Drinking:a perspective from theOne who luvs u

[knowingjesus]

Are you among those get drunk, who make a practice of drinking or "for whom drinking is serious business”? Those ”gulping wine and swilling beer” and who "spend the night with the bottle"? “Who get up early and start drinking booze before breakfast, who stay up all hours of the night drinking themselves into a stupor”? Jesus (who loves you so much that he gave his very life just to be with you) said to “be on your guard” against this. (Proverbs 23:30, Proverbs 31:4, Isaiah 5:11, Luke 21:34) Why?

For your own good (and the good of those around you)!

The drink....

• “Cheapens your life” (Ephesians 5:18)
• Dulls your expectation of the coming of God/day of the Lord (Luke 21:34).
• “Take away the understanding” and “wisdom” (Hosea 4:11)
  [*]“Rob [you] of [your] senses” (Hosea 4:11)
  [*]“Leave my people in a stupor” (Jesus, Hosea 4:11)
  [*] Results in faulty judgment (Isaiah 28:8)
  [*]Makes it so you don't know right from wrong (Proverbs 31:__)
  [*]Leads to poverty “Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.” (Proverbs 23:21)
  [*]Leads to sorrow “Who are the people who are always crying the blues?” (Proverbs 23:29)
  [*]Leads to self pity “Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?” (Proverbs 23:29)
  [*] Damages your body and makes you sick. Drinking results in bleary, blood-shot eyes, hangovers, slitting headaches, a queasy stomach, vomit, double-vision, slurred speech, and senseless talk “Don't judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor. Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with—the splitting headache, the queasy stomach. Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, Reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor?” (Proverbs 23:31-34) They “stagger from drink, weaving, falling-down drunks, besotted with wine and whiskey, can't see straight, can't talk sense." (Isaiah 28:8)
  [*]Makes a fool of you (Proverbs 31:___)
  [*]Leads to mocking/scorn (verse)
  [*]Leads to fights, quarrels/quarrelsomeness, meanness and strife “Wine makes you mean, beer makes you quarrelsome— a staggering drunk is not much fun.” “Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?” ”'They hit me,' you'll say, 'but it didn't hurt; they beat on me, but I didn't feel a thing. When I'm sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!'"(Proverbs 23:29-30, Isaiah 28:8, Hosea 7:5, Proverbs 20:1).
  [*] Hurts the people who depend on you (Proverbs 31:___)
  [*]Is a disgrace. "Who do you think you are—inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties, giving them too much to drink, roping them into your sexual orgies? You thought you were having the time of your life. Wrong! It's a time of disgrace.” (Habakukk 2:15)
  [*]Leads to contempt of/having nothing to do with God’s work and "pay[ing] no mind to what he is doing.” (Isaiah 5:12)
  [*] “Keeps you from performing at your peak potential and stops you from having the kind of reliable energy you need to best serve your Creator. ....Dietary poisons...irritate your system, affect your moods, cloud your mind, and rob your body of strength and health. As a result, your effectiveness, your relationship with others and with God and your length of time on this planet are negatively affected.”
  [*] Dishoners your God-given and God-livin' body. Our body “is a miraculous gift that God has handed over to you for the relatively brief duration of your lifetime. Showing respect for your gift means showing respect and love for God. This irreverence for our bodies is made most evident by just looking at what people are willing to put into their mouths....Your body is not your own! Your body is not only BY God, it is FOR God, and it IS God’s.” (Body By God) 1 Corinthians 6 says: “Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body! God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master's body. ...Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.”
  [*]Squanders your life. “Don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 6:__) “We can't afford to waste a minute, we must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!”
  

Instead....

• Replace alcohol with God. Instead of “drinking too much wine”, the bible says to“drink the Spirit of God, huge droughts of him.” (Ephesians 5:18).
• Behave becomingly. Jesus challenges us to behave “decently”, “honestly”, “properly” and “becomingly.” ”Wild parties, drunkenness, sexual immorality, promiscuity, rivalry, and jealousy cannot be part of our lives.“ (Romans 13:13).
• Offer God your life. “Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life--and place it before God as an offering.” (Romans 12:1) “Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.” (verse)
• Handle well what God entrusted you. “Life is test,” says Rick Warren, in his bestselling book: Your time on earth and your energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, resources and body are all gifts from God that he has entrusted to your care and management. At the end of your life you are rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted you. Everything you do has eternal implications.

I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit working within you, you throw your drink permanently out the window and become intoxicated on Jesus Christ!