Featured Pub Night Fellowship

To this I applaud you and say Amen brother, carry on your good work for the Lord. This is however different from the OP which was about Christian fellowship and having a good time in a bar verses a good time in a church pot luck.

 

I was saved at a young age, about age ten. Went undiscipled and led solely by the Holy Spirit, no bible knowledge. Maybe picked up a tid bit here and there from Sunday morning programs and from Sunday school when I was taken from time to time as a child. I had remember Jesus loves me and the ten commandments, that's about it.

I never drank alcohol, the Spirit just convicted me that it was not a good thing, so I abstained. Not because the church said no, or any Christian preacher teacher said no, I had no church, no preaching at me, just the Spirit leading me.

When I began drinking at age 23 it was a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, actually more like a war. I decided I was bored and all my buddies were having fun, so I was going to join them. I vividly remember that night I pulled into the bar parking lot, my friends were inside, the Spirit was prominent that night, shouting do not do this! I argued with God, said I was bored with my life, needed some excitement. He continued with His pleas to turn back. I pressed forward, demanding to have my way, I was not waiting for God any longer to bring some excitement into my life.

To make this long story short, ten years later, much sinning later, God had faded far into the back round of my life. I called on Him now and again when I needed something, but other than that I didn't include Him much in my life. Until one night things came to a head between my wife and I, all due to drinking, and I cried out to God for help, for Him to do something.

About a week went by and I had already forgotten my prayer and set my heart to divorce my wife, but things started to change and in a big way. My ten year old step son came home from a weekend visit with his dad and said his aunt had taken him to a play about Jesus and he got saved. He asked his mother if she would go and see it the next day and she agreed. She invited me but I refused, still bitter about us, and not even remembering what I had prayed for, thinking she needs to hear it and I don't. I know, arrogantly pointing the blame for everything on her.

My wife went, she came home, I said how was it, she said very good. At this point we were at the end of us and very little talking was going on. She had become an alcoholic and I was done with us. So I said no more.

This had happened on a Sunday and about a week goes by and strangely my wife had not went to the bar this week. She had been going every Friday night, all day and night Saturdays, and two or three nights through the week (I was going on the weekends also). It was Saturday and she did not go to the bar once this week. I went fishing Saturday with my brother and we cleaned up the fish to deep fry, so I called here up, after a week of very little communication I was softening up again so I invited her up for a fish fry and of course drinking. Yeah I know, to dumb to understand she could not just drink one or two, she always had to drink and drink and drink. But I was ignorant to what was really gong on.

This is when she decided to tell me about her experience with Jesus Christ and that she is not drinking anymore, she said Jesus took it from her and she has no desire to drink.

I'm leaving out a lot of details, and I didn't want this to get this long. The full detailed version is fascinating of how God laid out the ground work over a period of months in order to call me into His fellowship totally committed to Jesus and in service for Him.

So here is my point, when God called me to repent of my way of life and choose His way of life something happened within me. The Spirit convicted me of what I was to eliminate from my life. It wasn't a church, or a preacher telling me what to do. I hadn't even begun to study the scriptures at this point, nor been in a church, it was the morning after the night before when the Spirit came upon me. I got up that morning and began to clean house. No more alcohol, no more pornography (that is another testimony) , no more cussing, and no more what I call today "devil music". I use to be a DJ with another guy and had over $1500 dollars worth of music that I hauled to the trash can. These four things were clear to me and it wasn't any church or preacher telling me these things were ungodly, it was solely the Holy Spirit.

Only later did I come across Christian advocates for "Christian liberties" to consume alcohol. I have heard all of the arguments for drinking alcohol. The only one that I can possibly entertain is that if one truly wants to have a glass of wine during supper or after in the privacy of their homes then I have no problem. One beer in a bar with other Christians for the purpose of leading others to Christ, I can live with that, but I do not believe a bar is the place for Christian fellowship with no purpose. I have a buddy who goes to the bar with his fellow church board members, but they do not go there to witness Christ, they go there for the bar scene and the drink, this is very wrong in my opinion.

There is an element of discernment which should be allowed into this subject, some of which I already spoke of. But by and far we need to warn about the dangers of alcohol and should never promote its consumption haphazardly. I believe the where and when should be considered, and also believe our thoughts and intentions should be thoroughly vetted through prayer.

Blessings! :wavey:

 

Perhaps part of this discussion is due to differences in perception. When I read "pub night fellowship", I don't read "drinking in a bar." It seems that a lot of people obviously do.

I know of a weekly small group that meets for lunch in a local Irish pub. They go there to eat and to fellowship, and some may get a beer to drink. Shepherd's Pie is $11 and a Harp or Guinness is $7, so if you're lucky, you get out of there for $23 inlcuding tax and tip.