A Month of X's
Theme of the Week: Booze Busting
James MacDonald
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life … let the Holy Spirit … control you (Ephesians 5:18). Bonus Reading:1 Cor. 6:12-13, 19-20
I preached about alcohol. "Although the Bible doesn't require abstinence," I said, "there's wisdom in such a position." I stressed that the key wasn't agreeing mentally but choosing to act on what is understood. One man, whom I'll call Jeff, did.
"For a long time," he wrote to me, "I'd always come home from work and have a couple of martinis with dinner and a couple of beers throughout the evening. Lately I noticed that I was really looking forward to that first drink.
"I've been a Christian for several years now and felt this drinking wasn't exactly honoring to God. But, sinner that I am, I kept right on doing it until the Sunday of your message. After I heard it, I asked our Lord to help me. Enclosed you'll see the last page off of my desk planner last year. It has X's through the days I've been without alcohol."
On each day of December Jeff had marked a big X with the letters WPHS, which his letter explained stood for "with the power of the Holy Spirit." Jeff didn't try to change on his own; he turned to God for help. Because he chose to cooperate fully with God, he has remained sober to this day.
—James MacDonald in I Really Want to Change …
My Response: What transformation in my life will require the power of the Holy Spirit—and my co-operation?
Thought to Apply: I commited to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together.
—Denzel Washington
Adapted fromI Really Want to Change … (Moody Bible Institute, Moody Press, 2000) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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Lord, I want to be totally yours. Deliver me from anything that would sidetrack me.
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