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The Lord rescued drover Richard Jakamarra ‘blind’ drunk to see the Lord’s goodness

“I turned away from the Lord because grog was available. I became an alcoholic. I knew that I was doing wrong things, and I’ve done wrong things in my life, but I couldn’t stop. I tried to give up the drink many times, in my own strength, but I couldn’t do it. I was a slave to alcohol. I had jobs – droving and in the army – but I couldn’t keep them down. It was a big problem.”

In one night of drinking, a home intruder attempted to kill Richard and he almost died. He could not defend himself properly. The Royal Flying Doctors airlifted Richard to Alice Springs Hospital.

“While I was lying there, all those things that I’d heard in Sunday School came flooding back to me. I knew about the Lord, and I knew what would have happened if I’d died. I was that far away from the Lord. But it was there that the Lord began to touch my life. He began to speak to me… ”

“I gave my life to the Lord, and everything changed from then – the grog, the work, everything. ”

“I had no desire to drink anymore, ever again. It was good.”

“But then two years later, in 1986, I went blind…. I can’t preach anymore, so I’m no use to anyone. It’s all over. That’s what I thought.”

“From the beginning, my favourite Bible verse was Proverbs 3:5-6. It says, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.’ I first read that Bible verse after I lost my sight. It helped me more than anything. It helped me cope with the blindness. Lean not on your own understanding, it says. ”

“We both smiled as Richard talked, and later that evening, as I said goodbye, I thanked him for the glimpse into his quiet, humble story, lived out in the red dust of central Australia. He wasn’t waving a big flag, saying look at me. He has been just looking to the Lord daily, and memorising Bible verses, and blessing his people, for decades. It made me want to do the same. ”

Naomi Reed, 6 Sep. 2018, Eternity News, “I was a slave to alcohol”


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Perry Anderson homeless alcoholic to sober Salvation Army soldier. Thanks to Jesus!

“Perry Anderson was near the brink of death when he first walked into Salvation Army hostel The Beacon. At 29, he had been battling alcohol addiction for more than a decade and had lost everything, including his marriage and home. “

This former carpenter had lost his job after a back injury. He drank and lost everything else. He nearly lost his life. Alcohol greatly aggravated his problems. Alcohol could not help him; only Jesus can give hope! Only Jesus gives meaning to life – even for people who never even started drinking.

But now at 20 months sober, Perry has become a Salvation Army soldier and is helping to rescue others from tampering with drink. Hallelujah!

Claire Tyrrell, 11 May 2018, The West Australian “Perry Anderson saved from alcohol addiction thanks to Salvation Army”

“Christians should set an example of personal responsibility in their daily lives. The Salvationist’s caring includes helping people for whom alcohol has been a problem. It would be inconsistent for any Salvationist to drink while at the same time seeking to help others to give it up. “

Salvation Army, Positional Statement on Social Drinking (1990)

“Mother” of the Salvation Army, Catherine Booth wisely warned against running into temptation to drink: “God has nowhere promised to keep the man who needlessly, and for the sake of his own indulgence, runs into temptation. How fearful, then, the responsibility of those Christians who tell the reclaimed inebriate, aye who tell any man, “You may safely tamper with the drink! You may play with this fire of hell, and trust in God to keep you from being burnt.” Alas, how do such counsellors unwittingly play the part of Satan in his cunning approaches to our Lord. “Cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” [Matt. 4:6] Oh, that all our brethren and sisters would ever bear in mind the memorable answer, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” [Matt. 4:7]

Catherine Booth, Strong Drink Versus Christianity, Total Abstinence is a Valuable Ally of the Gospel, as a Conserving Power

“envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God… Gal 6:1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” (Gal. 5:21; 6:1) (NKJV)

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Nazarene A.M. Hills: we cannot consecrate alcohol to God

See also: Bible says be sober again and again.

Church of the Nazarene Manual – alcohol

A.M. Hills – early holiness preacher in the Church of the Nazarene. He wrote:

We can not consecrate our alcohol… to God.

I have two friends in Massachusetts, Brother M____ and Brother P_____.

They were at a holiness camp-meeting together. M_____ had already entered into the rest of perfect love. P_____ was seeking it. They were in the woods together in prayer, praying that P_____ might receive the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. After an hour of earnest consecrating, pleading prayer, P_____ began to shout at the top of his voice: “I’ll do it!

I’ll do it!” and the blessing came. M_____, by his side, was entirely ignorant of what it was that the Spirit wanted. But P_____ was a general merchant and among other things sold tobacco, and the sticking point was — whether he would give up selling tobacco. He immediately telegraphed to his clerks to sell no more tobacco. He took three hundred dollars worth out into the street, when he reached home, and made a bon-fire and burned it up. Obedience to the Spirit! I have never known a person to receive this blessing who used or sold tobacco. It is too vile to be tolerated by the Spirit in a body which he proposes to make a temple of the Holy Ghost.

Whatever in habit or life the Holy Spirit condemns must be abandoned in the spirit of implicit obedience or it is useless to seek this sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost in the heart. No agony of prayer can reach it while the will is not joyfully obedient.

…

We can not consecrate our alcohol, or our tobacco, or our opium, or our card-playing, or dancing, or theater-going to God. He wants none of these things. All actual and known sins must be abandoned, at conversion. Our consecration is for a deeper work, that is to say, for the removal of inbred sin, which, after all, is not accomplished by our consecration though that is an essential preliminary, but by the ‘Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire.’

A.M. Hills (Church of the Nazarene), How to Obtain the Blessing 

http://www.godrules.net/library/hills/192hills_b4.htm

No sinners want to see Jesus come

(8) “They were examples to all that believe in Macedonia.” (vs. 7) [1 Thess. 1:7] This is no description of unbelievers. (9) “For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord,” through all Achaia, and every place. They must have been, then, a most earnest and aggressive body of believers. (10) They had “joy of the Holy Spirit.” (vs. 6.) No sinner ever had that, or ever will. (11) They had “turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God.” (vs. 9) Oh, what grand churches we should have today, if all the members would abandon their idols — tobacco, lodges, cards, theatres, dancing, avarice, selfishness and unhallowed lusts, and serve the living God with all their heart. But that is the very kind of Christians these Thessalonians were. (12) “They were waiting for Jesus from heaven.” (vs. 10.) No sinners want to see Jesus come; that is the last thing any of them desire.

A.M. Hills (Church of the Nazarene), Sermon 9, The Second Blessing in Experience, in Theology, and in the Bible 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.”

http://www.godrules.net/library/hills/192hills_a11.htm

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3+ million die from alcohol per year – says World Health Organization

More than 3 million people died as a result of harmful use of alcohol in 2016, according a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) today. This represents 1 in 20 deaths. More than three quarters of these deaths were among men. Overall, the harmful use of alcohol causes more than 5% of the global disease burden.

WHO’s Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 presents a comprehensive picture of alcohol consumption and the disease burden attributable to alcohol worldwide. It also describes what countries are doing to reduce this burden.

World Health Organization, News Release 21 Sep. 2018, “Harmful use of alcohol kills more than 3 million people each year, most of them men“

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Grape juice already called YAYIN (wine) in the press!

יין Yayin did not first become “wine” only if it fermented later, after it was pressed. Both simple grape juice and intoxicating juice were called yayin in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament.

(Both were called οινος oinos in the original Greek of the New Testament.)

See also: Shekhar – meaning sweet drink or strong drink in Bible? (Deut 14:26)

(And: broad meaning of wine (yayin) – documented.)

Nobody is denying yayin was intoxicating (sometimes anyway). Nobody is denying that “{yayin} wine is a mocker…” (Prov. 20:1) Indeed, Levitical priests who drank at all in God’s house were even threatened with capital punishment.* With clear minds, they could distinguish between the holy and the unholy (Lev. 10:9).

*Now unrepentant persons are put away from church membership, that is all. (1 Cor 5:2,9-13) Unless they repent of “envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these,” they will not inherit the kingdom of God! (Gal. 5:21)

But here see for yourself where YAYIN was NOT always intoxicating…

 

Continue reading “Grape juice already called YAYIN (wine) in the press!”

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Churches know boozy events exclude real men

I remember listening to a real man’s concerns who had acknowledged to me that he had become addicted to alcohol.He already wanted to quit drinking. He told me that he no longer even goes to the Christmas celebrations of his relatives. That is because he knows that alcohol would be present. He knows that if he attends, then he will resume his old drinking ways again. So he does not attend. But he feels excluded at most places (besides Alcoholics Anonymous meetings).

Then I asked myself – should a church (consciously or not) make others like him feel somehow excluded from any of its events in the same way?
The man is already self-conscious about this matter. Now should he have to blow a trumpet everywhere that he goes and announce: Hear ye, Hear ye, I am hopelessly addicted? I hope not! But deliberately or not, he is still made to feel unwelcome since he now wants to escape his old ways. Rather, he should be supported that he already wants to quit. Let us “bear one another’s burdens” and let me beware myself too. I must consider myself, lest I also be tempted by it.

“envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God….

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

(Galatians 5:21; 6:1-2)

We are not of the night nor of darkness. I do hope all will agree that church events without any alcohol are never the worse because they are without it.

“The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute, And wine are in their feasts; But they do not regard the work of the LORD, Nor consider the operation of His hands. Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst.”

(Isaiah 5:12-13)

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FALSE: Jesus fails responsible serving of alcohol license?!

See: Bible says be sober again and again

“3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

(2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

Re: “How did Jesus celebrate? With Sam Chan.” The event description says: “Did you know Jesus was accused of partying too hard?” The same event description is repeated from an earlier message of Sam Chan (4 Feb. 2018). I quote his very deceiving and shameful statements about another Jesus (supposedly) getting people drunk (and very drunk):

Continue reading “FALSE: Jesus fails responsible serving of alcohol license?!”

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Nephalism

Nephalism definition

Nephalism: teetotalism; total abstinence from consuming alcohol.

Nephalism: “total abstinence from alcoholic beverages” (Miriam-Webster Dictionary)

This term is of Greek origin, and found in Scripture.

Nephō: “to be free from the influence of intoxicants.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)

Nēphaleos: “of drink, unmixed with wine… sober … of persons” (Liddell and Scott Lexicon)

Nephalism examples in Scripture

“Old men must be {νηφαλίους} teetotal…” (Titus 2:2)

Deaconesses: these women must be “{νηφαλίους} teetotal, faithful in all things” (1 Timothy 3:11)

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Increase drinking age to save lives says Australian Medical Association

“…every day we see the devastating results in emergency departments” AMA Queensland President Dr Chris Zappala said.

Trading Hour Push Ahead of Summer Drinks Toll, Australian Medical Association Queensland Media Release 2015.

In 2009, Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Mason Stevenson said the surge in teenage binge drinking has worrying implications for Australia, as that generation carries their bad drinking habits into adulthood.
“We are going to expect a substantially increased rate of alcoholism,” he said.
Prompted by such concerns, one Queensland school – St Edmund’s College in Ipswich – is proposing to randomly breath-test students arriving at the school dance.
Mason suggests an even more radical intervention. “There is a cogent argument for increasing the legal age of drinking in Australia from 18 to 21,” he said. “You also as a result of that policy would save 100 Australian lives every year and an extra 1000 from severe maiming and permanent injury.
“On medical grounds, it’s a no-brainer.”

Melanie Christiansen, “Queensland’s serious alcohol problem revealed”, The Courier-Mail, October 17, 2009

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Aboriginal Elder Joe Brown calling for total grog ban at Kurnangki

‘Aboriginal elder Joe Brown, 63, a leader of Kurnangki, one of three communities bordering the town centre, said children as young as 12 were into drugs and alcohol.

“We should have a total grog ban,” he said.

Mr Brown, whose 25-year-old son committed suicide last year, said he did not want the army brought in to WA but supported extending to the state the total alcohol bans being proposed in the territory.

Marra Worra Worra Aboriginal Corporation chairman Ivan McPhee, an elder, said the situation in the town was getting worse. He wants tougher alcohol restrictions, including a total ban on takeaway sales, and says the issues are the same as those confronting most of the Kimberley.

“Our kids are going out of control, wandering around with no jobs,” he said. “We are losing a lot of young people to alcohol and drugs. We never heard anything about hanging until drugs and alcohol came.

“We are having a funeral every day. A lot of people are talking about (child sex abuse). We are hearing things about rape.”’

Jessica Strutt, ‘Elders call for more alcohol bans’, The Age, 14 July 2007.