Tripped by Near Beer
Theme of the Week: Booze Busting
Friday, May 2, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall … (1 Corinthians 10:12). Bonus Reading:1 Peter 4:1-5
I was a teenage alcoholic who got saved when I was 22. To my enduring joy and relief, my new life in Christ broke the back of my alcoholism. It was to my dismay, however, that I came to realize about ten years later the reality of alcoholism's lifelong presence—whether or not one has kicked the habit.
It was only a few months into a new relationship with my soon-to-be wife, when I decided to buy some non-alcoholic beer. What could it hurt? I thought. Even knowing it had one-to-two percent alcohol, I convinced myself that these small numbers would be harmless.
I couldn't have been more wrong. Within a week I was bringing home a six-pack of non-alcoholic beer every day. Then I considered having "only an occasional" real beer along with the others—a temptation to which I succumbed.
One day my fiancée called—and I was unable to keep from slurring my words. What a shock it was when I realized I was an inch away from falling off the cliff again!
That day, 20 years ago, I threw the rest of the beer out—and never had another one. Thank God for His timely wake-up call!
—Kevin Hrebik in Florida
My Response: Where may I be risking "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory"?
Thought to Apply: Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
—Augustine of Hippo (church leader, 4th Century)
Adapted from Florida by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Lord, I want to be totally yours. Deliver me from anything that would sidetrack me.
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