Friday, February 04, 2005

And On That Note

I thought this would dovetail nicely with the last post. See if you can see the joints. (Dovetail...right...ha ha) It was a reply to a question a friend asked about drinking.


The booze thing is more relevant because I do enjoy a good beer (Keith's,
usually). I have not put a restriction on my drinking for the simple reason
that I don't enjoy anything beyond a mild buzz anymore. If anything, though,
I would put a tighter restriction on it. My reason is the desire I have for
unity in the body of Christ. Every time this kind of issue comes up I am
pricked inside by the passage where Paul talked about his knowledge of his
own personal freedom in Christ. He said that even though he knew it was ok
he also knew there were others who did not. He stated that for the sake of
the bond of love between himself and other believers he would abstain from
things he knew he was ok with. Every time I have heard this discussion it is
the ones who know their freedom who hold the expectation over those who do
not. Paul lived it the other way round. I want to love like this. If a beer
becomes more important than my brother in Christ then I need to reassess my
priorities. This isn't sermon on the mount, this is what I think on when I
have a beer like I did tonight. I do intend to abstain completely as a
matter of lifestyle, but I am still wrestling God on this one a bit. (Sucks
though cuz He's always right:) )

2 comments:

CWG said...

I wrestled with the same thing. The thing that brought some peace to my heart was my kids. I have 5 wonderful chilgren that watch everything that I do. I realized once that as they watch me I am giving license to them drinking in the future. I realize that I have no control over whether they abuse it or not, but I did realize that I am always modelling thier adult life to them. I came to the place where I stopeed drinking around them. Now I still have a few with a freind but it is in an adult establishment where little eyes are not present.

I beleive you hit the nail on the head however in regards to not letting a believers freedom be a stumbling block for others. Press on man..press on.

Brad the Dad said...

Thanks.