For those who do not yet understand that Satan is effectively advancing his agenda with the alarming use of dangerous drugs, you need to wake up to what is happening. Since 1999, the number of drug overdose deaths involving opioids in the U.S. has quadrupled, totaling over a half a million fatalities during that period. More and more crimes, deaths and shattered lives are directly or indirectly attributable to the abuse of alcohol and other drugs.
You probably know some drug addicts, and the chances are good there that there is one somewhere in your family. You may pass several in your daily travels and not even know it. When I was a prosecutor I saw clearly the correlation between drugs and crime. It is estimated that fully 80% of all crimes involve alcohol and other drugs. Thefts, home and commercial burglaries, assaults and homicides are very frequently drug-related, not to mention drunk driving and many other traffic and civil violations. Add to this the horrendous destruction to families, marriages, close friendships and other relationships of love and trust, and you see how Satan has gotten quite proficient with the flood of misery drug abuse is causing in our land.
What is so terrible about drugs? Well, for one thing their addictive nature makes slaves out of human beings—people created in the image of God who have surrendered control of their lives to a dangerous substance. They have lost control. Instead of making Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives, (Phil. 2:10-11), they have relinquished that crown to heroin or alcohol or crack cocaine. God has made us free moral agents. He has entrusted us with great liberty, and he expects us to use that freedom responsibly, not to surrender it to illicit opioids and other tools of Satan.
Another terrible thing about drug abuse is what it does to the temple of God, our body. “Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? And ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body,” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). We’re responsible for how we use our bodies. They are on a type of loan from God, and they are his in which to dwell. With our bodies we should let our light shine in this world, rather than being polluted and corrupted with controlled dangerous substances, to the glory of the devil.
And another reason drug abuse is so tragic is the pain and misery it causes to our loved ones, on whom we have turned our back for the addiction. Young people who have been raised by loving parents will steal from them, rob them, even assault them if they get in the way of their habit. These parents search in vain through their own tears, for the precious child they raised—the child who has now been completely dominated by Satan.
The other day I pulled into a parking space at a local shopping center out of town. It could have been anywhere, any city in our nation. I noticed the car in front of me was considerably beyond its space, so I was careful to stay back in my own space to avoid sticking it. It appeared someone was seated at the driver’s seat, but I couldn’t make it out clearly. Then I noticed that the other car was running. It was a smaller, dark-colored older model, well worn and rough in appearance. I cautiously approached the vehicle and saw the driver’s window was partially down, and a young man was sitting alone in the car at the wheel. His head was back, his mouth open and his eyes closed. Concerned for his safety, I called to him, but he was completely unresponsive. I drew even closer, until I saw a syringe on his chest, and a spoon in his hand. I knew that he was totally lost in a drug high.
After alerting the authorities I thought about that poor young man. I thought about his mother and father who hadn’t seen their son in years. They saw the vacant eyes, the hollow face. I thought about his old friends from whom he was gone. And I thought about the good job he once had, the clean clothes he wore, the elementary school where he had gone with childhood friends. I also thought about the church he might have attended, the asset he might have been to the Lord, and the good he might have done with his life. Something has changed, someone has taken him away, and replaced him with a stranger. A lifeless, dangerous stranger.
And I thought how Satan must have been smiling at the way it is, the slavery, the misery and the total loss of another precious soul—to drugs.PARENTS: Please take this article home and read it to your children. Tell them you love them and so does God.
-by Robert C. Veil, Jr.
