A serious problem today involves the consumption of alcohol. More than thirty percent or so of Americans at some time in their lives has had an alcohol use disorder. Nearly about 100,000 people die every year of alcohol-related causes. Alcohol is more dangerous than some illegal drugs. Just saying. 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. Your eyes will see strange sights, and your mind will imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?” Proverbs 23:29-35 “Alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms, jails (prisons) or funeral homes. Estimated not factual. But you get the picture?” The Book of Proverbs warns against the dangers of alcohol. Whether in the form of wine or strong drink. With the potential of leading one astray. No the Bible does not say that you cannot have a drink of wine. It states we should not get drunk. If I got drunk then I could be a stumbling block, but to have a glass of wine would not be. Some of us are allergic to alcohol. The Bible says nothing about eating with the exception of over eating (gluttony). In both extremes they could be stumbling blocks. What does the Bible say about not getting drunk? Put away your wine from you.” And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipated living. So be filled with the Spirit! Dissipated living It can lead to hangovers, broken relationships, poverty and regrets. It can destroy lives and it impairs judgment. Regarding wealth is best if by labor, not inherited. Solving problems with our friends by avoiding quarreling. Properly applying the wisdom of God found in His Word can assure that we enjoy the blessings of good friends in this life. Also we can look forward to enjoying these dear friends in life eternal! Depend upon “trial and error” to learn “how to win friends and influence people”, let God’s Word guide you.
Wine was used in ancient times for various medicinal ends, and the Bible refers to some of these practices. It was likely used as an anesthetic to dull pain, and many interpreters suggest that it was in this capacity that wines were offered to Jesus at his crucifixion. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells a story about a man from Samaria who assists an injured man by, among other things, pouring oil and wine on his wounds. Luke 10:34 “Oil mixed with wine was a common remedy in the ancient world to cleanse wounds and assuage their pain.” Paul advises Timothy that he should not drink water only, but should use a little wine for the sake of his stomach and frequent infirmities. Some have suggested this advice is particularly in reference to purifying low quality drinking water, while others suggest it was simply intended to help his digestion and general sickliness. Abstentionists generally regard this passage as a positive example of abstention from wine and see Paul’s instructions as exceptional and purely for the sake of health, while other interpreters suggest that Timothy was “upright in his aims” but here guilty of an “excess of severity” or that he felt inappropriately bound by a Hellenistic custom that younger men should not drink. I would also add that it would have been impossible historically to make alcohol a sin. Wine was used as a way to disinfect water for hundreds of years. Sure there were people with good water, but lots of people around the world needed alcohol to survive. {1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.}
Read Proverbs Chapter 20 yourself and journal as you do. Friends you do not want are gossipers. So don’t be a gossiper! Drinking alcohol can make you a professional tattler with no pay, just headaches. They smear names, drive wedges, destroy relationships and forever harms and never helps. Gossip is wicked or criminal behavior. It is easy to run a person down. The tattler is not always honest in their tattling. They are known as a busy body, a meddler in the affairs of others or just like causing problems for others. Gossip indicates immature desire to do evil. Gossip doesn’t require brains, just a loose tongue. and a constant stream of ill words from a immeasurable spring with very little wisdom in it. Just saying. Need to be avoiding things that can hurt us. God’s laws are still the “standard” to get into heaven. An unrighteous person may take a leap toward God and only land 1 foot away. A person who lives a better life may be able to leap 5 to 8 feet, but still falls way short of God’s quality of perfection. The true Christian is one who says, “Yes I’m guilty, I have fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus agreed to pay my penalty.” It doesn’t matter how far I can leap on my own. The whole reason the “confession” process is set up is because everyone falls short of God’s expectations for mankind. The danger is to think “I don’t need to confess” or “I haven’t done anything wrong”. God wants us to confess our sin, vow to turn from it and move on. Even if we still mess up with the same sin over and over again, the process for forgiveness is the same. The blueness, then, of a wound, and blows in the secret parts of the belly, cleanse away evil, because both outward discipline does away with faults, and compunction pierces the distended mind with the punishment of penance(voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong.) In its simplest terms, confession prayer is the acknowledgment of our sin, or the affirmation of God’s truth, or both. Why Is Confession Important? Confession is God’s mechanism to restore a broken relationship between Him and us. Confession allows us to experience the forgiveness of God, which was purchased by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Proverbs Chapter 20:1-30
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provokes him to anger sinned against his own soul. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? The just man walks in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. A king that sits in the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. It is naught, it is naught, says the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasted. There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war. He that goes about as a talebearer reveled secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattered with his lips. Whoso curses’ his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee. Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good. Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? It is a snare to the man who devours that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry. A wise king scatters the wicked, and brings the wheel over them. The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upheld by mercy. The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head. The blueness of a wound cleans away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
{Lets Pray}
Father God, what a great joy and privilege it is to know that Your Holy Spirit indwells the inner being of my heart and soul. I am believing for You to search me, identify and correct any faults You find within me, so that my life may be used by You as a lamp, to shine forth the Life and Light of Jesus Christ that indwells how I thank You and praise You that through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the Cross, You have cleansed my heart, forgiven my sin, and have made me pure within. I thank You and praise You, that because of Him, I am accepted in the Beloved and clothed with His righteousness in Jesus Precious Name Amen.
{Power Verse}
The blueness of a wound cleans away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly. Proverbs 20:30
"Only Life Changes" 