Toward Better Worship on Sunday...

Recently, I wrote (make no mistake...a rebuke) about the wrong emphasis on attractional ministries in the church and the shameful lack of sound doctrine being proclaimed...an incessant fear of offending and a desire to be "liked" by those facing a Christless eternity. I poked fun at our remarkable budgets that reflect the import of high attraction based worship services (smoke machines, dance, puppets, sand artists, basket weaving, set design, production based services...you know the drill...I know the drill).

Recently, I received some feedback as to the tone of my challenge and I would like to address that here, for all. I believe that we are called to rebuke the church if there is error and I do believe, in many cases, we have made a mockery of worship. And if that's the case, we should all be ticked about it.

“He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”
(Titus 1:9 ESV).

Because worship must be theologically informed and Biblically robust, wrong concepts in worship are insidious and contrary to sound doctrine and should be rebuked by leaders. If you lead, you better get used to the call to rebuke the church. Its often the loving thing to do. The word for rebuke carries the force of "setting a value upon; to assess a penalty; to allege as a crimination; hence, to reprove, chide, censure, rebuke, reprimand, Matt 19:13; Luke 23:40; in N.T. to admonish strongly, enjoin strictly, Matt 12:16; Luke 17:3." Let us not shrink back at this gracious ministry of correction that God gives His church through leaders."

So, why the rebuke with regards to public worship?

First, worship needs to be defined before we can critique our forms. Because the entire Word of God is a call to worship God with our entire life, numerous texts could be chosen, but for the purpose of this blog, I'm going to use Romans 11:36-12:1. In this text, Paul has reached a climatic point in his exposition of the gospel and now, with simple clarity gives us the purpose for which we have been saved: to worship Jesus with our lives!

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
(Romans 11:36-12:1 ESV)

Three foundational principles are found in this text that will help us to define worship. (1) Jesus is the object of our worship. Anything else is idolatry. Everyone worships something. Worship means ascribing absolute worth, assigning absolute, universal, and preeminent value... "for from him (Jesus) and through him (Jesus) and to him (Jesus) are all things (nothing has value apart from Jesus, nothing takes priority over, has glory over....) to him (Jesus, and Jesus only) be glory forever. You worship whatever you ascribe worth to. You worship that which you think is of supreme value. For some, it’s the family. For others, it’s work, play, sex, ministry (all forms of idolatry). JESUS alone is to be the one that we place supreme value, glory, honor, adoration, and praise.

(2) The second point is that true worship is an act of "presenting" yourself. The word for present is the word paristemi, and it carries the force of presenting yourself into one’s presence, offer, yield, dedicate; provide, send; prove (Ac 24:13); intrans. (pf., plpf., 2 aor. act.; all midd.) stand by, be present, stand; come; stand before; stand together (Ac 4:26). Worship means coming and staying in the presence of what we love, adore, ascribe supreme worth to...worship means that we stand before God, both gathered (as in corporate settings) and scattered (as a lifestyle).

(3) The third is that worship is about sacrificing...we present ourselves to the object of our worship (that which we ascribe absolute) value to...and we sacrifice our life...time, money, resources, gifts...

So here's the bottom line. We come together and we humbly bow in the presence of the Trinitarian God, praising and ascribing worth to Jesus. We receive the joy of His life giving presence and we rejoice...and sacrifice. This is a way of life...we do it when we shop, or when we mow the grass, run, gather around the supper table, converse, drink Starbucks coffee... and we do it when we come together on Sunday. Worship is our center of gravity...our worldview that Jesus is everything. Worship guides our life, leads us in the use of resources, transforms us and makes us like Jesus. In short, worshipping Jesus is life lived in His presence for His glory and our joy. Everything else is idolatry.

(So back to my rant on some issues that face an attractionally based worship service)

To begin with, thinking of worship as something that has a foundational purpose of "attracting" the lost is misguided at best (and I have failed here many times...) and at worse, a form of idolatry. If we are constructing "shows" so that on any given Sunday, unregenerate, lost people will "be attracted", how can we call that worship?

I submit that expressions of life lived out in the presence of God, by definition cannot have the lost as the focus. So any decision on how to worship should begin and end on Jesus, his glory, and those who adore Him with their life. If we are sitting around a table with worship teams and the question is "what will our lost culture like and enjoy?" aren't we starting at the wrong place?

Additionally, forms or expressions of worship should be a response to being in His presence and receiving revelation from God... "Worship" (really expressions) should follow receiving God, His revelation. With that in mind, shouldn't our expressions of worship follow God revealing Himself to us in His Word by means of the Holy Spirit? This is the pattern in His Word...People draw near to the object of their worship, Jesus. God reveals Himself to them...and the result is they are overjoyed...and sing, dance, rejoice, praise, adore....

In our own community, we are making a shift in this regard. Expressions of corporate worship follow the exposition of the revelation of almighty God (His word by His Spirit).

And this brings me to the final point of that very aggressive blog. Preaching/teaching the Word is to be PREEMINENT in the corporate worship setting. Expressions of worship are secondary! Read here that Preachers/Teachers should preach for A LONG TIME....without apology or a sense that they need to entertain, attract. Good and faithful preaching is the center.

This should be reflected in the time allocated, resources allocated (preaching is free), space allocated....PREACHING/TEACHING the Word is PREEMINENT (see the next blog) in the corporate worship setting. This isn't about gifts and who has the most time in front of people. It has everything to do with our gathered worship times done in the right way.

So here are some closing thoughts...

1. Everything comes back to Jesus. You can't say His name enough, lift up His gospel enough, praise His eternal glories enough...

2. Plan a service for those who worship Jesus...the very term "worship" demands this...seeker aware is missional and very appropriate...but you plan your services for those who worship Jesus. You do not plan your service for idolaters. Aaron might have led the very first seeker sensitve service. How do you like molten hot gold with your scone?

3. God doesn't need help in being attractive. John 6:44 makes it clear that God attracts. We worship.

4. Preach the Word well and long....preferably first. 1 Timothy 5:17 indicate that this is central and it should be reflected across the board.

5. Avoid narrative preaching on Sunday. Preach the text expositionally, disciplining yourself to stay tethered to the grammatical-historical exegetical process. There are problems with narrative preaching. The loud siren song to tell stories in narrative preaching often indicates a subtle move away from propositional truth in favor of relativism, as if transformation were possible without information. You cannot teach someone how to employ a M50 machine gun without some facts and propositions. You cannot teach surgery, history, anything without some facts. Our faith as revealed by God (through words and propositional statements no less) and is rooted in facts that we must learn and love. Propositional truth informs us of our fallen state, the infinate glories of Jesus, of His penal substitution, our need to repent....propositional truth keeps us from error. We need it and we can't get there with a clever story. THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US TO TEACH BY TELLING STORIES...JUST DON'T MAKE THAT YOUR MANNA ON SUNDAY.

6. Stop spending so much money on your forms or expressions of worship. You need to be heard so get a good sound system. You need make it available so find away to put it online. You need instruments. Fine. You need printed words somewhere so people can participate. Fine. But our Sunday budgets should reflect an overall budget process that places a clear and highest value on elevating Jesus in worship and living sent and on mission (what the church lives out incarnationally as it scatters)...worship should cost very little in terms of cash and a great deal in terms of heart.

“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
(2Timothy 4:2 ESV)

In the grip of His grace and always seeking understanding by His Word and Spirit...

J

Love, Lead, Protect Your Daughters...

I was talking to a friend recently who has been blessed with a brood of kids, both girls and boys. He said “I don’t know what to do with little girls…I’m not one, so I leave most of that to mommy.”

That floored me. After all, we relate to woman everyday and we do it not because we are women (as if being of the same kind of something was the only way to relate), but because it’s appropriate and expected that we would relate to women in ways that are appropriate to that relationship. We don’t hide from them because we are not the same sex. This would cause lots of problems…. and apparently, with this guy’s wife popping out kids about every year, he’s broken the code with regards to his own wife.

We hang out with kids even though we are not children. Because is ways that are biblically appropriate, its expected. And we learn how to relate. We have supper with the elderly; we don’t pass that on to someone else because we aren’t retired yet. We do it because it’s expected of us…by God and it’s a blast. He expects us to do it…to discover ways to relate. We don’t turn over that gift and responsibility to someone else. We do it because it’s the right thing to do.

We relate to co-workers, to neighbors, to people of various vocations, sex, background, and economic backgrounds. Sameness is not required for relationship. Side note: Churches that place a heavy emphasis on sameness are in danger of becoming the next David Koresh compound.

What I think my friend meant was “its easier to relate to my boys.” And by that, he means, “we like the same stuff…and so I don’t have to do stuff I don’t like.” And “We think the same, so I don’t have to concentrate on them all the time…I can pretty much stay focused on me.” Or “I like things that go fast and shooting guns but I don’t like talking.” Yep, if being a self-serving, lazy slouch is the way to go, than this reasoning might be on target! But I don’t think that’s God’s design.

Isn’t it amazing that God’s first community was based on complementary beings, not sameness? There is something richer, something deeper and more satisfying when we learn about others, what they like, what they need and then, in love we serve them. This is what it means, at least in part to be fashioned in the image of God, male and female.

My friend and I talked and after removing my boot from his fourth point of contact (see parachutist landing fall), here’s where the Lord took us and I hope it serves you.

Ephesians 5 gives us some parameters on how being a man works…in this text with wives. But there are general principles that need to be modeled, taught, communicated, and lived out in appropriate ways with all the women in your life…particularly your daughters.

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. (Ephesians 5:22-28 ESV)

For today, let’s work through two universal principles that can be found here about raising healthy, godly daughters.

First, the phrase “love your wives,” taken in conjunction with the illustration of Christ, “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her “, give us our first principle to draw on. We are to flesh out relationships with our wives, daughters, and all women, which offer a “benevolent responsibility”. That is we sacrifice (responsibility) for their good (benevolent). John Piper says that this way of being with our daughters “rules out all self-aggrandizing authoritarianism. It is meant to rule out all disdaining condescension and any act that makes women feel patronized rather than honored and prized.”

Do how do you do that with your daughters? How do you sacrifice in ways that are for their greatest good and development? Here are a few….

1. Daughters need you to pay attention. A Daughter hungers for healthy involvement and attention from Dad (even if she doesn't always show it). So act in a benevolent way and give it up! Talk to her about her life, her day, her joys, and her disappointments. Pray with her over things that she needs to see you care enough to take to the throne!

2. Daughters want to feel that Dad is proud of her and that he loves and understands her. If you are going to get the “benevolent responsibility” job done, you are going to have to look her in the eyes and in very specific ways TELL HER of what you are proud of…what honors God, what gifts that He has given her that you can clearly see and are very blessed by, brag (godly bragging) about her publicly to others and in front of her….

3. Give her a hand-written note or personal email -- in your own words -- telling her how proud you are of her, what you admire about her, how much you enjoy your time together, etc. This is a good way to show benevolent responsibility toward her.

4. Shut your pie hole and listen! My girls talk about 1000 words a minute and they need to get it all out…so have a seat, grab a cup of coffee and listen up.

The second principle in this text is that you lead! The word here for “head” is the word kephele (transliterated from the Greek). It carries several meanings, but for now we are going to stick with one. It means, “to have the lead.” Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (if you have not read this book, run don’t walk and start plowing your way through…it will strengthen your resolve to being all that God ahs called you to be as a man or a woman) spells out several items that help us understand what leadership is and how we as Fathers carry that out…. here’s some that I think are absolutely essential as they relate to our daughters.

1. Good God honoring leadership with our daughters does not express itself in a demand to be served, but in the strength to serve and to sacrifice for the good of your daughter. Develop her love for Jesus. Lead her in prayer. Lead her in ways that empower her to follow her King.
2. Good God honoring leadership does not presume superiority, but mobilizes the strengths of your daughter. In other words, don’t lord it over, but use your position to lead to being all that God desires her to be.
3. Good God honoring leadership does not have to initiate every action, but initiative in the relationship should be the pattern. Seek your daughter out. Take the initiative in cultivating the relationship (don’t wait for her to ask), talks, walks, and just finding creative ways to cherish her…
4. Good God honoring leadership takes the initiative in disciplining when it’s necessary.
5. Good God honoring leadership recognizes that we are called to repentance and humility; our service is unto Jesus the King. This requires constant brokenness before the One we serve.

Men, if you don’t lead your daughters through benevolent leadership, someone else will! Man-Up and honor the Lord in all your relationships.

Welcome to First Glance! This site is a review for Christian products, books, ministries, websites, magazines, and ministry helps. We hope this helps you in your quest for Kingdom impact.

Let's get started! This first review is a book review and it's worth the few bucks you will pay for it.

Title: God's Big Picture
Author: Vaughn Roberts
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Intervarsity Press
ISBN#: 9780830853649

Availability: Usually Ships the Same Business Day








Description: Sixty-six books written by forty people over nearly 2,000 years, in two languages and several different genres. A worldwide bestseller published in countless sizes and bindings, translations and languages. Sworn by in court, fought over by religious people, quoted in arguments.

The Bible is clearly no ordinary book.

How can you begin to read and understand it as a whole?

This is great read and provides a panoramic overview of a Gospel centered Biblical Theology throughout the Word of God. In this excellent overview, Vaughan Roberts gives you the big picture--showing how the different parts of the Bible fit together under the theme of the kingdom of God. He provides both the encouragement and the tools to help you read the Bible with confidence and understanding. And he points you to the Bible's supreme subject, Jesus Christ, and the salvation God offers through him.

Highligts

• A Bible overview
• Offers the big picture of what the Bible says
• Shows how the different parts of the Bible fit together under the theme of the kingdom of God
• Points to the Bible's supreme subject, Jesus Christ
• Encouraging
• Helps you read the Bible with confidence and understanding
• Includes Bible studies at the end of most chapters or major sections
• God's Big Picture: Tracing the Story-line of the Bible
  

This book is a must read for everyone, pastors, followers, Kingdom builders, or those wanting to know what God's Word communicates!

Anger: It's What's for Supper

A few months back, I scored some free passes to Disney. For a guy on a church planter's salary, that's a big deal (Kudos to my good friend, another church planter putting bread on the table by driving buses at Disney). I took my twin boys and we had a blast. Mind you, it was a monsoon...and cold. This is rare in Florida, but we get a few days that make us appreciate the other 360 perfect ones. We were not deterred by the rain and cold. We were committed. We had already crossed the line of departure and the gates of hell would not prevail. We prayed it up and had a blast...soaking wet, laughing, giggling, running through puddles, hitting the rides, IT WAS THE STUFF THAT WOULD MAKE A FORMER MARINE PROUD. We even enjoyed the Little Mermaid show...because we smuggled in some chow and warmed up, covertly making fun of every song. The stuff memories are made of...


As we exited the show, we couldn't help but notice one of the saddest scenes I've ever witnessed. A father had his seven year old corned and standing over him, way over him like a towering bully, and publicly shamed him for expressing his discomfort and obvious lack of zeal over the rain (note to dads...seven year old express their discomfort in a lot of ways...crying, complaining, throwing a fit, whatever). Not that training to overcome isn't important. It is. My point is how the Father was going about it. He called him a baby with at least a million boys watching. He told him to "stop crying and acting like a baby." He made him feel stupid and used his role as Dad to humiliate his son rather than lovingly and gently train him. Make no mistake, there was anger in the Father's eyes but something much more heartbreaking in the son's: despair and a broken spirit that will inevitably give way to anger over time.

This pattern, left alone, destroys a healthy transition to manhood and will ultimately leave your child filled with rage.

Here's what the Word of God says about this: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
(Ephesians 6:4 ESV)

The Greek word in the original text is parorgizete and it means "to make angry", "make resentful... to cause someone to become provoked or quite angry". Dad's, you can't serve anger to your kids. They need to be nurtured in the Word, both in actions and in the clear teaching of scripture.

Here are some things to be on the look out for...

1. You can serve up a plate of anger when... you fail to demonstrate biblical love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). Serving up anger looks like...

• Impatience: Expectations that are beyond your child's capability...(cf. 1 Cor13:4; Gal 5:22; Ephes 4:1-2; Col 1:9-12, 3:12)
• Unkindness: withholding something your child needs because your are to preoccupied with yourself (cf. 1 Cor 13:4; Gal 5:22, Eph 4:32; Phil 2:3-4; 2 Tim 2:24; Titus 2:4-5)
• C. Bragging: "When I was your age, I never cried." (cf. Prov 27:2; Rom 1:30; 1 Cor 13:4; 2 Cor 10:18)
• Unbecoming actions: like towering over your child and publicly disgracing him/her......the Disney example (cf. 1 Cor 13:5; Eph 4:29)

You can serve up a plate of anger when you don't look like Jesus! (1 Tim 4:12)

• Speaking to your child in an unwholesome manner : Like name calling or any other from of abuse...(cf. Eph 4:29; Col 4:6).
• Comparing your child to others to show him the ways in which he does not measure up to your standards and making him feel like a failure (cf. 2 Cor 10:12, 17-18)
• Being a fake or a liar...(cf. Matt 5:37; Eph 4:15, 25; Col 3:9)
• No training in the Word God or discipline...(Prov 13:24, Heb 12:5-7)
• Lacking transparency: failing to own your failures (1 John 1:9)

Nurturing your child by serving the Word and demonstrating Christ "in you" can be done by...

• Spending time in the Word with them daily, praying, and teaching in a way consistent with scripture (Dt 6:6-7)
• Listening, taking the time to hear them...(1 Cor 13:4-5; Phil 2:3-4; James 1:19)

Men, we need to work diligently to train our children by serving them the gospel in our actions and our words and by the power of the gospel in our own lives stop serving up anger!

Love, its what's for supper!

Church Talk

Have we lost, completely lost what it means to be a man in our church culture? I'm going to be real honest...I am a church planter, and the next church planter I meet with ripped jeans (jeans he paid a hearty price for...not ripped because he actually put in a day's worth of hard labor) and spiked, fluffed, colored, and streaked hair...silver bracelets (what the hell?), a fairly flabby chin, a whiney voice, and birth control glasses...I think I am going to puke.

It’s a sign of the time when it's in vogue to talk bad about your country too (Shawn Claiborne, this bud’s for you). And frankly, I'm sick of it and I think it’s a sin. I've tried to see it their way and I think its wrong. Shut up! It should be a law that unless you have time in a uniform...you keep your trap shut as far as our war fighters go and stick to hair coloring or leave the USA and join the French in their desire to turn men into women. You'll fit right it.

In churches and in ministry, we seem driven to spend everything in every resource category to offer a ministry form that is properly dressed up (after carefully "exegeting" our culture) and we are pathetically malnourished in the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After the very profitable show "Extreme Home Makeover", many churches are forming ministries to save the whales...and in the meantime receive/give a salary for 70,000 plus for putting on a light show complete with puppets, sand artists (whatever that is), smoke machines (by the way if you are reading this blog and you have a smoke machine in your church.... leave your church...), creative dance, animal tricks, basket weaving, and a really cool interactive platform set design...(you know what I am talking about...a freaking set where you hire and spend money on set designers...or have Christ followers build the set and pass it off as gospel ministry).

I’m all for helping the poor…and being Jesus in the culture but the way I read it, it should cost the leaders something. Maybe Jesus is looking for the kind of justice that takes it where it hurts. Turn down your salary (or at least take a pay cut), go to work, and use it to feed the homeless. Buy one less overhead or digital camera, one less projector, one less sand show, one less guitarist and use your sacrifice as an offering to those who need it. Downsize your building by “sending out” a large chunk of your congregation to plant new missionally robust churches. Maybe we should lead by example and stop bilking the congregation for the dog and pony and put their financial sacrifice to good, gospel centered purposes.

In the meantime, we are gabbing about a lot of “cultural exegesis” stuff without doing what Jesus called us to do: Preach the gospel and live it out. Typically, the conversations center around…"What's better, church on wheels or the nomadic church? Simple organic church or organic seeker friendly? Institutional church or house church?" I feel like the Saturday night skit... Clothes or naked church? I think we've stretched and pulled Acts 17 (Paul’s talk on reaching his culture) beyond recognition with an over the top, church led cultural policy that is centered on accommodation. The emperor has no clothes....period. Jesus and the gospel are relevant because they are true. People are not lured into faith in the gospel or even on giving it a hearing. They are called by God (John 6:44).

I can’t imagine Jesus getting together with his planters and talking about organic vs. institutional or a long term capital campaign for hiring a production specialist and pastor of the dog and pony show. Paul’s pretty clear on who gets paid: Preachers who preach the gospel well!
Lets focus on this…

1. Walk with Jesus and love Him more than these! Our role from the garden to this very day is to walk in His new creation blessing by the power of the Holy Spirit, worshiping and loving Him with every breath, thought, action, motive, or deed.

2. Learn about the one you love. The word of God is the gospel from Gen 3 forward. Own your dependency on Christ and the redemptive power of a relationship with the King of Kings. You’re going to have to renew your thinking every day. So read, study, think, meditate, and grow rich in God’s Word.

3. Focus your life and all the things God has given you for His glory (time, resources, money, family, house, hearth, job) on honoring and worshiping Him!

4. Pray without ceasing…beginning with praise, thanksgiving.

5. Keep your affections where they need to be (Ps. 73).

6. Live sent: own the fact that you have been sent to your culture (work, home, neighborhood, city, town) and you are to present Jesus to them, every day and in every way!

7. Live incarnationally! Sacrifice for others both inside the church and outside.

8. Teach the Word, disciple and mentor others in the faith…both as the church gathers and is scattered.

If we could get this right, it seems the steady decline of the church in America might just turn around!

Stay tuned…for Biblical Theology for the common man.

I'll Drink to That

"Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer",
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1975

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.",
Dave Barry

Last week, one of my friends asked me a fairly common question "How can you be a pastor and drink beer?" Here's my response: "How can you be a pastor and not drink beer?" I should add, "...and smoke great cigars?" (more on that later)

The problem is a fundamental misunderstanding on two fronts: (1) The Biblical Testimony that mitigates against a policy of abstinence, and (2) History.

The Biblical Testimony

Psalm 104:14-15 "He God makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate-bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man . . ."

John 2:1-11 is clear that Jesus first miracle was performing over 100 gallons of wine at a wedding party

Matthew 11:19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."

Hosea 2:8 "She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold-which they used for Baal." (this kind of rules out a policy of abstaining on the basis of how others might stumble)

1 Timothy 4:1-5 "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."


Wine is spoken of as both good and bad in the same verses (1 Samuel 1:14, 24; 25:18, 37; Joel 1:5,10).

Apart from good feasting alcohol in Scripture is rightly used for communion (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18), medicinal purposes (Proverbs 31:6; 1 Timothy 5:23), and Old Testament worship (Numbers 28:14).

Proverbs 3:9-10 "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."

Ecclesiastes 9:7 "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart."

Psalm 104:14-15 "He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate-bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart."

Deuteronomy 14:26 "Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice."

The Ridiculous View: "Wine is Unfermented Grape Juice"

Charles Haddon Spurgeon had this to say...and its hard to improve on it....

‘UNFERMENTED wine’ is a non-existent liquid. Mr. Wilson has so fully proved this that it will require considerable hardihood to attempt a reply. The best of it is that he is a teetotalert of more than thirty years’ standing, and has reluctantly been driven ‘to conclude that, so far as the wines of the ancients are concerned, unfermented wine is a myth.’ While total abstainers are content to make no assault upon the cup used at the Lord’s table, they work harmoniously with all who seek the welfare of their fellow men; but when they commence warfare upon that point they usually become more factious than useful: everything is then made subordinate to their one idea, and the peace of the church is disregarded. It is well, therefore, that one of themselves should protest against carrying a principle to extremes, and best of all that he should do so by showing that the theories which have been advanced are utterly untenable. We wish the utmost success to the abstinence cause, and, therefore, trust that there will be no pressing of the question of unfermented wine at the Communion, for it will not promote the cause, and will create much heartburning, and, worst of all, it will be contrary to the Divine precedent. The question is not necessary to the temperance movement, and we wish it had never been raised. Mr. Wilson has written the thick volume now before us to settle the matter, and we believe that he establishes beyond reasonable debate that the wines of the Bible were intoxicating, and that our Lord did not ordain jelly or syrup, or cherry juice to be the emblem of his sacrifice.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon The Sword and the Trowel, 1877, p. 437

The argument that terms for wine in the Bible are "unfermented" or "new" or "diluted" wine does not stand up to exegetical scrutiny. new wine can still intoxicate according to Scripture (Isaiah 24:7; Hosea 4:11; Joel 1:5), and mixed wine refers to special wines where various wines are mixed together and/or mixed with spices and does not refer to wine cut with water (Psalm 75:8; Song of Songs 8:2). God refers to pouring out the wine of His mixed wine on His enemies which does not mean He will dilute justice (Psalm 75:8). The only time such a practice is mentioned in the Bible is in regards to merchants who cut wine with to rob customers (Isaiah 1:22).

Numbers 6:3 makes it abundantly clear that there is a word for grape juice and a word for wine used by the biblical authors. If God wanted to clarify the distinction, certainly He would have clarified it just like He did in Numbers .

Additionally, the same word for wine (yyn, yayin) is used in a both good and bad sense in the same verses (1 Samuel 1:14, 24; 25:18, 37; Joel 1:5,10). Given the "unfermented" theory, the only exegetical tool the interpreter has in his belt is conjecture and his own arbitrary choices. This does great violence to the text. The word is the same...and carries the same force in every case: fermented alcoholic beverage. What makes it good is the responsible use. What makes it bad is the irresponsible use.

Further more, Jesus was accused of being a drunkard. Would that accusation be made if Jesus was drinking Welch’s? And he said...I came DRINKING! This would have been a good time to set a policy of abstinence if that is what He meant. Furthermore, he contrasts himself with John the Baptist who did abstain...(he had taken a vow to abstain). Jesus' point is not that he was like John the Baptist or agreed to abstain. Rather, it was precisely the point of their difference that Jesus is making: "He abstained and I don't and you all rejected us both!" Jesus drank fermented wine and it ticked off all the religious self-righteous folks in town. There is no sense in which Jesus was concerned about it either. So much for the policy of abstinence for the sake of the "weaker brother" in this case.

Matt. 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”

Luke 7:33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ 35 But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

Historically, God’s people have loved good beer and wine for a long time...Luther’s wife Catherine was a skilled brewer and his love letters to her when they were apart lamented his inability to drink her beer. When the Puritan’s landed on Plymouth Rock the first permanent building they erected was the brewery. Under those conditions, I bet folks spent a lot of time gathered around a cold one.

So where did it all go wrong? As feminism grew in America during the turn of the 20th century the women’s suffrage and prohibition movements were the practical results of a feminine piety that came to also dominate the church as more women became pastors and the church became more feminine. The most important temperance society for women was the WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, an American movement whose Canadian counterpart was founded 1874 by Letitia YOUMANS of Picton, Ont, as one of the few organizations through which women could play a political role. In 1875 the hundreds of societies, lodges and church groups committed to prohibition convened at Montréal to form a federation named the Dominion Prohibitory Council. Renamed in 1876 the Dominion Alliance for the Total Suppression of the Liquor Traffic, it became the major organizing force for prohibition campaigns.

Most of those leading the charge took a hard stance in spite of the biblical testimony. They went as far as condemn all alcohol as a sin and this gave birth to the "wine as grape juice" theory. It also went a long way to ruin a good thing. A great deal of our early American Breweries lost their talent and instead of serving a hardy, dark, rich, flavorful beer...we're getting a softer, gentle beer.... THIS MIGHT BE A SIN IN AND OF ITSELF.

No doubt, drunkenness is a sin...but loving a good beer as a gift from the Lord, redeemed for His glory and our enjoyment is a sign of spiritual maturity.... I'll drink to that!

AMEN!!