does smoking cigarettes hinder a christian
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does smoking cigarettes hinder a christian walk with god.
Cigarettes stink. I am so glad to get away from the smoke
I cannot answer your question. But I can suggest that you pack it in. For the sake of your own wellbeing.
My dear mother used to say "If God had intended men to smoke He would have fitted a chimney to the head" Forgive me....I do not want to offend.
To try to answer your question I would say, observing smokers....going for a smoke......They are in bondage.
If you can.......be rid. I can assure you that you will feel much better.
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I would say, yeah. It's an addiction. People who smoke rely on it for certain things. It is an area where we give away our self-control. I don't know how much it hinders, but I think it prevents certain fruits of the Spirit to be in us, namely self-control. Plus, it's just not healthy. And it's within our control to not smoke. Will God still love us? I'm sure He would/does. But I think it could hinder our growth in Christ in certain ways.
I used to over eat, a bit like an addiction. Once I stopped, which I could only do through God, I started noticing a deeper reverence and a more satisfying ability to follow, grasp, and trust our Lord. I relied on Him to stop, and in doing so healed the reasons I was turning to food for comfort. Without needing a huge amount of effort, and using skills that only God could give me, that need just evaporated. I also got to live through God's incredible power tailored to suit my exact needs in the matter. I know God is real. I know God is there. I know God understands me, is gentle and absolutely perfect, and waiting and willing to show Himself to me and help me.
Would God have loved me less if I had not asked to be released from that problem? No, I don't think so. But in relying on Him to overcome I have discovered a closer relationship with Him and a bigger trust. So, I gues I think it hinders our walk with Him by preventing growth that He wants for us. Kind of like letting a relationship stagnate. And limits the amount of trust and reliance we have in Him.
Plus, we know it's not healthy and leads to death. That's not what God wants for us.
I used to over eat, a bit like an addiction. Once I stopped, which I could only do through God, I started noticing a deeper reverence and a more satisfying ability to follow, grasp, and trust our Lord. I relied on Him to stop, and in doing so healed the reasons I was turning to food for comfort. Without needing a huge amount of effort, and using skills that only God could give me, that need just evaporated. I also got to live through God's incredible power tailored to suit my exact needs in the matter. I know God is real. I know God is there. I know God understands me, is gentle and absolutely perfect, and waiting and willing to show Himself to me and help me.
Would God have loved me less if I had not asked to be released from that problem? No, I don't think so. But in relying on Him to overcome I have discovered a closer relationship with Him and a bigger trust. So, I gues I think it hinders our walk with Him by preventing growth that He wants for us. Kind of like letting a relationship stagnate. And limits the amount of trust and reliance we have in Him.
Plus, we know it's not healthy and leads to death. That's not what God wants for us.
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Yes it does becuase we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God also it hurts our witness God breathed the breath of life into us why should we smoke and taint our very breath,? Also smoking is like practicing for when your in hell God gave me that one and all this knowlege yet i still smoke why i have no idea but i'm made of flesh but Gid told me how to be deliverd I have to fast a whole day on nothng but water and pray and meditate and he will set me free from it of course i can't smoke either i can only have water . btw ice cold water takes the craving of nicotine away
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How does it hurt your witness?
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I think of it as another thing like swearing...or doing anything in excess. Too much of anything is a bad thing.
If Holy Spirit convicts you and you still do it, is it not sin?
Sure...we are grasping a straws, but how far is too far before we cross the line...is not what we put in our bodies going into the temple of God?
I have to remind myself that every time I eat something! :-S
Jesus, help us!
If Holy Spirit convicts you and you still do it, is it not sin?
Sure...we are grasping a straws, but how far is too far before we cross the line...is not what we put in our bodies going into the temple of God?
I have to remind myself that every time I eat something! :-S
Jesus, help us!
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Great topic........I too struggled with smoking. I remember just after coming to God, I was biking down a trail, I stopped and lite up a smoke, took 2 puffs and something came over me ( I now know it was God) and I said to myself "what am I doing"? I threw the smoke down, took the entire pack and tossed it in the river and biked away. Never touched another smoke. I dont think it will hinder your relationship but I'm sure God would prefer if one didnt smoke. For me it was as simple as that (and I was a 20 year smoker)......ask God for help with this and he will not forsake you!
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Smoking is an addiction. An addiction no different than cocain use, alcoholism, pornography etc. Yet believers do their best to try and squeak by because unlike the aforementioned addictions, smoking is publicly accepted. Trust me, if they ever legalized cocain, there'd be a thread asking if you could do lines and still be saved. If ketchup had HALF the carcinogens and toxins as cigarettes, it'd be illegal. There are no weekend cigarette smokers. How can you claim to have given yourself wholly to God yet reserve the one bastion of the flesh? For some it takes time, for others it's instaneous. But the mindset must be that is unhealthy, that it controls your body (think about when you havent had one for hours) and thus battles for control with the Holy Spirit. At the very least a Christian should want to stop smoking because it makes you look like the world. We have to present our bodies as living sacrifices. If you, a smoker, can say to someone "Hey, God saved me, changed me, except for the the cigarettes" how much change is there really? I decry Charles Spurgeon, profound apologist though he was, for saying that he "smoked to the glory of God". How carnal, how disgusting. So long as we are in the flesh, we can live holy, separate lives by abstaining from things that our flesh doesnt NEED to survive. (And before anyone takes it on a humorous tangent, I'm not talking about ice cream or fatty foods). The fact that there are more smoking related deaths than almost any other ought to cast SERIOUS aspersion on the idea that God could ever sanction such a practice. *Disclaimer: I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, plus cigars and other drugs. It didnt happen for me overnight, but I always felt it was at odds with my faith* :shade:
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Yes it does...
Yes it does hinder your relationship and walk with God. Anything you rely on other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a crutch. He should be our only crutch. He provides all of our needs. Give it to Him and He will remove it from your path. Sincerely give it to Him. It may not be over night but it may. All in all God WILL remove it but you have to give it up. Be blessed in Jesus Name...
Yes it does hinder your relationship and walk with God. Anything you rely on other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a crutch. He should be our only crutch. He provides all of our needs. Give it to Him and He will remove it from your path. Sincerely give it to Him. It may not be over night but it may. All in all God WILL remove it but you have to give it up. Be blessed in Jesus Name...
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Do you consider coffee to be wrong too? How about alcohol? RC Colas and Moon Pies?
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What an ignoble and smallminded comment. If there is someone who is legitimately addicted to moonpies, I'd like to meet them. They probably have an issue with their weight. But yours, unfortunately, is a sad strawman argument. When snacks and sodas cause emphyzema, lung, throat and mouth cancer; when the number of people dying from imbibing cola is in the hundreds of thousands, when people sincerely seek prescriptions and help to quit, when you can be in the SAME ROOM as someone eating a moonpie and suffer the same malady, then MAYBE, you'll have a point. SMH. Childish.
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See you didn't like my humor:shock:
Have you ever heard of caffeine adiction?
What about alcohol?
Is it wrong to just smoke a pipe after meals?
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No one appreciates humor more than me, my friend. I just dont think something that kills so many people is funny. Besides, Starbucks hasnt killed anyone that I know of. We can go back and forth all day in love but it's a proven fact that nicotine is a drug. Coupled with the fact that the word in Revelation nine for 'sorceries' (pharmakia) is the word we from which we get pharmacy and thus 'drug', and never means a medicinal application, no honest person can make a scriptural argument for allowing a person to smoke.
I have heard of caffeine addiction but I think it's overblown and a little psychosomatic.
Unlike smoking, scripture has lots to say about alcohol. While the Bible never tells us "thou shalt not drink" it has far more to say about the negative aspects of imbibing than the positive. It can become a stronghold even with the most careful person and in this Christian walk the fewer footholds we give the devil, the better. My wife and used to drink wine every now and again. But since it was presented to us like that (and not from a legalistic stanpoint but from the standpoint of wanting to make sure we give no place to the devil) we havent had a drop.
As to the rightness or wrongness of pipe smoking...thats between you and God. I tend to think as a society pipe smoking is seen as quaint, certainly anachronistic but it isnt any safer than cigarette smoking. The pleasure of smoking after a meal cannot be denied. But I renew my original contentions that it is 1. worldly and thus not for the saint 2. Lethal and thus not for anyone. You can't convince me that were it available in the first century that the disciples or Christ would have smoked. Anything they'd abstain from is something I'll abstain from. You can't convince me that you can honestly call yourself HOLY and smoke. And the scripture tells us that without holiness no man shall see God. The simple fact is if youre addicted to anything, it's wrong. Btw, no hard feelings. :wink:
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Exactly, no hard feelings, I just wanted to get an Idea of where you are coming from, of which I think I understand to some degree.
Your posts seem to indicate a religious paradigm and we don't seem to agree thats all. I tend disagree others when it comes to focussing on carnal things and neglecting things of greater importance like spiritual growth.
Who's holiness are you refering to? Our holiness is carnal if it is based on refraining from alcohol and tobacco, There are plenty of people who do this yet are not holy in God's eyes. Ghandi is a good example. Our holiness comes from the same place our righteousness comes from, which is Christ.
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Scripture does tell us to walk in the spirit and we wont fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So with my stand its important that you know that it is the desire to walk in the spirit that obviates the forsaking of the things of the flesh and not the other way around. I know the struggle of the smoker; I've been there. But the more I grew in Christ, the more I found myself denying myself to take up my cross and follow him. A life of asceticism is just being a boring prude if it doesnt have the Holy Spirit as its impetus. So I completely agree with you about Ghandi. He may as well have indulged in everything he found pleasurable because his piety got him no closer to God. The life of the Christian is one of daily surrender and death to one's self. Yet it is within that fleshly self that the desire to satisfy one's self by smoking rests. Holiness by definition is separation. And I'm speaking to the exclusion of self inflicted punishment or penance. Im speaking specifically about the command to be holy because God is holy. It is a vice of the world and thus not within the domain of holiness in my opinion. The fact that polite society has an increasingly resistant view of it should make one wonder, if the world is increasingly intolerant of it, why is the church still trying to make it acceptable? Not that we use the world as our barometer but I think you get my point. I just don't see the Holy Spirit being comfortable with a person who insists on satisfying the cravings of his flesh. Were not talking about forms of eating or sleeping or sex within marriage or personal taste or style or any of the other nebulous areas that the Bible is seemingly silent on. Some things the scripture doesnt spell out because the urgings of the Spirit within a person ought to be enough. God shouldnt have to spell out "And the Lord saith put out thy cigar; know ye not that thou canst plead separation if thou art no different than the world?" All I'm saying is 'Salt' and 'Light' are incongruous with 'smoke' and 'puff'.
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Does Smoking Cigarettes Hinder A Christian?
StopPolloiton,
You need to re-read the forum rule against insulting other members. I personally think that a good rule of thumb to use in responding to posts I disagree with is to ask myself how I would feel if someone responded to me the way I'm thinking of responding.
Know the difference between reacting and responding. Reacting is always inadvisable in posting because it is a snap decision, made in haste and usually birthed in emotion. Responding, on the other hand, comes after a few moments of thought, which gives God time to speak up in the writer's heart and promote respect for the one he/she disagrees with. You'll never win others to your point of view by insulting them, nor will your insulting others glorify God.
SLE
StopPolloiton,
You need to re-read the forum rule against insulting other members. I personally think that a good rule of thumb to use in responding to posts I disagree with is to ask myself how I would feel if someone responded to me the way I'm thinking of responding.
Know the difference between reacting and responding. Reacting is always inadvisable in posting because it is a snap decision, made in haste and usually birthed in emotion. Responding, on the other hand, comes after a few moments of thought, which gives God time to speak up in the writer's heart and promote respect for the one he/she disagrees with. You'll never win others to your point of view by insulting them, nor will your insulting others glorify God.
SLE
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Now this I agree with wholeheartedly and the answer to overcoming is walking in the Spirit. Religion is a tyrant, dictating stop this and you can't do that! But it only deals with the flesh and no matter how much you restrain the flesh it is still corruptable and unredeemable. While the body can be made wholesome it says nothing of the soul or spirit.
Look at Jesus' words in the gospel of Matthew 23:25&26
“How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup, and then the outside will become clean, too.
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