cigarettes?

[ValleyGal]

The "sin" talk is not effective because most Christians are already trying to live godlier lives and all that's going to do is add unnecessary guilt over the inability to get over all sins all at once as expected by the church. Believers need to know that they do not need to deal with sinful behaviours as expected by the church, but as their faith grows and allows them to overcome. It is not an excuse to continue, but I do not believe it is a sin that is going to send the OP to hell in the event quitting does not happen before death.

I smoked for 15 years after becoming a Christian....when the Lord convinced me it was breaking his heart, that is when I quit. The Lord can deal with the OP.

 

[Talihood]

I smoke. I've often thought of what it's doing to the temple of the Holy Spirit.

 

[WannaWitness]

Whoever is interested can feel free to take a look at this Website. Listed are men and women who participated in a series of PSAs put out by CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) called Tips from Former Smokers. They share their stories about smoking, how it destroyed the lives of them and their families, and the lessons that were learned from it. You can view some of these ads on Youtube by typing in "Tips from Former Smokers". Some of these ads can be a little frightening (so watch at your own risk if you are a touchier individual), but they bring out their points loudly and clearly.

Real Stories by Name

That being said, I am not so quick to call smoking necessarily a sin; however, we are called as believers to take care of our bodies the best way we can, and smoking has been known to cause all sorts of health issues, as shown in these series of ads (and others like them). I will not judge anybody as I have my own weaknesses, and I am well aware of them. I only posted the link in an effort to provide helpful information (so I truly hope it was not inappropriate to post this link).

All that said, we are all going to have our own convictions on things, according to Romans 14. The first verse of that chapter refers to "doubtful things", which refers to personal convictions based on how God speaks to us as individuals. This refers to things are not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but using the Scripture as a guideline will guide us down the right path, and knowing that God speaks to us as individuals we are allowing Him to work in our lives. If there is anything that bothers our conscience when we do it (and that includes smoking), it is best to ponder on whether it should be done, and pray for God to do the leading.

One final note: I would like everyone to know that my intention is always to be helpful in any way I can to those who seek it. Therefore, please accept my sincere apologies if this post is deemed to be inappropriate in any way, as I truly don't wish to stir trouble or offend anybody deliberately. But this is the "Christian Advice" portion of the forum, so I just thought it wouldn't hurt to thrown in my two-cents.

God bless you all!

 

[ArmenianJohn]

.
Hi Steve & ArmenianJohn.....Smoking is not a sin.
This post is for anyone who finds themselves in the same situation.

First of all, it must be understood, Smoking Cigarettes (IS NOT AN ADDICTION) but it most assuredly (IS A HABIT).

Simple explanation, you sleep 8 or more hrs a night, but you aren't woken up by withdrawal to have a Smoke in the middle of the night, if you happen to get up in the night you more than likely have a smoke, but only because your awake.

In the morning some people grab a Cigarette, as soon as their feet hit the floor, then there are those who can hold off until they get a cup of coffee, the two Habits feed each other.

The understanding is, anything you associate Smoking with (IS THE HABIT).

Therefore it is not Smoking you need to quit, it is the Habit of association which needs to be broken.

This then is the Regimen, the Discipline required in order to stop the Habitual Association.

This Regimen differs with each person.
1) Allow yourself 1 Cigarette every hour, on the hour, you are awake for 1 Month, no exceptions.
2) Do not have your first cigarette of the day until you have been awake for 1 hour.
Example, if you wake up at 6:30, your hour begins at 8:00
3) If for whatever reason, you are not able to have your hourly Cigarette, then you must wait until the next hour.
No 5 min. grace period, every hour means on the hour.
4) Whenever you finish eating, if it is after the hour, you must wait until the next hour.
Simple rule, try to coincide your eating with your hourly Cigarette, but be sure to finish before the hour.
5) Remember, whenever you have something to eat or drink throughout the course of the day, you are not permitted to have a Cigarette until the allotted coming hour.

Understand this, you will only have a Craving, whenever you do something which you associate with smoking, that's the Habit.

That is just the point, it is the breaking of the association of an event with Smoking which is the Habit, not the Cigarette itself, or the Nicotine craving.

Remember, you are able to sleep 8 hours or more a night, without a Nicotine Craving waking you up, but once you are awake, you associate the different things you do throughout the day with Smoking.

If you stick to the regimen, you will find, one day, you really don't want a Cigarette that day at 3PM when you are allowed to have one, that is the sign that what you are doing is working.

The object is, by Smoking on the hour only, you are breaking the Habit Cycle. it's really not as enjoyable to have a Cigarette when you don't particularly want one, or it becomes inconvenient, saying to yourself, I have to go have my Cigarette now, or I will not be able to have one for another hour, the Habit that you have enjoyed so much, will become burdensome, out of sync, at times it will even become disdainful, and not enjoyable at all......YEAH !

When you find that your becoming aware of the times you do crave a Cigarette, then you will be able to stretch out your time to 2 or even 3 hours apart, or even cutting yourself down by half or more Cigarettes a day, and spacing your hours further apart.

Look, its your Regimen, no one has to know what it is your doing for your self, it is best to keep it a secret until one day you can say, "I have quit Smoking"!!

It is of the utmost importance to stick to the Regimen, but if you slip, then just reset yourself for the next hour. if no one knows what it is you are doing, then they cannot condemn, and mock you.

This is a Regimen I devised for myself.
I smoked for 50 years, I enjoyed smoking, I didn't particularly want to quit, but I felt I should, that it would be the best thing for me to do......I quit for good June, 1, 2006, no withdrawal, no cravings sinse.

Believe me, it feels great to say to yourself, I'm not going to have a Cigarette now when I can have one, I will wait until the next hour, just to find you really don't want one then either, that's control over your Habit.

That is when you can set yourself to 3 Cigarettes a day, and that will be sufficient, but understand, there isn't any time schedule to quit, it's when you can, that way you will not start again.

Then low and behold, one day you will finally realize I not only don't need Cigarettes, I do want one,
and you QUIT.......CONGRATULATIONS ! ! !

PS.
Sorry for the length of this post, but it takes time to quit Smoking.

Thank you for caring enough to share the information in your post. I will probably try it, but I see things in your regimen that I know I don't respond well to and that may sabotage my efforts.

Smoking is both an addiction and a habit. You focus on the habit portion of it, but you're probably right to because it's the habit that is harder to break than the physical dependency on the nicotine. Also, nicotine dependency can be weaned via the nicotine patch or gum. I recently got a book called "The Power of Habit" which gives good insight to how habits work and how we can use that knowledge to change our habits, so I will be attempting to use that in breaking (more like changing/transforming) the habit.

Again, thank you for your concern and your time to share that information. I'm so happy for you that you were able to quit, good for you, you are a hero to me!

Oh and for the record I never said that it is a sin, although like anything it can be a sin. But bad habits and/or addictions are not sins in and of themselves.

I just find it interesting that some people stuck in a bad habit or addiction can be ostracized for it, as in the case of smoking, whereas many with other types of bad habits or addiction are not ostracized but instead given leeway. For example, I went to a church where a smoker could never be in any kind of position within the church because he or she was a smoker, but people with food problems who were obese could have any position, including pastor. But that's a whole other topic...

 

[JIMINZ]

Thank you for caring enough to share the information in your post. I will probably try it, but I see things in your regimen that I know I don't respond well to and that may sabotage my efforts.

Smoking is both an addiction and a habit. You focus on the habit portion of it, but you're probably right to because it's the habit that is harder to break than the physical dependency on the nicotine. Also, nicotine dependency can be weaned via the nicotine patch or gum. I recently got a book called "The Power of Habit" which gives good insight to how habits work and how we can use that knowledge to change our habits, so I will be attempting to use that in breaking (more like changing/transforming) the habit.

Again, thank you for your concern and your time to share that information. I'm so happy for you that you were able to quit, good for you, you are a hero to me!

Oh and for the record I never said that it is a sin, although like anything it can be a sin. But bad habits and/or addictions are not sins in and of themselves.

I just find it interesting that some people stuck in a bad habit or addiction can be ostracized for it, as in the case of smoking, whereas many with other types of bad habits or addiction are not ostracized but instead given leeway. For example, I went to a church where a smoker could never be in any kind of position within the church because he or she was a smoker, but people with food problems who were obese could have any position, including pastor. But that's a whole other topic...

.
Hi John

I hope you do, I wish you would attempt what I gave as a Regimen, the point of the whole thing is.

Smoking is a pleasure to those who smoke, they derive great pleasure out of it, especially when it is done at those certain TRIGGER Circumstances. Eating, Drinking, Driving, etc.
anything you might associate smoking with.

In following a Regimen by where you disrupt the Trigger of the Habit, (Modicum of addiction) Smoking then instead of being a pleasurable experience, becomes something you have to become aware of, you have to be conscious of when the next Cigarette will be allowed, it isn't something that you can do without thinking about any more.

You could actually call this Regimen, AVERSION THERAPY, it actually makes you become acutely aware of what your doing with regard to the Habitual grabbing of a Cigarette, when your not thinking.

This is nothing more than a taking control of something you do without any control at all.

Smoking is like sin in that, you cant stop doing it, it is in your flesh, you like doing it, and the more you say you won't do it, the more you do, do it.

God Bless, and I will see you on the other side.

 

[San54]

i smoke cigarettes and I’m a Christian
But I don’t get convicted to disciplined because of them
Any other sin you name it there’s conviction, but not for cigarettes, what should I do ? Please help

 

[San54]

I smoked cigarettes for about 10 years. I enjoyed them and was saved. Then the Lord began to nudge me about smoking. Finally I got tired of smoking myself. So I began to ask for prayers . Twice I had hands laid on me by a prayer group,and once at a church one night.
Glory to God, I threw away my cigarettes,got some [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]ette which I didn't need, and from that night on I have not wanted another cigarette.
It has been 40 years.
So just pray and trust God and I have prayed for you.

 

[LoricaLady]

Thank you for caring enough to share the information in your post. I will probably try it, but I see things in your regimen that I know I don't respond well to and that may sabotage my efforts.

Smoking is both an addiction and a habit. You focus on the habit portion of it, but you're probably right to because it's the habit that is harder to break than the physical dependency on the nicotine. Also, nicotine dependency can be weaned via the nicotine patch or gum. I recently got a book called "The Power of Habit" which gives good insight to how habits work and how we can use that knowledge to change our habits, so I will be attempting to use that in breaking (more like changing/transforming) the habit.

Again, thank you for your concern and your time to share that information. I'm so happy for you that you were able to quit, good for you, you are a hero to me!

Oh and for the record I never said that it is a sin, although like anything it can be a sin. But bad habits and/or addictions are not sins in and of themselves.

I just find it interesting that some people stuck in a bad habit or addiction can be ostracized for it, as in the case of smoking, whereas many with other types of bad habits or addiction are not ostracized but instead given leeway. For example, I went to a church where a smoker could never be in any kind of position within the church because he or she was a smoker, but people with food problems who were obese could have any position, including pastor. But that's a whole other topic...

Well, maybe sometimes smokers are being ostracized because people want to protect themselves from deadly second hand smoke.

How can it not be a sin to go into a public place and pollute the air with harmful chemicals? Again, second hand smoke puts children at risk for learning disabilities. For life. I learned this in graduate school as a future speech/language pathologist, from the audiologist who ran our program.

 

[lastofall]

"And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." (Matthew 15:10-11)

defile= contaminate (with sin); corrupts.

 

[LoricaLady]

"And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." (Matthew 15:10-11)

defile= contaminate (with sin); corrupts.

Cigarette smoke comes out of the mouth...into the air that other people breathe. It is full of dangerous toxins. It is defiling. Why should I have to breathe someone else's second hand, dirty, dangerous, smoke?

 

[LoricaLady]

And btw when the Messiah spoke of things going into the mouth, he was, of course, no way referring to cigarettes. The topic of discussion at hand was hand washing before eating. Not hand washing as we think of it, but a complex, ritualistic, tradition of hand washing which the Pharisees had developed, which is not found in the Bible.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Well, maybe sometimes smokers are being ostracized because people want to protect themselves from deadly second hand smoke.

No. I'm not talking about them being ostracized while smoking. I'm talking about them being ostracized even when they're not smoking, like in church. When they are not smoking there is no second hand smoke. Someone who only smokes at home or away from the church but is still not permitted to play a role in the church is being ostracized regardless of second hand smoke. Yet the fat obese food abusers are not treated the same way.

How can it not be a sin to go into a public place and pollute the air with harmful chemicals?

You mean like when you drive a car or ride a bus in public space and pollute the air? Or when your home spews exhaust from your heating system? You tell me how that can not be a sin.

Again, second hand smoke puts children at risk for learning disabilities. For life. I learned this in graduate school as a future speech/language pathologist, from the audiologist who ran our program.

So does any air pollution that they are exposed to. What's your point?

Another thing that puts children at risk for their very lives is sugar, soda, candy, cake, etc. all of which are permitted by churches for children to consume. What do you say to that? (you've said nothing about that so far)

Thanks for helping me prove my point just by saying what you've said so far.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Cigarette smoke comes out of the mouth...into the air that other people breathe. It is full of dangerous toxins. It is defiling. Why should I have to breathe someone else's second hand, dirty, dangerous, smoke?

Why do I have to breathe the toxic junk that comes out of your car and house?

 

[LoricaLady]

No. I'm not talking about them being ostracized while smoking. I'm talking about them being ostracized even when they're not smoking, like in church. When they are not smoking there is no second hand smoke. Someone who only smokes at home or away from the church but is still not permitted to play a role in the church is being ostracized regardless of second hand smoke. Yet the fat obese food abusers are not treated the same way.


You mean like when you drive a car or ride a bus in public space and pollute the air? Or when your home spews exhaust from your heating system? You tell me how that can not be a sin.


So does any air pollution that they are exposed to. What's your point?

Another thing that puts children at risk for their very lives is sugar, soda, candy, cake, etc. all of which are permitted by churches for children to consume. What do you say to that? (you've said nothing about that so far)

Thanks for helping me prove my point just by saying what you've said so far.

I do not think people should be ostracized because they smoke if they are not smoking around those who don't want to be around the smoke. If such is the case with you, it seems you need to get some new associates.

As for children being negatively impacted by things like candy, so does that mean it's okay to smoke around them and possibly lead to them having a learning disability? Of course not. Candy has its problems but last I heard it does not cause kids to go into l.d. classes. (So what are you saying - "I can smoke around children because they get candy and that's bad for them"? I sure hope not.)

As for cars polluting the air, uh, we need cars. We need to stay warm in the winter with heating systems, too. Do we need to smoke?

You seem to be trying hard to justify smoking with the "Well, no one is perfect so I get to smoke" approach. Fine. If you want to smoke, it's your business. Just please don't smoke in public. Once I was at a meeting where people went outside to smoke. I had to pass by them. I quickly came down with bronchitis. I haven't gotten bronchitis from cars or home heating systems, though.
Yeal the world is full of imperfect things. So why add one more? What GOOD is smoking doing for you or for anyone else? What harm can it be doing to you and others? Rhetorical Qs. You already know the answers.

 

[LoricaLady]

Why do I have to breathe the toxic junk that comes out of your car and house?

That is an odd question, since doubtless you have a car and a climate control system which emit toxic fumes. In fact, your home and your car may emit more toxins than mine. As I just said above, a car and a heating system are needed items for survival in our world. No one needs to smoke.

If I had the authority and power to make cleaner systems with cars and heaters, etc., I would make things better. I don't. Neither do you. You do have the power not to smoke though. And I have the power to say I will not be around someone who is smoking.

 

[LoricaLady]

One other thought. The Bible says the wages of sin are death. Cigarettes are highly correlated to, sometimes horrifically and excruciatingly painful, death.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

That is an odd question, since doubtless you have a car and a climate control system which emit toxic fumes. In fact, your home and your car may emit more toxins than mine. As I just said above, a car and a heating system are needed items for survival in our world. No one needs to smoke.

If I had the authority and power to make cleaner systems with cars and heaters, etc., I would make things better. I don't. Neither do you. You do have the power not to smoke though. And I have the power to say I will not be around someone who is smoking.

I commute to work by mass transit, I own a hybrid Prius which uses hardly any gas (and which I hardly ever drive because I'm commuting to and from work every day), and my home is powered/heated by hyrdro, solar, and wind. So, no, my home does not emit exhaust. In fact, I sometimes sell clean energy back to the power company.

There are cleaner systems with cars and heaters, etc. So why do I have to breathe the junk your home and car are spewing into the air? Why aren't you using clean energy? And why do you then turn around and attack someone else when you yourself are polluting even more? You claim to care so much for the children, so why are you killing the children with all your pollution when there are clean options out there? What's your carbon footprint? Is it a negative one like mine?

 

[ArmenianJohn]

One other thought. The Bible says the wages of sin are death. Cigarettes are highly correlated to, sometimes horrifically and excruciatingly painful, death.

What about the junk you eat? That's also tied to disease and death.

 

[LoricaLady]

I commute to work by mass transit, I own a hybrid Prius which uses hardly any gas (and which I hardly ever drive because I'm commuting to and from work every day), and my home is powered/heated by hyrdro, solar, and wind. So, no, my home does not emit exhaust. In fact, I sometimes sell clean energy back to the power company.

There are cleaner systems with cars and heaters, etc. So why do I have to breathe the junk your home and car are spewing into the air? Why aren't you using clean energy? And why do you then turn around and attack someone else when you yourself are polluting even more? You claim to care so much for the children, so why are you killing the children with all your pollution when there are clean options out there? What's your carbon footprint? Is it a negative one like mine?

How nice that you are eliminating pollution as much as you can. However, it is not necessary to attack me because I can't afford the resources that you have.

It's all irrelevant anyway. So what if you have no toxins at all in your home or in your car, if you smoke around little children they can still get a learning disability. What would you tell the child, "Hey kid, pollution is out there, so what if I blow smoke that gets into your lungs and INCREASES your chances of having mental limitations and maybe health problems like ear infections? MY home is clean, I have a great carbon footprint, so I can smoke in your space all I want"?

Also, no matter how toxin free your personal space is, if you are smoking, you are way not toxin free. And you would certainly not be allowed to smoke in my home or around any children related to me.

If you smoke and continue to smoke the chances are great that you will regret it - if not for children, for yourself. It's dangerous. Hello?

 

[LoricaLady]

I eat very little "junk." I'm kind of a health food nut. But let's say I was a major junk food eater. Should I then say "Oh well, I eat junk. I might as well compound health problems and smoke, too"? And when does anyone's over eating affect a child's mental abilities?

Now let me ask you up front... Do you smoke, and if so, do you or do you not, feel you have some kind of right to smoke around little children? I predict you will not answer that last question.