The following post comes with a disclaimer: My blog expresses my opinion. You don't have to agree with it. It's the place I write what I'm thinking and what is going on in my life. Don't like it, don't read it. Don't agree, that's fine. I'll just agree to disagree. I don't love any of you less. This is just ME expressing WHO I am and what I believe. Nothing else. I am in NO place to judge anyone else. Please understand that I don't seek to create division, I just seek to write what I believe and feel that God lays on my heart. This is one of those things that God laid on my heart to do a long time ago, but I chose not to listen and I've been unsettled since.
Sometimes I REALLY miss the kind of preaching that makes you want to stand up and shout AMEN, PREACH it brother! This video series is one that got me stirred up, fired up, and remembering my "roots" growing up in Southern Bible belt churches.
For many people, even those that read my blog, you don't share these views expressed in this video series. I have purposely been searching/studying about the subject of drinking alcohol mostly because of how alone Kevin and I feel in our stance to abstain 100%. It doesn't make us more holy or more Christian, it just means that we are following OUR convictions. I was searching for the Biblical, emotional, psychological reasoning behind why we believe what we do. People have asked us OVER and OVER recently, WHY we don't drink and WHY we believe it to be wrong for us. I've discussed it with many of you and I've made many of the same points as the video, but by golly....this preacher has spoken it for me better than I ever could!
For us, it's not about sin or not sin. Every person has to decide that for himself/herself. For us, it's about the IMAGE or MESSAGE we send. We are being convicted on EVERY level of saying one thing or doing another or sending a mixed message to our children or nonbelievers. We are in the process of examining EACH and EVERY part of our lives to see where we are falling short of being who God wants us to be. My gosh, the list of failures is much longer than the getting it "right". Because drinking alcohol has become such a HUGE topic for MANY months, I decided it was time to really understand why we make the choices we do.
I don't want to have my faith built solely on my upbringing. I don't want to have convictions just because that is what I was immersed in. I want to make sure that I believe what I believe because I BELIEVE it. Make sense? Now that we have reached the point of having a teenager in the house, it's also bringing about changes in how we parent. We want to make sure that our children understand why we believe what we do. We are seeking the end of mixed messages of I can do this, but you can't. We have a long way to go and many bridges left to cross, but on this topic we may continue to stand with few people beside us....but that's OK. I can stand alone or nearly alone; God gave me a stubborn streak for a reason. I know why I believe what I do and my opinion has not changed. Instead of getting "weaker" or leaning on the fence....my convictions are even stronger.
This video is the best I've heard to express what we feel. It echoes so many of the same conversations we have been having. The video posted is the 2nd part of 3 videos. Both 1 and 3 are excellent, but the "meat" of the sermon is here in the 2nd part.
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