Response to Val
C. Julien
(Val)
The Bible says that our bodies are to be temples of God. So you would think
that you
should take care of yourself. Smoking definatelly won't help you to keep
your body healthy or clean so smoking is a sin just as much as homosexuality
& adultry.
Thanks for your thoughts Val. Let me explain why I don't feel that the
actual act of smoking is not a sin. Firstly, I totally agree with your
thoughts that we are the temples of God and that we ought to be good
stewards of our bodies. Smoking is definitely not healthy either and I
encourage anyone who is addicted to smoking to quit. Speaking of health,
however, is a McDonald's Big Mac healthy...not likely, as far as I'm
concerned, it's a heart attack in a bag. And how many people have at least
one soda pop or some item(s) of junk food per day...same thing. How many
Christians are addicted to caffeine?...again, same thing. The point is,
almost all of us have some habit that is unhealthy to our bodies, but that
habit brings some "form" of peace to us and so, we continue doing it. You
see, your soul is almost always "out" of peace from God and it looks for
comfort (as temporal as it may be) from your flesh. But as Christians, we
have the Spirit of the Living God that dwells within us, and we need to
reprogram our souls to turn to Jesus for that comfort. As we learn to do
this, we no longer need those "other" things, but rather live in freedom
from them. That is why David often spoke to his soul and commanded, "Bless
the Lord oh my soul." He was teaching his soul to turn to God rather than
mope in the circumstances that surrounded his flesh. As we begin to see
ourselves the way God sees us, we'll find that our hearts change. We look
in the mirror and see our faults and believe that something is wrong with
us....WRONG! If we believe that the work of Calvary is complete, then we
need to believe that the work of Christ in us is also complete. God looks
as us and sees Jesus. We are totally complete spiritual creatures...all we
need to do is put our fleshly behavior to death and turn our souls to Jesus.
The other day, I was driving home thinking about a local tragedy where a
mother fought off a cougar to save her three children, but she was killed in
the process, but her children escaped and lived. Then God asked me who I
thought was more important to him, me or Jesus? After some careful thought,
I realized that my life was more valuable to God than His own Son's because
He willingly gave up His Son for me. Than He spoke to my heart again,
saying that when Jesus died, that was God dying, and therefore He regards my
life more importantly than His own. Believe that your life is more valuable
to God than His own and you will never again question the depth of His love
for you. He loves you with a boundless love.
He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You. Isa. 26:3
C. Julien
che...@mail.netshop.net