Why I quit drinking.

Drinking:

A friend asked me about drinking the other day. I told him it was something that I had thought a lot about lately, so I went to the Bible to see what it said. Drinking has always been a struggle with me. I usually justified it with “if it is not too much it is okay”. I learned this is not a good rational defense. Like usual I learned the hard way. One night in 2008 I went out for two hours and had a few drinks. Nothing I would have thought was bad; I was pulled over and given a DUI on the way home. God took care of this and it was finally dismissed after 4 months of worry, the help of some friends I will never forget and a few dollars spent. That showed me that my definition of appropriate was worthless. Imagine all the different ways this could have affected my life, ruined my job, family or most important my witness. How many times do we hear people use excuses about something someone did or said to not listen to God’s word? If we are looking for a reason not to listen, it isn’t hard to find one most of the time it is called a stumbling block. Matthew 18:8-9 and 1 Corinthians 8:10-13 address these. Matthew tells us to remove any we have. Corinthians speaks of us being one to others. Believers and unbelievers. I chose about 10 months ago to stop drinking completely. This is something that I have felt led to do. I only challenge all of you to evaluate what the Bible tells you about this.

Proverbs 23:29-35 is a good verse for the dangers of drinking and Proverbs 31:4-7 talks about it won’t solve any of our problems. This has hit home as I thought about this. It usually only causes more problems and only temporarily helps us forget about the ones that we already have. So, a lot of the time we look up and have more than we had to start with. I asked myself “what good will come from me drinking other than some worldly desire or short term satisfaction”?

These were old thoughts I had always used to rationalize it and to make me feel better about something I always knew wasn’t right. I was talking to someone the other day that offered me a new verse I had never read. Leviticus 10:8-10 God is telling Aaron that he and his sons are to never drink and enter the tabernacle or they will die. This was to be a rule throughout their generations. The funny thing is that I would have said before I studied this, don’t drink in a church. Which I have done a few times anyway.

The tabernacle is where God resided in the Old Testament and considered holy grounds. Only priests are allowed to enter. The problem with this argument is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and all believers became priests and temples in God’s eyes. Jesus broke the separation of God and us that the priests were used for and the Holy Spirit lives in all believers now instead of God residing in the temples or tabernacles. John 16:23-27, 1 Peter 2:9 and Revelations 5:10 talk about believers are now priests. 1 Corinthians 3:16, and 6:19 along with Ezekiel 5:11 talk about our body is a temple and how not to defile it or else. Ezekiel 44:21, 1Timothy 3:2-3 and Titus 1:7 also touches on this.

All of these are great but the most amazing verse for many reasons is Luke 1:15. This is where the angel Gabriel visited Zechariah and tells him his prayers for a son will be granted but his son is to never drink wine or fermented drink and the Holy Spirit will be with his son from birth. His son was John the Baptist. If drinking wasn’t a big deal, why was this important enough to be in the Bible at all? This led me into the last thing which I don’t have experience with yet, but think about often Children! Genesis 26:7-11 is about children following their parents example.

Isaac followed his father’s bad example. It is about Isaac saying his wife was really his sister because he feared for their safety in Gerar. Where do you think he learned to do that? Go back in Genesis to 12:10-12 and 20:1-5. This shows that Isaac’s father Abram did the same thing. We don’t need the Bible to tell us this, but it still does. Children mimic their parents. Another friend told me lately that all this slapped him right in the face one day as he sat in a bar drinking in front of his 7 year old son. If we could choose for our children, would we choose they mimic us in our daily lives?

Finally, Luke 7:18-35 speaks of us doing or believing what we want no matter what God tells us or shows us. God shows us everything we need in the Bible. How we use it in our daily lives, however this is up to us. I asked myself the other day, “what if I spent as much time reading and following the word of God as I did rationalizing why not to”. Would that make me a better person?



BEZ