Smoking

Do you purchase, intake, or utilize any product which is not excellent?

Here is my opinion... If God intended us to smoke, He would have given us chimneys.

I personally don't agree that Christians should smoke. I can't see witnessing as being that effective if your standing there sucking one down. I certainly won't look down on anyone who does it though. That is there choice if they want to do it. If they were not supposed to do it then they will answer for it one day.

Several years ago, I was called to the home of one of my parishoners who was in the last death throes of cancer.

I could not believe when 'Nancy', who was terminally ill, motioned for her husband 'Jimmy' to light her a cigarette. He did. As we stood around her bedside that woman smoked that cigarette, with her son holding the cigarette for her because she was too weak to keep the cigarette between her fingers. Five minutes later, she took her final breath on this earth.

It is so sad when one is so addicted to that drug, and yes it is a drug, that one has to allow it to control their thoughts even to their death.

That's so sad SFIC Unfortunately it is all too common.

I think if I found out that I have a terminal condition and just a couple of years or less, I would buy a couple of pipes and some cigars.

Originally posted by Alcott:
I think if I found out that I have a terminal condition and just a couple of years or less, I would buy a couple of pipes and some cigars.

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Now thats what I call redeeming the time.

Proverbs, chapter 16
"19": Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

I don't think you ever get it out of your system. I too smoked for over 40 years and have quit for the last 8 but still think sometimes I could smoke one 5 ft long.

Originally posted by Alcott:
Do you purchase, intake, or utilize any product which is not excellent?

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Yeah, my wife drives a Ford.

It has been demonstrated that more smokers die within a year after they stop smoking than at any other time.
Of course more smokers stop smoking after they find out they have lung cancer than at any other time.

I sent a smoker to surgery last month after a strongly positive stress test.
He came in for a follow-up stress test yesterday before rehab.
He was still smoking!!! (“but I’ve cut down”).

I’ve heard it said that cigarettes are more addictive than cocaine.

Nothing about cocaine in the Bible either!

Rob

Deacon;
I smoked a pack a day for over 40 years. The first heart surgery I quit until after a couple months one of the bypasses closed off and they had to rush me back to the Hospital and my wife was told I was not going to make it for long so I felt if I was going to die anyway I wasn't going to suffer the withdrawal from cigaretts too so I sent my wife to buy me a cartoon. Well I got better and smoked 16 more years until second heart surgery when I really almost didn't make it that time I swelled so big I was unrecognizable to my own family. If they didn't know it was me in that ICU they would not of know it was me. I smothered so bad that I just couldn't bear it so I ask God to let me die but He didn't. While I was in and out I had a vision of death it was like and envelope in 4 sections and each one represented a type of death. One of them was to smother to death because of smoking which was the one I was in. I made a vow then, If I did live I would never smoke again. That was eight years ago and I never will touch another cigarette. The worst death any human can suffer is to smother to death. So when I got out of the hospital smoking became a nonoption and that is the only way you can ever quit. "not, I am going to try, I will slow down, I will take the patches, nothing but a nonoption" and then you can quit. I still desire a cigarette today but it is a nonoption and that settles it. When you go at it that way you can do it. I will pray for you for I know if anyone does how hard it is to quit, but I guarntee you if you say "it just is not an option to smoke" then you can quit. God Bless,

BBob

1947: 'SMOKE! SMOKE! SMOKE! (THAT CIGARETTE)'

Written by Merle Travis for Tex Williams; the release not only saved Tex Williams' waning career, but also became Capitol Records' first million-seller. Travis later released his own version. These two are the most commonly heard versions, although Phil Harris also had a hit with the song.

From the New York Times, Oct. 13, 1985:

Country-western songwriter and entertainer Sollie "Tex" Williams, a heavy smoker best known for his tune, "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette," died after a year-long battle with cancer, his daughter said. . . . her father, who was diagnosed a year ago as having cancer, smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, dropping to about a pack a day before he died. "He tried to quit, but he couldn't," she said.

CHORUS

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff until you smoke yourself to death.

Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait,
But you just gotta have another cigarette.


A song I have heard often thru the years and it rings true in lots of lives. I personally smoked heavily for thirty someodd years. Quit over ten years ago. Made a bargain with God that if he would fix a problem I'd quit. I did.... he didn't..... at least in the way I sought...... At this point in my life I can also appreciate the song.... Thank God for unanswered prayers.....

I was diagnosed last May with lung cancer. Now a year later I'm doin remarkably well.

God be with you TomMann; My mother had lung cancer and it was the bad kind of course there certainly is no good kind but one is much worse than others according to the doctors. I guess we both grew up with that song and I sang it a lot years ago not knowing how hard it was going to be to quit. In my young days even doctors recommended certain brands of cigarettes but finally wised up but a little late for you and me. I wish you well,

BBob

A doctor told me that, even though a pipe- or cigar-smoker doesn't inhale, he still breathes the smoke around him and over the years it shows up in his lungs.

Nicotine seems to be a demon. Different people are addicted in different ways, and some aren't addicted at all. My father smoked up his last pack one New Year's Day and that was the end. My mother, on the other hand, tried and failed to quit many times. I've seen fine Christians who were never able to successfully quit. Bro. Bob's testimony that, eight years after quitting, some times he feels like he could smoke one five feet long, is not unusual.

Nicotine is one strange substance.

Tobacco is a filthy weed.
The more you use, the more you need.
It stains your fingers, burns your clothes,
And makes a smokestack of your nose

I met a lady years ago who smoked one cigarette a day. Just after her evening meal.

Even then, she would tell you she could not give up that one cigarette.

I started smoking when I was 9 years old. As a matter of fact, it was on my ninth birthday my oldest brother gave me a cigarette. He was 17. After the cigarette, he gave me a bowl of hash (and I am not talking corned beef).

Well, the hash did not snag me, but the cigarettes did. I smoked a pack a day for almost 4 years. I quit for 3 1/2 years and started up again. A few years later, I again laid those cancer sticks down. But I picked them up again after 3 years. I went to a two pack a day habit. In 1991, I heard a message on 'The Faithful Steward' like I had never heard before. I asked God to take the desire for the cigarettes from me and to nail them to the cross. He did.

But, I still picked up the cigarettes every day and would smoke one or two; the whole time asking myself why I was smoking. I truly had no desire for that nasty cigarette, but there I was with it lit. I prayed and asked God to show me why I was smoking still. He revealed to me that I had given over the desire, but I did not give over the habit. I prayed and asked God to take the habit. He has.

I have not picked up a cigarette, nor desired one since November 16, 1991.

God is able to deliver.

I smoke as often as I want to.

But that doesn't happen often......

A.F.

I heard an evangelist say "I can tell you how you can quit smoking. SMOKE FIRECRACKERS!

"You'll quit the first day. I guarantee it!"

LOL.

I do get nostalgic when I smell pipe smoke. I got rid of all my pipes at the last church garage sale, and some guy bought my pretty meerschaum for $8. But I don't regret quitting. And cigarettes just plain stink, I never realized that until I had gone a couple of weeks without smoking.

Pipedude,

as to smoking firecrackers, that is not necessarily true. When I was in 6th Grade I put a firecracker in a cigarette because I was tired of a kid who was always borrowing a cigarette with the promise to pay back tomorrow. Of course the promise to pay never came through.

I put the cigarette upside down in my pack and went to school. sure enough, the kid saw me between 2nd and 3rd periods and asked for a cigarette.

I gave him a cigarette and walked off chuckling knowing he would not dare borrow another.

After 4th period, I went to the boys room to smoke a cigarette. I stood against wall, watching for teachers and puffed away. I did not notice the little spark once my cigarett got down about halfway. next draw off the cigarette, the thing exploded in my face. I went back to class with very white and swollen lips.

As I did not quit smoking cigarettes for good until 91, I can say smoking a firecracker does not always stop smoking.

OUCH!!!!!

Originally posted by standingfirminChrist:
As I did not quit smoking cigarettes for good until 91, I can say smoking a firecracker does not always stop smoking.

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If you smoked and still made it to 91, I suppose you should quit "for good," or you might not make it to 110.

Lighting anything on fire and intentionally inhaling the smoke from it is never a good idea. As a former smoker I had a CT scan done on my chest 6 years after I had quit(I smoked for 19 years)and the dammage to my lungs was evident .

When we take those first few puffs and work to inhale the smoke, at that moment our bodies say this is not right as we choke and cough.

I have a feeling if we were to stand before God and ask him is smoking ok he would say "Do I really have to explain this to you?"