ALCOHOLIC DRINKING

Is. 5:22  Destruction is certain for those who are heroes when it comes to drinking, who boast about all the liquor they can hold.  NLT

      I don’t know what your stand is on drinking and I do not want to make an issue of whether or not it is okay to do it.  What concerns me the most is our attitude about it.  Drinking has become acceptable across most of society and the church.  It doesn’t have the stigma it once did.  The advertising world has done an excellent job in making it attractive and creating a desire in people to do it.

      What most people do not want to think about is its effect on the body, mind and soul of man.  Some try to warn people of the downside of drinking, but it usually falls on deaf ears.  It is a proven medical fact that drinking takes a toll on the body.  Prolonged drinking causes the body to malfunction.  It affects the ability of the mind to think clearly and rationally.  It causes the soul to distance itself from God.

       Alcohol consumption easily can become a god to man.  People begin to live for the next drink.  It consumes their thinking and becomes their chosen way of unwinding from the stresses of living.  It soon takes over a person’s life and creates a need for a drink in almost all social activities.  It gets to the point where a person cannot function for long without a pick-me-up drink. 

      People have different tolerant levels for alcohol and few are able to recognize and stay within their tolerance level.  Drinking tends to dull the mind’s ability to know when the body has had enough.  Drinking more alcohol than the body can safely handle causes all kinds of destruction.  It destroys the body and mind and has an adverse effect on all who come in contact with the person who is drunk. 

      The Word of God declares that anything that is done in excess is sin.  Many of the Proverbs speak about the dangers of alcoholic consumption.  The issue that we must consider is whether or not it is okay to take the risk of what drinking might do to us in light of what the Word says and medical science backs up.  Does God approve of our putting ourselves and others at risk when we drink?  It is an issue each of us must decide before God.