THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL
Pr. 23:20,21/Isa. 5:11/Ho. 4:10,11/Lk. 21:34

"I'd better start for the house," thought Gabriel Peters. It was his 21st birthday, the day when he legally had become a man with all the applicable legal rights. A day also, when, according to the tradition of his family, he could go to the bar and celebrate. Gabriel had, in fact, gone to the bar, and had celebrated, not with just one drink, but several. With his brain in turmoil, and his judgment confused, he got into his car and started driving down the highway. It was raining heavily and he hardly knew what he was doing.

In the meantime Theodore, his father, wondering why his son had not yet arrived home, became concerned. "It's time to look for my boy," he thought. Theodore hurried off to find his son in the heavy downpour, but was not able to find him as he had planned. They met mid way in a head on collision.

Both cars were totally demolished. The father was instantly killed, and Gabriel was left with very serious cranial fractures. What was meant to be a happy occasion ended in disaster.

Mankind is drowning in a lake of intoxicating beverages, losing all sense of right and wrong, and losing all awareness of the damage being done both to himself and to his loved ones. The stories of disasters caused by alcohol are legion. Statistics keep climbing astronomically, and the saddest part of this whole predicament is that, directly or indirectly, our youth are being motivated to use alcohol and drugs, many times by their own parents.

God said something very revealing to Aaron: "You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die…You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean." (Leviticus 10:8-10) It’s very interesting that God tells Aaron alcohol confuses the difference between the holy and the profane and between the unclean and the clean.

Is there a solution to this problem? Is it possible to be free from the vice of alcohol? Alcohol does, without question, hold a grip, both upon the will and the body, and has been the devastation of thousands of families.

In spite of its iron grip, many have found a deliverance that has completely transformed their lives. That answer for them has been in submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He has extended His hand to every fallen man and woman, and is ready to help any one who will come to Him. If we have not experienced this divine deliverance for ourselves, because we were not caught in the trap of alcohol addiction, then we probably know of others who have. Let’s pray today for those who have yet to discover this divine truth.

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