Featured What Would You Do [drinking issues]?

Mind my own business.

 

Yes sir, that is the truth right there....... :type:

For every verse that gives a positive to drinking an alcoholic beverage there is one that makes it negative. It is best to abstain from its use.

God has meant for us to face life soberly.

2Corinthians 5:13&14
13For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 14For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge

1 Thessalonians 5:6&7
6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8But let us, who are of the day, be sober,

1 Timothy 3:2,3,10&11
2A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 3Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
10And let these (Deacons) also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. 11Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

Titus 1:7&8
7For a bishop must be blameless......
8But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;

Titus 2:1,2
1But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: 2That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate,
3The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
6Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

 

I don't drink. However, I did admit to consuming a few shots of whiskey a while back to see if it would help curb the stomach infection that I had at the time. Well, it didn't work. Neither did that slimy Buttermilk suggested by another on here..., that made me gag! Same with the whiskey. Gag!

Personally, I'm against so-called "drinking" as a past-time or as a "hobby" but don't really see anything wrong with an occasional drink and for certain, only on a limited occasion.

Some jerks consume beer as they think it's some kind of a "right". That they might earn a standing within their circle of friends based on their consumption.

A relative we have has been known to consume as much as four, 24 pack's of beer between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. That's 96 cans of beer in just a few hours. Course, he's unsaved and otherwise not interested in anything spiritual so helping to keep the Miller Brewing Company in business is his self-imposed charge in life.

I drink a pot of coffee each morning. Is that a sin?

 

Disagree. That would mean the moment you felt any affect of cold medication, coffee, etc. it would be sin.

Besides, the very first moment you didn't feel hunger at a meal would be gluttony. Drunkenness is a loss of cognitive faculties.

 

Coffee- Acceptable during Sunday School because it keeps the congregation awake during the service.:laugh:

 

Only if it's decaf. :laugh:

 

The Bible does not say only not to be drunk. It also says to be sober minded. As dunk as I used to get ( a shot for every beer) I have never had a loss of cognitive faculties. You do not understand what drunk is.

 

For the record, I have been in this situation many times. It's not an issue with me. If they were visibly intoxicated or were drinking immoderately, that would be another issue.

Why is it a problem that men and women are enjoying an alcoholic beverage with their meal? Jesus and the 12 did so all the time.

 

By the way - little known fact: Vanilla extract is created by soaking the vanilla beans in rum. In fact, according to my wife (the cook in the family), generally speaking, all extracts are created by soaking in alcohol.

 

Yep, for the sin would be in NOT the drink, but having the drink take over your perceptions, getting drunk on it!

 

HeDied4U, wow! Decaf has the same affect on me as the buttermilk.

I did however drink some WW II coffee while in Korea in 1968. Now that was a trip but at least it was "hot". :laugh:

 

I've been drunk enough times to know exactly what it is.

The context of the sober minded passages is not saying what you are saying it is. If it were, being extremely fatigued, hypoglycemia and using any medication would also be a sin.

 

Apparently you haven't because your standard that you mentioned means any drunk on the street doesn't qualify as being drunk.

 

It is my understanding that "sober minded" can be defined as "seriously minded".

 

...or rather what you call being drunk is anything but.

 

LOL!

Utter nonsense.

God gave wine which makes mens hearts merry (Psalm 104:15; Ecc. 10:19) and even Christ was called a winebibber. We see we still have the same Pharisees today as in mitchell and others pointing their fingers self-righteously while overlooking their own faults. Paul didn't rebuke the Corinthians for drinking but instead instructed that they have houses that they could do their drinking in (1 Cor. 11:22).

Wow. Imagine that. He told them to do THAT at home.

And, not being judgmental, but insightful, I'd dare say you've had many many Twinkie and Little Debbie sugar 'buzzes'.

And quite often.

As to the OP? I would say nothing as perhaps we may have also enjoyed the same. In fact, I'd stop by and chat, one of them may even be one of our deacons. :thumbs:

 

Christians trying to justify their buzz. Good grief.

 

Nothing to justify.

 

No, just trying to enjoy the liberty that Christ died to give us, as no longer under the law, but of Grace!

 

Let me give you a lesson -- and having been a drunk doesn't make you an expert, so you might learn something here. I've been one, too, and could be again if I faced such a difficult mental health issue as PTSD.

As one begins to drink, your stomach, which has very little to do with processing alcohol, passes the responsibility for you getting thoroughly stupid for very little cost on to the intestines, where ethanol is absorbed into your blood stream and goes to work on your brain. Through a variety of chemical interactions that would require many more pages and nearly $150,000 worth of PhD to explain, the ethanol reduces the effect of an excitatory neurotransmitter known as glutamate (GABA). (Don't worry: If you went cross-eyed reading "excitatory neurotransmitter." That’s perfectly normal, even for someone such as myself who has just enough chemistry knowledge to be dangerous.)

Glutamate is a wonderful naturally occurring brain chemical that is constantly trying to stay ahead of the brain's drain on its supply, Glutamate keeps your brain on top of its game, maintaining alertness, reactions, and -- as it turns out -- memory-making. Then ethanol shows up, and at first everything is cool, particularly if you've eaten sufficiently in the last two-four hours. But if not, the effects set in more quickly. And even if you have eaten, the more you drink, the more ethanol starts getting loud and hostile, punching glutamate in the face and putting it down for the count. That's when the natural processes get unbalanced.

Then all those great things glutamate does start going south, resulting in subdued coordination, slurred speech, lampshades placed inaccurately on heads, dumb and incoherent "pickup lines" to the pretty blonde in the corner who is actually the party host's afghan hound. Moreover, the ethanol works on parts of the brain associated with planning, resulting in impaired decisions, such as a one-hundred-thirty-five-dollar orders at Taco John's for five people.

Now, the key is to know that alcohol, taken in moderation, is a good thing. Good, that is, unless you have a propensity to abuse it. Unfortunately, we don't figure that out until we develop a problem drinking it. But for nearly everyone else, it’s a relaxant, and can produce feelings of euphoria, reduced inhibition, and a perceived enhancement of dance moves and joke telling, all of which are positives, up to the point of becoming obnoxious.

But alcohol is terribly fickle. There’s a fine line to be walked when it comes to drinking, and if it’s crossed, it quickly goes from The Good to The Bad, and right straight on, quickly, to The Ugly. Literally. Some of that glutamate-punching goes down in the parts of your brain that control judgment and pleasure-seeking. This is where excess drinking leads to the beer-goggle effect, often referred to later as "regret".

As your cognitive ability decreases and your pleasure-seeking increases, there comes a point where your brain declares itself King of Awesometime and Mayor of Pleasuretown, and decides that the woman/afghan hound sitting in the corner apparently sipping an apple martini -- it actually got left there by an actual human but you're too glutamate punched to know that -- will do admirably. Luckily for you, ethanol has already had its way with the memory centers of your brain, so you won’t recall making a fool of yourself trying to hit on the host's dog. It’s also why in the morning, when you put your brain in front of the panel and ask it what it was thinking, it answers “I seriously have no idea.”

Alcohol in excess dehydrates you, kills your blood sugar level, causes your B12 supply to dwindle to next to nothing, and, in extremes, will leave behind high levels of a toxin known as acetaldehyde -- not an accident that name resembles "formaldehyde," by the way -- which is responsible for the feeling that bongo drummers have gone crazy inside your head and an elephant has stomped all over your tongue after taking his morning constitutional in the Congo River. Otherwise known as a "hangover."

Now, for all these hugely negative results, you might think there is no logical reason to drink alcohol. However, GABA is affected by more than just alcohol. Excess starches will kill GABA production, too, so being a glutton essentially has the same effect on the neurotransmitter as being a drunk does. Some people are naturally GABA deficient, and have to take medication to replace the natural with the unnatural. Unfortunately, the medication with a mile-long name also is a cancer and brain aneurism risk. There are rare but noted GABA-surplus cases for which, believe it or not, the "cure" is a couple drinks a day or more, depending on weight and metabolism.

The connection between moderate drinking and lower risk of cardiovascular disease has been observed in men and women. It applies to people who do not apparently have heart disease, and also to those at high risk for having a heart attack or stroke or dying of cardiovascular disease, including those with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and existing cardiovascular disease. The benefits also extend to older individuals.

The idea that moderate drinking protects against cardiovascular disease makes sense biologically and scientifically. Moderate amounts of alcohol raise levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or "good" cholesterol), and higher HDL levels are associated with greater protection against heart disease.

Moderate alcohol consumption has also been linked with beneficial changes ranging from better sensitivity to insulin to improvements in factors that influence blood clotting, such as tissue type plasminogen activator, fibrinogen, clotting factor VII, and von Willebrand factor. Such changes would tend to prevent the formation of small blood clots that can block arteries in the heart, neck, and brain, the ultimate cause of many heart attacks and the most common kind of stroke.

Alcohol improves these blood chemistry readings across the board, better than any single medication currently on the market. That is why doctors are opening telling patients, particularly men, to have a drink or two a night to help with all these factors of cardiovascular and blood sugar concerns. The irony is that crossing the fine line from use to abuse will upset those exact same factors, leading to poor health and to problems in those areas of concern.

One can't judge alcohol use as being "sin" simply because one has had issues him/herself. Just as eating chocolate cake and ice cream can be "sin" for the glutton, or playing the stock market can be "sin" for the gambler, alcohol abusers shouldn't drink.

Telling everyone else they can't drink either, based on the abuser's own experience, is overreach, meddling, and perhaps also, sin.