Distractions: Alcohol, Guns, Pornography, Video Games, Gambling...

[Aijalon]

A thread for discussion, confession or prayer.   

Preoccupied with thoughts of....[your vice here]

Could be Junk Food, Tobacco, Fantasy Sports..... Might be fun to argue about the official BF list of vices. (FWIW I endorse responsible substance use, including cannabis.... a discussion for another thread)  Abuse of prescription narcotics, anti depressants, and over the counter drugs as forms of drug abuse are on the table too.   ANYTHING that becomes habitual and harms your conscience or sound reasoning is on the table here.

I have had to deal with all of the issues mentioned above at one time or another, and not immune yet.   As my body gives out and I crave release from the aches and pains, depression... it is a temptation to resort to prescription drugs, tobacco....

A guy story: 
A friend is dying of incurable brain cancer.  He formerly smoked a pipe.  He took up the pipe smoking again because his time is short..... I got him a tin of tobacco, he didn't like it and he gave it back to me!  So I dabble with smoking a pipe now!

[RabbiKnife]

We are instructed by Paul that we are to take every thought captive.

So, when we allow ANYTHING to preoccupy our thoughts without conscious effort, we sin.

TV, reading, facebook, TIkTok, whatever...

We are to redeem the time....

I strongly and highly recommend we give that consideration.

[Athanasius]

As the song goes:

But on the word 'vice', this suggests moral depravity. Is this meant as discussion towards the resolution of such depravity, or do we mean 'vice' colloquially, tongue-in-cheek, as it were? Though it seems not:

"ANYTHING that becomes habitual and harms your conscience or sound reasoning is on the table here."

But are the things already mentioned in the OP in fact vices necessarily? Hmm. And am I even meant to be here. Questions, questions.

But like RK was saying.

[RandyPNW]

A thread for discussion, confession or prayer.   

Preoccupied with thoughts of....[your vice here]

Could be Junk Food, Tobacco, Fantasy Sports..... Might be fun to argue about the official BF list of vices. (FWIW I endorse responsible substance use, including cannabis.... a discussion for another thread)  Abuse of prescription narcotics, anti depressants, and over the counter drugs as forms of drug abuse are on the table too.   ANYTHING that becomes habitual and harms your conscience or sound reasoning is on the table here.

I have had to deal with all of the issues mentioned above at one time or another, and not immune yet

Nobody is immune, and nobody has "arrived." However, the thing to do is to get out of the thing by lowering its attachment to you. You have to be able to walk away from the temptation.

Walking away is just a matter of obeying the moment. You could be rescued by a phone call, or by a need to get something to eat. The problem is when we get so attached to things that it controls us. If someone is getting to us, we need to be able to go read a book.

I find that if I just focus on the path in front of me, things can't distract me too much. But yes, I can get easily addicted to things. Today, I try not to let anything control me, although I'm fully aware that there are things in me I can't just throw out the door.

Some problems are perennial and are part of us, such as anger, jealousy, covetousness, and lust. These things are dealt with sometimes only a day at a time.

[Aijalon]

But are the things already mentioned in the OP in fact vices necessarily?

Vice is taken to mean an illegal activity, and in this case, spiritually.  I mentioned the conscience because I don't believe in a hard and fast set of vices for Christians.  Some things are dependent on your personal comfort level, there are grey areas.  (1 Cor 8:12).

To put it bluntly.... if I see an advertisement that features a barely clothed super model... I don't close my eyes or feel ashamed that I may have committed adultery.   But I'm over 40, married a while, and have teenage girls.   A 15 year old may have a harder time erasing that imagery and being fixated on it and commanding his flesh.  He might want to masturbate to clear his mind (won't work).  Me, no, I go about my day and feel just fine with underwear commercials, spiritually that is (nuisance that they are). 

[Athanasius]

Vice is taken to mean an illegal activity, and in this case, spiritually.

That's a fancy way of saying 'sin', but yes, I got that. Hence my question, which you replied to, which you get to below.

I mentioned the conscience because I don't believe in a hard and fast set of vices for Christians. Some things are dependent on your personal comfort level, there are grey areas. (1 Cor 8:12).

If only some things are dependent, and there are other things that aren't, then surely those speak towards a set of 'hard and fast ... vices'? Whatever those things may be. What I was getting at is that some of the things mentioned aren't sin necessarily, so how do those fit into the current discussion? I think probably we have things that depend on conscience, and things that aren't sin but aren't beneficial, and things that are sin, and things that qualify as a 'hard and fast set of vices', and so on.

To put it bluntly... if I see an advertisement that features a barely clothed supermodel... I don't close my eyes or feel ashamed that I may have committed adultery. But I'm over 40, married a while, and have teenage girls.

A 15 year old may have a harder time erasing that imagery and being fixated on it and commanding his flesh.  He might want to masturbate to clear his mind (won't work).  Me, no, I go about my day and feel just fine with underwear commercials, spiritually that is (nuisance that they are). 

That's a bit of a random example, but yes, incredible the effect reduced/reducing testosterone levels can have on a person. Maturity too, I'm sure. Are there many advertisements with barely clothed supermodels? I haven't noticed. I'm my own moral dilemma, anyway.

So I suppose this is an instance of setting an example, avoiding things that aren't sin but aren't beneficial, being wise generally, and so on.

Hmm. How does this thread qualify as a distraction?

[IMINXTC]

At any rate, I often find myself praying for the struggling brother. Not that I haven't struggled.

[ProDeo]

We are instructed by Paul that we are to take every thought captive.

So, when we allow ANYTHING to preoccupy our thoughts without conscious effort, we sin.

TV, reading, facebook, TIkTok, whatever...

We are to redeem the time....

I strongly and highly recommend we give that consideration.

Indeed.

As Christians we allow ourselves (by the new life that is planted in us) that our conscience is re-programmed by Biblical principles. I very well remember the battlefield the first years after my conversion dealing with my old life, what to drop (the things I liked) and the things I had to do as a Christian, things I disliked. But the new life overcame.

And yet while the years passed and knowledge increased I realized that certain things I dropped weren't sins at all and vice versa, I changed my mind about some of the things I had to do but that there actually wasn't a sound Biblical reason for that.

All in all, a re-programmed conscience is a must, it's not perfect, but it's all I have. I could be wrong on many issues.

As for the question in the OP, I would have done the same, let him smoke his pipe if it comforts him in his last days, love covers many sins and smoking isn't even a sin, just a bad habit.

[Kingfisher]

Many years ago as a young Christian I was convicted of the music I was listening to. I was a 80's/90's metalhead. Was the music a sin? No, but God had plans that didn't include that music. I've come to find that the mind is a fertile field. What you plant there determines the fruit that it bears.

Years later, I now understand why that conviction was there. God speaks to me through music...which is odd that I am a non-musician. I can't sing or even clap my hands on beat. Still there have been many times that I've had a question or struggling with something and God speaks clearly through the music I have on. There's just been countless spiritual landmarks in my life of God moving in this way. I'm glad I listened those many years ago.

[RandyPNW]

Many years ago as a young Christian I was convicted of the music I was listening to. I was a 80's/90's metalhead. Was the music a sin? No, but God had plans that didn't include that music. I've come to find that the mind is a fertile field. What you plant there determines the fruit that it bears.

Years later, I now understand why that conviction was there. God speaks to me through music...which is odd that I am a non-musician. I can't sing or even clap my hands on beat. Still there have been many times that I've had a question or struggling with something and God speaks clearly through the music I have on. There's just been countless spiritual landmarks in my life of God moving in this way. I'm glad I listened those many years ago.

Yes, Music is a big deal in Western culture. A part of my birth family were very musical, and the other part partly musical. I was in the part much less musical. And so, I loved music, but didn't perform it. You may not paint, but you'll still hang art work on your walls!

Much that is in Western culture now is post-Christian, so there is bound to be some conflicts in the Christian's conscience. When I recommitted to Christ, I had to dispose of some of the art and music that I had--it sent the wrong signals.

It's very troubling when you're raising children because they want to be accepted in public schools. I home-schooled one of my children, and she became somewhat deprived of cultural information that later was important for her to be accepted at work.

But basically, I like what you say. We need to surround ourselves with good material, or we may wander. And others need to decide for themselves what influences they need, whether to become informed about our culture or to be entertained for various reasons.

I sometimes listen to an old song because I find some value behind the corruption. Some listen because they are musicians developing new techniques and hope to follow new trends.

Some years back I actually took a fun class at the local community college on Rock N Roll, and that opened a door for discussions like the one we're having here.

[Athanasius]

Speaking of questionable music, (the band) Ghost released Impera recently. There are some very well crafted songs, and I'll admit to listening. Obviously, they have songs I won't touch, and they have songs that could pass off as (Christian) worship music if you aren't paying attention. Well, the choir soundtrack to the game Far Cry 5 was good for that too.

Ghost for those who don't know is a faux-Satanic Swedish rock/metal band. I'm not convicted of that (I also wonder what analogies there are between something like this, and Alice Cooper back in the day), and I also don't go around listening to them in public. But I also don't go around listening to top 10 radio either, because there's plenty of arguably Satanic material there as well. The difference is one knows it's a shock act, the other doesn't.

I grew up in a home where all so-called secular music was thrown away when I was a few months old, and so with the exception of Neil Diamond, I grew up under the expectation that I would only ever listen to Christian music. And there's plenty of good Christian music, or there was. But I guess I'm the reaction. There is absolutely stuff I won't listen to (like actual, actual, Satanic music, and top 40 radio), but I think most of the time it falls under 'be wise'.

Christians of my parents age often talk about that conviction to get rid of music, and then they regret it, and their kids grow up with this idea that music isn't just music. It has to always be a spiritual battleground, and if it's not Christian it's a bad influence. Well if I want to listen to Jim Croce or Tommy Emmanuel then lacking any divine conviction I'm going to.

Also, music has helped me through a lot. I'm the kind of person that can put on headphones, sit or lie down, and get lost in the sound. I know very well the influence and the pull. I don't treat it lightly.

[Kingfisher]

Ghost for those who don't know is a faux-Satanic Swedish rock/metal band.

I recently heard some songs from a Swedish...I think they're Swedish...band Sabaton. It was playing at the gym I go to. I liked it enough to lookup some of their songs. Even learned some history of that part of Europe I had never heard. Winged Hussars is a thing!

[Kingfisher]

I grew up in a home where all so-called secular music was thrown away when I was a few months old, and so with the exception of Neil Diamond, I grew up under the expectation that I would only ever listen to Christian music. And there's plenty of good Christian music, or there was. But I guess I'm the reaction. There is absolutely stuff I won't listen to (like actual, actual, Satanic music, and top 40 radio), but I think most of the time it falls under 'be wise'.

I find and have discussed with my kids some secular songs that could be sung in a way that have Christian themes. Like Hoobastank's The Reason. If you watch the video it's obvious the band didn't intend it to be taken in a Christian context. The Reason is not Christ to them. But look at just these few lyrics...

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so, I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know
I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you

We kinda like to do that with other secular songs as well.

[Athanasius]

Growing up I was taught a fairly black-and-white view of people, and it seems that still largely persists, especially in North American Evangelicalism. Christians are good, and everyone else is fundamentally bad. Which, of course, doesn't allow for the nuance of reality: a lot of those bad people, just like the Christians who forget they were, or maybe are, bad people too, are trying to figure their lives out. It's too easy to think that if someone isn't a Christian there's nothing of value on offer. Especially music. But why should that be the case? There are plenty of issues, for instance, that don't require a uniquely Christian perspective to speak on. It's also too easy to think that if someone is Christian everything is of value.

I can't stand 'The Reason'. Mind you, I'd listen to that over the largely Hillsongified Christian music scene. I blame CCM for that. I don't want to listen to persecution-porn worship music 24/7. Or like, at all. It's interesting where we've come, from Glenn Kaiser's view of the Christian musician to musicians who are Christian but don't describe their music as 'Christian music'. I like Flyleaf was the last overtly Christian band I really enjoyed. Maybe these days it's 21 Pilots, or NF.

Besides, most Christians these days look at me funny so the draw to conform for the sake of the local community isn't exactly paramount.

[RandyPNW]

It's all about judgmentalism, or not. Christians cross the entire field, but without the advantage of having a majority anymore. Somewhat suppressed commercially, the offering Christians have would naturally be limited. That turned off my step-son.

But there's plenty there for the Christian who loves music and wants to use it for various reasons, worship, entertainment, art, background music, etc. There's a huge gap between Christian Rock Music and Worship Music.

But to ignore the fact the majority out there don't know Christ, and yet wish to express themselves through art, entertain others, or simply make a living, is ridiculous. They should be recognized for the legitimate reasons they have.

You don't have to buy the music or attend the concerts. But you can certainly get an earful wherever you go for your social input. And quality music is pretty easy to spot.

There's music that has less vocal and words, and it still reflects a Christian or a non-Christian feel. I tend to listen to jazz at times, while in the car, simply because I like the style, and it doesn't threaten me with evil messages.

When I'm on a flight, I might tune into an oldie that I liked in my more "pagan" days. It's called "nostalgia." But I'm careful to not get too carried away!