SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/5/2019
8:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Is Wine Potentially Destructive?
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:18a
Message of the
verses: “Do
not get drunk with wine, which will only ruin you” (GNBE).
As mentioned in earlier SD’s we are
looking mostly at what John MacArthur teaches about the drinking of wine and
other alcoholic drinks. In today’s SD we
are looking at the fifth sub-section under the main section entitled “Guidelines
for Christians.”
MacArthur again quotes the pagan
writer Mnesitherus who spoke earlier “of wine mixed with half water as causing
madness and of unmixed wine’s bringing bodily collapse. The mental, physical, and social
destructiveness of alcohol is too evident to need much documentation.”
We will look at some statics at this
time and the first one is that over 40 percent of all violent deaths are
alcohol related, and at least 50 percent of all traffic fatalities involve
drinking drivers. We can also see that
there is an estimate of at least one fourth of all hospitalized psychiatric
patients have a problem with alcohol.
Now these statics are probably old and as we look at society today we
can see that drugs, both prescription and non prescription probably have cut
into these numbers, making the alcohol problems less, but the results are the
same.
John MacArthur writes “Dissipation,’
to which drunkenness inevitably leads, is from asotia, which literally means ‘that which is unable to be saved.’ It was used of a person who was hopelessly
incurably sick and also was used of loose, profligate living, as in that of the
prodigal son (Luke 15:13). ‘Dissipation’
is therefore a form of self-destruction.
As mentioned earlier in the chapter,
the Old Testament gives many vivid accounts of the close association of heavy
drinking with immorality, rebellion, incest, disobedience to parents and
corrupt living of every sort. Violence
is a natural companion of strong drink (Prov. 4:17), and ‘wine is a mocker,
strong drink a brawler’ (20:1).
“The prophet Joel cried, ‘Awake,
drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet
wine that is cut off from your mouth’ (Joel 1:5). Later in his message he said, ‘They have also
cast lots for My people, traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine
that they may drink’ (3:3). Habakkuk
warned, ‘Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even
to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness! You will be filled with disgrace rather than
honor. Now you yourself drink and expose
your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s
right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your
glory’ (Hab. 2:15-16).”
As believers we need not have
anything to do with stories like these that were found in the OT, and are
probably more prevalent in the NT.
Quotation today is from Charles
Swindoll who writes “Surrender…is the key that unlocks the vault of God’s best
and deepest treasures.”
7/5/2019 9:42
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment