Alcohol and God's Blessing

Recently the Southern Baptist Convention voted on and passed a non-binding resolution that called for total abstinence concerning the use or manufacturing of alcohol and prohibiting anyone who partakes of alcohol from leadership in the SBC. While it is non-binding in itself, it is suggested that it will prompt particular member churches or organizations to adopt binding resolutions proscribing, within their sphere of authority, the use or manufacturing of alcohol.

The topic of alcohol and the Christian life is interesting to me as a relatively new believer, having come to Christ at age 42, being one who has a history of drinking alcoholic beverages. This history includes multiple instances of drunkenness in my 20's, decreasing instances in my 30's, and now a total distaste for the idea of drinking until intoxicated. Yet, I continue to enjoy alcoholic beverages, in moderation. I even manufacture beer at home on occasion and enjoy the entire process, from deciding on the ingredients, managing the fermentation process, and partaking of the result. It's a craft for me, a hobby, and I've produced some batches that were very fine indeed, surpassing in quality (in my opinion) the vast majority of what could be purchased from a vendor. I've also produced some complete losers, worthy of immediate disposal.

So the topic of what God's word teaches concerning alcohol is of course very important to me, for I do not wish to sin before God by violating His commandments. If His word shows that I am sinning, I will immediately destroy my craft brewing equipment and cease from purchasing and using alcohol.

In this article I am not going to mount a defense of imbibing alcoholic beverages. That is not my intention here. What I bring to your attention are two articles that deal with the subject and deal with it in a God honoring, scripturally based fashion. Whatever side of this issue you come down on, I expect you will be edified by the articles offered.

The first article "Concerning alcoholic beverages" is from Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He writes in support of the SBC resolution and does so using Scripture. The second article is from a blog entitled "ConcernedSBCer" and is a response to Patterson's article. The author has chosen to remain anonymous. While I will generally be loathe to link to a Christian who chooses to remain anonymous when speaking or writing concerning Christian topics, I find from this individual's writing that he/she is not choosing anonimity to allow the usual kind of abuses that come with a lack of accountability. The author is also using Scripture as the ground and authority for his argument.

As for the meaning of the title for my article, it will become apparent as you read the articles above.

Enjoy,
Michael Herrmann

UPDATE (May 23, 2007):
As things go on the net it was only a matter of time before the links in the article would become obsolete. That day has come.

Spurgeon Quote

"On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul also hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine shall be. And if you are lost trusting in Christ, I will be lost with you and will go to hell with you. I must do so, for I have nothing else to rely upon but the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, and still lives and pleads for sinners at the right hand of God." (C. H. Spurgeon) May we all cling only to the cross of the Savior.

Is this thing on?

I saw, on a post of Frank Turk's blog, this handy dandy script that finds scripture references in your posts and "scripturizes" them, turning the scripture references into links. I've chosen the ESV for my translation of choice because I so love it.

The question is...does it work?

Isaiah 6

John 6:35-44

1 Thess 4

Rev 21

Well...did it work? Yes! it did!

Want to add it to your blog? Get the scoop here at FuCoder.

An Unbalanced view of God



James Spurgeon has posted an article (God Desires to Show His Wrath) on a topic that should send every christian to his knees when it is prayerfully considered and understood.

So often we (christians) magnify God in His attributes of love and mercy and in the process give short shrift to His other attributes, holiness, justice, etc. I know I do this. It's easy to ponder our Heavenly Father loving us, pouring blessing upon us, scolding us at times, and of course showing immense patience with our meager plod toward holiness. I believe when we work to balance our understanding of God's entire nature (as best as sinful man is able to balance it), we magnify God in our hearts and better understand the nature of what it is that God has done for us, what He has saved us from.

God is Glorified in His Just Wrath
We all, every one of us, believer and unbeliever, will glorify God, believers by receiving mercy, unbelievers by receiving wrath. I don't want to glorify God as he pours his just wrath out on me. God's just wrath is too terrible to ponder for long. Though we may think upon it and believe we can plumb the depths of the terror of God's holy just wrath poured out on ourselves or another, we deceive ourselves. Our minds are too small, our knowledge of our condition is so warped by sin, that we are blind to a full appreciation of God's holy and just wrath. As awful as we can imagine it to be, it is more terrible still. Likewise we cannot appreciate the fullness of the glory and joy that a christian will be given in eternity. Maybe I'll plumb the "heights" of that topic in another post.

In prayer I often ask that God be glorified in all that I do. When I pray this I mean glorified in the positive sense, that I be a light to the world, showing myself grateful for the salvation given me and in being obedient to the commands of my Lord. But we see in the word of God that He is also glorified in the Wrath poured out on unrepentant sinners.

Lord, keep me on the straight and narrow, that I may glorify Your name in all my deeds. Amen.

What then, is life? What is living?

Have you thought about why you are living your life? Does the "how" of living your life define what it means to live? The comings and goings, the eatings and sleepings, the trips taken, the loves you've had, the work you do, the things you own, the place you live. Does the "how", the things you do, show the meaning of your life or does it define the meaning?

In this thought provoking essay by Steve Hayes at Triablogue, he looks at the various approaches to life. In these approaches he writes on a characteristic of these approaches in how we relate to our experiences of God, natural and spiritual. Even for the unbeliever for he writes "This is how the unbeliever can find as much satisfaction in life as he does. For the handiwork of God is, indeed, something good and something to be enjoyed."

If life means more to you than just existence, you should define that meaning, otherwise the "how" will define it for you by default.

A life unreflected upon is a life that is wasted.

Michael Herrmann

Welcome to Called To Life!, a blog about God's grace in choosing a people for his own good purposes.