“Cheers” or “Tears!”

Tuesday 6-2-15 (La Lucila, Argentina)

Scripture reading:  Prov 22-24    Rom 14

S.  Prov 23:29-35 Who has anguish? Who has sorrow? Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?  It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new drinks.  Don't let the sparkle and smooth taste of wine deceive you.  For in the end it bites like a poisonous serpent; it stings like a viper.  You will see hallucinations, and you will say crazy things.  You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea, clinging to a swaying mast.  And you will say, "They hit me, but I didn't feel it. I didn't even know it when they beat me up. When will I wake up so I can have another drink?" NLT

Rom 14:21 Don't eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another Christian to stumble. NLT

O.  The fact that something is socially and culturally acceptable does not necessarily mean it is good for us.  Today, at the average middle-class social celebration people are expected to drink a variety of alcoholic mixtures.  They click their glasses with “cheers” and laugh together.  Then they are supposed to call a “designated driver” to get them back home.  In some cultures drugs are swallowed or injected.  One thinks, “Everybody is doing it so it must be okay.”

A.  My mother was called by God to love and reach the down-and-outer.  She bent over the lost and broken alcoholics lying in their own filth on the streets.  She drilled the above words of Proverbs, and others like it, into our little hearts over and again.  They were posted on our walls and written indelibly on our hearts. 

Today I know that some ministers feel a social drink can do no harm.  Perhaps they are right… if they are only concerned with themselves.

I know the case of an alcoholic, father of two well known ministers in Argentina, who was miraculously saved and delivered from alcohol.  Several years later a Christian family invited him to an Argentine barbeque and convinced him that “You can’t eat meat at a barbecue without a little wine.  Come on, take a little.”  He tasted it, fell back into his addiction and died the death of a ruined alcoholic. 

P.  Lord, some may feel that I am a fanatic, but I have witnessed the disasters of alcoholic drinks and addicting drugs and will always teach against toying with these dangers.  Some of these things are socially accepted even in some Christian circles.  But You, with the help of my mother, have written the above Holy Scriptures upon my heart… and, as for me, I have made my decision.  I will not risk harming a fellow former addict or even a potential addict by accepting the lie that it would be okay for me to join in “cheers” with the gang.  Amen.

Ralph