Drugs and
Alcohol
Drugs and alcohol is a major problem
within society today. It is also a problem that many people do not recognize or
are willing to realize. Sure it's in the cities and the back alleys where most
people wouldn't want to be. But it is in the high schools and middle schools of
rural America as well. We close our eyes to it often because we don't want to
believe that it is in our backyards.
By high school alcohol is such a
problem that the statistics are almost laughable. I participated in D.A.R.E. a
program designed to bring police officers into elementary schools to teach them
about drugs. As a high school senior I was among the top of my class and was
joined by seven others from my Advanced Placement Government class to talk to
the children one day.
Of course the question came up as
to whether we had used any drugs or alcohol. A couple of my peers told the truth
and admitted to drinking before. A couple more wouldn't admit to it. As I talked
to them afterward I found that only half of our delegation of eight hadn't used
drugs or alcohol before. This is among the top students in my graduating class
and fully half had drank and some did other things less legal I'm pretty sure.
I write this as a wake up call to
parents and everyone else concerned. Don't think that your child, or niece, or
grandson is too good to get involved in such affairs. Drugs and alcohol are out
there and are easy to get. There are people out there that prey on teenagers and
will get them addicted to any substance they can as long as they can make money
from them.
We all know the consequences of
drugs and alcohol. We know how they hurt our bodies. We know that alcohol has
destroyed many families and many marriages. We know statistics like the fact
that 50% of all rapes involve alcohol.
We know all these things, and
teach our children this and still we have these problems. We can't scare our
children with these statistics because they fall on deaf ears when set against
peer pressure. But there is hope. There is something we can do that can defeat
this problem if we would just do it.
We can pray. Pray for your
children, your nieces, your grandchildren, the kids at your church, and the ones
in your neighborhood. Pray and teach them from God's Word about drugs and
alcohol. And pray once again that His word would remain in their hearts better
than all consequences of these things and scare tactics.
And what does God's word day? I
Corinthians 6:12 says, "'Everything is permissible for me'- but not
everything is beneficial." Paul goes on to say in verses 19-20, "Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body." Even harsher words came before in a
very similar wording. I Cor. 3:16-17 says, "Don't you know that you
yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you? If anyone
destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you
are that temple."
The verses in chapter six concern
God's view of sexual immorality but apply to drugs and alcohol as well. The
verses in chapter three are simply followed by a condemnation of earthly wisdom.
God has harsh words for those who destroy their body, which drugs and alcohol
do. This is God's warning, not man's warning of what may happen to the body, but
God's of what happens to the soul.
While this isn't saying that
Christians who use drugs and alcohol are going to hell, there is certainly some
sort of judgment announced here.
What Christians should be more
wary of however, is that this kills their witness to others. While some
denominations will hold that it is okay to drink, I won't argue that here, it
still kills their witness in my opinion. The world has an opinion of Christians,
right or wrong, and to be doing these things in front of non-Christians may lead
them astray. We are to avoid the appearance of evil the Bible tells us, and if
non-Christians think that we are doing wrong, in their minds we are, and they
will think less of all Christians. This has happened numerous times before.
Therefore we must watch ourselves
and our witness to others concerning this area. We must teach others the truth
about it, directly from God's word. And we must pray. It is our only hope in
helping some people with this problem. It's our best hope to combat peer
pressure facing our teens today. And it is possibly our least used weapon in
this fight. Therefore pray, pray, pray.
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