Alcoholism

Billy Graham says: “The Bible teaches that there is deliverance from the things that come upon the world…not by chemicals, but by Christ, bringing the mind and heart into harmony with God through submission to His will and accepting His forgiveness…in Christ freedom from the sordid habits which are destroying so many people. Why does the Bible so clearly denounce drunkenness? Because it is an enemy of human life. Anything that is against man and his welfare, God is against.”

Let us see some scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

John 8:36

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Proverbs 28:13

He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

1 John 1:8-9

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 15:33

Do not be misled: “Bad Company corrupts good character.”

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Examples of Evil – Thought Sins

Pride

Esther 6:6  

When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”

Psalms 10:4  

In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

Evil imaginations

Job 21:27  

“I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

2 Corinthians 10:4-7  

4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

7 You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as he.

False Security

Psalms 49:11  

Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.

Vanity

Psalms 94:11  

The LORD knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.

Psalms 119:113  

I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.

Jeremiah 4:14  

O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?

Good

Good Lord

1 Chronicles 16:34

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

2 Chronicles 7:3

When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.”

Ezra 3:11

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: “He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

Psalms 34:8

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Psalms 100:5

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalms 106:1

Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Psalms 107:1

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Good courage

Joshua 1:6

“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:18

Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

Major sins of Israel

Lust for evil things:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders

10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 1:29-32

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;

31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Colossians 3:5-10

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Mark 7:19-21

19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)

20 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’

21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

Die

Thou shalt surely die - spoken by God.

Genesis 2:17

But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Ezekiel 3:18-20

18 When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

Ezekiel 33:8

When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

Ezekiel 33:14

And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right—

Thoughts

Thoughts

~ A friend has six gems of wisdom which he repeats almost every day.  The first is from Cicero:  "To live long, live slowly."  The second is from Confucius:  "The way of a superior man is threefold:  virtuous, he is therefore free from anxiety; wise, he is therefore free from perplexity; bold, he is therefore free from fear."  The third is from Robert Louis Stevenson:  "Sit loosely in the saddle of life."  The fourth, Saint Theresa's famous words:  "Let nothing disturb you; let nothing frighten you.  Everything passes except God; God alone is sufficient."  And from Isaiah, ". . . in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15).  Then finally, and most importantly, the words of Jesus:  ". . . my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27)…Norman Vincent Peale

Teachings of Christ

Builders

Luke 6:47-49  

47 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.

48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Ravi Zacharias quote

 “These days it’s not just that the line between right and wrong has been made unclear, today Christians are being asked by our culture today to erase the lines and move the fences, and if that were not bad enough, we are being asked to join in the celebration cry by those who have thrown off the restraints religion had imposed upon them. It is not just that they ask we accept, but they now demand of us to celebrate it too.”

Prayer Quotes

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks commensurate with your strength. Pray for strength commensurate with your tasks.”

Thomas B. Brooks – “Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory due to His name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. The most praying souls are the most assured souls.”

Self-Control

Psalms 106:32-33

32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them;

33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses’ lips.

Proverbs 6:1-3

1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another,

2 if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth,

3 then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor!

James 3:1-2

1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

Matthew 5:39-40

39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

Luke 6:27-29

27 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.

1 Peter 2:18-23

18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.

20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Man who had visions from God

Nathan

2 Samuel 7:17

Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

1 Chronicles 17:15

Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

Isaiah

Isaiah 1:1

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Chronicles 32:32

The other events of Hezekiah's reign and his acts of devotion are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

7 Messiah

Psalms 89:19

Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have exalted a young man from among the people.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 7:13

The seller will not recover the land he has sold as long as both of them live, for the vision concerning the whole crowd will not be reversed. Because of their sins, not one of them will preserve his life.

Ezekiel 8:1-4

1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign LORD came upon me there.

2 I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.

3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.

4 And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

Ezekiel 11:24

The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I had seen went up from me,

Owl

Leviticus 11:16-17

16 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,

Deuteronomy 14:15-16

15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

Psalms 102:6

I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

Isaiah 34:11-15

11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.

12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.

13 Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls.

14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest.

15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.

Kinds of Trees

Hazel

Genesis 30:37

Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

Chestnut

Genesis 30:37

Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

Ezekiel 31:8

The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor could the pine trees equal its boughs, nor could the plane trees compare with its branches— no tree in the garden of God could match its beauty.

Vine

Numbers 6:4

As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.

Ezekiel 15:2

“Son of man, how is the wood of a vine better than that of a branch on any of the trees in the forest?

Ezekiel 15:6

“Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem.

Olive

Deuteronomy 24:20

When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

1 Kings 6:2333

23 In the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.

25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape.

26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits.

27 He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.

28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29 On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers.

30 He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood with five-sided jambs.

32 And on the two olive wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with beaten gold.

33 In the same way he made four-sided jambs of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall.

Examples of Changed Countenances

Belshazzar

Daniel 5:6

His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.

Daniel 5:9-10

9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

10 The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “O king, live forever!” she said. “Don't be alarmed! Don't look so pale!

Christ

Luke 9:29

As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.

Moses

2 Corinthians 3:7

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,

Quotes:

Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods - C.S. Lewis

Grace…means the full and free forgiveness of every sin, without God demanding or expecting anything from the one so forgiven – is a principle so opposed to all man’s thoughts and ways, so far above man, that he dislikes it. His own heart often secretly calls it injustice. He does not deal in this way and he does not like to think of God doing so - J.N. Darby

God wants us to be totally dependent on Him, and suffering seems to bring us to that point - Joyce Meyer

Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done - C. S. Lewis

Our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered - Oswald Chambers

Before we can learn the sufficiency of God’s grace, we must learn the insufficiency of ourselves

-Jerry Bridges

You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we think - Brother Lawrence

The Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher of prayer. Lord, teach us to pray - Unknown

Scriptures for Tithing

Genesis 14:20 

And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Genesis 28:20-22

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear

21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God

22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Exodus 23:19 

“Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. ¶“Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

Exodus 34:26 

“Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.”

Leviticus 27:30 

“‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

Numbers 18:26 

“Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the LORD's offering.

Deuteronomy 14:22-23

22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.

23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.