The Great Debate: Is it OK for Christians to drink alcohol?

One of the great debate for Christians is. "Is it OK to drink alcohol?"  Many pastors and/or church denominations look for a loophole or two to justify the drinking of alcohol.  Now, before I get any further, and to avoid hypocrisy, I must first admit that I have drank alcohol.  On several occasions (probably a dozen or so in my lifetime), I would say that I was intoxicated.  However, over the last year and a half, I have not partaken of any alcohol.  Am I saying this because I'm better than you?  Absolutely not!  I'm a sinner who makes mistakes, and I do stuff I shouldn't.  All I'm saying is that I have participated in this sin, but now I don't.  End of story......

Why did I decide a year and a half ago to quit drinking?  Well, for the last five years or so, I was only having a beer or mixed drink about 2 or 3 times per year.  I didn't need it.  I wasn't an addict.  I just did it because I was hanging out with my peeps.  Anyways, I then thought about my Christian walk, and I was convicted that I was damaging my testimony by drinking.  I'm a Christian, right?  I need to act different than the world.  I don't need to have a baby Christian look at me, see that I am drinking, and turn around and indulge themselves.  I'm impeding the spiritual growth of that person.  Shame on me...

Today, I was presented with a message which further solidified my decision to not partake in drinking.  A message that focused on, "Why do people drink?"  I'll present to you three reasons (Biblically) why people drink.

1.  PAIN- If we look at Noah in Genesis 9:21 "(Noah) drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent."  Now we have to understand that Noah was probably suffering from a type of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  He had just seen the entire human race obliterated, yet he was spared.  Noah was experiencing guilt!  He was experiencing guilt caused by his survival and everyone else's unfortunate demise!  We often see this "Survival Syndrome" in our military when a large amount of men die a, yet some of the men were spared.  The survivors feel guilt.

2.  PAST-  If we look at Genesis 19:32-35, Lot's daughters are having a conversation with each other about giving their father wine to get him drunk.  They then sleep with him to become pregnant.  Lot drank to cover up the garbage from his past!  He made some very poor choices that did not turn out well.  Quite honestly, most of his choices make you sick, but his past was awful.  Lot drank to cope with the past!

3.  PLEASURE- Moving forward to Genesis 27:25, we get into an often confusing story.  The story of Isaac giving his blessing to Jacob, the younger son, instead of Esau, the rightful recipient of the blessing  The way the story goes is that Jacob dressed up like his brother and went in to his dying father to steal the blessing.  How does the father not know it was Isaac?  Well, the answer lies in verse 25. "So (Jacob) brought the venison near to (Isaac), and Isaac ate: and he brought him wine and he drank."  Isaac indulged in pleasurable behaviors.  He ate the venison for pleasure.  He drank the wine for pleasure.  Pleasure ruined his blessing!

I want to conclude with this...

• Alcohol does not take away PAIN!
• Alcohol does not change the PAST!
• Alcohol does not bring PLEASURE!

JESUS takes away the PAIN! JESUS forgives the PAST! And, only JESUS can bring true PLEASURE to our lives!

I know there are many of you that will share your loopholes with me, disagree with me, or whatever, and that's fine.  JESUS is the reason for sobriety!  Nothing compares:)

Faith

Ahhh, faith.  We hear so much about it, but I wonder how much we truly understand it.  A simple definition: FAITH is believing AND acting in something you can not see.

If we ponder the life of Moses, what we will be able to see is the fact that with out faith in God, we would not have experienced all of the great stories that we learn about in the book of Exodus.  You see, Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt decided that he was going to kill all of the Hebrew babies, so that in the future, they would not rise up and revolt against his kingdom.  It was only by faith, that baby Moses survived this ordeal.  Moses' mother strategically placed the baby in the Nile river, where it just so happened that Pharaoh's daughter bathed every morning.  Pharaoh's daughter found baby Moses, and wound up bringing baby Moses into her Egyptian household.  What's even better than that, is that Moses' real mother was hired by Pharaoh's daughter to raise Moses.  That takes faith!  Faith that God is going to do something great!  It would have been difficult to put your baby in a basket and place him in the Nile river, but she did it!  She knew that God would protect him.

Sometimes its not easy to do what's pleasing to God, but through faith, we can be confident that our God will take care of us!

Exodus 14

Picture it. An army of chariots behind you, thousands of soilders prepared to take you into custody to be slaves, and take care of every need that they have.  You look ahead, and there looms the expanse of the Red Sea.  You have no where to go!  Two choices: turn around and fight or continue forward and see what happens.  After all, God brought you this far, right?  He'll save you.....hmmm.  Oh yea, I forgot to mention one other thing, you are leading millions of people through the dessert that frankly, just want to go back into slavery.  This is too hard for them.  They are simply whining babies waiting to be spoon fed for the rest of their lives.  You just want to tell them, "Grow UP!"  Where is your faith?  They have followed the presence of God, in a cloud of smoke, just like you have!  They've had faith, but now it's waining!  Why now?  Because the going is getting tough.  It looks easier to go back into slavery, than to follow God!

Have you ever felt like that?  I know that I have.  Sometimes I look at my past life, and the sins that I have participated in and say to myself, man that looks like fun!  I look at the bondage of sin and say that looks easier than what I'm doing!  Why is that?  Sin, why do you entice me to come back to you?  I sit here and think about the growth that I've had over the years.  The amount of time that I've spent in this Bible, and still, sin tries to creep into my life.  Stop it!!  I've put my faith in JESUS CHRIST, just like Moses put his faith in God in that story.  It's not easy though.  I mean think about it, It's easy to put faith in something when things are going well, but what about when it's not?  Do you have the strength to put the pedal to the metal and keep moving forward?  Do you have time to watch GOD do something awesome?

Oh, by the way, the end of the story......Moses decided to stick around to watch God do something spectacular!  He only parted the Red Sea to let the Israelites walk across on dry land.  He stayed true to the plan that God intended for him, despite the challenges that his people were giving him.  They were all on board in the beginning, but when things got tough they didn't mind heading back to bondage.

Let me help you!  Stick to God's plan.  If he helped you overcome an addiction, whether it be alcohol, drugs, abuse, pornography, etc.  Don't give up.  Stick to the plan like Moses did because he got to stick around and watch something pretty cool!  Just when you think bondage looks pretty good, you might be pleasantly surprised at what God has in store for you!

Let me know what you think!  I'd love to hear from you:)

The Beginning

Here is how I see it, EVERYTHING has a beginning.  The beginning of my grad class.....The beginning of a good book......the beginning of the school year.......the beginning of the Bible......

So, here we are. The beginning of a blog that explores the Bible.  Some of my thoughts and opinions on Scripture.  In the beginning there was Light.... hmm....Light from where?  The sun?  Nope, THE SON!  In the beginning, there was God...  I can't explain how, but I do know this, I'm thankful that there was a beginning because with no beginning, there is no me.  I don't exist without the creation of the heavens and the earth.  You and I don't exist without the Wonderful, Counselor, King of Kings!  Jesus Christ!

Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is LORD!

I'd love to hear from you!!