What about smoking?????????

I am 53 never smoked or drank .I was lucky to get into bodybuilding at 15. I still train hard and never did things like that because of it hindering my progress .As far as a sin .I might get jumped on here but .I think smoking isn;t smart for health reasons but I don't think its a sin .I know we are not to do things that cause a brother to stumble .If were around someone who has a problem with smoking because of their health or what ever reason we shouldn't smoke around them .
Drinking I believe isn't a sin but getting drunk is . Although people say that the alcohol today is stronger then it was years ago . I have two sons 30 and 32 .Both are Saved .The younger one had a alcohol problem .I told him it would wise not to drink at all .

 

With issues like this and in regards to my conscience, I don't put to much trust in what will men say using authority. If the light of God's word puts pressure on my conscience and I find myself trapped to any degree, then I go to him in total honesty and I ask and hope for strength.

There are some non serious things that I do feel trapped by. I want to overcome these things. These things have to do with "ministry" and how others perceive me, not how God perceives me.

I think this is what the Apostle was saying. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable for me (my paraphrase).

Dave.

 

Smoking is a hard habit to break.
I perform stress tests for a local cardiology group and see the devistation that smoking does on the body. ...I know...you've heard it all before....

But I see people in their 30's, 40's or 50's beginning to complain about shortness of breath, chest tightness, or fatigue and what can we (as medical personnel) do about it is disheartening.

About half of the lobby's population are smokers each day. Many of them have already had their first heart attack... yet still smoke.

The saddest examples are the ones who can just never catch their breath, even sitting still. By then, they have to choose between stopping smoking or stop breathing.

Calling smoking a sin isn't helpful, it's a curse!
When you have finally decided to stop for good, go to your doctor and let him (or her) know that you would like help. There are medications, pills, patches, etc. that are helpful. BUT THEY WILL NOT MAKE YOU STOP SMOKING! You have to do that!
If you fail, keep trying.

One more thing. It's almost imposible to quit if your spouse still smokes. Do it together, for life.

God bless,

Rob

 

My Preacher says, "Smoking won't send you to hell, it will just make you smell like you've been there!".

Smoking is as hard a habit to break as heroin, but it CAN be done. You have to think of 'will power' as exchanging your will for God's power.

Take a piece of paper and list on one side the benefits of smoking and on the other side the disadvantages.

One side of your paper will be blank.

Blessings,
§ue

 

Keep praying Eugenia.

There is a positive and a negative in the Scripture that will help you, these principles helped me conquer my vices.

Philippians 4
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

John 15
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

HankD

 

Eugenia, if it helps, nicotene is a wonderfully potent poison we used in our yard for harmful bugs. When I mix up 7-Up (sugar helps damp down fungi in lawns and on bushes), a little dish soap, some chewing tobacco, a a strong dollop of very hot hot sauce with some garlic in a blender, we have a non-commercial chemical spray that will get just about anything. Nicotene does a great job poisoning the leaf-munching insects.

You are smoking poison. More than one, actually. It is extremely addictive; my mother never was able to quit although she tried a number of methods many times. Her smoking led to a horrid spasming cough which, last fall, her heart just couldn't handle anymore. My brother walked into her brand new home last October and found her slumped against the wall, dead. The sputum she was trying to cough up was drooling out her mouth and the coroner's verdict was a coronary.

We know what happened. We wondered how long her heart could handle those coughing spasms. The autopsy showed scarred and blackened lungs, clogged with all kinds of junk.

Is this, seriously, what you want to do to glorify God's creation of you?

 

Why do people dodge the label of calling smoking what it is??? Nicotine is a drug and habitually smoking it will addict you to it.

As a former (recovering?) smoker I was addicted (enslaved) to nicotine for some 26 years, but with the help of God and a prescription nicotine patch I have been smoke and addiction free for over 6 years. The patch I used to bring me down gradually (detoxify) was called "Pro-Step". I don't know if it's still available by prescription or not, but before I started on it I thought I was going to have to be physically placed in a detox unit for 2 weeks to be successful at quitting.

It takes two weeks for the nicotine toxin (poison) to be fully expelled from your body, so that after that period your cravings should taper off dramatically. But the process is not complete until the actual full 6 week period of the patches is completed.

Following my victory over cigarettes, I didn't stink anymore and those who were smokers were instantly identified by their "odor" when they weren't smoking. I was always told how much a smoker stank and I didn't believe it until I kicked the drug to the curb and found out for myself. As a smoker, your nasal cillia that detect odors are all accustomed to the smokers odor, thus, a smoker cannot tell when another smoker comes in close proximity. Afterwards however, I can be walking down the street and someone in the neighborhood can be smoking and suddenly you smell it and KNOW even though you cannot see the person with the cigarette or the smoke from the cigarette. Also, I can be at a traffic light with the window down on my car and smell someone else's smoke in a car upwind from me. I can look around and after awhile spot the offender by the smoke coming out their window several car lengths away and two lanes over. It is amazing how your sense of smell restores itself following your quitting.

Is smoking a sin??? Good question. Many who went to church with me didn't condemn me and told me it wouldn't be cause you me to be hell bound because of that alone, but I always felt guilty about smoking and that tell-tale smell of smoke while at church. (It gets in your hair and clothes - and people KNOW).

If smoking is harming your body then it must be a sin, as defiling your body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit is a sin. Not to dismiss other abuses that we defile our body with, but smoking is just one of those things, in my humble opinion.

Eugenia, if you plan to stop smoking, my advise to you would be to wait until after your grieving process unless your physician tells you otherwise. For some a side effect of smoking cessation can be depression so you might want to ask your doctor to provide you with an anti-depressant during that process of quitting until you can function better without it. Usually a year or so. I was on an anti-depressant for some 3 years following my cessation, but then some of that was not related to my lack of nicotine in my system.

There are so very many methods available to smokers today to help them overcome the addiction that it is becoming easier and easier to quit.

 

I am a twice ex-smoker. I had quit for 9 year. It was very easy for me, I put the pack down one day at that was it. Then I started to work at a place where everyone was smoking and before I knew it I was grubbing butts off of people and then buying my own. About a year later I was working somewhere else and I was just getting tired of smoking and coughing. I had an annoying little cough that would hit me about every 2 min.
So once again I threw my pack away and found it was harder the second time around.
But I had an incentive. 3 days after I threw that pack away I found out I was pregnant. I didn't know it of expect it. So that made it easy for the whole 8 months I was pregnant to quit smoking. This February will be my 4th anniversary that I quit for the second time and I still struggle with cravings but not so bad that I would have a cigarette.
God doesn't like smokers. He does not like us to abuse the body he gave us.

As for the gambling. As you say if you want to call scratch off gambling.
As long as you can say if you want to call that wet kiss I gave my neighbor as breaking a commandment!
It's like being just a LITTLE bit pregnant! Come on, your old enough to know that Gambling is gambling no matter how high or low the stakes!

I had to edit this because i just got done reading all the posts. Eugina, it looks as though you as trying to convince yourself that it is ok to smoke. That the damage is already done.
That line of thinking is very juvinile.
It is never too late.
My husband smokes although now he tries to hide it because he is trying to quit and is failing.
He has a bad cough and I know that has to be hard on his heart and lungs.
I pray he quits and I beg him to.
My grandmother had your line of thinking. "Well you have to die of something"! Until 20 yrs later when the doctor told her she had cancer and would die. Then you hear all the " OH I should have's"!
TOO LATE!
As an ex-smoker I know it is hard. I can't even stand the smell of smoke on clothes. It smells like stale pee to me. I will move away from anyone who smells like that. And when I am forced to be in a room with 60 smokers as I was at my husbands company christmas party this past december, I am not a happy camper let me tell you. The way my clothes smelled when I got home I was furious.
My mom smokes and I am always telling her she smells and to go away from me.
That is the least of your problems though. You really need to change your thought process and stop trying to convince yourself that it is too late or it is ok. It's not! God says it is not ok.
Get help, you will feel much better once you do kick the habbit!
Better to kick the habbit than to kick the bucket!

[ January 05, 2004, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: LauraB ]

 

Eugenia, please don't get discouraged.
God loves you smoke and all.

That is not to say that he likes the habit.

John 15:5
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

HankD

 

Hi Eugenia, I had tried to quit before for my own personal reasons, but failed, probably because I was not going to church and was not obeying the Lord. I starting going back to church and seeking the Lord's will for my life back in early 2000. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart about my smoking being a hinderence for my walk with the Lord, so I prayed about the situation and on December 17, 2000, I quit cold turkey. I trusted the Lord to help me through the cravings and he did. I used water to curve the craving. You can do it if you put your trust in the Lord.

 

I'm a non-smoker who comes from a family of smokers.

In one case, I have a family member who is 50, and has been smoking since he was 15 (a pack a day since he was in college). He's tried and failed to quit 4 times. This last time, it looks like he finally did it, however. He's been smoke-free for a year.

OTOH, I have another family member who smokes three cigarettes a week. This is what is referred to as a "puffer". The amount of smoking a puffer does is not sufficient to result in adverse health effects.

But most smokers unfortunately develope the habit of smoking several packs a week. This amount is sufficient to cause the body long term harm.

While smoking in and of itself is not a sin, the abuse of it is indeed a sin, and one must seek help to break free of it.

 

Sin and smoking?

Sin is disobeying God's will. The thing about disobedience is, you have to KNOW what God wanted before you can disobey it.

Smoking is harmful, addictive, and I personally believe God would rather nobody smoked. What's more, I believe those who make and sell tobacco products are killers for profit - the most cold blooded kind of killer there is.

However, a person might smoke and it not be a "sin" for them - if they don't know any better.

Today, I think the only way a person can "not know any better" is to willfully deny the obvious facts.

 

Interestingly, we're kinda lumping "smoking" in general into the same category as cigarette smokers. Few cigarette smokers smoke in an addictive manner.

OTOH, there are a lot of people who smoke a cigar once or twice a month. Is that a sin? Probably not. Also, there are quite a few people who smoke hookas. (with hookas, you don't inhale the smoke, you take it into your mouth to get the flavor of the tobacco). Hooka smoking is generally not done at home. One must usually go to a hooka bar. Is frequenting a hooka bar once a month or so a sin? Probably not.

It once again goes back to abuse. Smoking in and of itself is not sin per se. Abuse of smoking (like the way most people smoke cigaretes) is indeed a sin.

 

Eugenia, the fact that you are still smoking shows you don't want to quit the habit. No offense meant. I think you just want to be reassured it is not a sin.
Well, it is not a sin.
There.
And I challenge any who says it is a sin because the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost to measure their waistlines, and make sure they never touched tea, coffee, soda, or anything of the like even at a frequency of once daily, or they're engaging in a once-daily kind of sin.
However, like everybody said, it is a filthy, filthy, habit.
Gather all those cigarette butts you consumed in a week and throw them into a pond where you have fish, and I guarantee you, no fish will be alive in 72 hours. Or crush those butts and mix them into cow feed and see what happens.
Now, a hog on the other hand, will survive because it's got poison in its body. Those dark spots you see on the hog's skin when you scrape off the hair after slaughtering it are all poison.
The thing with smoking is that the urge just doesn't really goes away, it is just much better controlled, so ex-smokers should always, always, depend on the Holy Spirit to keep them away from that habit. There is always the temptation to think, "Well, I beat it once, I can do it again", and reach out for the first smoke, and, presto, you're back in the pits.
I know. Happened to me.
Had my quadruple bypass last July, thanks to Marloboro, with whom I got reacquainted three years ago after more than 15 years, and bad eating habits.
So, how do you kick off the habit ?
First, prayer, prayer, and more prayer.
Second, prayer, prayer, and more prayer.
Third, you gotta want to, sin or not.
Fourth, don't go and buy that pack.
Fifth, drink a lot of water.
Sixth, tell everybody you're quitting.

 

Dear johnv,

Nicotine can enter the blood stream through the mucous membrane of your mouth.
You needn't inhale at all.

HankD

 

How much money do you spend on tobacco and lottery tickets?