Contents:
This time, the habit stuck fast. I tried the patches again, but my heart wasn't in it. I ended up using them as a "pause button" for the habit proper: I'd slap a patch on in the morning, pretend not to smoke all day, then peel it off at night and puff my way through a pack. Some time later I started going out with someone who thought I had quit.
When she stayed at mine, I'd smoke in secret; pop out "to buy a paper" and light up round the corner. With judicious use of breath mints, you can get away with that for a surprisingly long time. And it's genuinely exciting, like an illicit affair. Naturally, I got caught out one night. A lighter flew out of my pocket while I was getting undressed. For several minutes I stood there in my pants, indignantly bellowing that it must have fallen through the ceiling, from the flat upstairs.
I don't lie well under pressure. This madness couldn't continue, so I resolved to quit once and for all. Hypnotism proved effective, by which I mean painless. I did it several times. Contrary to expectation, the hypnotist didn't programme me to assassinate Tony Blair, just stop lighting up: The problem was that three-month mark: And after my last lapse, I was too ashamed to return to the hypnotist. Instead, I tried a miracle pill I'd heard about. Zyban, the prescription wonder.
Show 25 25 50 All. Look at the earth below. In biblical times, there was no hard distilled liquor—just wine and beer which was more diluted at that time than it is now. Still I wanted out. Stare at the earth.
You take one a day for six days, then increase the dose. After 11 days, you stop smoking.
Stay on the pills for seven weeks, and you're done. Eleven days in I didn't want to smoke, as though the nicotine-craving bit of my brain had been deleted. A pharmaceutical magic trick.
There was a "but". A week after my "quit date", I was at home, watching a film with a friend. As the credits rolled, a frantic, nameless dread washed over me. Within minutes, I was a quivering wreck. My mind was drifting away from reality, tethered only by a narrow thread that might snap at any moment. Heart pounding, palms sweating. I clutched my head, blinking, hyperventilating, nerves jangling at 9, rpm. It was a major panic attack, which eventually lasted over four hours, deep into the night. I've never known such terror. I became obsessed with the notion that I might snap at any moment; attack my friend, leap from a window, gouge my own eyes out with my thumbs, screaming, shrieking; a banshee.
I've had better evenings in. The next day I decided I'd had enough of that for one lifetime. I threw the pills away. Thing is, it takes days to clear your system. Jesus said that people are Christians if they believe in Him. Repentance is a fancy Christian word that means to turn from one's sins and go in the opposite direction righteousness.
Up Yours -- Take Heaven And Stuff It - Kindle edition by Dov Ivry. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading No Smoking? Up. Someone once said, and I wish I could remember who it was so I could give credit, that the best satire is if the reader can't tell if it is a satire or the author is trying.
Jesus said that those who do not repent will perish. Then He [Jesus] said to them all: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? So, Jesus made it quite clear that a casual confession of "faith" isn't going to cut it.
One who really believes in Jesus will follow Him as their ultimate purpose in life. Now that we have a clear understanding of who is a Christian, we can go back to the original question. Is smoking weed a sin? Although the Bible does not address marijuana directly, it does discuss other mind-altering drugs. Specifically, the Bible addresses the use of drugs in the book of Galatians:. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: So, where are the drugs mentioned in this verse? Actually, the word translated "sorcery" is the Greek word pharmakeia, 4 from which we get the English word "pharmacy.
Since this verse comes from a list of things that, if practiced, would preclude one from heaven , this should be a reasonably strong suggestion that the Christian should not practice drug use. In addition, the book of Revelation lists drug use as one of the things for which the unrepentant will suffer the wrath of God. The Bible has a lot to say about alcohol. In biblical times, there was no hard distilled liquor—just wine and beer which was more diluted at that time than it is now. Even so, the Bible has much to say about people who used wine to get drunk.
One was Lot, who got drunk and slept with his daughters. The New Testament condemns drunkenness 12 and warns that those who engage in that behavior will not inherit the kingdom of God i. The Old Testament warns the priests not to go into God's house drunk, or they will die. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Does marijuana get one intoxicated? Even proponents of marijuana usage encourage users never to drive a motor vehicle while using marijuana. Because when one use marijuana, one is legally intoxicated and incapable of clear thinking and reasonable reactions.
Being intoxicated is clearly condemned in scripture. So, if one uses drugs or anything else to escape and get high, or is addicted to these substances, it is against the commands of scripture and inappropriate for Christian participation. Besides the moral question, there is the legal question.
Christians are commanded by the scriptures to be in subjection to governing authorities and submit to every human institution. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
The only exception to this command would be if those in authority directly contradicted the commands of God. The freedom of Christ is freedom to follow Him in service to others. We are not to use the law as an excuse for immorality e.
Likewise, we are not to allow things e. We are not to be slaves of sin, engaging in fleshly desires and lusts, but we are to serve the living God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
There are many who call themselves Christian, but basically serve their own desires. God will not be deceived by those who play the Christianity game. Jesus said that you will know them by their love for one another, 21 and not love of self. Ultimately, the most important principle in the Christian life is to do what Jesus told us to do.