What About Christians and "Drinking"?

At times I wonder if the only Bible verse some Christians know is "drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities" (1 Tim. 5:23).

Obviously wine had, and may have, a use. But "using it for medicine" and being "used by it" are two different things. Paul puts it flatly, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18).

Is there a case for total abstinence? I believe there is. The major scriptures regarding wine in the Bible all indicate that it is treacherous, addictive, excess-encouraging, and a mocker.

Certainly drunkenness is condemned. Neither "thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:10).

That is plain. If we want to claim our inheritance, we can't be drunkards. So the question is, how much can you drink and not be a drunkard? Obviously, no one ever became a drunkard by not drinking---by totally abstaining. That much is clear. Now, how much makes you cross over the line? Legally, if the percentage of alcohol in your blood is ten percent or more, you are drunk. If there is the right percentage of alcohol on your breath, you are legally drunk. I believe the scriptural standard is more strict.

Alcohol, even in small amounts, goes directly into the bloodstream and to the brain. It literally "fills" the body. How? After you have a drink-moments after-it is impossible to find any place in your body that is not affected by that drink. Your brain, your eyes, your respiration, your metabolism, and your coordination are all affected. Naturally you are not "dead" drunk, but you are a "living drunk." You may be functional, but you are not fully functional.

Moreover, you are an excessive drinker because the drink has a built-in "excess factor." The Japanese have a proverb: "First the man takes a drink. Then the drink takes a drink. Then the drink takes the man."

What is the alternative to drink? Spiritual reinforcement. Our sense of adequacy, our attitude of calm, our assurance of strength, come from the spirit within-the Holy Spirit. He is a part of our inheritance.

I boarded a plane in Orlando and thought that there was an error in my boarding pass. I went to the flight attendant with my problem and she said, "Oh, no. Not you. Everything is going wrong today." "I'm sorry," I said. "I'll work it out."

I returned to my seat and remembered that I had with me a copy of the book I had written, When Nothing Seems to Go Right. She gratefully accepted it and asked me to autograph it. Later in the flight, she came to my seat and asked if I were writing any more books.

"Yes, I'm actually writing a book called How Women Think."

"Really?"

"Yes, I have fifteen chapter titles already. The first chapter is "Just Because I Have a Roast in the Oven Doesn't Mean We Can't Go Out for Dinner."

"I'll buy that," she said.

I gave her a few more of my chapter titles and she went on with her work. Later she came to my seat again and said, "Mr. Berquist, I just thought of one more chapter for your book." "Good. What is it?"

"I Need a Martini and I Don't Drink."

I can identify with that feeling. Sometimes the frustrations of life demand some relief. I am glad you don't drink. If you had no other source of help than alcohol or drugs, I could understand why you would reach for a "crutch." You don't need a crutch. You need the help that God can give you. And like alcohol, God's spirit can reach to every part of the body and can bring help. Better yet, there are not bad after-effects, no hangovers. How grateful we should be for the gift of the spirit that not only does not rob us of our intelligence, but puts us in touch with infinite intelligence. Men, Women, and God...

Prayer

Psalms 141:2 "Let my prayers be set before thee as incense; and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

We understand that incense was composed of different costly spices, and this fact should remind us that prayer is costly. To oppose the powers of Satan, and stand against the powers of this evil world will cost those who will dare to do it, a great deal. These costly spices were ground or beaten very small, then burned in a glowing censer. It seems strange that one would take that which is so valuable and grind it, beat it to pieces, and then burn it, but these costly spices could not make the sweet perfume which ascended upward to the Lord until they had been ground, beaten and burned.

One of the fundamental elements of prayer is DESIRE. You may not understand the trials, tests, reverses, illness, and accidents which are permitted to come to you. They seem to grind, beat, and burn you, but God is trying to create a strong desire in your heart to truly pray. For without a strong burning desire, no prayer can ascend to God. There must be a deep sense of need until it bursts forth in the form of fervor and earnestness before the promise, "Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them," can be fulfilled. Jacob had never had the strong burning desire for the blessing of God before, that he had that early morning of the day he was to meet his brother Esau, who had vowed he would kill him. It was then that he laid hold of God's power and would not let go until the angel blessed him. Whatever will give us an intense desire to pour our hearts out to God in earnestness for the supply of our need, is good for us.

Another element of prayer is love. Love rules out all selfishness and qualifies one to truly pray. Rather than ask amiss that one might consume the answer to his prayer upon his own lusts or satisfy his own selfish desires therewith, LOVE will create a desire in the Christian's heart to glorify God, and that others will be benefited and blessed. To comply with the command of Jesus when He said, "When ye pray, forgive," will be an easy matter when those who pray have the element of love in their prayers. To pray with an unkind feeling toward anyone is almost the unpardonable sin.

Love is the very nature of God, and if anyone would have the assurance that the gates of heaven will open and that the very heart of God will be touched, let him pray in the spirit of love, which is one of the highest forms of holy desires. For His children to pray humbly in the spirit of love is like the sweet incense ascending upward to heaven. Someone has said "God cannot deny Himself." So when He inspires our hearts to pray, it will be in love, and the prayer cannot be denied.

Another very vital element, which is essential to prayer, is FAITH. In Mark 11:22 Jesus said, "Have faith in God." The marginal reading is "Have the faith of God." This is not our little human faith straining and struggling to believe, but it is God, Himself, believing His own Word, through us. Faith then, connects the praying soul with the forces and powers of God. Real, vital, inspired faith brings the believer into the supernatural realm, and makes possible the possession of things which God has promised in His revealed Word! To you, and to me, the Lord has said, "According to your faith, so be it unto you." The key that opens the door to the great supply house of the mighty God is your faith. Therefore, let us offer the sweet incense of prayer to God, with desire, love and faith.

Let us never forget the important element of thanksgiving in our prayers. Prayer is much more than spoken words, or the effort of calling upon God. Many people pray when they are hurt or are in distress, but real praying is offering to God our incense of prayer mingled with thanksgiving. Some of this incense was beaten very small. It is possible that you think some of the matters which are of interest to you axe too small to bother with, but there is not a burden, a care or heart ache too small to interest and to be of concern to our heavenly Father. The fragrance produced by burning incense represents the outbreathing of a fervent and loving heart which communes with the Lord, with real desire, with great love, with unwavering faith, and genuine praise and thanksgiving, and also represents the pleasure which the Lord has in communing with His deeply spiritual children.

That the incense was set on fire cannot be overlooked. Our prayers must have the fire element of hot hearts in them, for cold, formal praying does not move or please God. Prayer that comes from the heart in which the blessed Holy Ghost resides, is immortal. It does not originate in this world, neither will it die when soul and body are separated, but true prayer lives on long after the heart and lips that offered it have been stilled in death.

The angel that came and stood before the altar held a golden censer which contained the prayers of all saints. This means the prayers of all saints of all ages, and includes the prayers of the prophets, the apostles, John Knox, Whitefield, John Fletcher, the Wesleys, the lonely missionaries, and the saints of all ages, whose cries and tears have ascended to God. .Great significance is attached to this Scriptural truth, and it should be of great encouragement to those who pray daily. We are told that snow continues to fall in the high Alps, year after year, until finally it becomes so heavy that when the warm spring comes and the ground begins to thaw, the earth becomes loose and begins to slide until it reaches great momentum, sweeping everything before it; just so with the prayers of the people of .God that have gone up to Him for years, the weight of them and the warmth of them will produce a spiritual landslide. Prayer is a powerful thing, and when engaged in under the anointing of the blessed Holy Ghost, Satan, sin, the powers of evil and of the world are pushed back, and precious souls that would not otherwise have had a chance to find God are moved upon with mighty conviction, the desire and determination to be saved possesses them, and as a result of meeting conditions, God is pleased to blot out all the past, transform their lives by His wonderful grace and make them new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Let us not give up, but continue praying each day with the desire that our "prayers be set before the Lord as incense and the lifting up of our hands, as the evening sacrifice," The angel will appear before the throne with the golden censer, in it will be the prayers of all the saints. Let us with desire, love, faith, and thanksgiving send up our prayers that we may have a little part in the offering upon the golden altar which is before the throne.

Relationships

Nowhere is the central theme of Paul's letter to the Ephesians more clearly visable than in the last part of the fifth chapter as he talks about marriage.

And nowhere have more strange and strained interpretations risen than in this chapter. "Wives, be subject to your husbands," shout the dominant males.

"What did Paul know about marriage?" shout their spouses. "Paul wasn't even married."

First let me say that it doesn't make any difference whether the Apostle was married or not. He is not speaking from his perspective or inspiration, but by the infinite perspective of God and the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Had God chosen to bring these words by writing in the sky, they would not be more authentic.

Second, I must say that in all probability, Paul was married. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the high official body of the Hebrews, and to belong to it one had to be married. Moreover, the Hebrews didn't consider a man truly to be a man until he was married. The respect that Paul received certainly indicated that he was respected.

Now, what did he say? Or rather, what did God say through the pen of Paul? He did say, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord" (Eph. 5:22). However, in the preceding verse he said, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God" (v. 21).

Submission is a two-way street. But this does not mean that we abandon our uniqueness or our personality. A hammer is no less a hammer when it yields to the hand of the carpenter. A brush is no less a brush in the hand of the artist. In fact, it is most truly a hammer or a brush when it submits. The destiny of a hammer is to drive nails and it cannot do this until it submits. The destiny of a brush is to paint pictures, and it cannot until it submits.

Men and women have special destinies, unique and special, but they cannot perform them without submission.

The woman who says, "I just want to be myself" cannot truly be herself until she learns how to submit. And a man who thunders, "I just want to live my own life" will live an inferior life until he learns to submit.

Nowhere is the doctrine of the church more clearly illustrated than in Paul's discussion of marriage. In fact, in this fifth chapter of Ephesians, Paul so intertwines them that you have to stop and check yourself as you read. "Is he talking about Christ and the church or me and my wife?"

Paul answers the question. Having gone through some very direct commands for the married couple, he says: "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband" (Eph. 5:32-33).

The more we minimize the difference between the sexes, the more we weaken both. For a woman to affirm her femininity means that she makes possible a stronger husband. For a man to affirm his basic masculinity means that his wife is a stronger person. The union of the two makes the togetherness principle of Ephesians workable and visible.

The body itself should teach us. An "ankle bone" bleaching in the desert is a toy for the dogs. Properly placed in the body, it not only helps the body to accomplish its goal, it fulfills itself. Togetherness does it. It does not sacrifice its identity by submitting to the other bones and to the will of the walker. It becomes what it was meant to be.

An individual Christian does not lose identity or worth by submitting to the other members of Christ's body. One becomes functional-worth something-fulfilled. Paul makes this clear in the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

Now it becomes clear that the church is both a model for the family and the family a model for the church. Just as it would be unthinkable for the church to exist without a head, a headless body would be a corpse. The head functions not only as a convenient place to put your hat, but as the control tower for all bodily functions.

Of course a head without a body would also be useless. Paul said that Christ (the head of the church) loved the church as his own body. Why? Because it was his body. "No man ever yet hated his own flesh," Paul says, "but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church" (Eph. 5:29). The "togetherness principle" has interesting results. If a man loves his wife, Paul says, he loves himself. Why? Because they are together. By the same rule, if he is demeaning to his wife, he destroys not only the relationship, but himself as well. In the same way, a woman who demeans her husband also destroys herself.

As I have opportunity to talk to both women's groups and men's groups, I say repeatedly: If you want your wife to be more of a woman, try being more of a man. If you want your husband to be more of a man, try being more of a woman. For both, if you want to be more of a person, check your relationships with others. We are members of one another.

In our day of mixed sexual signals, there is a feeling: "Anything you can do, I can do." Usually this implies, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Women don't really need men. Or men don't really need women. It's as though each were complete without the other.

A friend of mine recently told me of her precocious three-year-old grandchild. He had been told that an earthworm cut in two would still live. Both halves would survive. So, holding an earthworm in his hand, Steve said, "Little worm, are you lonely? I'll bet you are." So he cut the worm in two and said, "Now you have someone to play with."

Women would like to think that men should think like them, and men can't understand why women don't think like them. Why don't they? Simple. They are different. And it is in this ability to relate to different people that the relationships get strong.

It may be true that in some parts of the world and in some cultures the men have been bossy, selfish, and self-seeking. But the answer is not to replace them with bossy, selfish, and self-seeking women.

The goal is not competitiveness, but together-ness. We are members of each other.

Left to ourselves, we develop a program for uniformity, of making others like ourselves. God's program is unity through diversity and relatedness. If we find it difficult to do what the Bible commands in terms of submission to each other, we should ask ourselves whether or not we have really submitted to Christ. It is not likely that anyone who has not been willing to submit to Christ would be willing to submit to another human or a group of humans.

It is interesting to see a generation of people who laugh off the authority of God's Word, or the commands of Christ. Are they free? Indeed not. They become slaves of their passion, their ambition, or their greed.

Only in submitting to Christ and to each other do we find the opportunity to fulfill our destiny.

Getting Along in the Home...
It isn't important to be able to understand God's Word so that you can obey it. It is important to obey God's Word so that you can understand it. Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God" (Jn. 7:17).

The same law applies to the family. It is not necessary to understand your parents; it is almost always necessary to obey them. In fact, the commandment "Honor thy father and mother" is the first commandment with promise. To my knowledge, there is no other promise of a long life but this one...honor thy father and mother. If that were the only reward, it might be well worth it. But, of course, there is more. If we are out of fellowship with our family, it is hard to relate to other people.

In the world of Paul's day, many homes were filled with tension. In the market place, slavery was commonplace. There were no unions to protect the rights of the workers. Yet even in those grim times, Paul tells servants to obey their masters. If their reward was not forthcoming, they were told to be patient because God would reward them. "Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free" (Eph. 6:8).

Masters were not exempt from responsibility. In Paul's day, a slave owner had the power of life or death over his slaves. No one monitored him. No one could challenge him. But Paul said that he did have a master and he was accountable.

No relationship of life escapes the eye of God. We are all tied together.

Let's Put On The Power

Power from above to live in a world below: that’s our desperate need. Without it, we're pitiful indeed.

Can you remember streetcars? They were a common sight in most American cities fifty years ago. In streetcars two important connections were essential to get them going. First, the wheels had to be on the gray steel tracks. And the overhead connection had to reach out to the power lines.

A streetcar in a pasture would be as hopeless and useless as a ship on a parking lot. On the other hand, if a streetcar were solidly and squarely on the tracks, but out of touch with the power lines overhead, it would simply be an obstruction to street traffic.

Paul had no illusions about either the power or the overwhelming attractiveness of sin. Ephesus in his day radiated temptation of many lurid sorts. Sexual orgies and drunkenness were perfectly acceptable forms of worship. As in our day, a powerless Christian had about as much chance of effectiveness as a prohibition petition in a town full of taverns. Small wonder Paul said, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Eph. 6:10).

The term “in Christ” is more than oratory. It’s more than fancy preaching. To be “within Christ” means to be in the fellowship of his body, the church. It means reaching back into history and drawing on the strength of the apostles and prophets.

How can we do that unless we read their words? The word of God incarnate is Christ. The word of God preserved is the Bible. The word of God actualized is the obedient Christian. These are a set, a matched system.

For the believer in today’s world, our direction is clear. We must be made aware of our sources of power. This power must be far more than mere gritting of teeth, or flexing our will power. Like the streetcar in the pasture, we are powerless without those vital connections.

Throughout this letter Paul has emphasized again and again the togetherness of believers. Separation from each other is costly. Separation from God’s power is deadly. We must maintain that togetherness, that unity, at all petty? costs. Although Ephesians was addressed to non-Christians, it did remind them that the roots of their faith were in the seed of Abraham. Not even Gentiles could disown their heritage. Nor could they allow breakdowns between themselves and other Gentiles—no breakdown in the church, in the home or in the marriage. Moreover, they had to maintain that spiritual up-reach that connected them to the power of God in Christ. It is clear to Paul that we're involved in battle, in a war. “Not against flesh and blood,” he says in chapter 6, verse 12, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (NIV).

To survive this kind of fight means that we must have both an effective offense and an effective defense. Part of these God provides: “loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace … and … the shield of faith…the helmet of salvation” (Eph. 6:14–17). We simply accept them from God and put them on. For offense we have “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”

Paul tells us in verse 17. This is God’s revealed truth. If we try to live victoriously and win the battle with empty hands, we fail. Mere cunning will not do it. We will become one more set of dry bones left to bleach on the desert sands of failure.

For us, the word of God is in the Bible, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus used scripture to withstand Satan’s power in his desert temptation, so we must make use of this essential weapon, provided by God. Human reasoning will not do it. Human arguments will not prevail. “It is written,” says Jesus (Matt. 4:4). Only God’s written word can effectively face the devil.

To be very practical, Christians should have a full quiver of arrows with which to face spiritual enemies. Or, to put it in modern, swashbuckling terms, Christians need a cartridge belt full of biblical bullets. “Equalizer” was the term used for the revolver in the old west. Short men became tall with a gun in hand, weak men strong. Spiritually, the Bible makes giants of us all. Midgets become tall in the saddle with God’s word in hand. Our warfare is spiritual. It is impossible to fight a spiritual war with material weapons, just as impossible as it is to fight a tornado with a flyswatter. Energy and a well-meaning disposition won’t cut it.

Is the battle intense? Of course, but when Paul sends the word, “Stand!” he also tells us how to do it (Eph. 6:13). No one can accuse Paul of underestimating the power of evil, neither the evil in our world or the world of evil itself. Paul’s spiritual enemy was as real as the cold, stone prison walls that surrounded him. Evil was powerful, but note, not all powerful. We steadily gain the unspoken conviction that Christ is in charge. And with this note, Paul closes the letter. The soldier, a thorough-going Christian, took the time to hoist the statue to an upright position and shoulder it back onto its stone base. He read the chalked inscription again. He couldn't walk away with that message scrawled on that statue of his Jesus. Finding a white stone, he scratched three more words. “His reign is over … heaven and earth.” So Paul’s message to Ephesus…

And in our day the shadow of St. Paul speaks again. He invites us to take on gladly the spiritual armor that God provides. Victory is sure. God invites us to share the triumph he has ordained for the Son of God and all who would enlist in his army.

American Idols

Note from Jerry: During my "selecting journey" , I came across the following... After reading and pondering, I decided to share it. I felt there are some comments worthy of sharing. It seems clear that the article was written by a pastor whose congregation doesn't consider themselves to be a part of any denomination. Obviously, I don't know if the pastor was aware...or "fully aware" that it appears that he may have been using Biblical principles "a mite out of context" to keep his sheep from straying on "Decoration Sunday".

Here is the article I intend to run in this week's bulletin.

For those unfamiliar with the term "decoration season" -- churches with a cemetery have a designated "Decoration Sunday." This is when the families of all those buried in the church's cemetery gather to do clean up and decorate the graves. Many times the work is done on Saturday with a dinner on the grounds the next day. Unfortunately, some members of the church in our area think nothing of forsaking the assembly on Sunday to worship at denominational bodies with cemeteries where their kinfolks are buried. Sad, I know. They'd rather worship near their dead relatives than with the risen living Lord. (One preacher who used to preach in the area called this practice a "picnic with the dead.")

American Idols

No, this article is not about the wildly popular television show, but I did borrow from that title to get your attention! Idolatry has been problematic for mankind from the earliest days. While idolatry is not mentioned in Genesis prior to the Flood, Joshua spoke to Israel of "the gods your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood" (Josh 24:15). The first two of the ten commandments warned against idolatry, and the first words to the people when Moses returned from Sinai were to this effect (Ex 20:23). Remarkably, one of the first sins Israel committed was the sin of idolatry (Ex 32).

In the New Testament we find repeated warnings against idolatry. 1 Corinthians 5:11 commands the church to withdraw from any member who is an idolater. Ephesians 5:5 says no idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (cf 1 Cor 6:9-11). Paul asked the Corinthians, "And what agreement doth the temple of God have with idols?" (2 Cor 6:16). The last verse of 1 John (one of the last NT books penned) implores, "My little children, keep yourselves from idols" (v 21). Certainly it would behoove all Christians to be on guard against idolatry. But you might think, "I’m not an idolater and I don’t know anyone who worships idols!" While I may not fall down before objects that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell (Deut 4:28 cf Isa 44:13-19), this does not mean my life is free from idolatry.

In Colossians 3:5 Paul equated covetousness with idolatry. Moreover, anything that comes between man and God may be rightfully called an idol, for that thing has supplanted God as having preeminence in one’s life. So what idols might be present in the life of some Christians?

Some Christians worship regularly at the altar of sports. They are consumed by sports, whether it be playing, watching, discussing with friends or on a message board, etc. Whereas sports were once an extra-curricular activity at school, school has become a means to an end to play sports. Parents are more concerned with their kid’s batting average than their math and science average. When sports conflict with the assembly of the church, many Christians choose sports over the church. If this is the case with you, who (or what) is really your God?

Some Christians worship at the altar of pleasure (hedonism). Vacations, television, or any pursuit of pleasure take precedence in the lives of many Christians. I regularly hear of our members who are conscientious (faithful) to worship at all assemblies even while on vacation. One report heard consistently is that the Sunday morning assembly is packed with visitors while the Sunday or Wednesday evening services appear as a ghost town. I understand many may travel home Sunday, but it would the height of folly to assume all of them are headed home.

Some Christians worship at the altar of family. Any type of family gathering or event is a sufficient cause to forsake the assembly. When family visits from out of town, some feel compelled to stay at home to entertain their guests. What kind of example does this set for the visitors? Also, as we are in the heart of "decoration season," some Christians will forsake the assembly of the saints to worship with denominational bodies. It is one thing to worship elsewhere with the saints but another thing altogether to worship with those who openly teach and practice things contrary to the doctrine of Christ (2 John 9-11). Jesus made it clear that one may be forced to make a decision between his earthly and spiritual family (Luke 14:26-33).

Every Christian should examine himself to see who or what has first place in his heart. If it isn’t the God of heaven, it’s past time to re-evaluate one’s priorities!

Back To Our Index Page