important in my life than God? • Watch people around you involved in this activity and see what effect it has on them. Here are three questions that will help you decide between right or wrong: • How will this activity affect me? My body? My personality? My relationship to the Lord? • How will it affect the cause of Christ? Can I honestly ask God to bless this activity? Will it hurt or discredit my church -- the body of Christ? • How will it affect others? The influence I have on others? Will it make it harder or easier for me to witness? Will it hurt someone else? There was a young man who grew up in a Christian home where the parents felt social drinking was OK. They used alcohol in moderation and felt there was no problem with drinking occasionally. The boy took his first drink at his parent's table when he was 16. There was only one difference. He could not drink occasionally. Alcohol began to be a way to escape, a way of coping for him. He became an alcoholic. His parents' social drinking had been a stumbling block in his life. Because he respected them, he assumed if drinking was okay for them, it must be okay for him, too. It wasn't. Remember, as you are deciding what is right or wrong, the decision will be determined by the depth of your relationship with Jesus. If you think it could be wrong, then 99% of the time it is wrong! You may be saying "But what about my rights?" The moment you accepted Christ, you gave all your rights to Jesus--you have no rights. If you care more about your right to participate in the things of this world, then you may need to examine whether you have truly come to Christ. True salvation always brings with it a desire to live for Christ (1 John 3:3). Do you have a desire to be like Jesus in your actions, your attitudes, and the way you talk? What you decide now will determine whether you will know God's best in your life. 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12 You may say, "I am allowed to do anything." But I reply, "Not everything is good for you." And even though "I am allowed to do anything," I must not become a slave to anything. 1 CORINTHIANS 8:12-13 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ISAIAH 43:7 "Everyone who is called by name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." 1 PETER 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-18 Do no be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial: What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate," says the Lord. "Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. 1 CORINTHIANS 7:23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men ROMANS 14:21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:23 "Every is permissible" -- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" -- but not everything is constructive. ROMANS 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. ROMANS 14:12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:22 Avoid every kind of evil. 1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. EPHESIANS 5:1-4 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. PROVERBS 20:1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. PROVERBS 23:20-21 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. PROVERBS 23:29-32 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. JOHN 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 1 JOHN 3:3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.