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Strong Tower Radio

Balanced Living

Bob Benson

Vicki Griffin

Life After Loss Part 1

Creating Connections Part 1

Creating Connections Part 2

Wes Peppers

Engineered For Success

Evelyn Kissinger

Health In a Hurry Part 1

Health in a Hurry Part 2

Hearts on Fire Part 1

The Buzz on Beverages Part 1

The Buzz on Beverages Part 2

The Entertainment Trap

These Doctors Still Make House Calls Part 1

These Doctors Still Make House Calls Part 2

Ron Kelly

Super Foods That Fight Cancer Part 1

Super Foods That Fight Cancer Part 2

Who Can I Trust? Part 1

Who Can I Trust? Part 2

Life After Loss Part 2

Alcohol: Why Not? Part 1

Exercise, It Goes to Your Head Part 1

Exercise, It Goes to Your Head Part 2

Healthy Weight Helps

Hearts on Fire Part 2


Hi, my name is Pastor Ron Kelly. I'm your host today in this segment of Balanced Living for a Better Life. My guest today is Vicki Griffin, the director of Lifestyle Matters, who's also an author, speaker, and health educator. Our topic today touches many, and we're asking the question, alcohol, why not? Well what a question, and thank you so much for inviting me to be part of this program today, Pastor Ron.

You know, research on alcohol consumption, along with some long-held beliefs about the reported health benefits and safety, are under new scrutiny. And I think we should take a look at some of those things today, and also a biblical perspective. So we're going to explore together the latest science and what the Bible says about alcohol. Yeah, so let's look at both sides. You know, alcohol is legal, it's socially accepted, but is it really as harmless as some would like us to think it is?

That's a very, very good question, and 1 that we're going to address right now. In fact, the United States Department of Health and Human Services no longer asserts that light drinking is beneficial. That's going to come as a shock to some of our hearers. England's government guidelines now state that there is quote no safe level end quote of alcohol consumption and even small amounts increase the risk of certain cancers. So we shouldn't be terribly surprised what we're finding over time is that there's a number of areas where science is catching up with inspiration.

Well, that's right. In fact, you look at the statistics, excessive alcohol use leads to 88, 000 deaths each year in the United States, and it shortens the lives of those who die by an average of 30 years. So the potential life lost cumulatively amounts to about 2 and a half million years and the economic burden is staggering $249 billion a year. But nobody really thinks about that. I mean, they're just thinking about how they're feeling well, that's right and the truth is that alcohol when you look at it when we look at accidents and illness and social problems Alcohol is a major drug problem in America.

More than 30% of those who use alcohol do so excessively. Yeah, and what is excessive? Well that's a good question. The CDC has defined heavy drinking for women as 8 or more drinks per week and 15 or more drinks a week for men. But the question is, today, is any amount safe?

Yeah, so if you had a dog that bit 1 out of every 3 people, how long would you keep that dog and how often would you bring people to your house? Well that's a good point. Alcohol is 1 of the most commonly used addictive substances in the United States and as you're pointing out with the dog bite analogy, 1 out of 3 people are bitten. A significant number of people who use alcohol for social or recreational purposes become alcohol dependent for at least a part of their lives. And I bet nobody ever intended to end up there.

Oh who does? Who do you know in all your years of ministering that gets up in the morning and says, you know, I think I just want to fail everything on my list today. No 1 wants to go down that road. And the light at the end of the tunnel, it can either be Jesus or a train. And I'm choosing Jesus.

And that's going to depend on which path I'm on. So let's look at some of the body and brain effects of alcohol consumption. They're quite stunning. So the long term effects are that it irritates even in small amounts. This is interesting because people love to quote, a little wine is good for the stomach, but it actually irritates the digestive tract.

So there must be some other meaning to that scripture. It irritates the digestive tract. It increases ulcers and pancreatitis, and it increases cancers of the mouth, throat, breast, colon, and liver. In fact, a large-scale study showed that women having just 3 drinks a week significantly increased their risk of breast cancer. So this really is not something you want to be playing with even in moderate amounts.

It's not good for you. No, in fact, moderate drinkers actually showed double the risk of stroke compared with non-drinkers and a sharp increase in what is called free radical activity that's linked to heart muscle and liver damage. So alcohol actually increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, and liver damage. And just after drinking, there's a temporary rise in blood pressure and blood platelets, they become stickier, increasing the immediate risk of heart attack and stroke. So we won't be dabbling even in smaller amounts of this substance.

It's not a winner. No, that's my view, and I believe that science and the Bible back that up, even smaller amounts of alcohol, and this is important, can damage the brain, especially the frontal lobes. The good news today is that abstinence helps the brain recover not only lost function, but lost volume. So alcohol molecules are very tiny and soluble in both fat and water so they easily permeate almost all parts of the body and that's 1 reason why alcohol even in small amounts can affect frontal lobe function, which involves problem solving, memory, judgment, impulse control, and behavior. But as I said before, abstinence helps repair the structure and volume of the brain, especially the regions tied to learning, memory, decision making, and drug cravings.

What good news that is, Pastor Ron. God has engineered you and I, and all of our listeners, for renewal, recovery, and restoration. RON Amazing design built into this human system. It's physiological grace, God restoring what we have destroyed, at least in some measure. Absolutely.

In fact, alcohol plays a, quote, considerable role, end quote, in the alarming obesity epidemic in the United States. We don't think about that too much, but it is a pure carb. Alcohol increases the risk of obesity and small amounts consumed prior to a meal cause a clear and consistent, I'm quoting, increase in food intake. In addition, 1 glass of wine contains as many calories as a Snickers candy bar, about as many calories as are burned in a 1 mile walk. So increased weight increases the risk of many lifestyle diseases, including heart disease.

So as a result of this research that is ongoing, Dr. Robert Superco, Director of Cholesterol Genetics and Heart Disease Institute in Berkeley, said this, alcohol Avoidance and increased exercise ought to be at the core of any strategy to reduce obesity. Yeah, I haven't thought about drinking a Snickers down before, but you know Snickers has a little different appeal. Somehow we've been convinced that wine or something like that might have something good for you, but nobody's really gotten that over on the Snickers. That's true, and in a really interesting interview with Dr.

Tim Stockwell, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, he boldly said this, he said, the scientific evidence backing the claims of alcohol's health benefits are shaky at best there are many reasons to be Skeptical. Yeah, so I think Paul's admonition to Timothy might have been just for the unfermented fruit of the vine. Oh, we've got to grab those grapes. That is absolutely true. A number of studies that claim that alcohol consumption has positive benefits have been underwritten by alcohol lobbies and have, quote, serious flaws.

So that leads us to a really important question that you've addressed throughout the years and studied, and that is, did Jesus drink alcohol? Well, I'm quite confident he didn't, and especially when we come down to that upper room meal, that fruit of the vine represented his blood and there was nothing spoiled, fermented, or rotten about that symbol. I've learned that the Greek word for wine, oinos, can refer to either juice that is unfermented and pure, or fermented and intoxicating. Can you imagine the marriage feast at Cana where they'd already been together fellowshipping and drinking for 3 days? Can you imagine Jesus adding 180 gallons of wine that is fermented to a three-day feast, that would be quite the tailgate party.

Yeah, it would, but you know, the beauty is that what he added was the best, even without the alcohol. Here's the scripture, Proverbs 23, verse 31. The Bible says, don't look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup. So in other words, when it's fermented, when it goes down smoothly. Yeah, it doesn't stay smooth.

Well, we both have come from backgrounds that have experimented with this type of thing and we know that God never sanctioned the intake of fermented beverages socially. He says, be sober in 1 Peter 5, 8, be sober and watchful because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour." What kind of stories have you heard as lives have been transformed by learning to leave this drug alone? Oh it's fantastic when people are set free, they get a new sense of self-respect. It's as if they can recover for some of the bad choices that they made in the past, and the liberty is just a wonderful thing as they find strength in Christ to not find their comfort in a cup. You know, life is full of pain.

You're bringing this point up poignantly because life is painful at times, deeply painful. And the question with our opioid crisis, alcoholism, vaping, the intake of drugs, prescription and non-prescription, the media addiction, the endless problems with food addiction. We have to learn how to face pain. The scriptures warn us that alcohol attacks the user with a vengeance and it has the death bite of a poisonous viper. Proverbs 23 verse 32 says, in the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.

So all of these addictive responses to pain cause more misery than the original problem. And God wants to build strength, buoyancy, joy, and resiliency in his children. David Absolutely. And what he has to offer is a greater comfort than what's in the cup. Kim Absolutely.

The mental metal to tunnel through trouble. I heard a wonderful presentation by a neuropsychiatrist talking about the issue of pain and addictions and depression. And he said something that I will never forget. He said, the opposite of Depression is not happiness. You know, we say, I don't want to be depressed.

I want to be happy. But the opposite of depression is not happiness. It's resiliency, the ability to tunnel through trouble, the ability to fight back, The ability to take the next step when you can't see the light. Well, Jesus wanted us to have that joy, but he was going to provide it through something different than a substitute. And when we're putting something that actually robs us of our ability to see life through the right lens, it might be a short-term gain, but it has long-term pain.

Absolutely. And you know, going back to that marriage feast at Cana, 1 of the ways in which God has designed that we be able to lessen pain and resolve pain is the social relationship. And so can you imagine him having added an alcoholic beverage to a social function that is designed to decrease pain to add an element that would increase pain. So Jesus drank wine, but it was what we call in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 14, the pure blood of the grape, not an intoxicating beverage. And the love they were celebrating wasn't going to be diminished by disrespectful or self-disrespecting activity based on what they were taking in at the celebration.

Yes, you know, that's such a good point, because I was raised in the wine industry. My family was in the wine business, owned wine distributorships. I've been in many, many functions, many cocktail parties, bars, and I've never heard anything incredibly wise after a few drinks. And it gets worse as it goes on. It does.

You know, this miracle at this beautiful feast, the wedding feast of Jesus, it was the signaling of Christ's entrance into public ministry to save souls from the prison house of sin and addiction and to give to all a new life, freedom on the inside. And later when Christ instituted communion, the fresh fruit of the grape, symbolizing his blood, pointed forward to the future reward promised to his faithful followers. And he said this, he said, I will not drink at all of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God is come. It's a pretty special thing he provides. No wonder the devil's tried so hard to corrupt it.

Can you imagine an alcoholic trying to stay away from alcohol coming to communion and given an alcoholic beverage to represent the blood of Christ. It would be a very underhanded way to keep them locked in their bondage. Terrible. And so in Isaiah chapter 65 verse 8 it says, As the new wine is found in the cluster, do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it. This is a fantastic conversation.

Friends, we'll be right back and take up where we left off.

Series

Balanced Living

Alcohol: Why Not? Part 1

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Life After Loss Part 1

13m

Creating Connections Part 1

12m

Creating Connections Part 2

15m

Engineered For Success

28m

Health In a Hurry Part 1

14m

Health in a Hurry Part 2

14m

Hearts on Fire Part 1

13m

The Buzz on Beverages Part 1

12m

The Buzz on Beverages Part 2

14m

The Entertainment Trap

28m

These Doctors Still Make House Calls Part 1

13m

These Doctors Still Make House Calls Part 2

13m

Super Foods That Fight Cancer Part 1

14m

Super Foods That Fight Cancer Part 2

13m

Who Can I Trust? Part 1

14m

Who Can I Trust? Part 2

14m

Life After Loss Part 2

14m

Alcohol: Why Not? Part 1

14m

Exercise, It Goes to Your Head Part 1

12m

Exercise, It Goes to Your Head Part 2

15m

Healthy Weight Helps

28m

Hearts on Fire Part 2

14m

Sound Doctrine