SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2019 8:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Is It Right?
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 5:18a
Message of the
verse: “And
do not become drunk with wine, wherein is intemperance” (LAMSA).
I have to admit that it was a
struggle for me whether or not to look at this subject of drinking wine for as
long as we have, not that I totally have it all together on this subject, but
just that I have made up my mind a long time ago not to drink any wine or alcohol
because of the church covenant that I live under from our church, but it is my
hope and prayer that the Spirit of God will use these Spiritual Diaries on this
subject to bring honor and glory to my Lord Jesus Christ, which is what I pray
that He will do with all of my Spiritual Diaries.
We have looked a number of questions
over the last few days, questions that Christians should ask, and the question
that Christians should finally ask “Is it Right for me to drink at all?” The first question about whether wine today
is the same as in Biblical times is definitely, no it is not, it is stronger
today than in Bible times. The second
and third questions are also no for the majority of believers today as it is
generally unnecessary to drink wine and is seldom the best choice. MacArthur comments on the following: “The answer to the next four questions is yes
in at least some degree. Drinking is
clearly habit forming and potentially destructive, and it is likely to offend
other Christians and could harm our testimony before unbelievers.
A man once said to me, ‘I have a
beer with the boys sometimes. Is that
wrong?’ I replied, ‘What do you think
about it?’ ‘Well, I don’t think it’s wrong; but it bother me.’ ‘Do you like being bothered?’ I ask.
‘No, I don’t,’ he said. ‘You know
how to stop being bothered don’t you?’ I
continued, to which he gave the obvious answer, ‘Yes. Stop drinking.’”
In Romans 14:23 Paul explicitly said
“But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not
from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” “Now even if we believe that something is not
sinful in itself, if we cannot do it with a completely free conscience, we sin
because we do it against our conscience” adds MacArthur, and I am glad he did
because I have never completely understood the last part of Romans 14:23. “Conscience is a God-given alarm to guard
against sin, and whenever we go against it we weaken it and make it less
sensitive and less reliable, thereby training ourselves to reject it. To continually go against conscience is to
cause it to become ‘seared…as which a branding iron’ (1 Tim. 4:2) and to become
silent. When that happens, we lose a
very powerful agent God has given to lead us (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5, 19).
As we ask ourselves questions about
drinking, the final one is the most important:
“Can I do it before others and before God in total faith and confidence
that it is right?” With that quote we end our
rather long study, but hopefully worthwhile, on drinking wine.
In our next study, Lord willing, we
will be looking at part one of “Be Filled with the Spirit.” This goes from Ephesians 5:18b-21, I am
looking forward to this study as we will be looking at this for some time.
The verse that goes along
with our unknown quote from yesterday is from Jonah 4:2b “For I know that You
are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness.”
7/8/2019 9:16 AM
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