Todays Homework

Last night I asked a question, and this question sent me on a mission to find the answer. The answer I thought would be simple, just words stated as fact, but I soon found out it wasn't just words, it had become my reality. I had to remind myself why I asked the question, there was a deeper question behind it, and with a deeper question, comes a deeper answer. As we read the words "do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery." Ephesians 5 :18 (niv) I was curious, what does debauchery mean, I wanted to know what getting drunk lead to. My mind went to many area's but for the sake of not embarrassing myself I won't say where, because I have seen to many times in other people what being drunk can lead to. I really wanted to know what one sin could possibly be lead to. So I leaned over and asked 2 people and neither of them knew. They too wanted to know. So I went home and began my mission. (or homework as one might put it) Debauchery means; to lead away from virtue or excellence, seduction or temptation from virtue or duty. In another version of the bible it says that it will ruin you. How can having a drink ruin you, or lead away from virtue or excellence, I was wondering. It's just a drink right, one little drink, or many I guess, it does say do not get drunk. I began to ponder this word, I found it fascinating and I had no idea why. I just wanted to know how doing one thing could lead us away from being excellent, it's just one thing. I soon began to realize that one thing always leads to another, we convince ourselves that one thing is not that big of a deal, but soon it leads to another. In our world we are told that certain things are just the way they are, and we find ourselves conforming to the world, while in reality we are being ruined, ruined of what God really has intended for us. We watch things around us that seem like no big deal because it's just the way it is, we don't even realize what is happening to us. We have become so desensitize to things, that we don't realize how wrong they are. There are so many things that lead us away from our excellence in Him. More than just getting drunk on to much wine; our anger, our gossip, our words, a little lie, our thoughts, our insecurities, our pride, our jealousy, and so much more can lead to debauchery. These things can steal our excellence, our virtue, our duty and our purpose. I'm asking again to be sensitive to the things that come in and steal my excellence, that are trying to steal my purpose. To be pure hearted again, not conforming to the world on what doesn't seem to be a "big deal", but to remind myself that anything that can ruin me, is a big deal. I've asked to many times, How did someone have it so right at one point in there life, and now they have it so wrong? How did they lose everything?How are they so lost? When did it happen? What did it? It's usually nothing big that happened, I can look back and see that it's something so little, that led to another thing, then to another. I'm not even speaking against drinking, it's not all about that, it's about being careful in what you let steal your purpose. It's about trying to be sensitive to what is leading you into debauchery, for all of us it is something different. I guess what I've realized is that we need to be aware and sensitive to what is trying to steal our excellence. I know that I personally want to be right before the eyes of the Lord, and not let the thief come in to steel, kill, and destroy, who I am in Christ.