Submit your own questionBack Q: Is drinking wine a sin. I´ve heard that an occassional glass of red wine helps the blood. I recently had a pulmonary embolism and my body has a tendency to form blood clots. I hate the taste of wine, but I drink approx 1 or 2 glasses a week to help my body.
Submitted by Sandra G 3/28/2006 7:14:25 AM
A: Hi Sandra:
The ´world´ will tell you (and most psychiatrists) that having an affair is good for your marriage. Since when do we listen to the counsel of the world system?
I have an amazing story to tell about what happened to us in 1991 regarding wine/drinking/alchohol.
Darko and I had just changed churches and during the ´new membership´ meeting the pastor stated emphatically, "And I don´t want any sipping saints in this church!"
On the way home I commented that we had a serious problem because we had just had our 25 wedding anniversary and were given two gigantic bottles of wine (probably 3 feet high) to save for our 50th anniversary, which we had stored in the kitchen cupboard.
Darko felt that the pastor had the problem because Jesus had turned water into wine at the wedding at Caanan that there was nothing wrong with the occasional drink. Since we could not stay at this church if we were going to indulge, I took it to prayer.
To make a very, very long story short, in less than a week the Lord worked out a scenario in my life that plainly showed me His perception about this subject.
That very week I had received tri-focals from my optometrist which caused me to become totally discombobulated. I did not realize that it was the glasses that were causing me to loose balance, smash into door-posts, fall off the bottom couple of steps of the stairway and constantly bump into the center island in my kitchen. I became so manic that I could hardly sleep and was up one entire night washing windows until 5:30 in the morning and became silly from lack of sleep. I decided to phone my friend who gets up at that ungodly hour every morning to pray. I figured she´d get a real kick out of finding me up that time of day. She answered the phone with a sound of alarm so I thought I´d kid around a little. Clipping my bantering off abruptly she blurted, "You ARE drunk!
I almost dropped the phone and asked, "When have you EVER seen me drunk?" She said that her husband mentioned that he was at our home a few days earlier and that I was as drunk as a skunk at high noon and bumping into thinks in the kitchen.
I assured her that I was not drunk and explained how I had a doctor´s appointment to find out what was wrong with me. She then explained a very sobering situation that I was not aware of. Her husband wanted to start drinking AGAIN. He was an alcoholic and went off the wagon once before and lost his job, his ministry and almost got kicked out of his church. At this point in his life he thought he could probably handle alcohol and now he wanted to try the low-alcoholic beer. He pointed out that half of the Christians that came to our 25th anniversary party had wine and didn´t seem to have a problem with it. She was convinced that if he had even one drink that he would slip right back into that dark black hole of alcoholism again.
I was mortified thinking that our party was such a poor witness. Right away I said, "I will never do anything that would make a little one stumble and tell your husband that I will never have alcohol in my home ever again and I will never have a drink as long as I live."
That quickly resolved my problem with our new church but it also caused me to reflect and think, "WHAT was I thinking? I had three teenage boys. What kind of example was I to them? They were inexperienced young drivers that were driving on the freeways and highways of Toronto at 100 kmp and just a few drinks could cause them to lose their lives or take the lives of others. Shouldn´t I be setting the example that a Christian does NOT need alcohol in their life? We have something that is soooo much better!"
Below are some good examples from scripture complied by David Wilkerson of the effects of liquor on people´s lives.....
What Does the Bible Says About Wine -- D. WIlkerson
Genesis 9:20 - 26 The first drunkenness and the attendant immoral behavior.
Genesis 19:38-38 Drinking results in Lot´s debauchery of his own daughters
Genesis 27:25 Isaac was drinking when he mistakenly blessed Jacob
Leviticus 10:9 An express command not to drink
Numbers 6:3 The vow of the Nazarite
Deuteronomy 21:20 Drinking leads to stubbornness, rebellion, and gluttony and brings dishonor to parents
Judges 13:4, 7, 14. Samson´s mother, an example of all womanhood, was commanded not to drink. Was alcohol recognized even then as a protoplasmic poison, injuring posterity?
1 Samuel 1:14, 15 Hannah, an example of honored motherhood, refrained from drinking wine
1 Samuel 1: 25-38 Nabal, a rich but churlish man who opposed David, died after a drunken spree. He had already lost his wife´s respect.
2 Samuel 11:13 By having Uriah plied with strong drink, David attempted to cover his own sin.
2 Samuel 13:28-29 Ammon, in a drunken brawl, was murdered by his brother, Absalom
1 Kings 16:8 - 10 While a king was "drinking himself drunk:" in his own home, one of his captains conspired against him and slew him
1 Kings 20:12-21 Drink and war. While Benhadad and thirty-two other kings were drinking in their pavilions, a small band of Israel´s men fell upon the Syrians and put them to flight.
Esther 1:5-22 Drink wrecks homes and separates man and wife. At a week´s feast of food and wine, King Ahasuersus drunkenly tried to subject his queen to the beastly gaze of inebriated nobles, causing separation of the royal husband and wife
Job 1:18, 19 The children of Job were feasting and drinking when blown away in a cyclone
Proverbs 4:17 Violence results from drinking
Proverbs 20:1 No wise man will indulge
Proverbs 21:17 He that loveth wine is not rich
Proverbs 23:21 Drinking leads to pverty
Proverbs 23:29, 30 Strong drink produces sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, babblings, redness of eyes
Proverbs 23:31 Do not be tempted by intoxicants
Proverbs 23:32 God´s Word warns that liquor eventually harms all who drink
Proverbs 23:33 It fells men´s minds with adulterous and impure thoughts
Proverbs 23:33 It produces willfulness and prevents reformation
Proverbs 23:34 It brings on insecurity
Proverbs 23:35 Insensibility follows drinking, rendering a man as a clod
Proverbs 23:35 Habit forming. One drink calls for another
