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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then the Lord said to Aaron, "You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses."
Leviticus 10:8-11
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
I rarely write twice on a scripture passage but the Holy Spirit is leading me to share a secondary, and just as important, message about this matter of alcohol use and the effect it has on those who choose to partake in it.
The main point that this message holds is this:
Alcohol intoxication is never a valid excuse for sinful behavior.
Here’s a few scenarios to underscore this truth:
A married man or woman is out on travel with their job and away from their spouse. They decide to go to a bar or club and have some drinks.
While at the bar or club, they meet someone and engage in what starts out as just conversation before moving into far more than that for they end up hooking up for sex, creating a classic case of adultery.
When the alcohol wears off and the adulterous man or woman comes to their senses, they desperately seek something to help them deal with the guilt of their actions and so they blame the alcohol as the cause.
If it were only that simple.
Here’s another scenario:
A man or woman decides to go out to a bar or club and have a few drinks. After they’ve had a few, someone gets rude and belligerent with them, raising their level of anger to the point where they get into a fight. They bloody the other person but they too get bloodied before the altercation is broken up.
When they go to work the next day, they end up having to field questions on what happened because their injuries are visibly evident. They share that they got in a fight which surprises their co-worker because they always saw the person as being peaceful and non-confrontational, definitely not someone who would swap punches with another.
And so they express their disbelief that this could have taken place to which the injured shares that they had a few too many drinks and this was the cause for them getting into the fight.
In other words, it was all about the alcohol.
Again, it sounds easy enough to place the blame there but there’s much more to it than that. For if we’re really honest, the alcohol didn’t really create the sin. It simply released it.
Let me explain.
You see, in both cases, the affair and the fight, the person committing the act didn’t just all of a sudden decide to have an affair or fight another person. Rather, deep down inside they had always had the thought to commit these acts within them.
The adulterous man or woman constantly lusted after others of the opposite (and today sometimes the same) sex. It’s just that they were able to keep these feelings suppressed and inhibited so that they wouldn’t act out on them.
The fighter had always wanted to just punch someone in the face, their rage churning under the surface, but again, while sober, they wouldn’t act out on those inner impulses.
In both cases, Satan was ready to act on the inner desire if it would just be allowed to come out but he found himself frustrated because the sin never got released.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit within a person is always working to keep evil, sinful desires in check. It’s something called inhibition.
With this, we can now get to alcohol and the role it plays.
For when someone is under the influence of alcohol, they trade the fruit of the Spirit, which includes self-control, for the fruit of the vine (alcohol). And when a person decides to do this, the alcohol removes inhibition and allows the inner evil desires within to gain their freedom, much to the delight of the devil because from that point on, until the effects of the alcohol wear off, self control has been forfeited. Essentially, anything can happen after this and usually there isn’t a good outcome as the Holy Spirit is no longer in control because Satan is, ready to help you fulfill every sinful inner desire.
So the sinner needs to stop the nonsense of blaming alcohol for their transgressions for it was their fault that they allowed sin to lurk under the surface of what others would see, ready for release as soon as a conscientious decision is made to swap the fruit of the Spirit for the fruit of the vine. Ultimately, a sinner is accountable to the Lord for their actions, not the alcohol.
Friends, this is a serious matter that is so pertinent to our world today for lives are literally being destroyed each and every day because of substance abuse. I feel it is one of Satan’s chief instruments to harm and damage the people of God.
The good news is that we all have a choice. We can choose not to fail and fall because of an evil that has lurked under the surface has been released. Here are the three key steps to help us stay on the right path, ensuring we move closer to the Lord and His righteousness than the enemy and his wickedness.
First, treat the problem at hand and this is the evil desires within us. They are desires we know well and so it should be easy to lift them up to the Lord in prayer, seeking His help and power to get rid of them.
We should rest assured that the Lord is ready to remove everything and anything that is evil within us, substituting His holiness instead. For when we take away sinful inclinations, we go a long way to removing sinfulness.
Second, we need to stay away from any substance that would cause us to trade away the fruit of the Spirit inside. There is never a moment where the Lord doesn’t require us to exercise self control and we surrender this control to alcohol and/or illicit drugs when we choose to come underneath their influence. When we use these substances to where our inhibitions are removed, we are in a place where Satan can have his way.
Finally, we need to always stay connected to Jesus.
Friends, we need to always remember that to be a Christian is to be Christ-like and there was never a moment in the scriptures where we found Jesus impaired to the point where He traded in His divine decision making for the ways of the devil.
With this, how can we claim to be of Him if we don’t act like Him?
Remember that Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). It’s a proclamation that forces us to consider some self-reflecting questions like:
Where is my treasure?
Is it found in the sinful desires that lurk under my surface?
Is it found in alcohol and/or drugs that I use?
Or is it in Jesus, my Savior, the only perfect person to ever live, the only One who can help take me away from my sinfulness and bring me closer to perfection in righteousness and holiness each and every day?
Brothers and sisters, let us recommit ourselves to our Lord this very moment, devotion ourselves to Him in such a way that He and He alone is our one and only treasure, both now and forever more. Please share this prayer with me:
Dear Lord,
Look deep within me to the depths of my heart and mind and soul.
Expose the sin and any evil lurking within and take it from me, I pray.
For all I yearn for is You, precious Lord. I yearn for Your love, Your way, Your will, to live my life so it is pleasing in Your sight.
Lord, fill me to overflow with Your Holy Spirit Lord and help me grow ever stronger in self control so all that I do might reflect Your holy and righteous ways.
For I ask these things as I pray in Your blessed name.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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