Guns and Religion – Are you a bitter clinger?

Real Freedom comes at a price.

Billy Stevens

April 5, 2013

I grew up in the south where every ten year old had been shooting rifles for at least five years. I remember at twelve roaming thousands of acres of local farmers’ land hunting for duck, squirrel, rabbit, or just to shoot a nuisance crow. I am still thankful to them for opportunity to hunt on their lands. We would spend our weekend as teens on the banks of the Red River shooting skeet and target practicing and no one ever got hurt. Why? I guess there was a lot of grace from God, but a great deal of training from each of our dads to highly respect all weapons.

Red Dawn came out at the height of the Cold War and we laughed as high school students about what would happen if the Soviets landed around our school. Long before the movie came out, there was a small arsenal in the parking lot of our high school on any given day of the week. Why? We were going hunting afterwards.  We were also correctly taught in high school that we had free speech according to the 1^st Amendment to the US Constitution and that the 2^nd Amendment wasn’t to guarantee us hunting rifles, but to protect us from the tyranny of a government that would seek to take away these rights.

After I got a real paying job in my early twenties, I was the first guy on the block to buy an AR15 rifle. Some people today call them scary black assault rifles. We just called it fun to shoot. Shooting targets hundreds of yards away for 10 cents a round was exhilarating. Actually, I killed my first deer with that rifle at 105 yards freestanding with open sights and the first shot.  It was a good shot, but of course it wasn’t shooting back at me either and I didn’t have bifocals then! I later sold it to buy a nice shotgun for my passion, duck hunting.

I tell you all of this background to let you know I am a gun enthusiast, believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and that the 2^nd Amendment is vital to a safe and free United States of America. I believe dads and moms have the God-given responsibility to protect their families with deadly force if needed.

But the 2^nd Amendment cannot guarantee you freedom. I know many of my dearest friends would argue vehemently with me over this statement.

Religion cannot guarantee you freedom either. A casual reading of the Bible and anyone can see that a clear case can be made for personal gun ownership. Abraham used his own trained men to go against kidnapping tyrannical governments in Genesis. I bet the parents in Bethlehem wish they had been fully armed and able to protect themselves against the government when King Herod sent his soldiers in to kill all the male babies under 2 years old in an attempt kill baby Jesus. I don’t know if the Roman government had disarmed them or their puppet King Herod’s police force. But even Jesus said to buy a sword (meaning “weapon of war”) and there is nothing symbolic in that statement.

The real problem is misplaced trust in what secures a person and a nation’s freedom. Many people are trusting in their religious beliefs and the 2^nd Amendment to keep them free. President Obama was correct in when he said, many are bitterly clinging to their religion and guns. They are angry and their idea of freedom is being erased, and they feel as if fences are being formed around them and they are being cornered.

People have lost a Biblical understanding of freedom. Most people believe freedom is the ability to do what they want to do, whenever they want to do it, as long as it is within the reasonable boundaries of the laws of the land.

True freedom is not that at all. True freedom is found only in following Jesus Christ as King and Savior. Jesus can set you free from the prison of personal sin and the prison of your own will. Your will to do whatever you want is a prison that will keep you frustrated, angry, and yes, bitter when you feel that freedom is being removed.

Jesus is an excellent example of freedom, but let’s look at someone who was not God in the flesh as an example. Take the acclaimed Apostle Paul, formerly called Saul of Tarsus, as an example. Most theologians use Paul’s writings in their definition of government’s responsibilities and limitations. Paul wrote that religion cannot give you freedom. Religion ensnares you to rules and regulations that put you in bondage (see Paul’s letter to the Galatians). Paul also saw that weapons of war cannot grant you freedom and that the real battle was a spiritual battle (see Pauls’ letter to the Ephesians).

Paul demonstrated real freedom. He knew he was going to be tried by Caesar, be held in a roman prison, and ultimately lose his life (see Acts 9-11). No, he didn’t get a gun and form a militia. His greatest goal in life was not a worldly idea of personal freedom but Christ’s idea of true freedom: Freedom to lay down your life willingly for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God for the glory of God.

Paul was taken captive by the Roman government, taken to Rome to face charges by Caesar, and later was executed by Caesar’s edict. While in prison Paul wrote letters to the churches, and one of those was to a little church in the city of Philippi where he had been falsely imprisoned. He told them of his glorious stay in prison where his only goal was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He probably could hear the executioner sharpening the blade to be used for his neck when he wrote “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He continued to write that if he dies he gets to be with Jesus immediately but if he is left alive then he gets to be with the church and share the Gospel with the world! (Philippians 1:21-26) Paul was not distraught by the adverse circumstances of life, he saw them as a means of advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyone to be tried by Caesar was held by the Roman “Secret Service” called the Imperial or Praetorian guard. These same guards took shifts and guarded the emperor, his family, the household of Caesar, and anyone coming in contact with the emperor. These elite Roman guards were chained to Paul and he didn’t miss a chance to tell them about the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:12-14). Many of them believed and the message of the Gospel. Some of those were even in the household of Caesar himself who had become followers of Jesus! (Philippians 1:22).

Paul didn’t even see the chains of his imprisonment as removing his freedom.  He found freedom by seeing those circumstances as being in the will of God with the opportunity to tell others about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This was liberating to Paul because he found joy being in the will of God and doing the will of God. Yes, joyful! The word for joy is the keyword used around 14 times in Philippians.

Can you be joyful while being chained up in prison with the only thing you possess is the Gospel of Jesus? Can you be joyful with just Jesus and the opportunity to tell others about him? If you answer “No” then you don’t know true freedom.

You can take my guns away from me. You can even take my Bibles and all my Christian literature and burn them. But you cannot take Jesus from me and you cannot take me from Jesus. As long as I have breath, I get the privilege of telling others about true freedom in Christ! That is true freedom!

True freedom comes at a price, the price of Christ’s death on the cross for your sins. Jesus said, if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed!

True freedom comes at a price for you too: Your willingness to lay down your life, your will, your ways and follow Jesus, His will and His ways. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25).

I love this country of mine, but the greatest good is not the advancement of the United States of America and the Constitution, but the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ!

• What does this Bible passage mean to you?  Because, it can mean this to me and something else to you.
• What does this Bible passage mean to me today?  Because it can mean something to me one day and a year later it mean something else.

• What was the author trying communicate to his original hearers?
• What was his original intent in writing what he did?

The Bible is True and Trustworthy.

The Bible is true and will never lead you into error. Where is speaks on God it is true. It is true whether it speaks about geography, history, or even science. We may not have any other evidence that the Bible is true about a particular subject, but no other evidence is needed to prove the Bible for the follower of Jesus. You still may be a skeptic, and that is ok, actually it is good if you approach it properly. Let me challenge you to search for yourself to see whether the Bible is true or not. A good place to begin this journey is with Erwin Lutzer’s book Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust The Bible.

Lutzer present a compelling case for the trustworthiness of the Bible.  I find that those who are interested in debunking the Bible, never really consider the precise claims of those who support the Bible. And I find that most of them have never really read the Bible to see what the big message is about, but they just look up a verse here or there and try to make a case by misrepresenting some passages.

How can you trust the Bible?

Here is a very basic synopsis of  “Seven Reasons Why You can Trust the Bible” by Erwin Lutzer.

(1) The Logical Reason to believe the Bible is true.  The claims of the Bible to inspiration and the unity of the Bible present the reader with a compelling argument to believe this is God’s Book.  There are 66 books in the Bible written over thousands of years with no contradictions and one common theme- it is clearly logical. Lutzer’s arguments presents you with a dilemma, that you have to determine if you are going to believe the claims of the Bible itself. Either it is true or it is not. Either it is a good book or an indescribably bad book. Either it is the Word of God or it is misleading and deceptive.

(2) The Historical Reason to Believe the Bible.  All history changed direction after Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Archaeology proves the veracity of Scripture. Historical evaluation and tests of the Bible prove it is true. The Bible is historically accurate. Read this chapter for yourself.

(3) The Prophetic Reason to Believe the Bible.  Biblical prophecy is not vague and detached like Nostradamus. You don’t need a computer with special software to understand prophecy like the Bible Codes assert. Just read the prophecies, read history and look at world events. There is nothing unclear about Biblical prophecy.  Seven hundred years before Christ was born, it was prophesized that the virgin will give birth to the Savior (Isaiah 7:14) and that is exactly what happened. It was written clearly.

(4) The Christological Reason to believe the Bible.  Jesus believed the Old Testament to be true. He said the Old Testament Scriptures testified of himself, the Messiah. He said his words were eternal words and words of life. Your evaluation of the Word of God is an evaluation of Jesus himself.

(5) The Scientific Reason to Believe the Bible.  The Bible is not a science book, but everywhere it speaks related to science it is absolutely accurate. Read this chapter for an eye opener on the validity of Scripture based on Science.

(6) A Providential Reason to believe the Bible is true.  God preserved 66 books of the Bible for thousands of years without there being errors and major distortions in Scripture. In 1948 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and a complete copy of the scroll of Isaiah, which was dated to have been copied well before the time of Jesus.  Strangely enough to many, it was unchanged from our copy of Isaiah. Over and over again, the Bible is proved trustworthy.

(7) A Personal Reason to Believe the Bible.  Lives are changed when they read the Bible, when they hear it taught and when they understand the message of Scripture.  That is the reason this Book is still the bestselling book of all time, it is God’s Word to us and he changes people’s lives radically when they follow Jesus.

Read Erwin Lutzer’s book for yourself and you will gain a new appreciation for Scripture and lessen your skepticism of THE BOOK.

5.  The Bible is about God. It is not about you.

Many people get a human centered idea in their minds that the Bible is all about people. Not at all. It is all about God who is Holy and is also Love. He demonstrates His glorious holiness and His amazing love from the beginning of the Book to the end of the Book.

It begins with God, “In the beginning God..” and ends with God the Son, King Jesus the Messiah’s second coming to finish the redemption of his creation.

So when you seek to understand the Bible, it is an exercise in understanding the character, nature, and ways of God. The Bible is about God revealing this to darkened humanity. It is not a self-help book, it is God’s Word to you.

You don’t sit in judgment about God’s word. God’s Word sits in judgment of you.

If the Bible were about you, then your name would be King Jesus, and we would all be worshipping you.

 6.  The Bible does not contradict itself.

One of the miracles about the Bible is that it is one story not a collection of separate unrelated stories written over 3500 years that does not contradict itself. So when you are seeking to interpret a Bible passage and there is some kind of confusion between one passage and another passage, remember this!

*** You don’t have all the information you need to fully understand this passage. ***

What kind of information might you be missing?

• Grammatical?  Do you fully understand the Hebrew or Greek words being used?  Some cults and so called Christian groups use the same words, but a different dictionary – one they made up. So they can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say.

•  Theological? There are great doctrinal / theological themes throughout the Bible and the passage you are reading may be a small piece in the puzzle of this doctrinal/theological theme. You need to look at all the pieces to see what is being described.

•  Historical? It has been close to 2000 years since Scripture was written and Jesus walked the earth. What was going on during that time regionally, nationally, politically, socially, industrially, economically, or militarily that might have had an impact upon what was taking place?

•  Geographical? Ever been to Israel, Jordan, Syria, Greece, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, or Turkey? That’s what we call the areas now, but many of those regions had different names. There are specific  geographical factors for each region.  Just like you don’t find lots of pine trees around Dallas because they don’t grow well in the soil and climate there, but in east Texas and most of Louisiana they grow really well. It is a geographical issue that has bearing on industry and the way people live.

•  Cultural?   Idk.  I am smh at dis point? Ru?  Could you read that fluently? Then you are culturally connected to the texting culture of 21^st century America.  The peoples of the Bible had their own cultures. They didn’t have cell phones , McDonalds, or pizza. Are you missing something culturally that is keeping you from grasping what they really meant? It is an important question.

•  Life perspective? Some things we won’t fully understand until we walk through them with Jesus. Understanding intellectually is good, but understanding personally is where your knowledge about God becomes knowledge of God himself.

•  God’s perspective? Our human limitations may keep us from grasping the truth. There are some things we will not understand about God or his ways. Otherwise, he would be a god of our making, and not God, Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of the Universe.

 7.  The Bible is one story.

The Bible is not just a collection of isolated stories, but one story. The one story is God’s story about how he made a perfect creation, the creation rebelled against him, and in his love and holiness he sought to bring redemption to his wayward creation. The hero of the Bible is God, revealed in God the Son, King Jesus.

Don’t look at each story or teaching in an isolated unit, but remember it is part of a larger whole. The whole Bible is about God redeeming a people for himself. It is all about the glory of God being revealed in and through every page of the Bible, but most personally in the crucified, resurrected, and returning King, Jesus the Messiah.

Your view of Scripture matters when you are trying to determine the meaning of a passage. How do you view the Bible?  Is it an “old school” self-help book?  A wisdom book like the writings of Confucius? Just the collected religious writings of men? A Philosophy book? Or a religious rules book with supposed historical content? A book full of lies and stories that cannot be trusted, and something only weak-minded people believe. People have all different kinds of views of the Bible. Your view of the Bible will determine what you think a passage means and its importance or lack of thereof.

How should you view the Bible in order to determine a correct interpretation?

 (1) The Bible is the record of the revelation of God.  

In humanity’s quest for self-determination, it radically lost its way and became deeply depraved. In country-boy language, people did some very dumb stuff, and got really stupid about God and the way he wants us to live. Actually the Bible describes it as being spiritually darkened about God and spiritually directionless. The entire world became darkened to the reality, existence, character and ways of God. But God left his fingerprints upon his entire creation so that no person would be without an excuse and say “Hey, I didn’t know God existed!” (See Romans chapters 1-3). People knew God existed, but knew very little about whom he really was, so God began to reveal (as in an astonishing revelation) himself, his purposes, and his ways to wayward humanity. The Bible is the history record of God’s speaking, interacting, and intervening in the lives of people, as well as their corresponding responses or reactions to God. Over and over again, God told special men, men he had set apart for his purposes, to write these things down, and they did. We call the collection of these revelations, the Bible.

 (2) The Bible is the Revelation of God.

Jesus said his words were spirit and they were life in John 6:63. There is innate power in the Word of God. It is a clear doorway into the presence of Christ himself. No other book is like the Bible.

I find it amusing when I hear about a new book hitting the best seller and then at the end of the year the best-selling books of the year. The Bible is never mentioned.  Why? Because the Bible outsells popular novels in one month what most  of them do in annual sales. According to The Economist, there are over 100 million Bibles sold every year and Gideon’s international give away a Bible every second. Trying to compete with the Bible in sales is like a toddler running a 100 meter dash against Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. There is no comparison.

Let me make this clear, the Bible is not God, that would be idolatry and some people actually worship the Bible. You don’t worship the Bible, you worship the Living God, the God of the Bible. The Bible is a way of connecting with God in a real and personal manner. God wants you to know him and he has given you his Word, the Bible, in order that you can come to know him in a real and meaningful personal way.

 3. The Bible is inspired by God.

The Greek word theopneustos  θεόπνευστος  is translated many times as “inspired” but it literally means to be “breathed out by God” which is why some translations actually translate that way.

2 Timothy 3:16 (HCSB)  “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,”

 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

This inspiration is different from poetic inspiration.  A sunset can inspire an artist, a dream, a wonderful time, the best of times and the worst of times can inspire artists. Men were not inspired to write the Bible. All of Shakespeare’s writings are still Shakespeare’s writing – not God’s. The Bible’s author is God Himself. The words in this book are the words of God. They are not what someone thinks God’s words are. Some Bibles omit God from this verse but in the Greek it is clearly there.

God used holy men to write His Word.  God called out men and set them apart for his special service, these were called holy men or prophets. The Bible says it this way in 2 Peter 1:20-21 (NKJV) “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

Holy men were moved by the Holy Spirit and God through them wrote the Holy Scriptures using their personalities. They were not dictationists doing a mechanical type of work. They still had their personalities and experiences. They were men whom God was working through using their unique personalities to write the exact words he would have them to write.

4.  The Bible is without Error. 

Theologians call this “inerrancy” and it simply means that God’s Word is without error.  There are variations in this so that some can discount parts of the Bible they disagree with.  But theologians that believe the Bible to be true adhere to “Verbal Plenary Inspiration.”

• Verbal means the very words are from God, not just the thoughts.
• Plenary means every part of the Bible, not just the parts you agree with or like.
• Inspiration means, as we have already discussed, the words come from the breath of God, his Words to us directly.

We put a tagline on it “in the original manuscripts” because all we have now are copies of copies of copies, which have an ocassional (or is it occasional) typo that doesn’t affect the meaning of the passages at all.  Some of you like a little better on your toast to make it butter, but a simple transpositional mistake can be understood when you are copying a manuscript in ink on a roll of papyrus paper (rough parchment) without an eraser or a backspace key.  We call these manuscript variances and are normally notated in the footnotes of your better study Bibles.  If we had the originals, then I believe you would clearly see not even a single spelling mistake.

None of these variants affect the meaning of the Bible in any way. They do not affect any doctrines whatsoever. The Bible’s message is unpolluted by a handful of typos.

The Bible can be trusted!

What is your happiness dependent upon?

I was at the doctor’s office the other day and as a new patient I had to fill out a stack of forms resembling the IRS long form with about the same amount of details. I felt so much better after finishing the 30 minutes of forms that I almost left without seeing the doctor!  They had one question, the last question, that was unbelievable.

The last question was, “What can I do to make you happy today?”

My warped mind raced with possible answers:

• Send me and my family on an all-expense paid vacation to an island paradise.
• World peace.
• Don’t charge me anything.
• A gift certificate to the local steakhouse.
• A new car! (I grew up watching the Price is Right with my great-grandmother).

I didn’t ask him why he had that question on the form. There are myriad of possible answers, but it does cause us to think about what makes us happy.

What makes you happy?

What do you have to do to keep yourself happy?

What kills your happiness? (Long forms at the doctor’s office?)

If you watch Duck Dynasty, the Duck Commander Phil Robertson has quite a few things that make him “Happy, Happy, Happy!”

In an American cultural understanding, happiness is based upon a positive experience and is therefore a happy event. A wedding can be a happy, happy, happy event or a crabby, crabby, crabby event, just depending upon the circumstances. Too many get married today and into relationships expecting the other person to make them happy.

No one can make you happy. Why? They are not perfect, and they will mess up and offend you.  They are not all knowing and cannot tell you what is going to happen tomorrow or help you navigate life’s changing circumstance perfectly.  They are not all powerful to make your circumstance better, to totally change them, or even change you to help you overcome or endure them. And they cannot make you feel better emotionally all the time either. No one can make you happy.

That would make him/her God. If one person could make you happy, happy, happy all the time that would make him God. A young lady sat across from me and said she was going to commit suicide. I asked her the obvious question, “why?” She said her boyfriend had broken up and that he had helped her through so much difficulty coming out of drug and alcohol abuse. Then she said something startling about her ex-boyfriend. She said, “he is my savior!” She didn’t commit suicide, she was being selfish and controlling.

She was expecting of this man something that only God could do. Because she made this man an idol in her life, and put the pressure on him to be God to her, he left her because he isn’t God.

Whenever you look for a human to secure your happiness in life, you will end up disillusioned, defeated, and depressed. True genuine happiness can only be found in knowing Jesus Christ and following Him as Lord and Savior of your life.

He can sustain you with a joy and hope that goes beyond temporary circumstances.  He can give you something that will make you hopeful and at peace with whatever is happening in your life, no matter how bad the circumstances are. He becomes your Happy Place and he welcomes you to make him that place, because he alone is capable of being that for you.

What did I write on the form that morning?  “My happiness is not dependent upon you.”

A question was posed to me by one of our college students about Aliens. Their professor asked them this question to consider:  If life were found on another planet, what problem would this cause for Christians who believe in intelligent design?

My Answer:

I do not know about other Christians, but it would not be a problem for me, especially if they have transporter technology they could share. A trip to the beach or the mountains, or mission trip would be much less trippy. A ray gun would be fun to shoot too. In all seriousness, it is not out of bounds to say that God could not have created other beings on other planets. Now, I do not believe in extraterrestrial life of any sort, but if there was a remote possibility, God is still Creator God, Sovereign Lord of the Universe, and the Intelligence behind Intelligent design.

However, it would pose serious questions:

Is the life intelligent life? If it is, then are they fallen creatures? If they were fallen, was Christ’s death sufficient to atone for their sins?  Are they part of God’s redemptive plan or are they unredeemable like the fallen angels?

Are they made in the image of God or is that just for people on earth?

Are they really beings from another planet or are they demons in disguise? The Apostle Paul said, “But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:14 (NLT) I find people today are more likely to believe in extraterrestrial life than they are in a personal devil and his demonic host who are set on deceiving them. Satan is the great deceiver of the nations as described in Revelation 20:3. It is not beyond the scope of a radically evil angelic genius like Satan to deceive all the nations through the course of history to believe in people on other planets. Then at the right time when he can seize control of the entire world, to present himself or even inhabit a person to do his bidding as the next jump in worldwide evolution. His sales pitch would be that power and might and peace are now available to all people who follow him. He would continue saying, the old superstitious ways of earthly religion especially of that of sin and atonement are something that should be discarded as an old crutch would be for a person who had been healed of his malady. Farfetched? I don’t think so. The number one alternative religion in Great Britain is Jedi. I mean, who wouldn’t want a light saber and a cool cloak?

Questions would arise from other religions.  Mormons believe that other planets are inhabited by humanoids. A myriad of questions could be spun off of this side-issue.

Other questions arise on non-intelligent life on other planets? What if they find earth organisms whether plant or animal matter on other planets? How did they get there? Was it evolution, creation, or just a happenstance of an exploding mega-meteorite?  We have found moon and mars rocks on earth. It is not beyond people finding other earth matter on other planets due to a mega-meteor hitting the earth at some time in the past and sending debris into space.

The question of extraterrestrial life on other planets causes you to truly, examine your understanding of the doctrine of God, the doctrine of man and man being made in the image of God, the doctrine of angelology (Satan and demons), Christology, and eschatology (doctrine of last things).

Again, I don’t believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. Why? The One and only, true and living God became a man. So if any life is found on other planets, what does this mean for the follower of Christ Jesus? Absolutely nothing. Jesus is still the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Him.

Obviously, aliens give you the munchies.

The pastor murdered his wife in the parsonage and passed it off as suicide.  It sounds like something you would hear in a movie or read in the opening lines of a fictitious novel, but it actually happened in the little town of Anguilla, Mississippi.  I know personally that it happened because I was there when he was tried in court, found guilty for murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.  I was pastor that followed this evil monster impersonating a pastor.

He had planned her pseudo-suicide well. The next lesson in the Bible study the church had been going through was on “suicide.” He took her .22 revolver while she was sleeping, put it up to her head as if it were her hand or maybe he did use her hand, and pulled the trigger. But she didn’t die instantly, so while she was laying there dying or possibly not dying, he put another round through the same hole.  Once she was dead and past resuscitation, he called for help and put on his best Oscar winning performance. Not long after that, the “pressure” of everything would get to him and he would “understandably” quit being this church’s pastor.  One of my dear friends there told me later, he headed north in the moving truck instead of south to be with his family. What everyone didn’t know was that his long-time secret internet girlfriend was north.

His two bullets would be his undoing because some persistent family members were finally able to get the body exhumed and an autopsy performed. It is impossible for a conscious person to shoot herself in the head in the same hole.

I saw this monster on the witness stand answering the lawyers questions. I saw the gun as the lawyers brought it out as evidence.  I saw the man handle the gun and act as if he was someone from a different planet who had never seen a gun before. It was obvious to me and more importantly to the jury that he was pretending.

It was the strangest thing, no one ever blamed the gun. The gun was brought out in the court room and no one ducked down, no one ran out of the room, and no one acted as if they were horrified of the instrument of murder. Why? Because the gun didn’t murder her, the evil malicious vile monster did. No he wasn’t sick. He was evil. The weapon wasn’t sentenced to life in prison without parole, he was.

People should be held responsible for their actions. No one wants to ban forks for making people obese. No one wants to stop the manufacturing of pizza and candy bar because they are making people fat.  In that courtroom, no one blamed the gun, only the monster behind it.

What make a person a monster? Their own personal choices to do evil things and cooperate with evil.

As a little child, my mom, dad, and teachers told me there was no such thing as monsters. At least not the kind that I was imagining. There are monsters in this world. Make no doubt about it. And they should be held responsible for their evil monstrous actions. Put the blame where the blame is due, on the people who do evil things.

Guns are not the issue. Evil and personal responsibility are the issues. There are monsters in this world.

My last beer was in December 1993. It had been six months after I had actually stopped drinking that I had my next-to-my-last beer. My date and I were at a Japanese steak house enjoying the thrill of the talented and performing chef cooking just inches away from our seat. We got caught up in the excitement and ordered drinks. We were both followers of Christ.

All kinds of things started running through my mind and her mind too, as we discussed it.

The Bible does not teach anywhere that having an alcoholic drink is wrong.  I know there are many people who would disagree based on their own opinion, but being honest to Scripture, prohibitionists are not being intellectually honest, theologically honest, but purely legalistic.

Clearly Jesus turned water into wine. See John 2.  This is the favorite passage of my friends who like to drink!

Clearly Paul recommended for Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach problems. See 1 Timothy 5:23

Paul told young pastor Timothy that pastors should not be “drunkards” which means even pastors can have a drink.  See 1 Timothy 3:1-3

Paul told young pastor Timothy that deacons could drink a little more than pastors by saying that they should be “not addicted to much wine.” See 1 Timothy 3:8

Now that being said, there is a BOAT LOAD of Scriptures that speak to the negative and harmful affects of drinking alcohol.  Search for wine or strong drink in an online Bible to see the horrible list. I knew the horrible list. I lived much of the horrible list.

But, God gives believers freedom.  But he also expects followers of Christ to not misuse their freedom.  Drinking an alcoholic beverage is not a sin. Misusing your freedom is a sin.  Eating ice cream is not a sin, but a gallon is clearly misusing your freedom. I know I lost some of you right there.

Clearly, believers have the freedom to have a drink. The hardcore legalists like the Pharisees in the Bible have a problem with this premise, because they are all about their perception of how life should be.  They are about imposing their rules on others. They have become judge and jury.

The question is how are you going to use your freedom?  The freedom God has given you.

My biggest concern, as I had that half of a beer in hand, became how that would appear to someone I was trying to witness to about Jesus.  The last thing I wanted to was to cause someone to stumble along the way in learning to follow Christ.

In some countries cultures, you would highly offend the person if you refused a drink offered to you.  That is their culture.  American culture equates drinking with the high-life, the party scene, and a source of satisfying your desires in life, a totally non-Christian life. Just watch the television commercials if you disagree.

My conscience was stricken, the with thought that if someone I had been sharing the love of Christ with came in and saw me drinking that it would hinder them from wanting to follow the Jesus who changed my life and whom I loved.

So we put our drinks down and asked them to be removed from the table.

Why?

People coming to know Jesus Christ and follow him is more important than me having a drink. Ever.

I couldn’t drink that beer to the glory of God.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  1 Corinthians 10:31

This is why I don’t drink alcoholic beverages in any way whatsoever. People knowing Christ and following Christ is more important than me having a drink.

My questions for you:

Are you doing anything that is not for the glory of God?

Are you doing anything that might cause someone else to stumble in following Christ?

If you are comfortable with your answers and the freedom God has given you in Christ, then your drinking is between you and Jesus, and no one should judge you. I don’t.   I am not your judge.

I had tried to stop numerous times before with my friends after a dumb night before, saying “I will never do that again” and agreeing that we were not going to drink like that again. Of course, by that next weekend, we had totally forgotten the vow we made the weekend before.  But this was different. It was not a vow or a commitment in anyway.

I didn’t commit my life to Christ. I met Christ and he changed it.  I “heard” him call me to follow him, and I was compelled to. Religion seeks to change a person from the outside in.  Religion believes that if you do enough good things that you will become a good person. The Bible actually teaches this is wrong. The Bible does not teach religion. The Bible teaches that God wants you to encounter him, know him personally, understand his love for you, and for you to love him back. Rituals, rules, and religion are incapable of providing a relationship with the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Jesus was THE DRINK that satisfied my thirst in life.  The satisfaction that nothing of the things of the world could give.  Why? Because we are not only made for this world, we are made for another world, the world of being connected with the one who made you for himself, Jesus Christ.

When you let Jesus quench your thirst, you won’t thirst for the things of this world.

“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  John 4:13-14 ESV

When you let Jesus quench your thirst, you will have a new well of satisfaction will open up in the deepest part of your heart.

Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  John 7:37-38

What are you looking for to satisfy your life?