Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

When people think of the Bible and God’s word, many, if not most, think of God’s word as a book of rules—do’s and don’ts to abide by. It’s sad but a fact that the largest majority of all people who say they love God and Jesus rarely or infrequently read God’s word—the Bible. If they are church-goers, they may hear a scripture or two from a reading in their church. Others may hear sermons from the Bible and be taught scriptures and their meanings. However, studies show that the majority of all those who call themselves Christians do very little Bible reading or Bible study. When you don’t read your Bible or engage in some type of study of the Bible, and when you are not well taught by Bible teachers and instructors, your perception of God will greatly vary from others. When you don’t know what God’s word actually says, you will not know and understand His heart, character, and the depth of His love for every single person. You will misunderstand Him and the depth of His love for you. All of this leads to many seeing the Bible as a book of rules that seem archaic and outdated for today’s society or rules that don’t appeal to the lifestyle they want to live and would only steal the fun from their life. Drinking alcohol is one of those subjects people are not sure they want to hear about for fear it will be forbidden.

Concerning the subject of drinking, the Bible contains 228 references to wine and 19 references to “strong drink” and abuse.  In three different epistles, churches are cautioned not to choose leaders who are given to drunkenness or too much wine. These scriptures offer warnings of its potential for creating danger and hardship. But, the Bible does not, in general, forbid the drinking of alcohol. But it doesn’t encourage it either!

In most of the scriptures concerning alcohol, warnings are given. Drinking alcohol is not initially the problem. The problem is getting intoxicated. Let me define that word for this discussion’s purposes. Intoxicated is often interchanged in its meaning between drunk and getting tipsy—that first feeling of alcohol that is felt in the body prior to getting drunk.  Some use the words tipsy, woozy,  or “getting a buzz.” For purposes of this discussion, I will use the word intoxicated as referring to the initial buzz that is felt from drinking alcohol. It’s a short distance from the initial buzz to becoming drunk, and the initial buzz is the Stop Sign! That is intoxication.

When the Bible is talking about drunkenness, it makes reference to someone who has submitted themself to being controlled more by the alcohol than a person’s personal restraint and choices. Intoxication (or the initial buzz from alcohol) is what’s not acceptable in the scriptures and becomes sin. You could say it like this: drunkenness is a sin, and it begins with feeling the buzz which means you’ve already gone too far and drunk too much! This is the point where scripture is warning us against drinking. It is at that point that a person begins to lose control—losing their ability to restrain their thoughts, decision-making, words, and physicality.  An example of that would be in Genesis 9:20-26 when Noah became drunk. It led to immorality and family troubles. Or in Genesis 19:30-38 when Lot became drunk and incapacitated as to his intent and actions. This also led to immorality. God spoke to Aaron, the high priest in Leviticus 10:8-9 (NIV), saying, “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. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.”  

God was telling them that those who served God in a priestly or pastoral calling were not to drink fermented drink (alcohol) in the holy places of God.  This was an everlasting ordinance—one that did not change through the ages or covenants (Old Testament, New Testament.) Growing up Catholic, I was an altar boy for 5 years, participating in over 1,000 mass services.   I knew many priests who got intoxicated in their services. Mind you, I am not saying drunk. I am saying intoxicated—when that buzz on any level begins. One of the first-hand effects of that was a priest trying to molest me. My mother walking in just as he was making the move was what stopped it. Intoxication is what helped weaken this priest’s moral strength. He was shipped from church to church. God’s Word told them that should never happen.

Of course, God is always against drunkenness! But His first warning that far too many Christians ignore is the buzz—that warm vibration through the body that is also called feeling tipsy. It’s the beginning of impaired judgment, memory, and coordination. And if we can call for absolute honesty, people know when this feeling comes. It’s different for different people depending on their size and makeup. This is an individual and personal self-judgment. That is unless you are pulled over by the police, and they sense you might be buzzed or inebriated. Then they will test you to see if you’ve crossed that line, and if appearance suggests you did, continue by giving you a breathalyzer test.

Please don’t get offended by what I am about to say. Just be honest! I am not your judge. The Bible says to judge yourself, so you do that and don’t worry about me. So here goes!

Most Christians who drink alcohol lie to themselves and to others about their drinking. Most everyone has heard those classic lies. “Oh, I don’t get drunk! I just have one glass of wine.” “Oh, I only have one drink. I don’t get drunk.” Or, “I can drink three beers without feeling a thing!”  And on and on. You get the point! Drinkers should examine those statements. And the guide for those statements is not drunkenness but getting intoxicated or feeling the initial buzz! If you drink and feel that, you’ve gone too far! And that is the overall problem with Christians drinking. They go farther than they say and lie about it—to themselves and God.  And now, instead of drawing closer to God, they pull away from God, and many fall to alcoholism which destroys lives and families.

With God, drunkenness is the problem, so people pretend they don’t get to that point.  But God is saying, “Don’t get to the buzz! Don’t get to the place of tipsy because if you do, you have eroded the strength of personal restraint, and you’ve increased your chances of failure. And here is a thought I’d like you to meditate on. When talking about this subject, people often act like they are Superman and can stop themselves effortlessly from doing the wrong thing and making the wrong choices. That’s self-deception.

It’s hard enough to make and execute the right choices when we are sober. Drunkenness is one of Satan’s great lures and weapons to take people down. The truth is that God encourages us to seek His grace—His supernatural help and strengthening by the Holy Spirit through prayer each and every day so that we succeed and not fail. Peter failed in his critical moment even though Jesus warned him he needed to pray so he would not fail. Judas failed and killed himself. He didn’t pray. Each of Jesus’ disciples who fell asleep instead of praying, fled and abandoned Jesus when the soldiers came to the garden to take Him away.  Jesus warned them days before all that happened, saying, “Without Me, you can do nothing!” Jesus was saying we fail even when we are cold-sober in difficult situations for lack of prayer. So if we fail in those times, how are we going to not fail when we get intoxicated and weaken our restraint, and don’t pray?

So, on that note, let’s stop lying about not getting buzzed or tipsy when drinking. If you have, you have crossed the boundary into sin, the places God’s word tells us to stay away from.

When I became a Christian, I made this proclamation to Renee. “I will stop getting drunk and throw out all my alcohol (which I did—down the kitchen drain) but, I will not give up drinking a couple of glasses of wine!)  She didn’t say a thing. She knew I loved God and would figure it out. About a week later, we were at a restaurant, and I was having a glass of wine while telling her it didn’t affect me. The problem was, just a minute later, I felt the buzz. “Crap, I thought, I’m lying to myself.” And that was it! For me, if I drank even one glass of wine, I felt a buzz. I refused to lie to myself about it. And so, I quit drinking completely 46 years ago and have never touched a drop since. I am not afraid of it. But I don’t want one thing in my life to interfere with my relationship with God or to help me fail in my marriage, my job, my children, or my calling in life. And I don’t want to be a stumbling block to anyone else!  Alcohol will do that. But you have to make that choice! God doesn’t say you can’t. But the biblical line is the buzz or feeling tipsy! That is where intoxication begins. That’s where the lies begin to flow. “I’m not drunk!” “I’m not intoxicated.”

Don’t feel like you need to read another word, but I will leave you with some scriptures of the Bible regarding drinking and drunkenness you can read yourself. And don’t feel the need to argue. I am not condemning you. Once you have the truth, it’s a discussion between you and God. I am not judging you! I am for you! I love you! God bless!

If you would like some scriptures on the subject of drinking to read for yourself, I have created this page for you to click here on: Scriptures on Drinking by Pastor Tim Burt

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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Published by Pastor Tim Burt
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