Pure Wine

In 1869, Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, a physician and dentist by profession, successfully pasteurized Concord grape juice to produce an “unfermented sacramental wine” for fellow parishioners at his church in Vineland, New Jersey. He was inspired to do this after a visitor became drunk and unruly following a communion service in which fermented wine was used. Since antiquity, there have been several methods of preserving wine from fermenting, but they always sacrificed much in the way of taste. Dr. Welch’s process preserved both. Today, Welch’s Grape Juice is an international food company.

Alcohol consumption is a national problem in America. It destroys people’s ability to think clearly and act properly. Tests show that after drinking three bottles of beer, there is an average of 13 percent net memory loss. After taking only small quantities of alcohol, trained typists were tested and their errors increased 40 percent. Only one ounce of alcohol increases the time required to make a decision by nearly 10 percent, hinders muscular reaction by 17 percent, and increases errors due to lack of attention by 35 to 60 percent.

Using the illustration of grapes, Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1, 2). When we do not abide in Christ, the fruit that we bear is permeated with sin. Like fermented grape juice, the results of a life without Jesus are impure, broken, and impaired. Unless we are connected to Christ, we will not bear good fruit. Unless we abide in Jesus, we will be cut off.

Spend time with the Lord every day. Press the Word against your heart. Talk to God in prayer. And let the pure spiritual “wine” flow, unfermented by sin, out of your life to bless others.

Key Bible Texts

Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. (Isaiah 65:8 KJV)