Thoughts, folks?
(I don't smoke. I know that years ago some preachers would smoke, sometimes to get relief from arthritis, etc.)
(I don't smoke. I know that years ago some preachers would smoke, sometimes to get relief from arthritis, etc.)
Do You Think All Christians Should Give Up Smoking Completely?
- Thread starter farouk
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Tavita
New Member
I voted 'they should all quit completely'... but I'm biased, I've just got over a major illness that my smoking would have heavily contributed to. I should have obeyed my Lord when He told me to quit and stay quit... 
I voted 'they should all quit completely'... but I'm biased, I've just got over a major illness that my smoking would have heavily contributed to. I should have obeyed my Lord when He told me to quit and stay quit...
Ms Tavita,
Yes I can see why you would do that. Glad you are feeling better now.
Even with ppl who do have some condition (arthritis, etc.) for which some smoking might give some relief, it's maybe still sensible to quit altogether but, I would hard pressed to say that occasional smoking in some circumstances is absolutely wrong.
Take care.
Tavita
New Member
Thanks farouk!
I hope there is no cancer recurrence.
I would have to say the occasional smoke is alright and nothing wrong with it... if, and it's a big IF... you don't become addicted. It's a very powerful drug, more potent than heroin and much harder to give up. That's also besides the 2000+ chemicals in them... I hope I'm not being too harsh, but I have LONG been too lenient with myself and the drug in the past.
btw... it does nothing for pain or arthritis, in fact, it more than likely aggravates it. There is another type of drug that is better suited to pain...
... but I'm not advocating that either... Cheers!
Miss Hepburn
Well-Known Member
The question itself does not appeal to me ----
the word "All" (Christians)...
the word "should"...
the word "completely"...
Even the words "do I think"...
It says much about missing the wiley ways of the devil - ie - the looseness and lack of watchfulness a person has in the way
they allow their thoughts to form and then to be typed. It can happen to us all everyday. And to make light of this point is another trick
of the ego ,mind, devil.
Superlatives are to be watched as they can cause blanket, stereotyped, exclusive thinking that just causes more and more separation from our siblings.
More "us vs them" mentality. ALL Christians SHOULD not have to do anything COMPLETELY and it doesn't matter what I THINK about it. See what I mean when I turn it around to show it at a different angle? What at first seems like an innocent question becomes a bit deeper in it's insidious support of thought patterns common to the carnal 21st c mind.
My innate truth meter or beware, alert meter went off instantly. This type of incorrect thinking is what I guard against everyday of my life.
Not your fault brother farouk, no offense to you is intended only to the a pattern set up slyly by the evil one that we often miss.
All my opinion and after years of watchfulness. Take care.
the word "All" (Christians)...
the word "should"...
the word "completely"...
Even the words "do I think"...
It says much about missing the wiley ways of the devil - ie - the looseness and lack of watchfulness a person has in the way
they allow their thoughts to form and then to be typed. It can happen to us all everyday. And to make light of this point is another trick
of the ego ,mind, devil.
Superlatives are to be watched as they can cause blanket, stereotyped, exclusive thinking that just causes more and more separation from our siblings.
More "us vs them" mentality. ALL Christians SHOULD not have to do anything COMPLETELY and it doesn't matter what I THINK about it. See what I mean when I turn it around to show it at a different angle? What at first seems like an innocent question becomes a bit deeper in it's insidious support of thought patterns common to the carnal 21st c mind.
My innate truth meter or beware, alert meter went off instantly. This type of incorrect thinking is what I guard against everyday of my life.
Not your fault brother farouk, no offense to you is intended only to the a pattern set up slyly by the evil one that we often miss.
All my opinion and after years of watchfulness. Take care.
Ms H:
Actually, the superlative scenario which you are commenting on isn't what I am advancing, if you read carefully.
In a sense I think you are right to draw attention to the fallacious reasoning which has gone on in North America very widely at least since the so called Progressive era, when various single issue moralizers, without a regard for the effect of their discourse, have tried incessantly to guilt manipulate people on a whole host of subjects. At one time it was Prohibition. The anti-, anti-, anti- rhetoric was so strong that the Dem.s felt obliged to ban the sale of alcohol altogether (never mind that it created bootlegging, and expanded the Mafia and its Cuban base, with all the subsequent disasters that this entailed). Similarly with smoking; before the so called Progressive Era, it was widespread for ladies to smoke after attending church. Then someone decided that it was no longer 'ladylike', and lots of ppl got on the anti-, anti-, anti- bandwaggon, so that at the beginning of the 20th century a lady was even arrested in New York City for being seen to smoke in the street. Then came the First World War and ppl started sending cigarettes to the troops, and by the 1920s for ladies to smoke was widely regarded as not at all unusual. There were even classes in the 1930s to teach women how to smoke. Then the pendulum swung the other way again...and so it goes.
I am not denying that there are problems with excessive drinking and smoking, and I don't drink or smoke myself.
My observation is, it seems some issues have their own peculiarly North American bandwaggon mentality, whereby single issue extremists can obsessively pile on the rhetoric, regardless of the eventual consequences which ought to be foreseen.
Actually, the superlative scenario which you are commenting on isn't what I am advancing, if you read carefully.
In a sense I think you are right to draw attention to the fallacious reasoning which has gone on in North America very widely at least since the so called Progressive era, when various single issue moralizers, without a regard for the effect of their discourse, have tried incessantly to guilt manipulate people on a whole host of subjects. At one time it was Prohibition. The anti-, anti-, anti- rhetoric was so strong that the Dem.s felt obliged to ban the sale of alcohol altogether (never mind that it created bootlegging, and expanded the Mafia and its Cuban base, with all the subsequent disasters that this entailed). Similarly with smoking; before the so called Progressive Era, it was widespread for ladies to smoke after attending church. Then someone decided that it was no longer 'ladylike', and lots of ppl got on the anti-, anti-, anti- bandwaggon, so that at the beginning of the 20th century a lady was even arrested in New York City for being seen to smoke in the street. Then came the First World War and ppl started sending cigarettes to the troops, and by the 1920s for ladies to smoke was widely regarded as not at all unusual. There were even classes in the 1930s to teach women how to smoke. Then the pendulum swung the other way again...and so it goes.
I am not denying that there are problems with excessive drinking and smoking, and I don't drink or smoke myself.
My observation is, it seems some issues have their own peculiarly North American bandwaggon mentality, whereby single issue extremists can obsessively pile on the rhetoric, regardless of the eventual consequences which ought to be foreseen.
Miss Hepburn
Well-Known Member
No, it's my point - but you did print it in black and white for all to see - "All,should,completely". Might not be what you were "advancing",
but it was like a sore thumb to me.
As far as reading carefully-this was your OP- "Thoughts, folks?
(I don't smoke. I know that years ago some preachers would smoke, sometimes to get relief from arthritis, etc.)"
Again the superlative topic is my point - you may not have been "advancing" them, but they were in plain site.
I won't spin off on another topic any more. Made my point for anyone that glances at it, now I'm done. Thank you, farouk.
I started smoking when I was 15 years old around 1966. At that time smoking was cool but most of all I really like smoking and I still do to this day. I really would prefer that I had never started and I wish I disliked it enough to quit. . I encourage everyone else not to smoke , it is expensive, not healthy, and it stinks.
But I am going to lay out some facts here and my intention is to possibly whiplash your thinking. I do not recommend you live, eat, and smoke like I do, that is not my intention.
But I do intend to shock you a bit with some facts that you have probably not heard before. First a bit about me.
=for about 45 years I have smoked about a pack and a half a day. On a long and busy day I will smoke 2 packs. I am talking Canadian packages of 25 cigs, not those little American paks of 20. At home I also smoke a pipe and go through a pound of high quality select blend pipe tobacco a month. Once in a while I have a cigar, but not more than 1 or 2 a month.
=I am pretty much retired now and have cut back on coffee , but for about 40 years I drank 10 to 20 cups of coffee a day. I am talking big cups , and I put at least 3 to 4 heaping teaspoons of sugar in each one plus a triple shot of cream. I am talking real cows cream. None of that counterfeit coffee whitener crap.
=I love bacon and eggs and eat at least 4 to 6 eggs a day and often 6 strips of bacon. I try to eat at least one steak a day and I prefer one with some fat on it nicely seared. Usually potatoes and vegetable with it.
=I only buy whole milk , never skim milk, to me skim milk is white water. I buy cereal cream for my coffee and cereal etc. I buy only real creamery butter. There has never been a tub of margarine in my house.
=I do not exercise or work out at a gym, or jog or ride a bike or diet. I am fairly active, like outdoors and yard work etc.
=I never eat wieners ,cheap sausage, bologna, processed meats , highly processed foods , chips , junk food, artificial sweeteners, simulated bacon bits , counterfeit coffee whitener, egg substitute, or margarine. The previously used hydrogenated vegetable oils used to manufacture margarine will kill three times more people than all the smoking combined.
=Next year I will be 60 years old , I am 5' 11" , weigh about 155 pounds , my waist is 31 to 32 inches, and my shoulders about 3 feet across. As far as I know I am in good health. My yearly checkups show perfect cholesterol levels , blood pressure like a teenager, perfect blood sugar range. Every year my doctor gives me heck for smoking of course.
=I could die tomorrow , or when I am 93 years old. It does not matter because they will put on the autopsy that I died of smoking related causes. If I had never smoked I would have lived to 96 they say. They tell you that if you do not smoke you have nothing to worry about. It is the smokers who are headed for trouble right?
=The physical smoke and tars are harmful to lung tissue but the nicotine itself has many benefits. Nicotine boosts a persons problem solving IQ by 15 to 25 percent. Nicotine has the medical effect on the brain to filter out negative stimuli from life encounters. That is one reason people find it hard to quit. They cannot handle the negative stimuli and it seems to them everything is going wrong and they are easily irritated. Research shows many smokers are sensitives and need the curtain of protection the nicotine provides. It is a form of self medication. The nicotine itself is not considered harmful but rather beneficial.
Now let me mess with your head by presenting the following facts.
=the major killer in North America is breast cancer and heart disease in women.
=the greatest majority of lung cancers found in North America is in 51 year old women who have never smoked or been around second hand smoke.
=factual legitimate studies have shown that second hand smoke does not harm people's health. Some of the countries around the world with the highest rates of cigarette smokers have the lowest rates of cancer of all types.
_______________________________________________________________
I encourage everyone not to smoke and it bothers me to see children start. I always try to talk them out of it. As a christian I am ashamed that I smoke but I think in Gods wisdom he maybe leaves that dirt on my exterior in plain view for the whole world to see. You cannot hide it. I find it humbling. I am greatful for all the other things the Lord cleaned up in my life many yeasrs ago.
I smoked 4 cigarettes typing all this. I am not Catholic but I feel like I have been at confessional
I do not for a minute think I will live to 93.
Instead, I plan to live forever.
Best regards
Martin.
But I am going to lay out some facts here and my intention is to possibly whiplash your thinking. I do not recommend you live, eat, and smoke like I do, that is not my intention.
But I do intend to shock you a bit with some facts that you have probably not heard before. First a bit about me.
=for about 45 years I have smoked about a pack and a half a day. On a long and busy day I will smoke 2 packs. I am talking Canadian packages of 25 cigs, not those little American paks of 20. At home I also smoke a pipe and go through a pound of high quality select blend pipe tobacco a month. Once in a while I have a cigar, but not more than 1 or 2 a month.
=I am pretty much retired now and have cut back on coffee , but for about 40 years I drank 10 to 20 cups of coffee a day. I am talking big cups , and I put at least 3 to 4 heaping teaspoons of sugar in each one plus a triple shot of cream. I am talking real cows cream. None of that counterfeit coffee whitener crap.
=I love bacon and eggs and eat at least 4 to 6 eggs a day and often 6 strips of bacon. I try to eat at least one steak a day and I prefer one with some fat on it nicely seared. Usually potatoes and vegetable with it.
=I only buy whole milk , never skim milk, to me skim milk is white water. I buy cereal cream for my coffee and cereal etc. I buy only real creamery butter. There has never been a tub of margarine in my house.
=I do not exercise or work out at a gym, or jog or ride a bike or diet. I am fairly active, like outdoors and yard work etc.
=I never eat wieners ,cheap sausage, bologna, processed meats , highly processed foods , chips , junk food, artificial sweeteners, simulated bacon bits , counterfeit coffee whitener, egg substitute, or margarine. The previously used hydrogenated vegetable oils used to manufacture margarine will kill three times more people than all the smoking combined.
=Next year I will be 60 years old , I am 5' 11" , weigh about 155 pounds , my waist is 31 to 32 inches, and my shoulders about 3 feet across. As far as I know I am in good health. My yearly checkups show perfect cholesterol levels , blood pressure like a teenager, perfect blood sugar range. Every year my doctor gives me heck for smoking of course.
=I could die tomorrow , or when I am 93 years old. It does not matter because they will put on the autopsy that I died of smoking related causes. If I had never smoked I would have lived to 96 they say. They tell you that if you do not smoke you have nothing to worry about. It is the smokers who are headed for trouble right?
=The physical smoke and tars are harmful to lung tissue but the nicotine itself has many benefits. Nicotine boosts a persons problem solving IQ by 15 to 25 percent. Nicotine has the medical effect on the brain to filter out negative stimuli from life encounters. That is one reason people find it hard to quit. They cannot handle the negative stimuli and it seems to them everything is going wrong and they are easily irritated. Research shows many smokers are sensitives and need the curtain of protection the nicotine provides. It is a form of self medication. The nicotine itself is not considered harmful but rather beneficial.
Now let me mess with your head by presenting the following facts.
=the major killer in North America is breast cancer and heart disease in women.
=the greatest majority of lung cancers found in North America is in 51 year old women who have never smoked or been around second hand smoke.
=factual legitimate studies have shown that second hand smoke does not harm people's health. Some of the countries around the world with the highest rates of cigarette smokers have the lowest rates of cancer of all types.
_______________________________________________________________
I encourage everyone not to smoke and it bothers me to see children start. I always try to talk them out of it. As a christian I am ashamed that I smoke but I think in Gods wisdom he maybe leaves that dirt on my exterior in plain view for the whole world to see. You cannot hide it. I find it humbling. I am greatful for all the other things the Lord cleaned up in my life many yeasrs ago.
I smoked 4 cigarettes typing all this. I am not Catholic but I feel like I have been at confessional
I do not for a minute think I will live to 93.
Instead, I plan to live forever.
Best regards
Martin.
I love research , investigating and uncovering facts. It is very rewarding to uncover truth. I find it very rewarding to be a Christian because it is a lifetime of truth finding.
Back to the smoking - cancer topic for a minute. Like I said , I think it very best that people do not smoke. I think it is very good advice when our governments and health care professionals tell us not to smoke.
But I have a problem when anybody skews statistics and facts and use them as propaganda. Here is an example.
GROUP 1.....Let us say you have 100 people and 10 will die of cancer but they have never smoked.
GROUP 2.....Then you have another 100 people who do smoke and 12 of them die of cancer.
QUESTION: How many people in group #2 will die because of smoking?
The common (false) answer is 12 of course. But the (true) answer should be 2 because 10 would have died anyway even if they never smoked. Just like what happened in group 1.
The 2 extra that died in group 2 could very well have been 84 years old when they died but the (false) statistician will never reveal those facts. The (false) statistician will always claim all 12 died because of smoking. This (false) statistic is 84% in error. Be careful what you believe.
It is also true that the smoker will likely die a bit sooner than the non smoker in those groups. But my point was about the false statistics we are often fed in modern day.
Racism is another abused item in North America. Did you know that in the 1998 census 67% of black Americans were middle class or upper middle class and often excelled better than non blacks in their peer groups.? But the bleeding hearts seem to always publicise the downtrodden areas of poverty and crime and use the race card as blame.
Anyone who wants to experience severe discrimination and segregation should try being a white skinned conservative christian law enforcement officer who smokes cigarettes.!!! Everybody hates guys like us . Just kidding. Not everybody hates us. The Lord and one or two other Christians still love us.
Martin.
Back to the smoking - cancer topic for a minute. Like I said , I think it very best that people do not smoke. I think it is very good advice when our governments and health care professionals tell us not to smoke.
But I have a problem when anybody skews statistics and facts and use them as propaganda. Here is an example.
GROUP 1.....Let us say you have 100 people and 10 will die of cancer but they have never smoked.
GROUP 2.....Then you have another 100 people who do smoke and 12 of them die of cancer.
QUESTION: How many people in group #2 will die because of smoking?
The common (false) answer is 12 of course. But the (true) answer should be 2 because 10 would have died anyway even if they never smoked. Just like what happened in group 1.
The 2 extra that died in group 2 could very well have been 84 years old when they died but the (false) statistician will never reveal those facts. The (false) statistician will always claim all 12 died because of smoking. This (false) statistic is 84% in error. Be careful what you believe.
It is also true that the smoker will likely die a bit sooner than the non smoker in those groups. But my point was about the false statistics we are often fed in modern day.
Racism is another abused item in North America. Did you know that in the 1998 census 67% of black Americans were middle class or upper middle class and often excelled better than non blacks in their peer groups.? But the bleeding hearts seem to always publicise the downtrodden areas of poverty and crime and use the race card as blame.
Anyone who wants to experience severe discrimination and segregation should try being a white skinned conservative christian law enforcement officer who smokes cigarettes.!!! Everybody hates guys like us . Just kidding. Not everybody hates us. The Lord and one or two other Christians still love us.
Martin.
M: thanks for your contributions, but it seems that you've posted your last contribution several times over the past few days.
HUH????
You lost me there farouk. You are going to have to explain your above quote to me. It makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Or were you talking to someone else?
Thank
Martin
listen to your body. it is natural instinct for it to reject (initial) smoke inhalation. god made it that way for a reason. if the body doesnt like it then you shouldn't do it. why go against god.
I belong to the Christian Pipe Smokers group and with tongue in cheek we always speculate that the flavored tobacco is a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Many times the Lord speaks about aroma's that are pleasing to him , and hey , lets face it , we smokers will latch on to any excuse we can find to justify our addiction ....
Many times the Lord speaks about aroma's that are pleasing to him , and hey , lets face it , we smokers will latch on to any excuse we can find to justify our addiction ....
Detectives who are Christians have to be discreet about religion on the job .... but sometimes you have a choice where your picture is taken when the local newspaper wants to do an article.
Peter (on the right) recently passed away at 87. Some snipits from his obituary....
These Detectives were hardnosed, tough, principled police officers commonly admired and praised by local merchants, businessmen, lawyers and judges during their law enforcement careers ...... Peter was in fact a legend in his own time for all the right reasons and will remain part of the folklore and mystic of policing in the rough north end of Winnipeg in the 1960s......
Love this picture......
Peter (on the right) recently passed away at 87. Some snipits from his obituary....
These Detectives were hardnosed, tough, principled police officers commonly admired and praised by local merchants, businessmen, lawyers and judges during their law enforcement careers ...... Peter was in fact a legend in his own time for all the right reasons and will remain part of the folklore and mystic of policing in the rough north end of Winnipeg in the 1960s......
Love this picture......
Attachments
I belong to the Christian Pipe Smokers group and with tongue in cheek we always speculate that the flavored tobacco is a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Many times the Lord speaks about aroma's that are pleasing to him , and hey , lets face it , we smokers will latch on to any excuse we can find to justify our addiction ....
it has been said that good people dont do anything that is displeasing to the lord unless they first justify it to themselves,
I've posted twice on this thread and twice my post has dissappeared. why are my posts being removed?
fassopony
New Member
- Apr 18, 2010
- 21
- 1
- 0
No, I don't think being a Christian means you have to quit smoking but in my case it did. I was a smoking fanatic, I worried constantly about where, when to smoke (no indoor smoking in my state) and would actually not go to do things where I felt like I couldn't smoke.
When I got saved, I still smoked like that, puffing one before church and then hightailing it for a ciggie afterward LOL! Ciggarettes were number one in my life, although at the time I doubt I would have said that.
One day I was out walking and trying to focus on praying (I was a very new Christian and going through that how to pray deal) when I distinctly heard "quit smoking". Well, I chastised myself for my wandering mind and resumed praying LOL!! It kept coming back though and I finally, after hours of mulling, got it through my thick head that perhaps that was God? Then I got scared (no joke, I don't scare easy) and quit. I mean, just quit and that has been it. No withdrawals, nothing!
Cigarettes came before God and I think, mercifully, that he removed that idol from my life. People still are taken aback when they ask me how I quit smoking so easily and I say God *shrug*
My cents
When I got saved, I still smoked like that, puffing one before church and then hightailing it for a ciggie afterward LOL! Ciggarettes were number one in my life, although at the time I doubt I would have said that.
One day I was out walking and trying to focus on praying (I was a very new Christian and going through that how to pray deal) when I distinctly heard "quit smoking". Well, I chastised myself for my wandering mind and resumed praying LOL!! It kept coming back though and I finally, after hours of mulling, got it through my thick head that perhaps that was God? Then I got scared (no joke, I don't scare easy) and quit. I mean, just quit and that has been it. No withdrawals, nothing!
Cigarettes came before God and I think, mercifully, that he removed that idol from my life. People still are taken aback when they ask me how I quit smoking so easily and I say God *shrug*
My cents
Ya, what Foreigner said...................... Temple of God. The Holy Ghost (Spirit)
I don't want anyone feeling bad or condemned for what they allow, but any areas that we give the flesh, be certain that smoking is just one of many strong holds your flesh has on you. It's best to not give place to what your flesh wants. People end up fat that way, and end up praying for healing if complications come from smoking.
Best not to have to pray though all that, and not smoke.
The temple of God should be smoke free........
Jesus Is Lord
I don't want anyone feeling bad or condemned for what they allow, but any areas that we give the flesh, be certain that smoking is just one of many strong holds your flesh has on you. It's best to not give place to what your flesh wants. People end up fat that way, and end up praying for healing if complications come from smoking.
Best not to have to pray though all that, and not smoke.
The temple of God should be smoke free........
Jesus Is Lord
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