2012年10月14日日曜日

Alcohol for Death or Water for Life


Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. -John 6:54

Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. -Luke 22:20

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; -Ephesians 1:7


Jesus tells us to drink the cup of wine, which is the symbol of His blood, so that we will be justified and be righteous. When we receive Him as our Savior and the Lord we had the wine too.
Once we were justified, we need to drink the living water so that we will be able to live a holy life. 
The bible warns us not to drink wine in many places in the Old Testament such as  Leviticus 10:9, Proverbs 23:29-35 etc.


Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: -Lev. 10:9


Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. -Pro. 23:29-35


The alcohol dulls our consciousness, destroys thousands of the brain cells at a drink, makes us alcoholic and leads us to sin. Many crimes are involved with drinking. Alcohol will just bring us to death physically and spiritually. 

There are words of wine in the Bible but they are not always fermented wine but the original word “Onix” , which was translated wine, means any fruit juice of the vine..fermented or not. It is the interesting fact that the wine means the grape juice that Jesus drank. Since I learned He mentioned the grape juice, everything about wine made sense in the Bible. 

Alcohol makes you thirsty because of its nature. Constant dehydration will cause you to death and it is exactly opposite His desire for you. He wants you to live but not to die. For our healthy life we drink pure clean water and we drink living water for holiness. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit we will know that we should not drink fermented wine any more because we will know it just keeps us away from the status as the children of God. 

Also we will know it is so sweet, beautiful and precious to be filled with the Holy Spirit and it denies the needs of the worldly pleasure such as drinking and protects us from death. 
Our faith is not built on the alcohol that leads us to death but the living water that pour out the life of Jesus into us. 


And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; -Eph. 5:18


They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light -Psalms 36:8,9


I would never recommend anyone to drink alcohol as I know it is bad. It is not the true love that we think our neighbors can drink while we know it is bad and we don’t drink. We should rather warn them to stop drinking and bring them to the Lord Jesus.

A glass of beer or wine is the first step to every drunkard. If you don’t drink you can not be a drunk. If you can not stop drinking, you are the slave of the alcohol already. You need a doctor for healing and it is Jesus that heals you from being alcoholic and delivers you from the bondage of death. 


And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. -Luke 5:31,32

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light -Psalms 36:8,9


Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; -Hebrews 12:15


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 Drink no longer water only or altogether, but mix a little wine with it for your stomach’s sake to strengthen your body (1Tim. 5:23).

Greeks often mixed water with wine, about one part wine and two to three parts water. It was held that constantly drinking water injured the stomach. Timothy’s father was a Greek (Acts 16:1) and he had been used to wine, but because of Christianity he had continued to abstain from it. Paul here gives him permission to use a little wine mixed with water for his health. The advice was dietetic. We need not suppose, however, that Paul’s use of the word wine means that Timothy partook of anything intoxicating. 

It must be understood that the Bible refers to two kinds of wine — the fermented or intoxicating kind, called strong drink (Prov. 20:1; Isa. 5:11,22; 24:9; 28:7; 29:9), and the unfermented or non-intoxicating kind like grape juice. Even juice in the cluster was called wine in those days. In Isa. 65:8 we read, “the new wine is found in the cluster,” and we can be sure this would not be the kind to make anyone drunk (Gal. 5:19-21; 1Cor. 6:9-11). 

The water situation may have had something to do with this advice to Timothy also. In Asia Minor the water came mainly from cisterns which became stagnant at certain seasons. 
-Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible via Brother Jack Kirkland




(KJV)

Evangelist Yumi, Acts 29 Japan
www.acts29japan.com


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