Smoking

I have no preconceptions or misconceptions of you since I don't know you. I'm just saying that I see no need (for me anyway) to pretend to be doing something that I find offensive and harmful to my testimony--in my opinion. I have NEVER smoked (thank God) and cannot understand the appeal of it.

I apologize if my lack of understanding that filthy, harmful and expensive habit offends anyone. I also apologize for my lack of understanding as to why someone would pretend to smoke by smoking a pretend cigarette--like the candy I remember from my childhood that looked liked cigarettes. I wonder how many children and teens started the real thing by eating (or puffing on and pretending they were smoking) the candy ones and wondering what the real ones were like.

If you've never dealt with a smoking or addiction, you have no business offering advice. You are welcome to your opinions, but realize you have no idea what you're talking about. Trust me, I'm a former heroin addict.

K
 
If you've never dealt with a smoking or addiction, you have no business offering advice. You are welcome to your opinions, but realize you have no idea what you're talking about. Trust me, I'm a former heroin addict.

K

I too have struggled with addiction, but I do not go back and pretend or give the appearance that I still struggle....Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.....if you still mimic what you were once addicted to then you are not free from that addiction....all Jon-Mark is saying is that if you are free why would you still mimic it and pretend to do it.......that is not freedom that is controlling the addiction....Christ never came to just control addiction, He came to free us from it completely.......Avoid even the appearance of evil....if it was an addiction for you then it was evil.....so why go back and let the appearance of it be on you.......Jon-mark may have never smoked, but he may have been addicted to something, and even if not he can still give advice......Jesus was never addicted to anything and He gives advice......We have Christ in us....so He can speak through us even if we don't know what we are talking about.
 
With God all things are possible. I knew a man who was determined to quit. He didn't use the old excuse of "I want to quit, but I can't." Can't never did anything. He quit cold turkey after 20 years of smoking. Oh, he suffered terribly from withdrawals, but he stuck with his decision to quit and succeeded.

My family is filled with alcoholics and heavy smokers, and I've seen the damage it's done. I know there's been drug use by some of them. One woman died at age 50 from lung cancer from 3 packs a day. One man lost 3/4 of his stomach from drinking. A nephew has severe lung problems from his mother's (my sister) chain smoking. She lit the first cigarette in the morning, and then lit the cigarettes off each other the rest of the day. I have no idea how many packs a day she smoked. She was a bear in the morning until she had her first "fix" of tobacco and caffeine. I always went away from her home reeking from the stench, and it would take days for the stench in my clothes to go away.

No, thank God that by His grace I have never been addicted to anything, but I think I can still talk halfway intelligently from my experience with friends and relatives, as well as 28 years working in a VA medical center and seeing the damage done by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. Minds and bodies destroyed--never to be the same again.

I'm sorry if my bluntness and lack of empathy offends anyone, but all I hear are excuses from people saying. "I want to quit, but I can't." They never will until they determine that any suffering from quitting is worth the benefits of giving up a destructive habit. God has spared me from the suffering and damage caused by these destructive habits, but I believe He has given me some wisdom through other people's suffering to speak knowledgeable despite my lack of personal experience.
 
you are only what you think you are

If you really believe in the power of God, you will be set free. I have been watching what you have been saying. You don’t want to give it up, you are trying to justify you desire to do what you want.

You said you where a heroin addict, are you still doing that? If not how did you stop? You seem to be getting very defensive about you right to smoke as a Christian.

I suppose you have the right to do want ever you want. Please don’t tell the world it is ok because you like it. As someone else Quoted it is a bad witness to the unsaved.

Please don’t throw any cheap shots back. I smoke for over 14 years so I guess that makes me qualified to make this comments. The Holy Spirit took it away from me over night. One night he said, stop smoking and I never had the desire ever to smoke again. That is 13-14 years ago.

You see, what you say is what will come to pass. Who said what a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Oh yes that was Jesus was it not.

Sounds to me that you set yourself up here Brother. :eek:
 
How do you think God looks at smoking cigarettes? Do you think it is really all that bad?
I am a smoker and also struggled with this issue. However, one Sunday I heard a sermon that made this issue clear to me. When God created man, He said that we must have dominion over the earth.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
(Genesis 1:28 KJV)

If we smoke, we do not dominate the earth. The plants (tabacco) dominates us. This is a commandment from God. Have dominion over the earth. David also confirmed this in Psalms 8:6 KJV
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
It is now my mission to stop smoking as I want to have dominion over the tobacco plant and not the other way around.
 
I quit a couple years ago. I wasn't a heavy smoker, pack a week, some cigars here and there.

It's great to be free of it, yet I feel I could pick up a camel at anytime:eek:

Y'ain't goin' to hell over it, prayin' for all to overcome it if it's your battle.
 
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