One word can say a thousand different things. God “sends forth His Word"…” And it “comes.” The time even comes for the word spoken to be fulfilled (as it was sent to do). Scripture says, “He spoke… and it came to be;” “He commanded, and it stood firm.” The Word cuts, it convicts, it sharpens, it enables, it’s alive, and it’s active.... To be quite honest, His Word just plain out does!!! It’s full of doing!!! He says "be" and it "be"s! And still today (as He did then) He sends forth His Word to do a thing, and His Word will not return to Him void. It will accomplish the thing that it was sent forth to do. It will achieve the purpose for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:22). My, those thoughts can be such an elaboration in themselves that their subject alone could be worked into a whole Blog all by themselves… But, today, that isn’t my intention. My today’s point is this, that He still speaks and I'm often blown away by what He says when it does.
He still speaks!
I so totally love how God’s Word speaks! It talks. It tells. It shows. It commands. It.... does! It's into doing!.... It works! It says what we need to hear. It convicts. It compels. It prompts. It empowers. It heals. It....____! It's endless!
Below you'll find the word spoken to me (from Eph 5:18), and then following their words, you will find how huge they spoke as they jumped off the page at me as I attempt to explain what I heard them saying on the day that I read them. The verse says,
He still speaks!
I so totally love how God’s Word speaks! It talks. It tells. It shows. It commands. It.... does! It's into doing!.... It works! It says what we need to hear. It convicts. It compels. It prompts. It empowers. It heals. It....____! It's endless!
Below you'll find the word spoken to me (from Eph 5:18), and then following their words, you will find how huge they spoke as they jumped off the page at me as I attempt to explain what I heard them saying on the day that I read them. The verse says,
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit."
(Eph 5:18)
Today’s space will be used to comment on only the first half of the verse… though the second vies for its own exaggerated elaboration and attention on another day. Woe at its richness! Perhaps on the morrow? Maybe the day after that? Who knows (but God!), I’ll probably be on a whole new word by then. :)
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.”
I love that! Now, may I beg your patience with me on the metaphor of what I heard when I read it? Forgive me in advance for taking liberty here and making a parallel, a modern day parable if you will. I know that I am taking this verse out of context ... but bare with me and come look to see how I saw these words when I read them because of something that I wrote earlier this year to a friend; and see if you can see the same thing that I did when finished. See if the way I saw it still speaks a convicting truth that stays and impacts a greater want to change in you, too, as it did me when I first heard it.
“Do not get drunk on wine.”
Drinking excessively to the point of drunkenness is obviously and blatantly said to be wrong. I suggest to you, though, that we can get "drunk" on more things than just wine. We can intoxicate ourselves and get “drunk” on a myriad of different things. And any drunkenness of any kind is wrong. Hang on a minute, and humor me until I get you to my point. First, here is a part of an email I wrote to a friend as we discussed the pity party that he found himself swimming in. At first it won't appear to have anything at all to do with our subject. Hang with me, though, and you'll see what I'm saying. It is what was used to propel my thinking to go in the direction it did. I wrote:
(Partial email to a friend) ".....I do understand. I can relate to what you're saying. Sometimes I find myself wallowing in my own pity party. Seldom do I allow myself to stay in it for very long though; for it makes me feel haggard and horrid, and I find that it's not worth its pain! We alone (each of us) decide how long we’ll stay there to swim. I wrote to a friend the other day ... here's what I said to her:
"I stopped for a cheeze-curl break (I never got lunch ... and I missed supper all together!) and I wondered how your day went??? I actually made myself stop long enough earlier to email Gena ... her daddy died 10 years ago on this very day, and life for her at the moment in the season where she finds herself is horrid. I thought about her a lot! Some thoughts laden with grief... hmmm, most thoughts really! Wonder what her thoughts were on a day like today as she remembered and mourned again the loss of her daddy? Wonder what her heart felt??? Wonder if she cried lots??? or cried a little??? or cried at all??? .... or cried a river inside without even once shedding a visualized tear? Wonder the gamut of where all her thoughts took her????? Wonder how many miles and years and minutes and tears she visited and cradled and nursed and pitied and swam and bathed in today? ... for one hurt (especially a massive hurt) has a tendency to go gather all of the other hurts and to have its own pain-filled pathetically pity-FULL party. It’s a time often spent getting drunk on its own "whine!"!!!!!! Haven't we all been guilty at times? Wonder where and how she spent her day? Wonder… who were the monsters that spooked from out of her closet in the midst of all of her grief?........"
"I stopped for a cheeze-curl break (I never got lunch ... and I missed supper all together!) and I wondered how your day went??? I actually made myself stop long enough earlier to email Gena ... her daddy died 10 years ago on this very day, and life for her at the moment in the season where she finds herself is horrid. I thought about her a lot! Some thoughts laden with grief... hmmm, most thoughts really! Wonder what her thoughts were on a day like today as she remembered and mourned again the loss of her daddy? Wonder what her heart felt??? Wonder if she cried lots??? or cried a little??? or cried at all??? .... or cried a river inside without even once shedding a visualized tear? Wonder the gamut of where all her thoughts took her????? Wonder how many miles and years and minutes and tears she visited and cradled and nursed and pitied and swam and bathed in today? ... for one hurt (especially a massive hurt) has a tendency to go gather all of the other hurts and to have its own pain-filled pathetically pity-FULL party. It’s a time often spent getting drunk on its own "whine!"!!!!!! Haven't we all been guilty at times? Wonder where and how she spent her day? Wonder… who were the monsters that spooked from out of her closet in the midst of all of her grief?........"
I didn't realize what I was going to say until it was said. But once spoken and given its voice it spoke LOUD and made a huge impact inside me!!! More on me, I think, than on her! (Perhaps then ... that is who it was meant for?)
Here is the phrase that floored me so: "It’s a time often spent getting drunk on its own "whine!"!!!!!"
I'm not referring to a remembered day of sadness, that's understandable. Nothing wrong in that. It's the general thought of our whining over a thing to the extent of drunkedness that floored me. For how often do we really drink and sup from our complaining cup long enough that we become drunk on our whine? This time NOT drunk on "wine" ... but drunk off of our own complaining wail? For sometimes we whine over a thing.... and whine over a thing... and whine over a thing........ a LOT!... and we get so caught up in our complaint over the thing that we find it almost impossible to stop!
I know that it is speaking of actual wine that you drink ..... but think about it, don't you think that our "whine" is just as intoxicating and mind altering and damaging and destructive sometimes as the wine that we drink is? It, too, can be a “brawler,” and quickly lead us “astray.”
The NAS words it this way:
"Wine is a mocker,
strong drink a brawler,
And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise."
The Message says:
"Wine makes you mean,
beer makes you quarrelsome
-- a staggering drunk is not much fun."
"A staggering drunk in not much fun!" No! It's not! And a whiner isn't either!
"Wine makes you mean!" And so sometimes does our "whine!" Have you ever been guilty? Has your whine made you mean? Do you ever become mean because of your whine?
"Beer makes you quarrelsome!" Isn't a complainer quarrelsome, too? When we whine to the point that we become drunk in its stupor, we’re ferociously quarrelsome to everyone around us. Especially if they point out to us our uncontrolled state, we’ll act an idiot in our argument.
“Wine [whine?] is a mocker.” The word "mocker" means: to scorn, to mock, to boast, to be inflated. Whiners scorn. Whiners mock. Whiners boasts. Whiners' egos are inflated!
Ephesians 2:1-5 tells us that we used to be "by nature objects of wrath." The definition of this word wrath used in this verse can sound a lot like our w(h)ine that makes us mean, and the beer that makes us quarrelsome. It's defined as the fermented (shaking, discomposing, vibrating) juices inside that intoxicates to the point of fury that wants to stir up or arouse public feelings and that blows or shocks or upsets the equilibrium and disturbs the balance of things... destroying the composure and disturbing the order of things because of a loss of self-control through emotional stress. It disquiets, disturbs, perturbs, agitates, upsets, and flusters. How’s that for a look at our w(h)ine in our wrath? And after such a definition we must have to wonder what the attraction is to either w(h)ine!
Let me give you an example here of what the whiner’s goal is to do. A w(h)iner is not happy shaking up in distress alone. Remember pity always wants a party so plans for one! I had someone call me just the other day, filled with a fury and she was spewing her spill. Whining! And might I add, enraged in her whine! She was in a total drunken stupor! Mean! Quarrelsome! Mocking! And very un-wise! The thing about it was, the more that she fumed, the hotter and madder she got, but I wasn’t falling for her ploy and falling into the pit of fury with her. She went on and on and fumed for at least 30 minutes. But, when she failed to ever reel me into falling into it with her, she threw a curve ball and came at me with another tactic… She turned it around so as to stab me in another place, because if that first one won’t work, they'll try another. So. Here's what she did. She said to me, “Well, let me tell you what she said about your son…….” Woe! Know what I mean? Her juices were agitated and furious, but she could not find happiness in her state alone, so she did whatever she could to invite me in… she was bound and determined that I was going to swim! The intoxicated state of the w(h)iner… wants company to w(h)ine with them! A w(h)iner wants you upset with him. A w(h)iner wants to shake you up with them. A w(h)iner wants to shake others in their agitated state so that they can become shaken and thus drunken with them!
Let me give you an example here of what the whiner’s goal is to do. A w(h)iner is not happy shaking up in distress alone. Remember pity always wants a party so plans for one! I had someone call me just the other day, filled with a fury and she was spewing her spill. Whining! And might I add, enraged in her whine! She was in a total drunken stupor! Mean! Quarrelsome! Mocking! And very un-wise! The thing about it was, the more that she fumed, the hotter and madder she got, but I wasn’t falling for her ploy and falling into the pit of fury with her. She went on and on and fumed for at least 30 minutes. But, when she failed to ever reel me into falling into it with her, she threw a curve ball and came at me with another tactic… She turned it around so as to stab me in another place, because if that first one won’t work, they'll try another. So. Here's what she did. She said to me, “Well, let me tell you what she said about your son…….” Woe! Know what I mean? Her juices were agitated and furious, but she could not find happiness in her state alone, so she did whatever she could to invite me in… she was bound and determined that I was going to swim! The intoxicated state of the w(h)iner… wants company to w(h)ine with them! A w(h)iner wants you upset with him. A w(h)iner wants to shake you up with them. A w(h)iner wants to shake others in their agitated state so that they can become shaken and thus drunken with them!
Wine / strong drink / beer are all an intoxicating drink; “and whoever is intoxicated by it IS NOT wise.”!!!
"Intoxicating" is derived from two words...
the first being:
"Intoxicating" is derived from two words...
the first being:
- in
- POISON (!!!),
- to excite or stupefy by alcohol or a drug especially to the point where physical and mental control is markedly diminished.
- It is an IN-testinal IN-toxication
- IN-poison.
- Poison IN ~ that once poisoned loves to spill OUT!!
A “brawler,” means:
- to murmur,
- to growl,
- to roar,
- to cry aloud,
- to rage,
- to make noise,
- tumult,
- be clamorous,
- be disquieted,
- to be loud,
- be in an uproar,
- be in a commotion,
- to be boisterous,
- be turbulent.
Think about it! Could it not apply?????!!!!!!!! Could both wines (with the “h” or without it) fit the sentence and hold its own truth?
I said all of that to say, What is our problem? We're told not to complain. We're not to w(h)ine either! Nor be drunk in our w(h)ine! Thus, No "w(h)ining" allowed of any kind!!!
Next time we see that we’re beginning to whirl in our whine, stir in our stew, pity a party, moan our blues, whine about anything..... When our physical and mental control has been markedly diminished by some poison and we’re acting out from its stupor… - then let's get our eyes OFF of ourselves and refocus them on the One to Whom they should be on. Let’s q-u-i-t (or let’s q-u-i-e-t) our whining and begin to praise God instead and thank our Father for all that He's given!
Avoid all w(h)ine. Stop it the second you hear yourself getting started.... because just one sip often quickly leads to another, then another, then another…… and you find yourself drunk on your w(h)ine before you even felt the intoxication coming on you and taking you over! We're told to be “filled with the Spirit.” Let's leave all other w(h)ines alone!
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