PJ brought his "A" game

John's sermon today (check out the podcast on Itunes - type in "Rancho Vista Church" in Itunes store) was a great discussion about what boundaries we, as Christians, should have in our actions and beliefs. He used the hedonistic Greeks and legalistic Jews from Corinth in the time of Paul to detail his points.

Although the sermon in its entirety was excellent, John summed it up in one phrase, "Let us not be a stumbling block to the weak." He also stated, "It's within your right to listen to whatever you want because Jesus died on the cross...but if you're acting in love, you don't do it because you don't want to cause divisions amongst Christians and in your church."

I took a great deal out of that and there are about 20 blog postings that I could do about where do we draw the line to "not cause divisions" but my main focus was to not be a stumbling block for the weak. I sometimes can consider myself a weak Christian as I tend to conform to the way people act around me as opposed to being the light and hoping people will act like me.

So, I went back and read through my post about my music and decided that it is unnecessary for me to keep the songs that could lead my thoughts away from Christ, and, just as importantly, mislead my friends and co-workers who know I am a Christian into thinking that listening to vulgar music is acceptable. Even though I don't necessarily listen to the lyrics, why not listen to great music that is worshipful (or at least acceptable to listen to around kids)? So, I'm in "delete" mode on Itunes. Hopefully, this is just a first step in becoming the beacon in a group.

By the way, if anybody has any suggestions for great Christian rock groups that I haven't heard of, please send them my way. I'm down to under 4500 songs now :(