LIFE…MORE THAN WINE AND LIQUOR

WINE is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise – Proverbs 20: 1

He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that LOVETH WINE and oil shall not be rich – Proverbs 21: 17

“And what does Solomon say about pleasure? What use is it?” What does it contribute to life? His answer: “NOTHING.” PLEASURE CONSUMES RESOURCES; it does not build them up. Most of us cannot afford a night out more than once or twice a year because it costs so much. Going out uses up resources, that hard work has put together. Pleasure, Solomon concludes, adds nothing.

WINE, he adds, is of no help either. It only seems to be so. Every social gathering today almost invariably includes the dispensing of LIQUOR first. The first thing the flight attendant says after your plane is airborne is, “Would you like a cocktail?”

There is a widespread conviction in the world that you cannot get strangers to talk to each other until you loosen them up with LIQUOR. And it seems to work. After wine or cocktails are served, people begin to chat a bit and the tenseness and quietness is lessened. But not much of any significance is ever said, either on planes or in social gatherings. There is little communication – usually it is surface conversation. Wine, Solomon says, does not really help. “I looked into it,” he says, “and I found that it too was vanity; it left people with a feeling of FUTILITY and EMPTINESS.”

[Meditation] – Like it is with laughter and other forms of worldly pleasure, wisdom demands that we DO NOT LOVE WINE, except the TRUE WINE that comes from the TRUE VINE. Jesus says: “I am the true Vine…” (John 15:1). Only God can fill a heart with this TRUE WINE – the Wine of the Holy Spirit: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph.5:18). Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the WINE which he drank (Dan.1:8). I choose to follow Daniel’s path of purity and distinction!