Christianity is all about Healing

Folks, let's be honest. Sin is destructive. Despite the fact that our culture looks to excuse and legitimize sin, the harsh reality is that sin will destroy your life.

God does not define sin in the Bible with the intent to restrict you to a boring, miserable, self-less life. He defines sin in the Bible to instruct you to turn away from the things that will destroy your life. The Ten Commandments instruct us not to worship other gods, not to worship idols, not to take the Lord's name in vain, and not to profane the Sabbath. Why? Because rejecting God for more worldly things will eventually lead to eternal damnation.

The Ten Commandments also instruct us to honor our parents, not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, and not to covet. Why? Because doing these things (or not honoring your parents) will lead to destruction. God gave us His commandments, and His word (which includes the Gospel) to warn us against the destruction of sin, and to teach us to receive eternal life by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal savior. God defined sin, and forbid it in His word for the same reasons a parent forbids certain behaviors (like playing in the street) for their children. The rules are meant to keep us safe.

I speak out against sin, not because I want everyone to conform to my lifestyle, and not because I want to force my beliefs on others. I speak out against sin because I have seen first hand the devastation caused by a sinful lifestyle.

During a recent conversation on Facebook, friends of mine were complaining about strict drug laws in the state of Texas, lamenting how it is unfair for certain possession charges to be labelled "felonies," which hurts a person's chances of finding gainful employment and recovering their lives in the future. To my friends, the cure (drug laws) was more devastating than the disease (drug addiction.) I disagreed, arguing that drug laws give local law enforcement the tools needed to intervene in a drug addict's life, to protect both the addict and his family.

The truth is, anytime there is drug addiction, there are victims beyond the addict himself. His children often endure neglect and abuse. His parents are often swindled out of cash, or bear the financial burden of paying for his mistakes. His wife has to endure a lot. Legal, or illegal, drug abuse is a sin that destroys a person's life. I have seen this first hand, so I am in favor of strong drug laws.

Nevertheless, whatever laws may be passed, sermons preached, and personal discipleship that takes place, eventually someone will make the mistake of sinning. Let's use drug abuse as an example. Despite the strong drug laws in Texas, where even the presence of methamphetamine residue results in a felony conviction, someone will become addicted today.

When that happens, their lives will begin to unravel. The drug will take over, and the addict eventually loses everything as he seeks to support his habit. In looking at situations like this, or a situation where one has wrecked his marriage with adultery, or a situation where a person is being sentenced to prison time over a burglary, it is easy to look down your nose and write the person off as a lost cause. However, to do that is to ignore the example Jesus gave us in the New Testament.

Throughout the four Gospels, you see Jesus healing various health conditions... leprosy, blindness, paralysis, coma, and He even brought Lazarus back from the grave. There have been many charlatans who have tried to recreate these miracles, and perform healing services by telling crippled people to "rise and walk," and declaring cancer patients to be "cured." Some of these snake-oil salesmen even have national TV shows, but I digress. Physical healing services miss the point altogether.

The healings Jesus performed (as well as those by His disciples in the Book of Acts) carried with them a Spiritual meaning, as well as a physical meaning. In other words, the physical healing was a picture of the Spiritual healing Christ performed in their lives.

A prime example of this is the healing of the man with palsy in Luke 5. Here, you have a man who is completely paralyzed, to the point that it took several of his friends to get him to Jesus (by cutting a hole in the roof and lowering him down, no less.) Jesus told that man that his sins were forgiven before healing him of his palsy.

In many ways, sin does to us spiritually what the palsy did to that man physically. It debilitates us and renders us helpless. We wind up stuck in a life where we are without hope, discouraged, and in pain. In those situations, if we repent and believe in the Lord, He heals us of the spiritual devastation caused by our sin.

Our goal as Christians is not to sit back and lament the fallen condition of our world, or those around us. Our goal is to see them healed. This comes in sharing the truth of God's word with them, and being willing to help them along as they rebuild their lives from the ashes left behind by their sin.

If you are reading this, and your life has been destroyed by sin, I am praying for you. My prayer for you is that you turn from your sin, and you trust Jesus Christ as your personal savior. He will heal you from your sin. After that, go find a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church, follow the Lord in Baptism, and lean on the encouragement and help from your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. May God bless you.

Booze Stooge

Part of my job as news director for KOXE is to go to the Law Enforcement Center every morning and check the police reports for any possible incident that might make a good news story. While there is an occasional robbery, or string of vehicle burglaries, most of the incident reports have to deal with DUI violations, possession of small amounts of marijuana, or disorderly conduct often caused by excessive drinking. To be quite honest, if not for the alcohol-related offenses in the stack of police reports, there probably wouldn't be much news at all come out of the Brown County Law Enforcement Center.

To be quite honest, consuming alcohol is quite popular in America. When Jacksonville, Texas, voted to allow alcohol to be sold in stores, sales tax revenues jumped. At the store my father manages, the increased sales revenues allowed him to hire an assistant manager, thus making it posssible for him to take a day off. While many people drink socially without much problem, many others have their lives destroyed by their actions while under the influence of alcohol. Given the problems and social stigma that often accompany the consumption of alcoholic beverages, my practice is to counsel people to avoid consuming alcoholic beverages.

The Bible is very clear in regard to recreational drinking. Isaiah 5:11 says, "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, till wine inflame them." Isaiah 5:22 reiterates this by saying, "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink."

People who engage in recreational drinking for the purpose of getting intoxicated are setting themselves up for disaster. Drunkeness is a sin, and it also creates situations that will not be easily resolved when the buzz wears off.

For that reason, and given the strength of alcoholic beverages today, I counsel people not to drink alcohol. (1) Despite it's popularity, recreational drinking does carry a social stigma. (2) Given the potential for recreational drinking to go too far, resulting in a drunken incident, I advise people to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages. Why flirt with disaster? (3) Drinking alcoholic beverages does not help your relationship with Christ. You are not going to grow closer to the Lord by drinking.

Now, some will counter with the statement, "But the Bible doesn't forbid drinking." This is true, but if you are going through life trying to figure out what the Bible allows you to do, then you are approaching your relationship with God the wrong way. The question is not, "What can I do, and what can't I do?" but rather, "What should I be doing?" That's a topic for another day.

So, to sum up. Drinking is not expressly prohibited in scripture, but for a variety of reasons, I strongly advise against it.